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“Wow what?”Bea asked, standing.She stayed on the bottom step, which put her at about his height.
“Your hair looks great,” he said.“It’s swept up today.”
“Yeah,” she said, running her fingers through it.“Just did it a bit different.”She looked at him with emotion in her eyes, and he watched everything about her soften right in front of him.“It’s good to see you, Grant.”
With that, she turned and went up the steps, saying, “Come fix this so I don’t freeze tomorrow morning,” over her shoulder.
He’d fix anything to spend more time with her, and he felt like he might be able to leap the whole staircase from her simply saying it was good to see him.But he wasn’t a superhero, and he didn’t leap anything if he wanted to keep his knees as healthy as possible.So just like he hadn’t been able to push any buttons in his car and run over those in his way, he walked up the steps like a normal man and followed Bea into the cottage.
He found the scent of her hair products hanging in the air, and they very much reminded him of milk, honey, and peaches.She put the coffee pot on the burner and said, “It’s definitely out.The kitchen sink is giving me nothing but cold.”
“All right,” Grant said.“I hear you, ma’am.I’ll get started on it right away.”He threw her a smile that he didn’t wait to see if she caught and went toward the hall.The utility closet sat there, and she’d already opened it.
Surprise darted through him.“This had a lock on it,” he called.
“I raised two sons,” she yelled back.“Locks mean nothing to me.”
He chuckled to himself even as a vein of irritation swept through him.The water heater stood in front of him, the lower panel already off.“My word,” he grumbled under his breath.The last thing he needed was Bea blowing herself up because she’d been fiddling around with the wrong tool in the wrong place.
He bent, and praise the heavens, the pilot light was out.He could hope the solution would be that easy, and he straightened to retrace his steps to the kitchen.A pull of pain through his lower back told him not to bend like that again, and he groaned as he bent backward, trying to get the pull out.
“Do you want coffee?”Bea asked, her voice much closer now.
Grant opened his eyes, not sure when he’d closed them, and found her only a pace or two away.The chemistry between them should’ve blown the roof off the cottage, and if she couldn’t feel that, she’d surely already died.
“Yeah, sure,” he said.“Thanks.”
“Is your back okay?”Concern spiked in her eyes, and she gestured for him to follow her.“My ex-husband had a bad back, and I know just the cocktail to fix you up.”
“I’m fine,” Grant said, but he did hobble for a step or two as he followed her.She didn’t see that, thankfully, and she also blew off his declaration of being fine.
“It’s not an alcoholic drink,” she said.“Herbal tea and some strong painkillers.You’ll be begging me to be your doctor every day.”She grinned at him, and Grant wondered if he could be forward and say something flirty.
Or inappropriate.He thought some quip about the two of them playing doctor and nurse might not land as well as he hoped.He should probably run anything he deemed flirty past Julie before he said it out loud, and just then his phone rang.
His sister’s name sat there, and he said, “It’s my twin.I have to take this.”
“Sure,” she said.“And a twin.Intriguing.”Her dark blue eyes sparkled and sang to him, and then she looked back at the mug in front of her.
“Be right back.”Grant ducked out of the cottage as he swiped on the call and said, “Hey, Jules.”
“Well, you sound good.Are you in trouble?”she asked.“I just had the strangest sensation that you were in way over your head, and I better call and bail you out.”
Grant exhaled, because yes, hewasin way over his head, just not in the way his sister expected him to be.He reached the bottom of the steps and looked back to the cheery door, a powerful wave of missing hitting him.He couldn’t wait to see Shelby.
“Yeah,” he said as the scent of coffee tickled his nose all the way out here.“I think I’m in a little bit of trouble.”
