doesn’t have to, Katherine. I should be giving the introductions,” the other girl spoke up. She was pale with a splattering of freckles and wavy dark red hair to her shoulders. Her black dress fit her like a dream, but she didn’t seem as relaxed as the others. She was jittery, as if she’d had too much coffee. “This is Natalie Bishop. She’s watching the house for the next two months.”
“I…yes, I am,” I said in confusion.
“Sorry,” the woman said, stepping forward with an extended hand. “I’m Lark. Larkin St. Vincent.”
My throat bobbed. And I’d thought the night couldn’t get any worse. Here was the woman who had hired me.
I hastily put down the bourbon bottle and hid my bra before taking her hand. “Lark, it’s so nice to meet you.”
“It completely slipped my mind that you were going to be here this weekend. For some reason, I thought that you started next week. Since I handed this off to my assistant, I never saw you come into the office.”
“So, you knew someone would be here and suggested it anyway?” one of the men asked. He was incredibly tall with smooth medium-brown skin and short-cropped hair. One look from his depthless dark brown eyes said he was as much trouble as Penn standing next to me. He knew the effect of his good looks.
I swallowed and glanced away.
Lark just rolled her eyes at him. “I didn’t remember, Lewis. You can blame the fact that I haven’t had a vacation in three years.”
“That’s your own fault,” Katherine said.
The last guy just bobbed his head and said, “Yep.”
“Stay out of this, Rowe,” Lark said.
I saw this as my opportunity to get out of there. I looked horrible. This wasn’t how I’d thought I’d meet anyone. “I’m just going to…” I pointed past them, down the hallway to the bedroom I’d been staying in the last two nights.
“That’s probably for the better,” Katherine said. “Did you fall in the ocean?” Her eyes cut to Penn’s, and a smile grew on her pretty red-painted lips. “Did you push her in?”
Penn, who hadn’t said a word up until that moment, finally spoke up, “I think we should allow Natalie a moment of privacy. On a good day, we’re overwhelming. She shouldn’t have to meet the crew like this.”
My head whipped to the side. I was caught between anger and relief. Anger that he’d spoken for me. And relief that, dear god, I really needed to get the fuck out of there. It was way too much all at once. I didn’t people all that well to begin with. I was better one-on-one. But standing where I was and facing down his incredibly attractive and put-together friends when I wanted to yell at him didn’t help anything.
“Uh…yes. Privacy.” I nodded and then stepped around his friends. “Nice to meet you all.”
I raised my hand to awkwardly wave good-bye and realized a minute too late that it was the one that had been hiding my bra. My eyes widened in horror, and then I snapped it down to my side.
I opened my mouth to try to apologize for my behavior, but then I stopped and just fled down the hallway. I didn’t owe anyone in there an apology, except Lark. And, really, what good would it do at this point? There was no way that I was keeping this job after she saw me like that. She would most definitely tell the mayor that I wasn’t fit for the position. That whatever recommendation I’d gotten from my previous house-sitting job must have been fabricated. Because no one could have this many missteps and not be utterly incompetent.
The room I’d been assigned was a soft and luxurious guest bedroom with a white four-poster bed draped in a blue-and-pink-flowered duvet. It had an actual canopy on top. Everything was plush and inviting with a million and a half throw pillows of every variety imaginable and a rug so lush that my feet sank right into it. I was going to miss this room the most.
Only two nights in the down-feather bed, and it had already been the best nights of sleep of my life. I’d really been looking forward to another night in that bed. But, alas, it would not be.
I tossed my bra onto the bed with a huff, threw on a pair of shorts and an oversized T-shirt, and tied my hair in a messy bun on the top of my head. I kicked the sandy dress