by Trisha Grace
She smiled politely and turned her attention to Marianne as she came hurrying back.
“Why do you want to go down to the shed?”
There wasn’t any way she could hide it from Marianne. She had to tell Marianne; otherwise, Marianne might let slip in front of Tyler.
“The paintings inside have faded quite a bit. I want to restore it. It’ll be my birthday surprise for him.”
The frown that Marianne was wearing disappeared. “That’s a great idea. I’ll be sure to keep my mouth shut. But are you sure you can make it down to the shed like that?”
“Oh, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“But there’s no reception there. If anything happens …”
“I can accompany you. I’ll bring my book along,” Mr. Sawyer offered.
“No, I’ll be fine. Tell you what, if I’m not back in two hours, then go look for me.” She continued when Marianne pursed her lips. “Please? I don’t have much time. His birthday is two weeks away, and I can only work on it during lunch.”
“Oh, all right.”
It wasn’t easy getting to the shed on one leg, but she didn’t complain. She didn’t want Marianne to drag her back before she could do anything.
Once she was inside, she started work immediately. She set an alarm for an hour and a half, making sure she had ample time to head back to the mansion before Marianne got a panic attack.
She shook her head when the alarm rang. She’d only completed a small portion of the train tracks, and she wondered if she could complete the whole shed in time.
She was tempted to stay longer. But since she couldn’t call Marianne from the shed, she didn’t want to risk having a rescue team haul her back.
Half hopping and limping back to the mansion was much easier without all the paints and brushes. She would still need them anyway, so she might as well leave them in the shed.
She got back to the mansion in twenty minutes. Once she greeted Marianne to show her that she was still alive and well, Kate washed up and headed back to the office.
“You have flowers.” Evelyn walked in with a bouquet of tulips. “Your favorite flowers.”
Smiling broadly, Kate told her to put them down by the couch.
“By the way, they were hand delivered.”
That statement immediately took the smile off. “Ty was here? What did you tell him?”
“I told him you were with a client and shooed him off.”
She nodded gratefully. “Good, thanks.”
“So, are you going to tell me what you’re doing?”
“As long as you tell me what’s going on with you and Dan.”
Evelyn shook her head. “We’re just friends. We hang out, have dinner, and sometimes lunch. That’s it.”
“That’s it? Dinner and lunch?”
“Yeah.”
She shrugged and proceeded to fulfill her end of the deal, telling Evelyn what she was doing.
“Right, that reminds me. They usually just go over for dinner. He asked if I wanted to chip in for the present, and I said yes. We’re getting him some high-tech watch. Do you know your boyfriend is a geek?”
“He’s not my boyfriend. We’re friends.”
Evelyn rolled her eyes. “A friend who’s causing you to rush to and from work in your condition and to brave the jungles in order to restore something his mother did for him,” she said. “You’re not just friends. When you laugh, you move closer to him without thinking. And when you’re afraid, you lean toward him. I’ve never seen you do that with anyone.”
“How did you know I lean toward him when I’m afraid?”
“Dan told me about the movie night and Ryan’s prank. Don’t worry, I gave him hell of a lecture.”
Laughing, Kate said, “Thanks. Did he tell you what Ryan said? Brought episode one just for me.” She threw her hands in the air.
“So there’s something?” Evelyn pushed.
“No, there’s nothing. We’re housemates; we can’t be more.”
“Can’t?” Evelyn raised her brow. “Meaning you want more, but you’re afraid that things won’t work out and he’d end up losing the mansion? Kate,” she paused, “I’m asking if you feel anything for him. Forget about the mansion and the situation you guys are in. Just think about what you want.” She stood and walked out of the office, stopping right outside her door. “Oh, he’s fetching you tonight. You know that, right?”
“Not coming for dinner? Will Dan be missing from dinner, too?”
“Think about it,” Evelyn repeated and closed the door behind her.
For the rest of the week, Kate rushed between work and the mansion. She’d tried to keep within the two hours limit, but Tyler’s birthday was getting closer, and there was still so much to be done.
In the end, she ended up leaving at lunchtime and returning to her office only to pack up and head back to the mansion.
And with that, her own work began piling up. She had no choice but to bring her work home, retreating into her room once she was done with dinner.
Chapter Eighteen
Tyler watched while Kate return to her room to complete her work. He knew she was short of a team at work, but she’d only missed three days of work. Surely there couldn’t be so much backlog that she had to bring back work each night.
Over the last week, whenever he’d asked her out for lunch, she would tell him that she was busy with a client.
He never questioned further, but he couldn’t help getting worried.
Something was wrong.
He couldn’t help feeling that she was hiding something from him, and it was making him uneasy.
Then there were the lacerations on her arms.
She’d brushed it off when he asked, saying that she was careless and had fallen at work.
The more he thought about it, the more his mind started gearing toward one direction: She was helping Lydia to dig further into Detective Cooper.
It could be something else, but whatever it was, he was determined to speak to Kate about it.
