“You sure you don’t want to pack some things? We’ll go back to my place.”
“No.” Her hand slices the air. “I can’t go to your place.”
Is she serious right now? After everything that’s happened tonight, she’s going to argue over location?
I drag a hand over my eyes and smack the steering wheel. “Where do you want me to take you then? Because you’re not staying here.”
“The job site is fine.”
“Nolan isn’t there,” I remind her.
Kiki shoots me a strange look. “Obviously. I don’t want to see Nolan.”
“Okay,” I mutter, backing down the drive. “Just wanted to make sure that’s not who you were looking for.”
She places a tentative hand on my arm. “Eddie… aside from Theo, the only things that matter to me in the world are you and Gus. And you’re both sitting right here. So I’m good.”
Actually, she’s not. Not even close.
But her words melt some of the chill that’s taken up residence around my heart, even if she doesn’t mean them.
I reach over and grasp her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’m not going anywhere.”
But when the truck slides on a patch of snow, I realize holding hands might not be the smartest idea if we hope to reach our destination intact. “Sweetheart… I need both hands to drive.”
She releases her grip, skewing her mouth as she looks at me. “You haven’t called me sweetheart in forever.”
I maintain my focus on the road, offering a shrug. “Didn’t mean to offend you.”
“You didn’t. You have no idea how much I missed it.”
Mother Nature fights me the whole way, but we finally arrive back at the job site.
Gus leads us inside, straight back to Kiki’s temporary office.
I stop by my workstation, thankful I keep clothes here. I’ve learned the hard way that contracting is dirty work, and unless I feel like wearing something disgusting for ten hours, it pays to have an extra set of duds on hand.
But what the hell is Kiki going to wear? She refused to take anything from the cabin.
Seems the woman can read my mind.
She walks to an old dresser sitting against the wall in her office and starts pulling things from the drawers. “Here,” she says, handing me a towel. “The shampoo, conditioner, and soapare already in the shower. I’ll get the fireplace going, make it extra toasty in here.”
“Do you have clothes here too?”
She nods. “I’ve got all kinds of stuff.”
That’s when it clicks. This isn’t just her office. This is home base.
“Kiki, are you living here?”
She releases a long sigh, followed by a stilted laugh. “Yeah. Isn’t life grand?”
“How long?”
“Since the night after Nolan’s party.”
A spark of jealousy flares, but I shut it down. This isn’t about Nolan.
