“Fine,” I sighed. “He… disrupts me.”
Fiona blinked. “Disrupts you?”
“Yes,” I said, flustered. “He looks at me like he sees things I don’t want seen. And he’s calm when I expect him to be chaotic. And he’s thoughtful when I expect him to be detached. And I don’t know what to do with that.”
Violet nodded slowly. “Ah.”
“Whatah?” I demanded.
“You like him.”
“I don’t.”
“Youlikehim,” Fiona said.
“It’s attraction,” Violet corrected. “Different thing entirely.”
“It’snothing,” I insisted. “It’s just proximity and adrenaline and the fact that he’s… annoyingly competent!”
“Oh yes,” Fiona teased. “Nothing more erotic than competence.”
I moved my head onto my folded arms. “I hate this family.”
“No, you don’t,” Violet said, patting my shoulder. “But you do hate when someone gets past your guard.”
She wasn’t wrong. I hated that she wasn’t wrong.
Before I could make up a solid defensive lie, the back door swung open, and Beck strode in, tracking in a line of snow like a Labrador with human height.
“Morning, ladies,” he said. Then, louder, “I brought company!”
I froze.
The temperature in the room seemed to shift.
Carson stepped in behind him.
Hair damp from melted snow. Expression calm, but eyes cutting immediately to mine like he’d been looking for me before he saw anything else.
My breath tripped.
Violet silently mouthed,Oh my God.
Fiona elbowed her so hard she nearly dropped a blueberry.
Beck slapped Carson’s shoulder. “Found him wandering around the cabins looking lonely, so obviously I dragged him here before he developed a complex.”
“I wasn’t wandering,” Carson said mildly.
“He was absolutely wandering,” Beck insisted.
I fought a smile.
Carson’s eyes flicked back to mine.
Warm. Unsure. Curious.
Too much.
