He was about to ask if maybe they could set up his interviews somewhere else, but he knew that wasn’t practical. He needed the applicants to see the kitchen and to be able to give them the tour of everything.
“Maybe we could…” Harlow began, but Lexi walked in looking very concerned.
“Oh my goodness! I just heard about what happened!” She went directly to Annabeth and crouched down in front of her, smoothing a hand gently over her hair. “Are you okay?”
“It was scary,” his daughter whispered.
“I’ll bet.” Lexi gave her a hug before straightening. “How would you like to come to my cabin and hang out with me and Jonah today? We were going to spend the morning in my office, but I think I can work from the cabin. This way, the two of you can watch TV or play games or just relax. What do you say, would you like that?”
Annabeth nodded solemnly. “Yes.”
“Excellent! Jonah will be so happy! But if you’re not feeling well and you just want some quiet time, then I’ll set you up in my room and we’ll keep the door shut. I have a TV in there, so you can watch it if you’d like.”
“Thank you.”
Lexi looked at him, and he could tell she was just as worried about his daughter’s quiet behavior as he was.
“Have you had breakfast yet?” Lexi asked.
“Daddy made eggs for us.”
“Well, how about we see about grabbing a couple of muffins and maybe some fruit and having a mid-morning snack? Jonah really loves the banana chocolate chip ones. Which one is your favorite?”
Annabeth started to smile. “I like those too.”
With her own sweet smile, Lexi leaned down and whispered loud enough for Connor to hear, “Those are really good, but I like my chocolate chips without the bananas.”
When she stood back up, he noticed that Annabeth was looking more relaxed. “He puts chocolate chips in pancakes sometimes too. You should try them.”
Lexi winked at him. “Maybe we can convince him to make them this weekend.”
Jonah came running into the kitchen with Slater right behind him, the two of them laughing hysterically.
“Mommy! Slater said he didn’t think I could beat him in a race, but I did! I beat him! We ran from the end of the hall all the way here, and I got here first!”
“That’s amazing! Good job!” Then she looked at Slater. “Sorry.”
He let out a long breath. “What can I say, the kid’s fast!” Stepping around Lexi, he went over to Annabeth. “Hey, kiddo. You doing okay?”
She nodded. “I’m better now. Lexi’s letting me stay with her and Jonah today while she works in her cabin.”
Slater glanced over his shoulder at Lexi.
“Um…I hope that’s okay?”
“No problem. If there’s anything you need, just text me and I’ll come over. I know we had a few reports to format, so maybe after lunch we can get together?”
Connor knew it was crazy for him to be annoyed by their minor exchange, but he was. The thought of Slater hanging out with Lexi in her cabin just rubbed him the wrong way.
Oh God…am I jealous?
“That should be fine,” Lexi was telling him. “Maybe you can actually bring lunch for all of us down to the cabin? Would that be okay?”
“Absolutely! Just text me what you want and I’ll get it for you,” Slater said.
“I’ll be bringing lunch down to the cabin,” Connor loudly interrupted and felt zero regrets when everyone stopped and stared at him. “After all, I’d like to come and spend time with my daughter and make sure she’s okay.”
He caught the smirk on Slater’s face and wanted to punch it right off of him.
