Chapter 10 #2
“Sorry, Miz Cantrell. But you heard what Owen said. This last trip was bad. ’Tisn’t safe, I’m afraid.”
As she had every time she’d been around the man her son had hired to run the business while he was in Ohio, Carolina decided she could listen to Seamus O’Grady recite the phone book and never get tired of his lyrical Irish accent.
If she were being truthful, she could also look at him for hours and never get tired of the rich auburn hair, devilish green eyes and mischievous grin that made her girlish heart stand up and take notice.
Too bad, she thought as she had before, I’m old enough to be his mother. Figures the one man who’d caught her attention since her beloved Pete died had to be roughly the same age as her son.
“Well, that puts me in a heck of a bind.” She was terribly disappointed to have to wait another day to get to the island. “I guess I’ll have to find a place to stay for the night.”
“Balderdash!” Seamus said. “You’ll stay at the house, of course.”
Joe had turned his Shelter Harbor house over to Seamus to use when he was on the mainland.
“I couldn’t impose on you,” Carolina said.
“Don’t be silly. It’s your son’s house, and there’s plenty of room. I won’t hear any objections. What would Joe say if he hears I didn’t take good care of his mama?”
Carolina rolled her eyes when she wanted to laugh like a schoolgirl. “You’re so full of it, O’Grady.”
“So you’ll come and stay?” he asked. “No arguments?”
Since the closest decent hotel was more than twenty miles away, Carolina said, “Sure, why not?”
“Excellent,” he said with a smile. “I’ll grab us some fixings for dinner while you make yourself comfortable at the house.”
“Don’t go to any trouble on my account.”
He bowed gallantly before her. “No trouble a’tall. Thanks to this nasty weather, I find myself with the rest of the day off. Perfect kind of day to whip up an Irish stew that’ll make your mouth water.”
Damned if her mouth didn’t water just thinking about it.
“You’ve got a key?” he asked.
Carolina nodded.
“Okay, I’ll see you there shortly.”
“See you there.” As Carolina returned to her car, she experienced a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck. She ventured a glance over her shoulder and found Seamus watching her rather intently. Now what the devil was that all about?
Seamus told himself to breathe—in through the mouth, out through the nose.
Damned if there wasn’t something so incredibly sexy about Joe Cantrell’s mama.
Everything about her appealed to him, from the long blonde hair she wore in a braid down her back to the endless legs that filled out a pair of faded jeans to perfection.
And then there were the grayish blue eyes that looked at him with feminine appreciation. Yes, he’d noticed that.
Seamus had been thunderstruck by her from the very beginning, not that he’d ever admit that to anyone.
The first time she’d stopped in to “check up on him” as she’d teasingly said—more than a year ago now—Seamus had been so tongue-tied, he’d imagined her reporting back to Joe that he’d hired a complete idiot to run their family business.
Seamus had waited for days to hear he was fired, but that call hadn’t come.
Lusting after the boss’s mother would surely lead to a termination phone call if Joe ever caught on to Seamus’s fascination with her.
Seamus liked this job. It was the best job he’d ever had, so he would do well to remember that and keep his eyes—and his hands—to himself while the entirely too appealing Carolina Cantrell was residing under his—or well, Joe’s—roof.
He let out a huff of aggravation and went into the office to get his jacket and keys. “I’m leaving for the day,” he told the woman who was working the phones.
“See you in the morning,” she said.
As he was driving to the grocery store, Seamus tried to figure out why, out of all the women he’d known, his boss’s mother was the one who got to him. Why was she the one who turned him into a babbling idiot every time she showed up, usually out of the blue with no warning to prepare him?
All his legendary charm deserted him when Carolina Cantrell gave him the challenging look that let him know she wasn’t buying what he was selling.
Most women went stupid and giddy when he turned on his legendary Irish charm.
Not Carolina. Oh no. She’d had his number from the first time they met, and there was nothing Seamus loved more than a good challenge.
“Joe would kill you for even thinking about her this way,” Seamus muttered.
Had he made a big mistake inviting her to stay at the house?
How would he hide his massive crush from her when they were staying in close quarters for the night?
“Keep thinking about how Joe would dismember you if you so much as look at his mother, you stupid bloke.”
He bought what he needed to make the stew and his grandmother’s soda bread along with a couple of bottles of wine and some candles—just in case they lost power. It wouldn’t do to be unprepared for such an event, or so he told himself.