Eve beamed up at him. “You’ve seen my B and B at Christmastime. I can fix that.”
“We’ll see if the opportunity arises.” He loved getting together with his friends on Friday. But ever since Brandon and Olivia had started joining them, that weekly ritual had become a form of torture. So the moment he stepped outside, he took a deep breath, as relieved to get on with his day as he’d been eager to come.
*
Lourdes was just getting out of the shower when Kyle returned. She hadn’t been able to fit everything she’d wanted to bring to California in her suitcase and didn’t have a robe with her, so he caught her in nothing but a towel as she walked down the hall to her room. His eyes swept over her, obviously taking note of her near nudity, but he didn’t make her feel threatened in any way, or even particularly self-conscious. He acted as if it wasn’t any big deal—as if they were roommates and seeing her like this was a common occurrence.
Lourdes didn’t know whether to be relieved that he respected appropriate boundaries, or disappointed that he didn’t seem compelled to push beyond them. It was a strange reaction on her part—evidence of the state of her self-esteem. Now that she was losing her grip on everything she’d once had, she wanted to be reassured that she still had the ability to attract a handsome man—especially one who didn’t care about her fame. There was something stimulating about that alone.
Or maybe she just didn’t want to admit that she was attracted to Kyle. She wasn’t sure how that could be possible when she was in love with someone else...
“Brought you some breakfast.” He held up a sack with a logo that said Black Gold Coffee. “I’ll put it on the counter for when you’re dressed.”
“That was nice of you.” Her eyes were red and swollen again. But she made no excuses, and he pretended not to notice. He understood what she was going through. He hadn’t told her much about his life when they were talking last night, but he had said he was in love with a woman he’d dated for two years—who was now married to his stepbrother. That had to involve some pain.
“No problem,” he said. “I have some bad news, though. So...when you’re ready, why don’t you come out and we can talk about it.”
“Just a sec.” She hurried into her room and pulled on the sweats she’d been wearing yesterday. She would’ve liked to dry her hair; it was dripping down her back. But she was too eager to hear Kyle’s bad news so that she could determine if she had a new crisis to worry about. These days she wouldn’t be surprised if someone had gone to repair the HVAC in her rental and discovered black mold, which would mean she’d have to find some other safe haven—without Derrick’s help.
She would’ve had time to make herself presentable, however. When she found Kyle in the kitchen, he was on a business call.
Instead of going back to dry her hair, she sat down. Besides coping with a great deal of anger, she was so busy vacillating between determination to overcome Derrick’s defection and the most debilitating discouragement she’d ever experienced that she didn’t have enough energy to obsess over her hair and clothes.
“What’s going on?” she asked as soon as he hung up.
He pushed the sack he’d brought home closer to her. “I bought the HVAC unit for the farmhouse from Owen’s Heating & Air. I called them not long after they opened this morning, but Owen was already on a big job in Stockton.”
“Stockton’s what...an hour away?”
“That’s about right. But he doubts he’ll get back before late this evening, and he’s taking his wife to Lake Tahoe for the weekend to celebrate her birthday.”
Relieved that this was only about getting the furnace fixed and not the house itself, she removed a cardboard cup of coffee from the bag, along with a cheese Danish, a bagel and a blueberry muffin. “Is this all for me?”