“No,” she denied. Lied. “I was annoyed that I had to give Dave Barkov the tour of GSR.”
“I never doubted that you could handle it,” he told her.
“That’s not the point,” she said, ducking under his arm and walking away.
He, naturally, followed. “Do you want an apology? Okay—I’m sorry I was out of touch for a few hours.”
She shook her head as she returned to the kitchen to resume the task she’d abandoned earlier. “You don’t get it, do you? It’s not just that you didn’t tell anyone you wouldn’t be at work today—you didn’t even tell your friends what was going on here.”
He held her gaze for a long moment. “Is that what we are, Tris...friends?” he asked, in that same silky voice that could make any woman go weak in the knees.
Any woman but her, of course, because she was immune to the considerable charms of Josh Slater.
“Maybe not,” she finally said, determined not to give any hint of the feelings churning inside her. “A friend probably would have known you have three nieces.”
“It’s not something that often comes up in conversation,” he pointed out. “And since my sister moved to Seattle when Charlotte was a baby, I don’t get to see them very often.”
“That’s why you go to Washington every Christmas,” she realized.
“Not every Christmas.” He picked up the soapy cloth to wipe down the stovetop. “But I go when I can.”
She finished unloading the clean dishes and began to load the dirty ones. “So why are they here now?”
“Lucinda’s manager decided, at the last minute, to send her to Spain. The company she works for is setting up a new distribution center there and her pregnant boss, who was supposed to supervise the setup and train the staff, was recently put on bed rest by her doctor, so the company tapped Lucy to go.”
“Why did I always think your sister worked at Slater Industries?”
“My older sister, Miranda, does,” he told her. “She lives in London with her husband and their kids and manages the office there.”
Which meant that he probably didn’t get to see them very often, either, and perhaps explained why he was always hanging out at Garrett family events. Something to think about.
“How did you end up with so many dishes from two meals?” she asked, as she continued to fill the dishwasher.
“Each of the girls wanted something different for breakfast,” he admitted.
“And you indulged them,” she guessed.
“Well, Emily was up first and she asked for dippy eggs with toast sticks, so I figured I would make eggs for everyone. Then Charlotte woke up and informed me she doesn’t eat eggs—except if they’re in pancake batter. So while Emily was eating her eggs, I found a recipe for pancakes and started making those for Charlotte. By this time, Hanna was awake, too. But she just wanted cereal and seemed perfectly happy with the Cheerios I put on the table in front of her—until I made the mistake of pouring milk into the bowl.”
Tristyn’s lips curved as she pictured the scene he’d described. “Did she scream like a banshee?”
“I thought the neighbors would be knocking on my door—or Family Services,” he admitted.
“Kylie went through a dry cereal stage,” she told him. “Except for Rice Krispies, because they ‘talk’ when you put milk on them.”
“And this—” he said, scraping the remnants of a pot into the garbage can “—is what’s left of the mac and cheese they all had for lunch.”
“Well, that’s a score,” she noted. “Pleasing all three of them with the same food.”
“Except that Charlotte likes hers with ketchup mixed into it, Emily doesn’t like it with ketchup at all and Hanna’s ketchup has to be squirted on top of the pasta in the shape of a smiley face.”
Tristyn smiled at that image, too. “And how long are they staying?”
“Eight to ten weeks.”
Her brows winged up. “What are you going to do with them for two months?”
He wiped his hands on a towel, then folded it over the handle of the oven door. “I’m thinking I should talk to my grandparents, to see if they’re willing to take them for the summer.”
“Didn’t your grandmother just celebrate her eightieth birthday a few weeks back?”
He nodded.
“And your grandfather’s a couple of years older than she is,” Tristyn pointed out.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “But they both play golf several times a week.”
“Which is impressive,” she acknowledged, “but still not as physically demanding as chasing after three kids. And considering that your sister entrusted you with the care of her children, I don’t think she’d be too happy to learn that you dumped them on someone else.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Hire a sitter to take care of them when I’m not here? Which is most of the time during race season,” he reminded her.
She shook her head. “That’s not an ideal situation, either.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Not off the top of my head,” she admitted, closing the dishwasher.
“Well, let me know if you think of something,” he said. “They’ve hardly been here twenty-four hours, and I’m desperate enough to consider almost anything.”
* * *
As Tristyn watched the last half hour of the movie with Josh’s nieces, she tried not to think about the fact that she was in Josh’s bed. On Josh’s bed, she hastily amended. As if that clarification made any difference.
She wondered how many women had passed through that same doorway, laid on this same bed. Then pushed the question aside, deciding she didn’t want to know. Still, she felt as if she shouldn’t be here. She knew now why he hadn’t shown up at work today, and why he would be juggling his schedule for the rest of the week—and possibly the rest of the summer. And now that her questions were answered, there was no reason for her to stay.
No reason except that she’d made an impulsive promise to a little girl. A little girl who was even now pressed against her side, her face turned away from the screen as the Shadow Man’s spirit was taken away by the demons. But truthfully, her promise to Emily was only part of it. She was also intrigued by the opportunity to glimpse a corner of Josh’s personal life and curious to see him interact with the little girls.
She vaguely remembered Lucy Slater from Hillfield Academy. Josh’s younger sister had been two years behind Tristyn—a popular girl who liked to party more than study. She got kicked out midway through her sophomore year and wound up pregnant a couple years after that. By that time, Tristyn was mostly keeping her distance from Josh, so any information she had was secondhand from her cousin Daniel. There had apparently been a hasty wedding, and an even hastier divorce.
Obviously Lucy had gone on to have two more children and was now the mother of three beautiful girls. Three beautiful girls who were in Josh’s care for the summer. Tristyn smiled a little at the thought of how the responsibilities would put a crimp in his usually active social life. Maybe she could offer to help with the girls, because it might be fun to have a front-row seat to the fireworks while he figured out how to mesh his life with the needs and demands of his three nieces.
Except that spending too much time in close proximity to Josh was a risk. Sure, they were friends—or at least friendly—most of the time, but there was also that uncomfortable friction that occasionally reared up between them—seemingly