Chapter 4
If Fred with a face full of scruffy, unkempt beard was a disturbance to Meghan’s already unsettled state of mind, Fred with a freshly-shaved face and brushed hair was utterly devastating.
He looked about ten years younger with the gray in his beard shaved off, and his jaw was nothing short of heroic.
Jessie, behind him, was fanning herself frantically.
“Um, what?” Meghan had to ask, having heard exactly nothing of what he had said.
Henry had also made a run to his cabin and brought back a selection of clothing that was, if not well-fitted, not quite as ridiculous as Jessie’s undersized snow pants.
The sweatpants were cinched as tight as they could go over his slim hips, and the over-sized t-shirt was not doing as much to hide his muscles as the flannel had. He was still barefoot.
“Jessie said I could clear the tables. She said you’d tell me where the tubs were.”
“Tubs,” Meghan said stupidly. “Of course. Yeah. They are, uh…” she pointed vaguely.
She was glad that the food on the grill started to sizzle and turned away from watching him bend over to collect one.
He whistled on his way back past her with the tub full of dirty dishes, and she was startled into meeting his eyes. He grinned and was gone.
She poked the food unnecessarily while he cheerfully scrubbed the dishes in back and tried not to let herself worry about Grayden.
“Where’s he going to stay tonight?” Jessie asked in Meghan’s ear, making her startle back and nearly put her hand onto the hot grill. “Wow, you’re jumpy.”
“Gotta plate this,” Meghan said, sliding the food onto a waiting platter. “Don’t let it get cold.” She gave Jessie a big fake smile that she knew was unconvincing.
Jessie gave her a narrow-eyed look and took the food.
There were no further orders, so Meghan started cleaning up and setting out the things they would need the next morning.
Jessie was quickly back. “You didn’t answer me,” she said firmly. “Where’s Fred staying tonight?”
Fred, having finished his dishes, was a sudden looming shape at the edges of their conversation. “There’s a bed in the back.”
Meghan looked at him in confusion until she realized that he meant Sheppard’s bed under the back cabinets. “You don’t need to sleep in a dog bed,” she protested, ignoring the stab of hurt that came with the memory of Sheppard’s many semi-conscious hours there.
“No room at my place or Henry’s,” Jessie insisted. “But you have that old camper trailer at your place.”
Meghan pursed her lips at Jessie, but couldn’t come up with an argument not to offer it.
“There’s no running water or electricity,” she warned Fred. “And there’s no heat in the trailer, but I’ve got extra blankets and sleeping bags, and it probably won’t get much below freezing tonight.”
Fred’s hot-eyed smile suggested that he found the offer quite satisfactory.
Jessie’s wink suggested that she didn’t expect him to sleep in the trailer at all.
“I am not sleeping with your weirdo naked stranger,” Meghan hissed at Jessie as they closed up the shop.
“Oh, honey,” Jessie retorted. “He is not my weirdo naked stranger. He is so obviously yours, darling. And if you don’t take advantage of that gorgeous man tonight, you are a much stronger woman than I would be.”
“The troopers will be here in the morning to take him to the loony bin he escaped from,” Meghan reminded her.
“Then you’d better not spend too long on the courtship part of this thing,” Jessie teased back as they slipped out of the back, Fred hauling out the full trash bags for them under the watchful eyes of the ravens.
Grumbling, Meghan nearly went to open the back door of her Subaru, then remembered that Sheppard wasn’t there to load up. Fred could open his own door, and sit in the front seat…once she had cleared off the things she had stored there.
“Sorry for the dog hair,” she said mournfully. “Sheppard came with me everywhere.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” Fred assured her. “I very much appreciate your hospitality.”
“Wait until you see the trailer to talk about hospitality,” Meghan warned him.