Chapter 38
“Nate! Where are you? Nate!” McKenna’s shouts grew closer as her footsteps tromped up the stairs louder than a running buffalo.
Nate spit a mixture of water and toothpaste into the sink. “In here,” he called back, rinsing his toothbrush off.
After his run this morning, then cleaning up the chicken massacre, he’d made good progress clearing the overgrown brush lining the eastern edge of the property. He’d finally headed inside for a shower.
“Where?” she yelled, stampeding away from the bathroom and toward his bedroom.
“Here,” he yelled back. The door burst open a moment later.
“Hey,” Nate said the same second McKenna screamed, “You’re naked!”
She covered her eyes. Nate gripped the towel wrapped around his waist. He wasn’t naked, but he was awful close. “You ever hear of knocking?”
“Why would I knock when you told me to come in?”
“How did you get Come in out of Here?”
“It sounded like a very welcoming Here from the hallway.” She peeked through her fingers toward the wall switches next to the sink and flipped on the vent. Nothing happened. “Vent’s not working.”
“It’s on the to-do list,” Nate said, the steam from his shower still filling the tiny space of the bathroom. “Was there something you burst in here to discuss?”
“They found it,” she said, still covering her eyes with one hand.
“My luggage?”
“The ring!”
“Really? I just checked my phone a little bit ago. Why didn’t they call me if they found it?”
“Maybe they were getting ready to call you when I called them.”
“Did they say that they actually have it or just that they’ve found it?”
McKenna frowned and spread her fingers enough to look at him. “Wouldn’t they have it because they found it? Now you’ve got me confused. I’m calling them back.”
She lowered her hand from her eyes and sent him a side glance as she started tapping her phone screen. “Make sure that towel stays in place, buster,” she muttered right before saying, “Hiiii, me again. We just talked about the missing luggage. You did say that you found it, right?”
“Ask if they have it in their possession,” Nate said.
“Shh,” McKenna said to him. “No, not you,” she said in the phone. “I was shushing someone else. Go ahead. What were you saying?”
“Put it on speaker,” Nate said.
“Put on some clothes,” McKenna said. “Not you. I’m sure you’re dressed fine. Keep talking.”
“Speaker,” Nate said again, stepping closer.
“Stop crowding,” McKenna whispered, pushing against his chest. “Sorry, say that again? You have it. That’s what I thought you said. They have it,” she said to Nate. Her eyes, more blue today than green, dropped to where her hand splayed across his right pec muscle.
She jerked her hand back. “Sorry. No, that was a sorry to him. Go ahead with what you were saying. You have it located. Great. That’s what you’ve been saying all along? I know. I think we’re all on the same page. So we can come pick it up now?”
Her brows dipped as she listened.
Why did her brows dip? What was the other person saying? “Can you just put it on speaker?”
McKenna tapped her screen and held her phone in front of them as they now stood shoulder to shoulder in the steamy little bathroom, listening to the airline worker’s voice say, “Took a lot of work, but we have definitely found your luggage. We have no doubt now that it’s sitting in a port on one of the Virgin Islands. ”
McKenna looked at Nate. “Did she just say Virgin Islands?”
Now Nate was the one shushing. He grabbed McKenna’s wrist to lift the phone next to his mouth. “Did you just say Virgin Islands?”
“St. Thomas, I believe,” answered the much-too-chirpy voice. Must be Alice. “Wonderful news, isn’t it?”
“How is that wonderful?” McKenna said to Nate.
“How is that wonderful?” Nate said to Alice.
“Well, we found it, for starters. Honestly didn’t think we ever would. And my goodness, what a lovely location, right? When you get that luggage back, just think, you’ll be touching something that’s touched a slice of paradise here on earth.”
“It’s all about perspective, remember,” said another voice. Mr. Security Guard must be standing next to Alice. They were probably standing shoulder to shoulder with the call on speaker too.
“I’d sure like to send them into the next paradise,” McKenna muttered.
“Shh,” Nate said, pressing a finger over McKenna’s lips. “The slice of paradise, Alice? When can we touch it?”
