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They marched across the back lawn to the kitchen door. "You have me at a disadvantage. I didn't know anything about you until a few days ago."
27
Rafe held the door for Addy as they entered the kitchen of the Bowman home. The aromas that wafted out to them were enticing and made his stomach growl. Addy glanced back at him and grinned. "Wait till you taste Catalina's cooking."
"I'm ready. We haven't eaten much today."
A woman was cutting up vegetables on an old wooden cutting board on the counter. When she turned, she had a knife in her hand. Rafe's eyes stared at the knife, then to her face. She saw that and turned and set the knife on the cutting board. Not that he thought someone cooking was there to kill them.
When she turned again to face them, her cheeks had turned pink.
Addy chuckled. "Catalina, you remember Rafe Martin. Rafe, not sure if you formally met Catalina."
He stepped around Addy and held his hand out to Catalina. She brusquely wiped her hands on the towel she had hanging from her waist. Her dark hair had graying strands interspersed which caught the over-head lights in the kitchen and sparkled.
"It's nice to meet you, formerly, Catalina. I understand you run the household."
Catalina's cheeks reddened. "No sir. I am only here for the Bowman family. To be honest, Miss Roxanne runs the house. I only do her bidding. Happily. She is easy to work for."
Addy chuckled. "Roxanne is very nice." She turned to Rafe. "Roxanne is Henry's mother. This is her family home, as you likely already know. But, I don't want to assume, so..."
His chuckle came deep from his chest. "Thank you for not assuming. I am aware, but don't mind the reminder."
Addy nodded to Catalina. "It's just Rafe and I here now Catalina. Henry and Myles had to go home."
The smile faded from Catalina's face. "Yes. Miss Roxanne called and told me. I am sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to Mr. Henry."
Addy grinned and it was adorable. "He'll be back."
Catalina nodded and wiped her hands once again. "Okay. I need to change sheets in the bedrooms for Mr. Martin. Which room will you prefer?"
Rafe offered Catalina his brightest smile. "We'll figure it out. Please don't bother for me. Honestly, I'm former military, I've slept on used sheets more times than I can count."
That seemed to make Catalina nervous. She stepped back and mumbled, "I'll change them all. I don't want Miss Roxanne to think I am not treating her guests well."
Before he could reassure her, she scampered out of the room and disappeared. Addy turned to him, a pretty grin on her face. "You're too handsome for most women. We need to get to work. We've mostly set up operations in the dining room because there were more of us than desks in the office, but now, we can move operations to the office and stay out of Catalina's way when she's trying to set the table for dinner. It's right this way."
He remembered seeing the office when he'd visited a couple of days ago, but didn't mind following Addy. Her backside was most intriguing to watch as she moved. Each little cheek taking turns moving up then down with her footsteps. They walked under the grand staircase, then entered the foyer to the living room which was to the right, the office to the left. He followed Addy to the left.
The office was elegant in its styling. Deep gray walls and white painted woodwork trimmed the floor, windows, and bookcases. The desks were of old wood engraved styling but painted white. The desks were identical except one was smaller than the other, but they sat directly across the room and faced each other. The larger one to the left, the smaller to the right.
Addy pointed to the larger desk to the left, "Why don't you take that one?"
He stared into her eyes. "This may seem old-fashioned, but that looks like the desk the man of the house would use. I'm not the man of the house and I'm not running this operation. You are."
She shrugged. "That is old-fashioned, I guess. But, I'm only running this mission, not the entire operation, that task falls to Tate. And the smaller desk fits my size better than the larger one."
He grinned. "I guess it does. This space is beautiful."
Addy moved to the long windows directly across from the entrance to the office and turned to him. "This entire home is beautiful. Roxanne had it redone a few years ago. She said it made her sad to see her parents’ desks still sitting exactly as they had been when they died. She'd kept them like that for years, but felt it was time. From what I understand, these are the original desks, she just had them painted. She's managed to update most of the rooms over the years. I remember them coming here when Henry and Stella were little. We all hated when they were gone because we enjoyed them so much. But, every time they came back, it was like Christmas all over again. We felt like that about each of us when we were gone." She smiled at her memories, and it left him with a hard pit in his stomach.
He swallowed. "I'm glad you have all those good memories and friends from your childhood."
She cocked her head to the right as her eyes bored into his. "Don’t you have good memories from your childhood? Or friends?"
Usually when this question came around while dating, or getting to know someone of the opposite sex, he'd change the subject. Instead, he took a deep breath and shook his head. "Not really. I have a brother and sister, whom I love very much. But our childhoods were more about staying out of our parents’ way and not getting sucked into the shit they both stirred up in town."
He waited for the judgment. His heart thumped in his chest and his throat dried out. Instead, Addy stepped toward him. She placed her hands on either side of his waist. She stood on her toes and softly kissed his lips. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "I can't take it away, but then again, it's what made you who you are today, so I wouldn't want to."
