Katie shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. Yeah, he noticed I have breasts. Big deal. And it’s already awkward. I don’t want to make it worse.”
“It’s going to stay awkward until you guys just give in and do it. It’s the tension and the dancing around it that’s going to be awkward.”
It sounded as if the moms were herding the kids toward the desk now, so Katie wheeled the computer chair back to the desk. “I have to go.”
“If you do anything salacious, you better call me.”
Katie waved a goodbye and headed for the market as the kids dumped piles of picture books on the desk. Fran was knitting what looked like a sock when she went in, but she paused long enough to hand her a list scrawled on receipt tape.
Tea, milk, flour, butter, eggs and a Slim Jim. It looked as if her mom was going to attempt baking something soon and Josh had a craving for something spicy. She gathered up the items and took them back to the counter so Fran could ring them up and put them on the lodge’s account, along with the candy bar she felt was a fair payment for her time.
“How’s your mom feeling?” Fran asked. “She sounded a lot better on the phone, but she’s one for putting on a stiff upper lip.”
“She actually is doing better. If I wasn’t around, she’d probably try to get up and go on a cleaning binge to make up for lost time.”
“Sometimes lying around can make a body feel worse.”
“That might have worked on me after the first time she had pneumonia,” Katie said. “But we’re not letting her take any chances this time. She can putt around and make a batch of cookies if she’s up to it, but she’s not doing any of the heavy lifting.”
“And Josh? How’s he doing?”
“Good.” After a few seconds of awkward silence, she realized Fran must be looking for more. “First guests arrive tomorrow, but I think almost everything’s ready now.”
Like Hailey, Katie got the impression Fran was looking for something a little more salacious, but she wasn’t handing out intimate confidences to her mother’s best friend. That was all she needed—Rosie getting it in her head Josh and Katie could live happily ever after at the lodge and have lots of babies for her to knit for. That would be a nightmare.
“Well, you tell your mom I said hi, even though I just talked to her. And tell Andy the same, since I hear he’s been spending most of his spare time at the lodge.”
Not the most subtle fishing expedition for Fran. She was usually better than that. “He works for Josh. Has since the summer.”
“Even on Sundays?”
Katie just smiled and picked up her bag of groceries. “Guess so.”
But as she walked to her Jeep, she wondered about what the older woman had said. Andy was spending a lot of time at the lodge, and not all of it working. He spent a lot of time with her mom, but her mom wasn’t talking to her best friend about it.
Maybe there was something salacious going on at the Northern Star after all.
*
Josh heard Katie’s Jeep pull into the yard, but he didn’t take a break from making the beds. His Slim Jim could wait until he was done with this last thing on the pre-guest checklist. Once the bedding was done, so was he.
He’d moved on to the second room when he heard Katie coming down the hall, and it wasn’t long before she found him. “Hey, why didn’t you wait for me to get home so I could help?”
Because, for some reason, he thought it would be weird crawling around on the beds with Katie, even if all they were doing was tucking sheet corners. “Don’t need help. I’ve been making these beds since I was old enough to tell flat from fitted.”
“I can help, Josh.”
“You’re here to take care of Rosie, not make beds.”
“Don’t be a dumbass. It’ll take half as long if I help.” Then she climbed onto the mattress to tuck the far corner and he was presented with another delicious display of her ass.
He’d tried to tell himself last night that it was just the skimpy sleepwear that had caught his attention. Maybe little cotton boxers on a woman did it for him. But now he had to admit Katie’s ass was no less great in her usual jeans. He just hadn’t noticed before.
Now that he had, making the beds turned into a torturous chore that seemed to go on forever. Every time she bent over to straighten or tuck, he got a little bit harder. By the time they got to the last bed, he could barely walk.
“As slow as you’re moving, it would have taken you until next week to do this alone,” she said as she smoothed the last quilt. “Is your leg bothering you?”
“Yes.” No, but blaming an aching leg was a lot easier on the ego than explaining the real problem.
“Okay, done.” Katie put her hands on the small of her back and stretched, which effectively distracted him from thinking about her ass. How had he never noticed she had great boobs? “Mom wants fresh blueberry muffins for your guests, so I have to go make a test batch. That gives her time to tell me what I did wrong and make me bake more.”
“So you’re telling me we’re having shitty blueberry muffins for supper.”