“Yes.” He moved his weight from one foot to the other, and appeared to mistake her confusion for reluctance. “It won’t take long. An hour, tops.”
“Just let me grab a sweater.”
“You won’t need one,” he told her. “It’s sunny out.”
“Okay, then.” She followed him outside, her sneakers crunching on the gravel, sun beating down on the top of her head. One of the downsides of having black hair was that it attracted heat like no one’s business and her scalp burned easily. She reached up and mussed it so there was no exposed skin down the center part to burn.
They strolled side by side in silence, except for the sound of gulls crying and the Tasman Sea rolling onto the beach. Kat snuck a peek at him out of the corner of her eye. His profile was tall and lean. He could be called lanky, but he moved with the grace of a big cat. She wondered whether he’d purr if she petted him. He glanced over and caught her checking him out, and she flushed but didn’t look away. That would make her seem even guiltier.
“Not that I don’t love a good walk, but where are we going?” she asked, as if she’d only been looking his way in order to speak to him. Smooth, girl. Super smooth.
“It’s a surprise.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not a fan of surprises.”
“Neither am I. But don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.”
“‘Bad’ is relative.”
He led her, with surprising confidence, past the beachside pavilion and into the residential section of town bordering the coast. Pulling a flier from his pocket, he checked something and came to a stop outside of a large white-stone house with a “for sale” sign beside the mailbox. Something prodded at the back of Kat’s mind as he opened the mailbox and extracted a key. Some thought or idea about what he was up to, but she couldn’t quite grasp it.
“We’re going in?”
“Yes.” He slotted the key into the door and it swung inward with a shushing sound, passing over thick, gray carpet.
Kat slipped off her shoes, because God forbid she track dirt onto that gorgeously lush carpet. She stepped inside, her eyelids fluttering shut at the soft sensation beneath her bare feet. Sterling entered and passed her, rounding the corner. She stayed on his heels as they moved into an airy, open lounge, big enough to rival the one at Sanctuary. French doors on the opposite side were ajar, and beyond, a small lawn merged into the beach. She could have jogged over the sand and been at the water in less than a minute.
“What are we doing here?” she asked.
He held a finger to his lips. “Save the questions until after I’ve shown you around. Come through here.” He paced to a doorway and gestured for her to enter. “This is the kitchen. It’s registered as a commercial kitchen and meets the requirements of the Food Safety Act.”
Kat blinked. Tione would be in heaven with all of the gadgets in here. They were color-coordinated, and even the same brand.
“The laundry is through the door over there.” He pointed to the other side of the kitchen. “And if you follow me this way—” he backtracked into the lounge and through another door “—we’re in the dining room.” A long rectangular table occupied the center of a narrow room running parallel to the beach.
“Very nice,” she said, since he appeared to expect a response.
He nodded. “The bedrooms are off the hall, on the other side of the lounge.”
They went through each bedroom. There were six, all painted cream with beige drapes and gray carpet. All spacious and comfortable. All lacking any kind of personality.
“Well, what do you think?” he asked, once they’d returned to the lounge and sat on a sofa.
She shrugged. “It’s a nice house.”
His smile turned upside down. “Just nice?”
“Great location, nice view.” No personality.
“Better than Sanctuary?”
She laughed. “Nothing is better than Sanctuary.”
“But imagine what you could do with a place like this. It doesn’t need any work, so you could put all of your time and money into your guests and turn it into a spectacular bed and breakfast.”
Ah, so that’s the angle he was taking. Finding her an alternative he viewed as better than what she currently had. Except it wasn’t better because this place had no soul. She’d put money on it being no more than five years old and built from a catalog. There were probably a dozen others like it.
“If this place is so much better than Sanctuary, then why doesn’t your company buy it instead?”