“You guys don’t mind if I take the rest of the day off? If there’s even a chance of making her stay, I need to filter through her defenses and find out why the hell she wants to leave.”
“You mean you want to bulldoze through her walls, without any tact whatsoever, and screw everything?” Julian teased.
“Jules, I happen to think Kate is the one who’s bulldozed through Garrett’s defenses with her imminent departure,” Landon said.
Both his brothers looked terribly amused.
Garrett shoved his arms into his jacket and grabbed his iPhone. “Screw you. You guys know how hotheaded Kate is when she gets something in her mind—at least today she won’t have all the energy to fight me. Hell, you took two months off for your honeymoon, Landon, and you don’t even work here anymore. Jules. I’m taking a day off, no matter what you both have to say.”
Julian answered, with a laugh, “We have a lot to say about it, bro. We just won’t be saying it to you.”
* * *
“So I know you’re going to find all sorts of things wrong with my stupid soup, but it’s still chicken and broth and I’m not the baker here, okay, Kate?”
Molly set the tray with the steaming bowl on a chair by the window and parted the drapes.
Kate almost hissed as she raised her hand to shield herself from the sunlight.
“Wow. You look so bad, Kate.”
Molly’s blue eyes brimmed with sisterly pity as Kate sat up in bed and tried to peel her sweaty T-shirt off her skin. The cotton was soaked from when the fever had started dropping during her nap. Her hair was plastered to the sides of her face as if with glue.
“I feel worse than I look, I guarantee,” Kate rasped out, her throat raw.
She had strep throat. Which meant she had nausea, a throat that ached like hell and a fever that was kicking her fanny. Wonderful.
“Let me run a bath for you.”
Molly disappeared into the bathroom, and Kate groaned when she heard the loud chime of the doorbell.
“I’ll get that, Kate. Don’t even move a finger. I’ll be back in a bit. In the meantime, you can eat my sucky soup,” Molly said, poking her head back into the bedroom. Kate smiled weakly and nodded.
As her little sister went down the hall to the front door, Kate marveled at how sharp and efficient she was being.
Molly had always been a red-hot mess, but today Kate truly felt Molly’s motherly instincts surge to the forefront as she tried to pamper her big sis.
It was a rare event when Kate succumbed to being sick. She just didn’t have time for it. What the hell was wrong with her?
The stress of her move had her sleepless and anxious and now, apparently, had left her with no defenses against strep.
Sighing and plopping back on her pillow, she heard voices in the living room. Then she heard footsteps approaching. Kate opened her eyes, and her stomach dropped when she saw him.
The last man she wanted to see.
Or to be more precise, the last man she wanted to see her like this.
She flew upright to a sitting position, her cheeks warming in an awful blush when Garrett stopped at the threshold. Her blood bubbled in her veins, and the feeling was unbidden and unwanted. He looked positively beautiful, his shoulders about a yard wide, his patterned tie slightly undone. His dark hair stood up on end as if he’d been pulling at it on his drive over.
He was honestly the most beautiful thing she’d seen all day.
She indulged in a small moment of grief as she realized that while he looked so excellent, she’d never looked worse.
“Did you lose your GPS? Your office is the other way,” she said, merely because attitude was the only thing she had left now.
“I followed another compass today.” A tender look warmed his eyes as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
He removed his jacket, and her pulse jumped at each flex of his muscles under his snowy shirt.
“How do you feel, Freckles?” He draped his jacket on the back of her desk chair and rolled his sleeves to his elbows. “We should’ve made you drink tequila Saturday. That would’ve killed anything off.”
All the grogginess fled from her when he seized the tray with the soup and brought it to the bed.
“Molly suggests you eat her sucky soup.”
Kate grimaced. “I’m not hungry, Garrett,” she said in her slightly raspy strep-throat voice. “There’s no need to check up on me.”
He settled down on the edge of the bed and lifted the spoon, his eyes glimmering in pure devil-like mischief. “Starve the virus, feed the fever.”
“And that means, Confucius...?”
“You need to feed your immune system. Come on. Open your mouth.”
After a brief hesitation, she parted her lips and Garrett offered her the soup. Her stomach was warmed by the intent look on Garrett’s face as she curled her lips around the spoon. He tipped it back, and she swallowed. Then he lowered the spoon, watching her.
“It’s not that bad,” she said. The soup slid down her throat and coated her sore spots. “But it’s still a little too hot.”
He immediately set the tray at the foot of the bed. “Molls said you’re about to take a bath? Would you like to hop in there now?”
Before she could even nod, he disappeared into the bathroom, where she heard the water stop, and then he returned. He looked so sexy but at the same time, so domesticated; she almost felt giddy at all this sweet male attention.
“While you relax in your bath, I’ll go get my laptop and briefcase, all right?” He signaled toward the window at his Audi parked outside. “Since she’s having such success as an artist, I told Molly I’d stay here so she could go to her studio and finish up her pending works before the wedding.”
“Wh-what? No! No! I don’t need a babysitter!”
“Good because I didn’t hire one.” The smile he shot her was rather wolfish, and he looked very damned pleased about himself. “It’s just you and me now. I can see you’re excited about it.”
“As I am about having strep!” she countered.
He burst out laughing, and once again she felt things she didn’t really want to feel. Kate was going to kill her sister. Kill her. But of course Molly must’ve been thrilled about this turn of events. She kept insisting that Kate should stay in town until some miracle happened and Kate and Garrett finally became an item. Ha. She was clearly still such an innocent.
And right now, especially, not even a miracle would make someone want Kate. Only a thing called strep throat wanted her.
And just then, she remembered the exquisite feel of Garrett, big and warm, in bed with her Saturday night.
As the thought rushed through her, Kate ducked her head to hide her blush, never wanting Garrett to know the effect he had on her. On the night of his birthday, she’d been so angry and frustrated. She’d felt all kinds of unwanted arousal while he’d slept soundly next to her. So she’d promised herself she would get over him. And she would. No matter what. She merely wished that he, of all the men in the world, hadn’t seen her in this state.
“You want help getting to the tub?” He gestured toward the bathroom. She was still in bed, holding the sheets to the top of her neck like a shield.
“I can walk,” she answered the moment she realized how silly she must look. Frowning in annoyance at her own prudish attitude, she kicked the sheets aside, then realized that her T-shirt had ridden up