Now that he’d become aware of the breasts and legs and really great ass, he was noticing other things. How expressive her eyes were. How often her hair was in a ponytail and how very much he’d like to see it down more often, as it was last night. It looked soft and he’d bet it would tickle sliding across his bare chest.
“Hey, Kowalski, you fall asleep?”
Oh, shit. He’d lost track of time and gotten lost in a hot little daydream about what came after her hair tickling his chest. Pushing himself out of the scooped plastic chair was no treat, and he took advantage of Katie turning her back to adjust the crotch of his jeans.
When she turned on the water in the sink, he shook his head. “Just a quick trim’s fine.”
“Shut up. You’ve always gotten the full treatment.”
That was before, but it wasn’t as if he could explain that to her without feeling even more awkward than he already did. Taking the magazine with him, he walked over and made himself as comfortable as he could in the wash chair.
“You want me to toss that magazine on the table?”
“No, I, uh…” It was staying right where it was—hiding his crotch like an eighth-grade math book. “I’ve got my thumb holding my place. I was reading an article.”
“You being such an avid fisherman and all.” He jumped a little when the spray of water hit his head and she jerked it away. “What? Too hot?”
“No, it’s fine,” he muttered.
It was less fine when her fingers plunged into his hair and it took everything he had not to moan. Then came the shampoo. Her fingers massaged his scalp, working the lather into his hair, and he shifted the magazine on his lap, making sure it was centered over the evidence of how very good it felt. It always had before, but this time was…different.
Everything was different now. Somehow, wanting to have sex with somebody you’d considered a friend your whole life shook things up. How was he supposed to enjoy football with her now? Hard to focus on third-down conversions when you were thinking about the breasts of the person sitting next to you. Maybe he could show up early and beat Butch to the recliner without anybody noticing.
She finally finished rinsing the soap out and, after rubbing and squeezing out the excess water, she told him to go sit in the chair. That was a little better because she draped him entirely in a huge cape. And at least he could sit up straight instead of being stretched out with a magazine in his lap.
The haircut itself didn’t take long, because despite Rosie’s nagging he hadn’t really needed one yet. By the time she’d brushed the hair off his ears and neck and whipped the cape off, he’d managed to get control of his body, more or less. But when he reached for his wallet, she waved him off.
“We’ll skip it while I’m eating your food and burning your electricity.”
“I’m also making you work for the lodge without paying you.”
“Josh, forget it. Where are you off to now?”
“I have a list. I think Rosie nagged me into cutting my hair just so I’d be in town to go to the library and the market for her.”
“She nagged you? It wasn’t even really time for a trim yet, so I was wondering why you were here.”
“She convinced herself I’d get busy and look like a shaggy mutt in the party pictures. I agreed just to shut her up.”
“Have fun, then.”
Josh waved and made his escape. That had really sucked and he wasn’t sure how the hell he was supposed to survive living with her now. He started his truck and pointed it toward the library. He’d get Rosie’s books and groceries, and then he’d go home and deal with his newfound sexual frustration the way men had for centuries.
He was going to split the hell out of a pile of wood.
Chapter Six
When noon came and she flipped the sign to Closed, Katie wasn’t in any hurry to get back to the lodge.
Josh was acting weird and it was all her breasts’ fault, dammit. Stupid nipples. Despite the unrequited lust on her part, one thing she and Josh had never been was awkward. The fact he’d had to keep a magazine across his lap while she’d washed his hair should have made her deliriously happy, but not if it came with weirdness.
Once the Jeep had warmed up enough to quit making the ominous sound she hadn’t gotten around to diagnosing yet, she headed to the library and was grateful to see the parking lot was almost empty. In a place where silence reigned, having a discreet conversation wasn’t always easy.
Luckily the few cars appeared to belong to the moms trying to corral their kids in the children’s section, so nobody was within earshot of Hailey’s desk. “Got a second?”
“Of course.” Hailey set aside the new books she was covering in plastic while Katie stole one of the computer chairs and wheeled it over. “You look flustered.”
“Apparently Josh does likes white cotton.”
Hailey sucked in a breath, but clapped both hands over her mouth before the squeal could escape. Then she leaned forward so she could whisper. “Guess you have some feminine wiles, after all.”
“If feminine wiles means white tank top with no bra, then yeah.”
“Feminine wiles. Boobs. Same thing. So tell me everything.”
“That is everything.” Katie shrugged at her friend’s disappointed look. “Sorry. He told me to put some clothes on and then stormed off.”
“I was hoping for something a little more salacious.”
Katie frowned. “Salacious?”
“Yeah. I hear it all the time about romance novels, so it must mean hot and scandalous and sexy and maybe a little bit dirty. I’m improving my vocabulary.”
“Vocab building works best when you know the definition. But, anyway…no. It wasn’t salacious. But he finally noticed me.”
Hailey sighed and shook her head. “I hate to break this to you, but a man noticing a woman’s nipples when she’s wearing a white tank top without a bra isn’t newsworthy.”
“Maybe not in general, but he noticed my nipples. All these years I wasn’t sure if he even knew I had breasts. And now he’s acting funny.”
“Define funny.”
“He had to keep a magazine open across his lap while I washed his hair this morning.”
Hailey’s eyes widened. “Now we’re talking. That’s a little salacious. I think.”
