“I’m sure we’ll be fine, but…thank you.”
“Oh. Okay. Goodnight, Lexi.”
“Goodnight, Connor.” Then she smiled down at his daughter. “Goodnight, Annabeth. Thank you for being a good friend to Jonah today.”
The little girl beamed up at her. “You’re welcome!”
Connor wrapped his arm around her and wished Lexi and Jonah a good night again.
And as she carefully walked away into the semi-darkness—thank God for the lights along the paths—she hoped things would get better from here. Less awkward. She knew what she was signing on for, and even though she didn’t want to have to see Connor, she knew now how unrealistic that was to even ask for. He’d been incredibly polite and nothing but helpful.
Maybe that’s his guilty conscience…
And if it was, good. At least it showed he had a conscience. There were many years when she seriously doubted it.
So for now, she’d go back to their temporary home and get ready to officially start her job tomorrow. She’d think of all the things she was going to need to talk to Slater about and, with any luck, it would keep her from obsessing about the fact that she was sleeping in Connor Winslowe’s bed.
Somehow, she didn’t think anything would be able to distract her from that.
Chapter Four
For the next four days, things were fairly normal.
He’d gone looking at a few potential restaurant locations with Harlow, but none of them felt right. He’d hired half of the kitchen staff for the resort including a manager, so things were going great there. He saw Lexi daily, and while she wasn’t going out of her way to talk to him, she definitely seemed to relax more around him.
Right now, he was waiting for Annabeth to finish getting ready for school so he could drop her off and get to the resort to meet with several more applicants for various positions. He had a busy day ahead of him and needed his daughter to stay on task.
He was about to call her name when he heard her scream.
“Annabeth?” he shouted as he ran up the stairs to see what was wrong. Fear had him by the throat as his heart hammered in his chest. She came running out of her bathroom, soaking wet. Connor dropped to his knees and grasped her shoulders. “What happened? Are you okay?” He frantically scanned her for any visible injuries. She was trembling and crying as she wrapped her tiny arms around him.
“The ceiling came down, and there’s water everywhere!” she sobbed.
Unfortunately, he could hear it now. Scooping her up into his arms, he took a quick look into the bathroom before carrying her to her room and placing her on her feet. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Water was gushing in from the hole in the ceiling, and the room was already flooding. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he quickly pulled up the property manager’s number and called.
“Hello?”
“Steve? It’s Connor Winslowe,” he said tersely. “We’ve got a major leak in the upstairs bathroom. The ceiling’s coming down and water is pouring through. Where is the main shut-off switch?”
“Outside by the water meter. Get the water shut off, and I’ll call a plumber and get over there ASAP.”
Hanging up, Connor dashed down the stairs and out the front door in search of the water meter. It took a little longer than he thought, but once he found it, he quickly turned the knob before running back into the house and to Annabeth. He found her exactly where he left her, shivering.
He stepped out of her room and grabbed several towels from the linen closet and wrapped them around her, holding her tight. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “J-j-just sc-sc-ared…”
“I know, baby, and I’m so sorry.” He pulled back and studied her face. “I want you to get changed and pack up a suitcase, okay? We’ll stay at the cabin for a few days until the pipes and ceiling get fixed.”
“Okay.”
Kissing the top of her head as he stood, he said, “Good girl. I’m going to pack too. I’ll be right back.”
But when he stepped out into the hallway, he had to find more towels to throw down to dry and absorb all the water that was spilling out into the hallway. Muttering a curse, he stepped through the mess and went to his bedroom and began tossing stuff into a suitcase.
“This is what I get for moving into a temporary place and settling for something I didn’t really want.” Part of his anger was directed at Harlow, but he knew he was being unreasonable. This whole thing was just an unfortunate accident.