The next day, without calling her, he went to look for Kate in the office. Like the past week, she wasn’t in the office.
But Joanne was.
“Ty!”
He nodded before asking, “Where’s Kate?”
Joanne smiled—an ominous sign. There was no reason for Joanne to smile when talking about Kate.
“She has been leaving work every afternoon and doesn’t come back until we’re supposed to end work. Maybe she got herself a new boyfriend.”
That explained her smile.
“Evelyn said she was with a client,” he said.
“I’m her assistant. I don’t see her scheduling lunch time with clients, and she’s crazy organized. If she has a meeting with a client, I’ll know.”
“And she has an insanely good memory. The meetings happened to be at lunchtime, so she didn’t see the point of recording them. She knows she’ll remember anyway,” Evelyn suddenly said. “And she’s your boss. If you want to gossip about her, don’t do it in the office or you’re fired.”
Joanne pouted. “I was simply saying that I don’t see her working on any other projects except on the Winsors.”
“You’re new here. We don’t tell you everything,” Evelyn replied. “I’ll tell her that you dropped by.”
Tyler nodded and headed out of the office with Joanne’s conjecture nagging him in his head.
That idea never crossed his mind. But now that she’d mentioned it, it seemed like a reasonable explanation for Kate’s behavior.
Regardless, he had no mood to return to work, so he drove back to the mansion.
When he turned into the mansion, he frowned when he saw Evelyn’s car parked outside.
He had just seen her back in the office, and with the speed that he was driving, he was sure she couldn’t have beaten him back.
He walked into the house with the same confused look, expecting to find Evelyn in the house. Instead, he saw Marianne and her hasty retreat into t
he kitchen when she caught sight of him.
“What’s going on?”
Marianne pretended that she didn’t hear his question and hurried into the kitchen.
Raising his voice, Tyler asked, “Is Kate here?”
“I think so. Somewhere in the house, I’m sure. I need to prepare dinner. I’m making her favorite dessert.”
“Where is she exactly?”
“Ty, this is a big house; you can’t expect me to know where she is at every moment.”
He could tell Marianne was hiding something. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to tell him.
So he decided to do a sweep of the house instead of wasting time playing words with her. He went around the house, searching even the other wing, but Kate was nowhere to be found.
“She is not here. Where is she?” Tyler asked, enunciating each and every word when he got back to the living room. He stared at the phone in Marianne’s hand and sighed impatiently. “Marianne—”
“Fine. She’s at the shed, but Ty—”
He was out of the house before she could finish her sentence.
He hurried toward the shed, frustrated that she’d gone there on her own, without anyone with her and with an injured leg.
Marianne should’ve stopped her. How could she let Kate go into the woods alone?
Sprinting, he got to the shed in a couple of minutes.
The door to the shed was open, so he stepped in without knocking, ready to unleash his anger at her utter lack of concern for herself.
Kate’s back was facing him, and she was wearing her earphones, oblivious to his entrance. She held a brush in one hand and a palette on the other, her full concentration on the wall.
He took a deep breath through his nose.
She was all the way out here alone and was wearing earphones. What if it were someone else who had come by?
He sighed and shook his head. Then he finally noticed the walls. He glanced around and looked at the restored painting on two of the walls. He moved toward one of the walls, his finger grazing the newly touched-up paintings. It was restored to how he’d remembered, exactly how his mother had drawn them.
“Ty! What are you doing here?”
He took his eyes off the wall and crossed the room toward Kate.
Standing in front of her, he tipped her head back and pulled her into a kiss. One of his arms wrapped tightly across her waist, pulling her close, while the other hand moved to the back of her head.
His fingers weaved into her hair as her lips parted. He had kept himself away from her for as long as he could.
Now, he couldn’t let her go.
He held her in place while he tasted her, his hand gently kneading down her neck.
“Crap,” Kate suddenly said and pulled back from him.
That wasn’t the reaction he’d expected, not after the way she’d kissed him back.
“Oh, no. It got on the floor.”
He glanced down at the drips of paint on the floor while she placed the brush and palette aside. She reached for a wet towel and was about to stoop down and clean up the mess when he took her arm and gently pulled her back into his arms. “Leave it.”
She held her arms out awkwardly behind his back. “My arm’s dripping with paint.”
He laughed and let go of her to reach behind his back. He pressed her arms against his shirt before returning to hold her. “I don’t care about the shirt.” His hand stroked down her long, silky hair. “Is this where you’ve been coming during lunch?”
She nodded. “It’s supposed to be a surprise for your birthday.”
“And the injuries on your arms?”
She buried her face in his chest. “I wasn’t careful and tripped over a rock.”
He wanted to launch into a lecture, telling her the list of things she shouldn’t have done. She shouldn’t have come down to the shed alone without anyone accompanying her. She shouldn’t be walking through the woods with her injury. She shouldn’t have her earphones on and not realized that someone had entered the shed.
But he held his tongue.
He didn’t want her to step out of his arms, so he merely nodded. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“I think I can get it done before your birthday. At least I hope I can.”
