“You just happen to keep men’s clothes on hand?”
“They’re my brother’s. His washer broke last week and he did a few loads of laundry here while he waited for a new part to be delivered. I found these in my dryer with a few other things yesterday and haven’t had a chance to get them back to him yet. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you borrow them for a couple of hours.”
“Well, I—”
She grinned. “Strip, pal. I really can’t look at those bloody clothes of yours all during dinner. You can clean up in the spare bedroom. I’ll change in my room.”
She pointed him toward the correct door, then hurried into her own room to change. She made a quick call to Kinley to tell her she was home safely, and was assured that everything was fine upstairs. Kinley and Dan had decided to stay in one of the empty rooms overnight rather than brave the storm and drive back to her house.
“Everything’s under control here,” Kinley added. “We’re playing charades in the parlor with some of the guests. Having a great time. You just take it easy the rest of the night. We’ll call if we need you.”
A few minutes later, Bonnie stood in her kitchen, having washed up and dressed quickly in a cotton top and skirt and slippers. Her hair was still a bit damp around the edges, but she’d left it down to dry. Paul wandered in a couple of minutes later, wearing his own socks and Logan’s clothes, which fit him fairly well.
She reached for the dirty jeans and shirt he carried wadded in his hands. “I’ll just throw these in the washer and then throw together something quick for dinner. Make yourself comfortable on the couch or at the table, if you prefer.”
Rather than taking a seat, he was standing where she’d left him when she returned. “What can I do to help with dinner?”
Because he seemed genuinely to want to help, she set him to chopping tomatoes and a red onion while she sliced avocados, shredded white cheddar cheese and whisked together a vinaigrette for a Cobb salad.
“Maybe it’s a good thing you’re starting tomorrow night’s class with knife skills,” he said with a crooked smile as he washed the knife a few minutes later. “I’m a little slow when it comes to slicing and dicing.”
“Better slow than sliced, yourself,” she answered with a light shrug, retrieving romaine lettuce, cold chicken and boiled eggs from the fridge. “But maybe I can give you a few tips tomorrow night.”
He reached out to brush her cheek with the back of his hand, making her almost drop the food on the floor. “I rather like this private lesson,” he said in a low voice.
She cleared her throat and smiled up at him through her lashes. “You can have one of those anytime.”
He chuckled and took a step back, as if moving away from temptation. “What can I do now?”
“I have some very good locally bottled white wine you can pour for us. I think we deserve a glass tonight, don’t you?”
His reply was heartfelt. “Absolutely.”
They took their time over the salads, sipping the wine slowly. They didn’t talk a lot during the meal, and when they did they avoided discussing the traumatic motorcycle accident, chatting about his friend Tim’s horse stables instead. After clearing away the dinner dishes, she transferred his clothes to the dryer. Paul carried his wineglass with him when he moved to sit on the deep-cushioned red couch in the open-floor-plan apartment.
The rain continued outside, with wind, rain and lightning putting on quite a show over the mountains. Paul checked the weather reports on his phone, relieved he’d found nothing more threatening than a thunderstorm warning. He’d called to check on Cassie, and said he was relieved to hear she was spending the turbulent night at her mom’s.
“Did you tell her where you are?” Bonnie asked from the kitchen.
Looking over the back of the couch, he shook his head. “Not specifically. And she didn’t ask.”
She wondered if Cassie had her suspicions about where her dad was riding out the storm. Cassie had been a bit heavy-handed with her matchmaking Sunday, not so subtly leaving Bonnie and Paul alone together at his house. Awkward, but at least she didn’t mind them spending time together.
She picked up the open bottle of wine on her way to join him. “More?” she asked, holding it over his glass.
Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled and he nodded with a faint smile. “Maybe half a glass. I’m not driving until my clothes are dry anyway.”
She poured him a little more than half a glass, then added the same amount to her own. She found herself in no hurry for the dryer to buzz, and Paul looked content enough on her couch. She sat beside him, her full skirt arranged around her as she tucked her feet beneath her and half turned to face him.
“I’ll bet Logan’s down at his place worrying about any damage the storm could be doing. I’m sure there will be leaves and twigs thrown around, which he and Curtis, his assistant, will clean up in the morning, but I hope there’s no real damage. It took us several weeks to fully recover from that ice storm last February.”
“That was a bad one. Did you have much damage here?”
“Let’s just say it took a bite out of our maintenance budget.” She pictured her brother pacing the rooms of his cottage with Ninja at his side, peering out the windows to watch the storm, and she hoped he had enough sense to stay inside until the worst was past. He took nature’s assaults on his landscaping quite personally at times.
“There’s a heck of a lot that goes into running a business of this size, isn’t there?”
Smiling wryly, she sipped her wine, then said, “There is. We didn’t come into the operation completely unprepared, since all of us trained in various aspects of business. My degree, specifically, is in hotel management. Kinley majored in business, then real estate brokerage, and Logan is a computer whiz in addition to being talented with landscaping and maintenance. Dan calls him a true ‘Renaissance man,’ which always causes Logan to grumble because it makes him self-conscious.”