“I’m more charming than black mold and roaches,” Cash commented.
Presley cringed. “It’s that bad?”
“Yes,” the brothers agreed.
“You can stay with me,” Gavin said. “Free of charge.”
“With you?” she and Cash asked in chorus. Except her tone was curious and his was...something else.
“Why would she stay with you if she’s here to talk to me?” Cash snapped, suddenly defending the very interview he swore he wouldn’t allow.
“Because I invited her here.”
“Your apartment is the size of the elevator Pres and I rode up here in,” Cash continued arguing. She didn’t miss Gavin’s sideways glance. Heat spread over her chest and climbed her neck as she relived what happened in the cramped space. “What are you going to do, share a bathroom?”
“Really, the hotel is fine,” she tried interjecting.
“Cash’s house is bigger than mine, but only because my bigger, nicer house is currently being built. I’m in temporary quarters right now,” Gavin explained. “But, his place is on the lake. So while you’d be staying with the grouchiest Sutherland in Beaumont Bay, the view might be worth it.”
“And I have a guest wing.”
“Guest rooms. He’s exaggerating.” Gavin rolled his eyes. “But they are nice. I’ve stayed there a time or two.”
“Uh...” What a choice. She could either add in extra travel time and risk roaches and black mold at the Dusty Rose, suffer a bit of awkwardness by staying—and sharing a bathroom—with Gavin, or stay in “the guest wing” of her sexy ex-boyfriend’s lakefront house. Plus, if she wasn’t mistaken, Cash had just agreed to the interview. “If you’re sure it’s not an inconvenience. I can pay you if—”
“Absolutely not,” Cash repeated, then looked at his brother. “It’s settled. She’s staying with me.”
Why, oh why, did his claiming her send a shiver of awareness down her spine?
“You’d better get going, then.” Gavin clapped Cash’s shoulder. “Make sure there are clean sheets on the guest bed.”
Cash sent his brother one final dark look before pulling out his phone. It buzzed in his hand. “Looks like Rickie’s already there anyway.”
“His agent,” Gavin explained to Presley.
“What’s your phone number?” Cash asked her. “I’ll text you the address. Then you’ll have my number so you can call if you get lost.”
She rattled off her cell phone number and Cash punched it into his phone before making his escape. She watched his confident swagger, unsure how she’d started off with hotel reservations and ended up agreeing to bunking with Cash.
Well, not with him. But in his house.
“You sure you’re okay staying with him?” Gavin asked. “My apartment is tight quarters, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the Dusty Rose.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
Cash was a private person. The idea of staying with him—and it sounded like they’d be in separate parts of the house—wasn’t as crazy as it’d seemed at first. She could observe the side of him he rarely showed in public. And that sort of closeness might lead to an intimate evening where he shared his secrets with her. Her neck grew hot again, prompting her to remind herself that intimacy in this case would not include more kissing. Or other...stuff.
She was here to do a job and that job didn’t include a lengthy perusal of Cash’s body—naked or otherwise. God, it really was hot in here. She fanned her face as her phone buzzed from inside her bag.
“Cash?” Gavin guessed as she checked her text messages.
“Yes,” she said, her heart tapping out a hectic rhythm. She felt nineteen again. A message from Cash Sutherland! Eee!
But the text was merely an address. No hi or drive safe or even a smiley-face emoji. Disappointment took over where her excitement left off. It was just as well. There was nothing left between her and Cash but memories.