Then again, did she care? She’d lived here long enough to know this week’s whispers would be superseded by something equally inconsequential next week. Besides, once her house went on the market everyone would assume they had been discussing business over dinner.
‘You’re wounding my ego,’ he said, clutching at his chest, and she hoped he wasn’t having a heart attack before mentally chastising herself for the ageist thought.
‘Yes, I’d love to have dinner with you.’
They grinned at each other like a couple of fools, and Heidi hoped she wasn’t getting in over her head.
CHAPTER
11
As Karly watched Hudson stroll to the edge of the pool and execute a perfect dive, she knew this was a bad idea. She should’ve headed back to the office after she’d shown him the granny flat and they’d had a coffee, not agreed to a swim.
What had got into her?
Unfortunately, as he rested his forearms on the edge of the pool and smiled up at her, she knew. All her self-talk about agreeing to a swim to get him onside, to sweeten him up so he took their rejection of his offer with good grace, was a bunch of hooey.
The main reason she wanted to swim with Hudson? He was hot.
If that made her shallow, so be it. She liked dating and didn’t do enough of it in this town, and she’d been so caught up in getting the agency’s social media accounts ready in the hope Pop would give her the go-ahead she hadn’t travelled further afield for fun like she usually did. That had to be why she couldn’t take her eyes off Hudson’s muscled shoulders, broad chest and hint of a six-pack. The smattering of hair on his chest and arrowing to the waistband of his board shorts. The long, strong legs.
If she hadn’t wanted to swim before, she sure as hell did now, if only to cool down.
‘Are you coming in?’
‘I really should get back to work—’
‘With no short-term rentals on the books, how busy will it get today?’
Damn him for trapping her with the truth. The only reason he was in Pop’s backyard was because they had no rentals on the books, and Pop heading out earlier for an appraisal was the first house they’d had to list for sale in months. It wasn’t uncommon for them to hang theBe back in thirty minutessign on the agency door, so having a quick swim before returning to the office wasn’t out of the question.
‘I’ve always got work to do, but I can manage a dip.’
‘That’s my girl.’ He pushed off the edge of the pool to float on his back, spreadeagled like a starfish. ‘It’s fun playing hooky.’
She wanted to say she wasn’t his girl and she could do without the distraction, but as she noted him watching her, his smile lazy but his eyes knowing, she knew this was a challenge. He expected her to blow him off. Well, she’d show him.
‘Be back in a sec.’
‘I’ll be waiting.’ He moved his arms in a desultory fashion, barely making a splash as he floated around, and she gritted her teeth against the urge to do a bomb fully clothed just to rattle him.
Nobody could be that composed all the time, and while she’d appreciated him revealing snippets of his past earlier, he shouldn’t have. It made her like him a little and she couldn’t afford to. Not with the agency on the line.
After changing into a black one-piece, she wrapped a towel around her waist sarong-style and headed next door. Pop kept the pool heated all year round because he swam laps every morning, and while she liked the occasional dip it was never with a guy as sexy as Hudson.
‘That was quick,’ he said, when she neared the edge of the pool and dropped her towel. ‘I like a woman who’s decisive.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘There’s no use liking me because I kind of hate you.’
‘I can deal with kind of. It’s better than all-out hate.’
‘Maybe I’ll get to that over the next few days when you butt your nose into our business.’
‘I’ll make you a deal. If we don’t discuss the agency for the duration of our swim, I’ll do an hour one-on-one session about the latest proptech developments, the kind of presentation many agencies pay top dollar for.’
An offer she couldn’t refuse, considering if Pop knocked back his deal she’d be using that proptech info to propel their agency into the twenty-first century.
‘Deal.’ She squatted near the edge and held out her hand, realising her mistake a second too late when he grabbed it on the pretext of shaking then proceeded to tug.