“We’re in a library. Maybe one of us should look that word up.”
“Later. Did he say anything?”
“Not really.” Katie thought back. “He tried to get out of me washing his hair. Just wanted a quick trim to make Rosie get off his back, but I didn’t listen because he always has me wash it.”
Hailey smiled. “But this time he didn’t, because you running your hands all through his hair was going to make that magazine pop up like a tent.”
Katie’s phone gave the text chime and Hailey made a big fuss out of shushing her. Rolling her eyes, Katie pulled up the message from Josh. U leave yet? When she texted back that she hadn’t, she got an almost immediate response. Stop @ market.
She didn’t bother asking him what was needed. Her mom no doubt had called Fran with a list, which she’d written down and would hand to Katie when she walked in the door.
“So what are you going to do?” Hailey asked after she tucked her phone back in her pocket.
“About what?”
“Seriously? About Josh.”
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.”
“Yup.”
He watched her walk out of the room and then he sagged against the wall. He would have flopped onto the bed, but he’d have to remake it, so he settled for just taking a couple minutes to get control of himself.
It wasn’t working. Now that his body was having some kind of delayed reaction to Katie’s, his dick didn’t seem to understand why it wasn’t getting what it wanted. When a woman was into him, Josh wasn’t in the habit of denying himself.
The trouble was, he couldn’t tell if Katie was into him. She seemed the same as she always did. It was him that had changed, and he was afraid if he made a move, he’d just embarrass them both.
Time to split some more wood. He went outside and set the first log on the stump before picking up the splitting maul. Whack. The log fell into two pieces. It was satisfying as hell.
After only five minutes or so, he shed his coat and tossed it on the pile. Maybe fifteen minutes after that, he heard a vehicle coming up the driveway. It sounded like Paige’s car and, if he remembered correctly, Mitch was supposed to be home. He kept splitting, though, because he didn’t want to lose his rhythm and cool off his muscles if it was only Paige stopping by to see the women.
“Holy shit.” It was Mitch, and Josh followed his gaze to the mountain of split wood he’d created piling up around him, and then to the last batch he’d split and stacked. “You see a different long-range forecast than I did?”
“Just burning off some…excess energy.”
“Sex is more fun than splitting wood for burning off energy.”
Josh growled and swung the maul with so much force the log blew apart instead of splitting.
Mitch laughed. “Not a bad substitute if you can’t get a woman to have sex with you, though.”
“Screw you.” He bent and set another log on end, then hefted and swung again.
“Maybe we should hire you a hooker before you clear-cut the entire property.”
His oldest brother was a real freakin’ comedian. He started to pick up another log, but then realized it was going to take him forever to stack what he’d already split. They were forecasting four to six overnight and he didn’t want the split stuff freezing in, so he’d stack that next.
“So let me guess,” Mitch said. “You finally realized your trusty sidekick is actually a woman.”
Josh swore and wiped his sleeve across his forehead. “Did you know Katie has a really great ass?”
“Let’s just say I’m aware she’s attractive.”
“How did I not see that?”
Mitch shrugged. “You’re a late bloomer, I guess. You know hair growing on your balls is natural, right? You don’t need to be embarrassed.”
“Bite me.”
“So you’re splitting wood like a crazy man because Katie has a great ass?”
“I didn’t see it before. She was just Katie, you know? Then she came into the kitchen in this white tank top and little boxer shorts and…I can’t un-see it now.”
“She’s still the same old Katie.”
“No, she’s not, because I never had to shove my hands in my pockets to keep from bending the same old Katie o
ver the kitchen table.”
“Okay, that would probably piss Rose off on several levels.”
Josh didn’t want to talk about Katie anymore. He never should have brought up her ass in the first place. “Did you come over here just to bust my balls or did you have some higher purpose?”
“I’m not sure there is any higher purpose than busting your balls, but have you got anything going on here right after Christmas? Like the twenty-seventh, maybe?”
Josh tried to picture the calendar in his head. “That’s Thursday. Since Christmas is on Tuesday, we left most of the week unbooked. I have people coming in for a long New Year’s weekend, but none of them are arriving until Friday, so…no.”
“Good. Ryan could use some help moving the last of Lauren and Nick’s stuff down to Brookline.”
“Oh, wait. Except for that group checking in Thursday. Damn. Forgot about them.”
“Nice try.”
“Yeah, I’m free. We’re gonna do it in one trip, though, right?”
“Yes, and Ryan says it’s the last trip,” Mitch said, nodding. “They’ve been bringing stuff down each time she visits and when he goes back and forth, but he wants it done.”
“We’ll make it done, then.”
“And Katie told Lauren she’d help her unpack, too, so she’s going to ride down with you.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“Enough with the girl talk. How are the trails?”
* * *
If the constant, heavy thump of the splitting maul was any indication, Rose’s plan was starting to unfold. Nothing made a man split that much wood with that much enthusiasm but woman troubles.
That’s why, even though she was feeling a lot better and itched to do something, she complied with their orders to do nothing. Which, sadly, included watching her daughter botch a batch of blueberry muffins.
“Should I help her?” Paige whispered.
Thrilled to have a surprise visitor, Rose had made a pot of tea and they were sitting at the kitchen table, watching Katie make a mess. “Nope. She can do it.”
All He Ever Dreamed (The Kowalskis) Page 7
