"Okay." I glanced at the cute cottage down a stone path ahead of us. "You sure your Nan won't mind a soggy dude showing up in her house first thing in the morning?"
Evie's eyes sparkled. "She will love it."
Ominous.
Chapter Six
EVIE
Nan lived in a cute cottage that, if I were trying to be objective, looked a little like it housed a hag with its stone exterior and faded shingle roof. A cute hag, though. There were wildflowers all around the compact home, and the door had been painted a cheery yellow that had faded and peeled with time. I glanced at Dr. Frost as we approached the covered stoop, and I noted with amusement that he looked wary. Rightfully so. If I'd approached Nan's cottage randomly, I probably would have been convinced that I'd walk away with a curse. Another one. Damn Beatriz.
As we approached the door, Benjamin's shoes squelched loudly, leaking puddles as he went. I stopped abruptly in the doorway, causing him to trip over me comically and brace his weight against the yellow trim to keep from flattening me. I pressed my back against the door, and he bent over me, scowling. "Could you possibly keep your cursed clumsiness to yourself?"
I blinked up at him. He was shirtless, too close, and leaning over me with his head cocked to the side. It was making me dizzy. I flattened myself against the door harder. "Sorry, it's just that your shoes…" I pointed at his fancy white sneakers.
His eyes fell to his feet before traveling slowly back up to me. Without breaking eye contact, he shucked them off, keeping his arm above me, his bicep flexing, and his warm, sunshine-kissed scent surrounding me. "Better?"
Was I better? He was too close for me to tell. "Thank you," I gusted out.
His mouth quirked up, and he scanned my features, entirely too composed when my heart was slamming against my ribs. "Something else? My pants, maybe?"
I started. "No." I fumbled for the doorknob, unable to look away from him but desperate to escape his nearness. "No, thank you." His smile deepened, dimpling one cheek. I managed to get the door open and all but fell into my Nan's kitchen.
She looked up from the Regency romance novel she was reading at the farm-style table. Nan looked like the embodiment of a sweet grandmother in her floral muumuu, comfy clogs, and assortment of beaded glasses chains she always wore. She styled her hair in a fluffy cloud of white curls, and if the weather called for it, she'd been known to wear her hand-knitted shawls. One would never guess that she was positively filthy on the inside. She gave me a confused look over her purple reading glasses before realizing that I had a shirtless someone standing in her doorway. She pulled her glasses further down her nose. "Oh, my."
"Nan," I breathed, righting myself using the pewter doorknob. "Hi."
She didn't even spare me a glance, but she did blink twice at Benjamin. "Hello."
Benjamin waved before bending down to peel off his sodden socks. "Hello."
"Uh, Nan, this is Benjamin Frost. He's… well he… I mean, just for a bit he's?—"
"Mysuit!"Tessa hollered from the living room entrance. She planted her hands on her slim hips, her eyes pinched into angry slits. "What did youdoto it?"
Benjamin glanced at the wrinkled, soggy hood in his other hand. "Oh, uh…"
Nan let her reading glasses dangle from the beads around her neck, smiling in quiet fascination. I rushed to defend Benjamin. "He fell in the creek."
"Why?" Tessa demanded, like he'd done it on purpose.
Nan raised a brow, setting down her book. Benjamin let his wet socks flop to the concrete stoop. "Your Evie deployed chemical weapons against me. It was very effective."
"That doesn't make any sense," Tessa scowled, marching forward to swipe the pink suit hood from his grip. "Evie literally can't hurt a bug. Ugh,lookat it. It smells like fish."
"'Your Evie?'" I wanted to know.
"Well, you're her something," Benjamin explained with a wave of his hand, straightening. "I'm just not clear on what."
Nan looked entirely too entertained, albeit confused. I huffed. "Cousin. I'm her cousin. And Nan is my grandmother. Nan, Benjamin is my…" I faltered.
"Something," Benjamin offered unhelpfully, leaning too casually against the door jamb. "I'm her something."
"You're not mysomething," I clarified in exasperation. "We don't even know each other." Nan's white eyebrows shot up to her hairline. I quickly added, "He's a friend."
"That's what he said earlier," Tessa commented skeptically. "What kind of friend sleeps naked in a girl's house?"
Benjamin started coughing and laughing at the same time, and Nan got a spark in her faded blue eyes. "Thatissomething."
