“What?!” she demanded and then forced herself to calm down because she knew she was overreacting. “I mean…why? You haven’t even seen the 3D model on my laptop.”
He gave her a lazy grin, and every girly part of her body tingled in response. “Because I knew I liked what I saw. I told you that last night, and I wanted to get their input and make sure they agreed.”
“The sun’s not even up, Axel.”
“Yeah, no one’s responded yet, but I feel better just knowing it’s going to be the first thing they see when they pick up their phones this morning. Well, at least I hope it’s the first thing they see.” He nodded toward the kitchen. “I was just getting ready to make myself some coffee. Will you join me?”
Nodding, she silently followed him, still not sure how she felt about him only seeing half of her presentation.
Why are you being like this? He’s clearly ready to hire you, which is exactly what you want and need! Stop being such a freak about it and be thankful!
Her inner voice had way more confidence than she actually did.
And at times like this, it really sucked.
In the kitchen, she walked past him and went out to the outer room to see what the weather was like. The rain had stopped, but there were a lot of tree branches and debris scattered all around the parking lot. Fortunately, nothing big landed near either of their trucks, but she could only imagine what the road leading into town was going to be like.
Axel came to stand beside her and sighed. “It’s a mess out there. I’m almost afraid to go out and walk around, but I’m going to need to survey the damage.”
“We should probably try to find a local news report and see what it says. I thought the storm was supposed to move on sometime this morning, but the sky still looks ominous.”
He turned and went back into the kitchen, and she did the same. While Axel made coffee, Maisie went to get her phone, which was out on the table with her display.
She tapped on the screen and noticed her battery was low. She hoped she’d be able to leave today and go back to the hotel so she could charge it.
And put on clean clothes.
Back in the kitchen, she tapped the weather app and groaned.
“Well, that doesn’t sound good,” Axel said as he turned and put two mugs of coffee down on the table. “More rain?”
She nodded. “Not until after lunch, but then it looks like it’s going to be as intense as it was yesterday.” She scrolled some more and looked at all the radars and Doppler predictions before looking at the local news. “It looks like the power’s out in town because there are so many trees down.”
“I was curious whether the power was on or if we were still on the generator. I hate using it because it takes a lot to power up this building, even though it’s just this floor. But if we shut it off and moved all the perishables down to my cabin and switched to that generator, I don’t know if I’d fit all of that food in my refrigerator.”
“What about the other cabins? I’m guessing they’re being used by the rest of your partners?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I guess I could do that. We typically try not to invade each other’s privacy and we avoid going into anyone else’s cabins when they’re not here, but in this instance I guess it’s okay.”
“I can help you with that before I leave,” she told him.
Axel looked at her oddly. “Are we sure you’re going to be able to leave? There’s only one road that leads back into town and it’s heavily lined with trees. My guess is that there are going to be a lot of spots where it’s blocked with storm debris.”
“I’m honestly not sure, but I’m going to try. This has been fine, and I appreciate you letting me stay, but I’d really love to get back to my place and be out of your way.”
He didn’t respond. He simply turned and walked over to the refrigerator. “How do you feel about bacon and eggs for breakfast? There’s enough here for two, and it will mean transporting less over to my cabin.”
“Um…sure?”
With his back to her, Axel grabbed the food out of the fridge along with a few other things and began setting them up on the counter next to the stove. “Like I said last night, I’m not great at cooking, but I can do the basics. We’ll eat breakfast out in the other room, and you can do your presentation.”
“Oh. Um…okay.” His tone was a bit cool and detached, and she honestly wasn’t sure why. Rather than obsess about it, she stepped around the table and went to stand beside him. “What can I do to help?”
“Which are you better at—frying bacon or scrambling eggs?”
“Hmm…I’ll handle the eggs, please.” He pointed her toward bowls and utensils while he got the pans.
“There’s also bread in the pantry for toast or English muffins.”
