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I called into the main house through the front door, but they weren’t in there either.
“Huh.”
Daphne tilted her head toward the carriage house. “I think I just saw someone in there.”
“Oh. Okay.” I took a deep breath. It was good that William was in there with him, because Burke and I alone? Not good.
I’d successfully avoided that scenario the last couple of days.
“We’ll meet William next time we’re here,” Daphne said.
I nodded absently. “Thanks for helping today.”
“Richard wants to get home.” She patted his grizzled face. “Someone wants to purposely leave the bathroom door unlocked for me so we can pretend we’re platonic roommates who are secretly attracted to each other and argue as a form of foreplay.”
I leveled a glare in her direction. “I never should have told you.”
Richard whispered, “I didn’t say I wanted to do that.”
“I know, Richard. I wanted to get my point across.”
I steepled my fingers in front of my face and focused on deep, even breathing.
In and out.
My aunt simply smiled. “Have a good night, my darling niece.” She paused as she got into her car. “And if you happen to get any more naked sightings of the beautiful man you’re attracted to, don’t scream next time. Find another creative use for your mouth.”
Richard groaned.
“Please go away,” I told her.
She was laughing as she shut the car door.
In the car on the way over to the storage unit, there’d been a moment in which I’d thought about lying to her. But she was pestering me in that Daphne-pestery way that made it impossible for me to do anything but capitulate.
The minute the story was out, I knew what I should’ve done. Should’ve lied. Should’ve looked my aunt—whom I loved like a second mom—straight in the eye and lied my ass off.
It was embarrassing. For him. For me. For the collective Burke-and-Charlotte Campbell House team.
It was embarrassing for numerous reasons.
First, and not least, I felt really stupid.
The whole last week, something had been different. There’d been a shift. Sometimes I’d catch him looking at me in a certain way.
The kind of look that had my stomach swooping and my mouth going a little dry.
As much as Daphne wished it, I wasn’t that woman who stayed cool and calm and collected—who thought of creative uses for her mouth in such moments. I was the woman who had endured an epically long dry spell—five years and counting—and when confronted with a big, muscled, naked, gorgeous man yelling at me with his hands over his junk ... I’d screamed and fallen ass over teakettle.
And as much as being tall was lauded as some amazing thing, when tall people fell, we fellhard. Like baby giraffes. But ... whatever. I took a deep breath and walked into the house, ready to do business and ready to get started on this renovation.
I stopped short when I cleared the doorway. William was on his knees in front of the bathroom door, laughing at something Burke had just told him.
And Burke ... he was smiling. A good smile too.
The smile made my heart skip. Made the butterflies dance through my belly.
Wasn’t that odd? That the sight of his smile made me want to climb him like a tree? At the moment, I could think of a whole slew of creative uses for mouths.
