Winter Interlude (15 page)

He shouldn’t be affected
.
He snorted
.
Of course
,
he wasn’t affected
.
His heart belonged to Judith
.
He might find
Kate
attractive, but he could deal with it
.
He
woul
d certainly never act on it
.

Despite his mental pep talk, he sighed, not completely agreeing with
Kate
’s last comment
.
“I’ll unload, get the water on
,
and turn up the heat
.”
The next twenty-four hours might be harder to survive than he imagined
.
Mainly because he was starting to like her
.

“Okay
.”
Kate
nodded, paying rapt attention to the keys in her hand
.
“By the way, I’m staying in the guesthouse
.”

Something in her movements caught his attention and he eyed her closely
.
The woman was actually nervous
.
He grinned
.
In a heartbeat, his amusement increased, while his trepidation at finding her attractive diminished
.
“No problem
.
I’ll take the master with the wood-burning fireplace
.
I like real fires
.
The gas fireplace in the living room just doesn’t cut it for me
.”

“Sounds good.”

“Was it something I said?” he teased, chuckling
.

“What do you mean
?”

Despite her chin lifting a good two inches, she still wouldn’t meet his gaze, which meant only one thing
.

“I don’t know
.”
He shrugged
.
“You seem a little uneasy
.
You’re not afraid to be alone with me
,
are you?”

“No way
!”
She stiffened, finally chanced a glance his way
,
and offered a nervous half
laugh
.
“Why would you think that?”

Loaded down with bags and boots, he pierced her stare with a knowing look and mocked, “I can’t imagine what has given me the impression.”

“You give yourself too much credit, Morrison,” she said huffily, before storming up the walk to unlock the door
.
“I’m not afraid of you.”

Paul followed in her footsteps, still grinning
.
“Whatever you say,
Kate
.”

On the stoop, he crowded her a bit, just to gauge her reaction and to prove his point
.
When she bristled, he took pity on her and stepped back, giving her plenty of room to open the door
.

Once inside the main house
,
Kate
turned on lights as she went, heading to the door that led to the guesthouse, which consisted of a separate bedroom and bath, complete with a couple of chairs and a television
.
The two rooms were only accessible from the deck outside through a connecting covered walkway
.
The guesthouse added the final leg of the
U
to the main house that had originally started out as
L
-shaped
.
Along the center of the
U
,
a wall of glass doors provided a spectacular view of Lake Tahoe
.
A huge outdoor deck, about five feet lower than the house and sporting a hot tub in one corner, wrapped around the back half of the house and guesthouse
.

Paul dropped
Kate
’s boots and her bag in the middle of the living room, placed her coat on top of the pile
,
and then went back for the skis.

Now loaded down again, he passed the patio door on his way to the mudroom and caught a glimpse of
Kate
unlocking the guesthouse
.
Leaving it open, she walked toward the living room to retrieve her things.

He flipped on the light in the mudroom, adjacent the two-car garage where all the main switches were housed
.
Once divested of his load, he focused on turning on the heat and the water.

While he fiddled with the dials, she yelled, “I think I’ll go and take a rest, maybe shower and stuff
.
What time do you want to go to dinner?”

Paul glanced at his watch, ignoring the stab of disappointment at realizing she was disappearing so quickly
.
He should be relieved, not disappointed
.
“It’s almost six now
.
How about seven
thirty,” he shouted back,
and added
, “The water should be hot enough for your shower in about ten minutes
.
The
heat’ll
take a couple of hours to be comfortable, but it will feel warm coming out of the vent.”

Kate
’s thanks rang in the air when he exited the utility room
.
With everything turned on, he made his way back to the living room to pick up his bag and headed for the master bedroom
.
He had plenty to keep him busy
.

First on his list
?
Bring in wood to fill the bin and lay a fire for later tonight
.

As he worked, his thoughts shifted to
Kate
.
Maybe he could talk her into joining him in the hot tub, but the minute the thought was out, he discarded it
.
Not a good idea to get too chummy.

Remnants of their earlier conversation floated back, and he remembered her hurt look, so totally different from what he’d expected
.
She’d always been as bold as brass and twice as ballsy, pushing her way through and chasing after James like she did
.
Nothing had ever seemed to faze her
.
He didn’t like the feeling of knowing his humor had made her feel bad
.
Hell, she always returned his taunts and they were so cutting, he just assumed his words were ignored
.
Verbal jabs, thrown back and forth, had been the habit between them for too many years to count, so it would be hard not to want to lob a few
.
But he was willing to make the attempt because he never wanted his words to hurt her again
.

Besides, after spending the past few hours in
Kate
’s
company, he realized Judith was right
.
Who was he to judge when his situation wasn’t much different from hers
?

That thought brought him full circle to his own predicament
.
In seconds, he was depressed
.
He placed the last piece of wood in the bin and reached for the TV remote
.
Seven
thirty couldn’t come soon enough
.
Pushing both Judith and
Kate
out of his mind, he sat back on the bed,
and flipped
through channels. He settled on a basketball game and tried to ignore the lameness of his default activity of late
—
watching sports. By himself.

“
I
love the burgers in this place
,
”
Kate
said
,
as Paul helped take off her coat
.
It was such a gentlemanly thing to do and it flustered her a bit
.
James never bothered with stuff like that
.
She turned her face to hide
her reaction
as
she slid into the booth
.
“Not crowded
,
either.”

“Tomorrow, it’ll be packed
.”
Paul shrugged out of his parka and placed it with
Kate
’s on the
bench before sliding in next to them
.

Kate
nodded and peered out over Lake Tahoe
.
The restaurant’s
floor
-
to
-
ceiling windows
gave her a good vantage point to enjoy
the moonlight’s reflection shimmer
ing
on
the water
.
“It’s beautiful here, especially the view tonight
.”
Romantic even, except the person she was sharing it with happened to be the wrong Morrison
.

“Looks like the storm’s moving in.”

She smiled, thankful to have something to think about besides what she was missing with James
.
“Yeah
!
Fresh powder if it stays cold and doesn’t rain.”

In between the
attentions
of their waitress
, they discussed the next day’s skiing
.
Eventually, the woman returned to place
their
plates, each loaded with
steaming
fries and a burger, in front of them
.

A tantalizing aroma wafted under
Kate
’s
nose and her stomach made funny gurgling noises
.
She laughed
to cover the sound,
then
quickly dug into the thick, juicy cheeseburger
.