They tucked the girls in, and Summer left the bunkhouse. Sleep wouldn’t come easily tonight. Too many things happened today, and she still had a lot to think about concerning tomorrow. She needed something to make her worries more palatable, and she knew just the thing.
A healthy, organic chocolate chip cookie was calling her name.
* * *
RICK WAITED UNTIL ALL WAS quiet before he grabbed his folder. Tonight, he would make his notes about the kitchen. He took the shortcut through the dining hall.
Although the emergency light put out a glow, the kitchen at the back of the building would be too dark to see the numbers on his measuring tape, so he flipped the light on as he passed through the open door. His movement was met by a startled “Eek!” The wide-eyed fairy princess was caught literally with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
“Oh, my God, Rick. You scared me.” A becoming blush crept from the rounded neckline of Summer’s gown into her cheeks.
He had to think fast, hiding the measuring tape in the back pocket of his cargo shorts. “I had a hankering for some more cookies.” He had a hankering, all right, but Summer was by far the most delectable morsel around.
Her eyes cut to the file folder and narrowed. “You always bring inspection sheets with you to get a snack?”
He laid the folder casually on the shelf above the microwave and above her line of sight. “Just notes on some activities Neil and I discussed.” He shifted the conversation away from his lie. “You couldn’t resist, either?”
“I didn’t get any earlier.” She stepped away from the gigantic jar on the counter to give him access...or maybe to gain some distance from him. Again.
That little flicker of irritation he always felt when she was around flared. He’d told Charlie he would help her, and if he was going to do that, he had to get past his anger...and whatever the hell else it was that distanced them. He opted for a light approach. Looking her over thoroughly, he saw no sign of the soot that covered her earlier. “You cleaned up fast.”
“Fairy magic.” She pulled her wand from her pocket and he noticed a slight tremble when she held it up. Was she nervous? Because of him?
Nibbling on her cookie, she reminded him of some wild, skittish woodland creature, ready to bolt at any second. He had the urge to calm her by reaching out and brushing his fingers across her face. Or his lips across her mouth.
Damn it, this woman vexed him. Her presence turned him into a fickle lunatic...from Jekyll to Hyde in a matter of seconds. If there was ever going to be even a modicum of peace between them, he had to get something off his chest. He took a determined breath and tried to ignore the luscious, clean scent that filled the small space between them. “Summer, this afternoon when you came to Charlie’s office, you didn’t know I was there, did you?”
“No.” She fumbled with her skirt, unable to find the pocket for the wand.
“So you’d gone to Charlie to talk about me.”
She straightened and looked him directly in the eye. “To talk to him about replacing you.”
Her honesty took him aback, scraping off the protective layer of lust and exposing his aggravation again. “Why? What have I done that’s made you dislike me so?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” Her head tilted back, lifting her chin. “But since you asked first, I’ll tell you.” She swallowed the bite of cookie. “I thought you were too hard on the boys, and you were going to make them hate being here. If anybody wants to go home it could start a chain reaction and then my parents are going to suffer. When I heard Willard saying he hated this place, it was like confirmation of my worst fears coming true.”
“But he told us why he said those things.”
“I didn’t know that when I went to talk to Charlie.” She glanced down at the cookie, seeming to contemplate another bite, but laid it on the counter instead. “Anyway, it doesn’t make any difference now because it turns out I’m the screwup, not you. The girls are out of control, and I have tomorrow to get them turned around, or I’m the one who’s history.”
Her frankness doused his anger somewhat, but he stirred it, anyway. “Why didn’t you come directly to me?”