“Since it’s my birthday, do I get a say?” He continued when he felt her nodding. “Leave it until your leg’s completely healed. We’ll come back together, and you can complete it then.”
“But that will be too late for it to be your birthday present.”
“I’ve already gotten the best present I could ask for,” he said, wrapping his arm tighter around her.
She looked up at him, and he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her.
“Since you’re here, can you help me pack up? I need to return Evelyn’s car,” she said as she pulled back to catch her breath.
He added another item to the list of things she shouldn’t have done—driving while she was injured. But he shoved that to the back of his mind. “I’ll get Dan to pick her up and drive her here for dinner.”
“You know they’re seeing each other?”
Unwillingly, he let go of her and started packing up, placing the paints and brushes into the box lying in the corner. “He spoke to me about it to make sure it was all right. I assumed Evelyn told you.”
“No, she didn’t. I guessed it on my own. Does Dan know that Eve doesn’t do relationships? She detests relationships, thinks it’s pointless and doomed to fail.”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
Smiling, she nodded. “Let’s get back to the mansion, and I’ll call Evelyn from there.”
Since Kate refused to let him carry her back, he wrapped his arm around Kate’s waist and lifted her across any branches that were larger than twigs.
“Told you she was fine,” Marianne grumbled when she saw them walking in. “Now you’ve ruined her surprise for you. Do you know how much effort she’s put in? Rushing here and there every day, then having to bring home her work just to give you a surprise. Inconsiderate boy.”
“I know,” he said softly, leaning in to give Kate a peck on her lips. “Thank you.”
Marianne stared, seemingly wondering if she had just imagined what she saw.
“That’s a direct result of me heading to the shed to look for her. Still grumpy?”
“No, can’t say that I am,” Marianne answered with a wide grin.
“And now that I know, she doesn’t have to rush between work and here to finish it up.”
“Good, good.” Marianne couldn’t wipe off her grin. “Good. I’m making apple strudel today.”
Kate laughed at Marianne’s reaction.
“Thank you,” Kate said. “I need to call Eve and inform her that Dan will be picking her up.” Then waving her arm that was streaked with paint, she continued. “And to wash up.”
He pulled her closer against him. “You go wash up. I’ll get your phone.”
Kate wiped the water off her arm and took the phone from Tyler before he went to change out of his shirt.
Fifteen missed calls.
Evelyn was going to kill her.
She sat and switched on her laptop, checking her e-mails while calling Evelyn.
“Where are you? Tyler was here. Joanne saw him and went on and on about you disappearing after lunch. I think he suspects something,” Evelyn said the moment the call went through.
She sighed. She had thought something happened at work. “Well, the secret’s out. He got home and, long story short, found me at the shed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I know you wanted it to be a surprise.”
“It was still a surprise, and I won’t be too sorry about it.”
“Huh. Why not?”
“We kissed.”
“Finally.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going back today. Tyler’s calling Dan to pick you up. See you for dinner?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Sorry to ruin your date.”
“It isn’t a date. It’s two friends having dinner.”
“And the two friends can’t have dinner together with everyone else at the mansion?”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing tonight,” Evelyn said. “As for you, don’t just think about dating. Complete your work.”
She laughed, her head dropping back. “Being responsible doesn’t suit you. See you later.”
By the time she stepped out of her bath, the responsible-self returned and she couldn’t help but fret. The will, the mansion …
She could hear movements in the attic, so she trotted up, thinking of talking to Tyler.
There was so much at risk, and he needed to know, to think things through rationally before jumping into a relationship.
“Busy?”
“I thought you wanted to finish up your work. Miss me?”
His carefree manner made her smile, changing her mind about speaking with him. “Nothing, I just came to check on you. I’ll go now.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She turned to leave, but Tyler stopped her.
“You look as if you regret what happened.”
“No,” she quickly said. She didn’t want him to misunderstand. “Worried, maybe.”
“About?”
“We’ve only known each other for three months. There’s still nine more months to go. What if things don’t work out? I can’t let you lose the house.”
Tyler ran his finger down her cheek and smiled. “You don’t have to take care of me, too. Don’t worry about the house, and don’t start thinking so responsibly when it comes to me.”
“Don’t start? When did I stop?”
“Moving in with a stranger. Giving up your work. Driving with an injured leg. Hopping through the woods on one leg for my birthday present. None of these seems responsible to me.”
“I didn’t give up my work; I brought it home to do. My leg’s fine; you’re making a big deal out of it.”
“And driving?”
“I haven’t crashed, have I?”
“And moving in, after having met me once when I’m not at my best.”
She scowled. “I like to help people.”
“You compromised. You didn’t believe in moving in, but you did. You know you shouldn’t drive, but you did. You know you shouldn’t go trotting into the woods in your condition, but you did. And you know you shouldn’t have returned my kiss, but you couldn’t help yourself.” Then he stepped forward, closing the gap between them. Lifting her chin, he said, “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. I don’t care about the house; I just need you.”
