His laugh didn’t sound like she expected. It was deep and smooth, controlled, and the sarcastic comment she’d half expected wasn’t there.
“We always thought it was haunted, that we had our own Moaning Myrtle down there,” Zack said. “Sometimes it’d flush with enough power to suck you down there too, and other times—”
“It just trickles,” Sorrell interrupted, pouring the hot water into the mugs. “I didn’t think about there being anything else at force other than bad plumbing.”
“We tried to get it fixed loads of times, but no plumber could find anything wrong,” Zack said. “About your keys—Sadie has a habit of collecting things. She saw your keys and they slipped into her pocket. I would’ve left bringing them till tomorrow until I saw they had your car key on them.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I thought you kept a set and were intent on pissing me off. Trying to get revenge still for the builders.”
Zack leaned back against the kitchen units and shrugged. “I’m still at a loss as to what to do for Christmas.”
She handed him a mug of steaming tea. “There’s no sugar in it.”
“I don’t take it,” he said.
“I figured you didn’t. How many do you need to seat for dinner?”
Zack shrugged. “Two sittings of around sixty. There are places around, but it’s the journey.”
Sorrell thought for a moment, watching the expression on his face and feeling a tidal wave of guilt. “Why don’t you just have it here?”
Zack clutched the mug hard enough to make it break. “What?”
Sorrell shrugged. “The hotel will be up and running in a couple of weeks. There are no guests over Christmas because we should’ve been on our honeymoon, so the ballroom and kitchen will be available. Would you be able to get your residents here easily?”
Zack nodded, mute.
“Then why don’t you think about holding it here? Your staff will know the layout, kind of, and it might be nice for some of the residents to see how it looks as a hotel.” She watched him still. He looked frozen, as if he had landed in a different dimension. Although he was dressed for Halloween as a vampire with his collar up and a thick cape, he’d forgone any of the make-up. His hair was a medium brown and looked as if it had been styled by fingers that had run through it in frustration, rather than with any need to impress anyone. He was attractive, the first attractive man she had noticed since Mark. Jake’s dimples had been impressive, but he was cute, rather than look twice attractive, for her anyway.
“What do you think? Is it an idea you can take back to your team? If you think it will work, just let me know what I’ll need to do to help you out. Hopefully it’ll make amends for stealing your builders.”
He finally moved out of his statue state. “Why?” he said.
Sorrell shrugged, pulling the oversized cardigan around herself tightly. At least she wasn’t painted with flour like she had been a bit ago. “I feel bad that I spoilt your plans.”
The vampire in her kitchen folded his arms and regarded her seriously.
She started to laugh, doubling slightly with the suddenness of it. “I’m sorry. It’s hard to take you seriously in that get-up. Were you really going to go to the bar in it?”
She saw him smile properly for the first time and then he fiddled with his collar. “I won’t be the only one dressed like something from a bad horror film,” he said. “And I get why you poached the builders. I know you have a business to sort.”
“So Christmas. What do you think?” she said, passing over the acknowledgement of understanding. She wanted to move on from that. It was going to take her a couple of years to get the hotel up and running to a place where it would be sellable and hopefully give her a small profit. She didn’t want to spend that time alienated from the people in the town.
“Why aren’t you going to be on your honeymoon?” he said, his brown eyes narrowing.
“You look like a cop standing like that. Apart from the Dracula look you have going.”
He pulled off the cape, leaving him in just the white shirt. “My brother’s a cop,” he said. “Maybe I’m catching something from him.”
“I thought your brother owned a bar?”
Zack nodded. “Yeah, that’s Scott. Alex is the cop. Jake, my cousin, is the farmer. Jake’s sister is the nursery teacher you heard Sadie mention. Why aren’t you going on your honeymoon?”
Sorrell pinched her lips together. “Because I’m not getting married anymore. Do you want a piece of cheesecake?”
This time Zack laughed, a loud blast of noise that seemed to fill the vast kitchen and most of the corridors. “I’ll never say no to cheesecake, but I wouldn’t mind a drink either. Looking after those three should come with a health warning. Or an extra allowance of alcohol.”
“I have a bottle of merlot, but that’s it. Want a glass? I was going to open it anyway,” she lied.
