Me:Here safe. No time to call since I barely made it on time. I’ll call when I’m off tonight. Love you!
I didn’t wait for a reply.
I was pulling my suitcase from the trunk when a pair of masculine arms appeared on my left side.
“I got it,” I muttered as I struggled with my stupidly huge suitcase.
All I heard was a grunt in response as the guy next to me I’d assumed was Adam pulled my suitcase free.
But when he put it on the ground next to him, I was blinking up in surprise at Kingston Grier instead.
He stared back at me for a beat. His eyes didn’t move down my body—he just stared straight into my eyes. But before I could say anything, he grabbed my suitcase off the ground, turned, and headed for the house.
“Uh, thank you!” I yelled at his back.
But Kingston didn’t respond.
I hurriedly closed the trunk and locked my car—more due to habit than anything else—and all but ran after him. He was walking through the door by the time I caught up.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you this morning. I thought Adam would be the one to show me around.”
Kingston didn’t pause as he entered the house. He headed for the stairs and climbed them with athletic ease. Meanwhile, I felt like a chihuahua chasing the bigger bulldog in those old Looney Tunes cartoons.Huh, Spike? Right, Spike?
He didn’t acknowledge anything I said. Instead, he pushed open a door at the end of the hall. “You’re in here.”
He left the suitcase in the doorway before taking a huge step back like he was being repelled by a force field or something.
“You’ve got a private bathroom and a walk-in closet. Zoe is down for her morning nap. Come down to the kitchen in an hour, and we’ll go through everything then.”
Then he turned and all but ran away from me. He jogged down the stairs just as athletically as he’d climbed them, avoiding my gaze the entire time.
And left me all alone in my new bedroom.
He couldn’t get away from me fast enough.
Did I smell or something?
I lifted an arm and discretely sniffed my pit. Nope, still daisy fresh.
I sighed. Maybe it would just take time for him to get used to me.
Or maybe he was just a grump.
I grabbed my suitcase and dragged it into the closet. I had some unpacking to do.
* * *
Forty minutes later, the sound of a child babbling to herself had me pausing in my new closet. I listened to a ridiculously cute mix of words and gibberish. The urge to walk into her bedroom, scoop her up, and cuddle her close was overwhelming. I wanted to inhale that yummy baby smell and listen to her babble all day long.
But I could already tell it would take Mr. Grump a while to trust me. I wasn’t going to challenge the first request he’d made of me.
It killed me to sit and listen to her and do nothing.
Until I heard Mr. Grump join her.
“How’s my girl doing? You feeling good after your nap, sweetness?” Kingston’s deep rumble sounded from the other side of the wall. “Looks like someone needs a fresh diaper.”
I stood to help him out and hadn’t even reached my door when I heard the telltale sound of the tabs on a disposable diaper and Zoe’s happy babbling.