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“That’s great. Do you need a hand with your bags?”
His frown returned. “You really want to get rid of me?”
She went to walk past him with the bundle of damp towels in her arms, but he stayed in the doorway, and gently caught hold of her elbow.
“Lucy . . .”
She had to look up at him, and the genuine concern in his gaze made her unable to look away.
“Iwantyou to be safe and warm, Caleb. That’s not going to happen at the B&B until I can get someone to fix the generator,” she said simply.
“What about you?”
She shrugged. “I’ll manage. I’m like the captain on theTitanic.”
“Ready to go down with a sinking ship.” He shook his head. “Not happening. Either you come with me, or I stay here.” He gazed at her expectantly. “What’s it to be?”
“I can’t just . . . turn up like that!”
“Sure, you can. I bet you know Dad better than I do these days.”
“But he hasn’t invited me! And what about the B&B? Who’s going to look after everything if I’m not here and unexpected guests turn up?”
“One, Dad will be delighted to see you, so he doesn’t have to talk to me. Two, the B&B will do fine on the secondary generator. Three, no one will be turning up in this weather when the roads down to the freeway are completely blocked.”
“You turned up,” she pointed out.
“I’m special.”
“But—”
He talked over her. “If you don’t want to go, I’ll stay here. I can be way more useful to you than to Dad right now, and I bet he’d agree.”
“I need to put these towels in the laundry.”
He stepped aside. “Go ahead. Let me know what you’ve decided by the time Chip gets here, okay?”
Lucy never responded well to deadlines, and Caleb’s ultimatum didn’t make her very happy. She stuffed the towels in the laundry basket and considered her options. Unfortunately, Caleb was right about the likelihood of guests turning up being zero. If there weren’t any guests, then there was no need for Lucy to stay at the B&B.
She went to call out to Caleb, who was packing in his room.
“What about Colin?”
“Who’s Colin?” he shouted back.
“The cat.”
“Cats are pretty good at taking care of themselves, you know.”
She thought of something else. “And what about all the prep for Christmas I’ve done?”
“You can bring the food with us if you like. I bet Dad didn’t get much in. He always left that to Mom.”
He appeared in the doorway, his bag on his shoulder. “I need to go out to my truck. I’ll be back in five. Start packing.”
“I’m still not sure if I’m—”
He disappeared down the stairs and the front door opened and closed.
