Shaking off the melancholy, he went inside to make sure Dave and Dan settled in. Nothing much had changed since their last visit. When they woke up in the morning, they’d find the coffeemaker with a freshly brewed pot in the same spot on the counter, and a basket of home-baked blueberry muffins. Luckily for the Carmodys, Katie had mastered the recipe on the third try. Josh hadn’t been so lucky, since he was the taste test dummy.
The Northern Star didn’t offer meals to their guests, but they did offer the coffee and baked goods in the morning to hold them over until they rode by a place offering a real breakfast. And they did occasionally have a group who hadn’t gotten dinner before every place closed for the night, and Josh would offer some reheated leftovers or access to the deli meats.
Katie was the only person in the kitchen, so he assumed the Carmodys were in their room. “Where’s Rosie?”
“Apparently you guys replaced the television in that room since the last time they were here and she wanted to show them how to use it.”
“Oh, I forgot about that.”
“It’s a little weird.”
“What is?” He grabbed a soda out of the fridge and popped the tab.
“Having other people—strangers, I mean—in your house.”
“I’ve never known it any other way, I guess.” He shrugged. “And we get a lot of repeat business, so people don’t stay strangers very long.”
She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms in a way that would have drawn attention to her breasts if he wasn’t very deliberately keeping his eyes on her face. “What does Rosie usually do while you have guests? I mean, what should I be doing right now?”
He laughed. “The guests being here is the easy part. It’s the getting ready and the cleaning after that sucks. Juggling the calendar. Accounting. But they come here to ride the trails and we’re pretty much just a place to sleep.”
“That seems a little anticlimactic.”
Katie not talking about climaxes at all would be good. “Every once in a while we’ll get a phone call and have to take the truck and trailer out to rescue a guest whose machine broke down, if that keeps it exciting.”
“I’ve been out with you on a rescue run, remember? Not that exciting. But I’ve never been staying here at the same time as paying guests. It’s just a little hard to know what to do.”
“You keep your focus on that stupid party. Let me worry about the guests.”
“About the party—”
“Hold on, I think I hear a truck coming.” As soon as it was quiet, they could definitely hear a truck coming up the driveway. “They’re first-timers, so I need to get out there and tell them where to park and make sure they unload okay. Introduce them to Dave and his son and all that.”
“I think you’re using this as an excuse to avoid talking about appetizers.”
“Would I do that?” He gave her his best angelic smile and then practically ran out the door.
*
Even though she didn’t have to do anything, so to speak, living in a house that ended up with eight strangers in it for the weekend was a drain on Katie and she was so thankful when Sunday rolled around. They all hit the road back to their own homes and she and Josh made short work of stripping the beds and giving everything a quick once-over.
Of course, now she had a veritable mountain of bedding to wash and thorough cleanings to give when tomorrow morning rolled around, but right now it was Sunday night, Andy had offered to watch a movie with her mom, and she was parked on Max’s couch to watch some Sunday Night Football.
It was made both more awkward and more amusing by Josh’s inability to get comfortable. At least that looked like the problem to everybody else, she guessed, even though she knew all the shifting and rearranging was him trying to avoid his body coming into contact with her body. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be trying to pretend she wasn’t there at all.
Funny, considering they’d ridden over together in his truck because it made no sense to take separate vehicles. He’d been fine on the ride over, talking about the trails and something about groomer parts and stuff, but once it came time to hit their usual sofa spots, he’d started getting weird again. He was also a little more enthusiastic than usual in his dislike of San Francisco’s team and the referees. Katie had even spotted Butch turning down his hearing aid.
In the break between the first and second quarters, Katie decided to give Josh a short reprieve by going into the kitchen to replenish the chips and dip. A few seconds later, Max followed her in, carrying everybody’s empties.
“Confession time,” he said in a low voice. “What did you do to Josh?”
Katie shrugged, but the blush heating up her cheeks gave her away. “I ran into him in the kitchen on a midnight snack run a few nights ago. Tank top, skimpy shorts. No bra. He looked like somebody had just smacked him upside the head with a shovel.”
“Ha! I knew you guys would hook up eventually.”
“We haven’t actually hooked up. He told me to put some clothes on and went storming up to his room. Alone.”