“Well now, that I can’t say. The islands are entering tropical storm season and looks like a biggie is headed their way. No flights are getting in or out for at least, oh . . . another day.” They heard lots of click-clacking. “Maybe a few days, give or take a week or two.”
“Give or take a week or two,” McKenna shouted against Nate’s finger still pressed against her lips.
“Shhh,” said Nate, Alice, and Mr. Security.
“But I promise we will call you the second we have it in our possession,” Alice said. “Who knows? Maybe the storm will bypass the islands completely and everything will be back up and running by tomorrow. Anything’s possible.”
“It’s all in the perspective,” added Mr. Security.
McKenna groaned as soon as the call ended. “I need that ring.”
And Nate needed that letter.
They stood in miserable companionable silence for several seconds. Long enough for a short ringlet near McKenna’s temple to tighten into a corkscrew from the humidity of the shower.
Finally, McKenna said, “How long are you going to keep your finger on my lips?”
“For as long as it keeps you calm.”
“I am calm,” she murmured against his finger.
“See? It’s working. Should’ve thought of this back on the bridge. Might’ve kept you from kissing me.”
Her soft lips lifted with a smile beneath his finger. “You’re never going to let me live that one down, are you?”
“Can you blame me?”
She shook her head as she reached for his wrist to lower his finger from her mouth. “I also wouldn’t blame you if you asked me to leave.”
“Why would I do that? We made a deal. Unless . . . do you want to leave?” His lungs tightened. “I mean, you can leave. Nobody’s saying you can’t. I don’t ever want you to feel like—”
“I don’t want to leave.”
He exhaled slowly, trying to hide his relief. He glanced down at their hands. At some point she’d let go of his wrist and he’d grabbed hold of her fingers. He forced himself to let go. “I know I gave you a bit of a hard time at first, but just for the record—”
“Oh, how we love that record.”
“I don’t exactly hate that you’re here.”
“There you go with the sweet talk again.”
“Well, get ready to swoon, because what I’m trying to say here is . . . I feel like you’re somewhat close to almost being actually helpful.”
The joke landed like he hoped it would, making her laugh.
And not one of her fake snorty-sounding guffaws either.
A true laugh. A beautiful laugh from deep inside that made her eyes crinkle and her lips lift in a way that made him think he needed to press a finger over his own mouth to keep from kissing her.
Man, she was beautiful.
Nate flicked the vent switch up and down. A little air circulation would be helpful right now. He continued playing with the switch. “But seriously, don’t feel obligated. If at any point you get tired of . . .” Me. He cleared his throat. “Committee meetings and secretarial duties and to-do lists—”
For the second time her fingers wrapped around his forearm. Almost like in order to talk to him, she had to be touching a part of him. Again. He didn’t hate it.
“Does it make me a little kooky that I actually adore their ridiculous meetings?”
“Makes you very kooky.”
She laughed again. That sound was quickly turning into an addicting melody he wanted to star as a favorite on his playlist.
When she inched forward, Nate shot his finger up to her lips. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Think about what,” she mumbled against his finger.
“Kissing me.”
“Why on earth would I kiss you? You just said I was kooky.”
“Please. I know your track record. Calling you kooky won’t stop you from going after my lips. Plus you’ve been ogling my spectacular chest for the past ten minutes.”
Her eyes crinkled in amusement. “Excuse me, but I haven’t ogled anything. The first three minutes I even had my eyes covered.”
“But then you did some touching, which we all know goes hand in hand with ogling.”
“I’m leaving now.” Still grinning, McKenna covered her eyes with one hand and fumbled for the doorknob with the other. “And for the record, I didn’t touch your chest. Your chest touched my hand.”
“Is that what happened?” Nate said, leaning to see through the narrowing space of the door closing shut. “Well, for the record you never denied that my chest is spectacular. We already know how fond you are of my left armpit. Or was it the right? Let’s just assume you’re obsessed with both.”
The door slammed shut on her laugh. When Nate turned toward the mirror, the steam had cleared enough that he could see himself grinning like a fool.
Because that’s exactly what he was.
A fool who was going to let his heart get smashed to smithereens if he didn’t watch it.