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We stepped aside so Lenny could work and Shea gave me another apologetic look.
“I’ll send someone from housekeeping to pick up your laundry right away,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it. They’re doing all of our laundry anyway. This shirt can wait until the regular laundry day.”
“Are you sure?”
Fuck the shirt. This was the first time since Andrea that I’d felt a real attraction to a woman. Something that wasn’t just a passing, two-second attraction, anyway. I glanced at Shea’s ring finger and was relieved to find it empty.
Checking to see if she was married? What the hell was I thinking? This was Grady’s sister and the kids and I had just gotten into town a couple of days ago. My plan was to focus entirely on getting the kids settled here, finishing our new home and building the new arena.
“Yeah,” I said, Marley sliding her hand into mine. “Shea, this is my daughter Marley and my son Spencer.”
When she smiled, my determination to stick to the plan wavered. Damn, she was beautiful.
“Spencer and I met in the dining hall,” she said. “And Marley, it’s very nice to meet you.”
Marley turned her face toward me, too shy to respond.
“I hear you guys are with us for a while,” Shea said.
“Yeah, until our house gets finished. I’m hoping to be in there within six weeks.”
“Well, we have lots of fun things going on here in the summer. We do campfires out on the lawn in the evenings, swimming and canoeing in the lake and I teach kids’ baking classes.”
Spencer looked at me hopefully. “Can I take a baking class, Dad?”
“Yeah, that sounds like a plan.”
A blob of blueberry cheesecake fell from my shirt onto the floor, sending the kids into another fit of laughter.
“I’ll let you get cleaned up,” Shea said. “Will you guys be eating in the dining hall tonight?”
“Not sure yet,” I said. “My mom said she’s making roast one night this week. I can’t remember if it’s tonight.”
“Well, next time you eat in the dining hall, try the cheesecake. I think you’ll like it when it’s on a plate instead of, you know...all over you.”
She cringed and gave us a final smile before walking over to Lenny to thank him for cleaning up the mess and then walking away.
“Dad, why are you looking at her back?” Spencer asked.
“I, uh...I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you were. You were staring at her back. Don’t be a creeper.”
I glanced at Lenny, who was holding back a smile. Damn kids. They were too smart for their own good sometimes.
A couple of hours later, Spencer was chasing Marley up the open front staircase of our future home while I talked to the general contractor, Ray.
“This was worth the holdup,” I said as I admired the view through the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out onto Lake Karlsson.
“I agree. The black is a better fit for such a modern design.”
The windows with black casing had been back-ordered, and I’d decided a three-week delay was better than switching windows. Now that they were in, I was confident I’d made the right call.
“What is that?” I asked, squinting as I tried to make out a small shape in the middle of the lake.
Ray took a closer look too. “Oh, that’s Tipper. He owns The Corner Café.”
