On normal jobs, they kept a cooler on the job site, stuffed with food, snacks and the guys’ lunches. But the hotel job was different. They would be working here for a long time and no doubt with lots of strange hours, so they’d more or less taken over the kitchen to store extra supplies—including paper plates, cups, towels and even, she saw, a plastic bag of disposable silverware.
Smiling to herself, she looked through the snacks and realized she could identify who on her crew had brought them in. Andy had a thing for Cheetos and Paco always had nacho-flavored corn chips with him. Then there were Jack’s Oreos and Dave’s peanut butter crackers. Kate herself had brought in chocolate, tea bags and those always-had-to-have Pop-Tarts. Brown sugar and cinnamon, of course.
“Not exactly a five-star restaurant,” she murmured a few minutes later, “but we won’t starve.”
“Yeah?” Sean’s voice came from directly behind her, and Kate jumped in response. He ignored her reaction. “What’ve we got?”
Kate moved away, forcing him to back up, too. “Cheese and crackers. Chips, pretzels and cookies. Everything you probably shouldn’t be eating.” She glanced at him. “My crew likes their junk food.”
“And who can blame them?”
A small smile tugged briefly at her lips. Kate closed the pantry door and opened the refrigerator. “There’s more in here, too. The storm hasn’t taken out the power yet. That’s good. Okay, we’ve got lots of those little cheese sticks, plus there are three sandwiches from yesterday, too. A few hard-boiled eggs thanks to Tracy, and some macaroni salad.”
He frowned. “When we brought lunch for everyone yesterday, there was one sandwich each. I didn’t expect leftovers.”
“Normally, you’d be right. The crew’s usually like locusts, mowing through anything edible—especially if they didn’t have to buy it themselves,” she said with an affectionate smile for the people she worked with every day. She looked up at him and added, “But thankfully for us, Lilah and Raul are both on diets so they didn’t eat theirs and Frank left early because his wife was in labor. So we’ve got food.”
“I forgot about Frank’s wife having a baby.” Sean leaned against the counter. “What was it, boy or girl?”
“A girl.” Kate couldn’t stop the smile as she remembered Frank’s call late the night before. “He’s so excited. They’ve got four boys already, and he really wanted a girl this time.”
“Five kids?” Sean asked, then whistled low and long. “Are they nuts?”
He looked so appalled at the very idea, Kate was insulted on behalf of her friends. “No, they’re not. They love kids.”
“They’d better,” Sean muttered and shook all over as if trying to ward off a chill.
“Wow, really hate the thought of family that much?”
Something flickered in his eyes—a shadow—and then it was gone, so fast, Kate wasn’t really sure she’d seen it at all.
“No,” he said, half turning to lean one hip against the battered kitchen counter. “Just not interested in having one of my own.”
“So no driving need to be a father,” she said flatly, thinking this was just another insight into the man she would be dealing with for months.
“God, no.” He shook his head and laughed shortly. “Can’t see me being a father. My brother maybe, but not me.”
Though he was brushing it off, Kate remembered that shadow and wondered what had caused it, however briefly. Curiosity piqued, Kate couldn’t help asking, “Why?”
He blew out a breath, crossed his arms over his chest and said, “I like having my own space. Doing things on my own time. Having to bend all of that to fit someone else’s schedule doesn’t appeal to me.”
“Sounds selfish,” she said.
“Absolutely,” he agreed affably. “What about you? If you like kids so much, why don’t you have three or four of your own?”
Her features froze briefly. She felt it, couldn’t prevent it and could only hope that he didn’t notice. One thing she didn’t want was to tell Sean about her late husband and the dreams of family they’d had and lost. “Just hasn’t worked out that way.”
“Hey.” Sean moved closer and his voice dropped. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” she said briskly, lifting her chin and giving him what she hoped was a bright—not bitter—smile.
This was simply another reminder of the differences between them, Kate thought. Mister Billionaire Playboy probably thought having a family was like being chained in a cage. But it was all Kate had ever really wanted. She’d come close to having the whole dream—home, husband, kids—but it had been snatched from her grasp and now she was left with only the haunting thoughts of what might have been.
Something Sean clearly wouldn’t understand. But that wasn’t her problem, was it?
“Anyway,” Kate said, “we’ve got enough food for a few days if we’re careful.”
“Right.” He accepted the change of subject easily enough. “Do we have enough coffee to last?”
We. Now they were an unlikely team. As long as the storm lasted, they would be we. And she could admit, at least to herself, that in spite of everything, she was grateful not to be stranded up here by herself. Even if it did mean that she and Sean were going to have far too much alone time together.
But for now, dealing with their shared addiction to caffeine took precedence. “I’m on it.”
The water in the pan was boiling, so she carefully poured it into the drip filter on her travel pot. She felt Sean watching her. How odd, she thought, that the man’s gaze could feel as tangible as a touch. And odder still, she caught herself wishing he was touching her, which was just stupid.
For heaven’s sake, hadn’t she just been reminding herself how different the two of them were? How he was temporary in her life—not to mention being her client, so in effect, her boss. It was undeniable, though. This flash of something hungry between them. It was dangerous. Ridiculous. And oh, so tempting.
It was the situation, she told herself. Just the two of them, stranded in an empty hotel with several feet of snow piling up outside. Of course, her mind was going a little wonky. And the only thing wrong with that explanation was that her mind had been wonky since the moment Sean had arrived in Wyoming.
Over the sound of the howling wind outside, Kate listened to the water plopping through the filter into the coffeepot. A rich, dark scent filled the air, and behind her, Sean inhaled deeply and released the breath on a sigh.
“Man, that smells good.”
“Agreed,” she said and carefully poured more water into the filter. While the coffee dripped into the reservoir, Kate walked to the pantry, where she’d stored a few paper supplies for the crew. She grabbed two cups, tossed one to Sean and then turned to the now-ready coffee and poured some for each of them. The first sip seemed to ease some of the jagged edges tearing at her mind.
Leaning back against the counter, she turned to stare out the window above the sink. It was a bay window, with plenty of space for fresh herbs to grow and thrive in the sun. Right now it was empty, but Kate could imagine just how it and everything else about the hotel would look when she and her crew were finished. Still, it was what was happening beyond the glass that had most of her attention.
The snow was coming down so thick and fast, swirling in a wind that rattled the glass panes, she couldn’t see past the yard to where the lake stretched out along the foot of the mountains, and the forest was no more than a smudge