little bit of eggs. Every third bite was broken up with a sip of coffee. This was a woman who knew how to appreciate the simple things in life, even though she worked in a glamorous hotel.
There was so much more I wanted to know about her.
Chapter 14
Katie
Peter took my plate from me and brought the dishes into the kitchen. While he was gone, I settled deeper into the low farmhouse-style chair on his porch and admired the view.
His little cabin was the polar opposite of my residence at the El Cartana. Where my suite was a sprawling, glistening, pristine, and modern space, Peter’s cabin was quaint and simple. I liked it. I liked the overgrown brush surrounding the property and the dirt road and the creaky porch steps. I liked how his cabin smelled like the wood it was made of and how he didn’t have anything he didn’t need.
It was peaceful. There were no distractions here.
Peter returned with the remaining pot of coffee and refilled our mugs.
“Thank you,” I said as I wrapped both hands around the mug to warm them. “And thank you for last night, too. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t there to get me out of Skip’s.” I laughed at myself. “I guess I was sort of a wreck last night.”
“You weren’t that bad.”
“I was keeping my act together as best I could in front of you,” I admitted.
Peter sipped his coffee. “I’m sure if I hadn’t been there to carry you out, Roman would have risen to the occasion.”
“He would have been horrified if he had to carry me. He’s not very strong. And by not very strong, I mean I can lift more than him. When special orders come in, I’m always the one to move the boxes.”
Peter laughed.
“Seriously, Peter, thank you.”
He studied me for a minute. “You’re welcome.”
I was quite sure in that moment that I would have been content to sit there staring into his warm kind eyes until the end of time. I felt safe.
I felt as still as the air and the greenery around us.
“I like your cabin,” I said.
I like your cabin? How lame is that? It isn’t even his cabin!
Peter smirked. “I wish I could claim ownership. It’s a nice little place, isn’t it? I’ve done some sprucing up since I got here but it still needs a lot of work. New porch. New floors. New kitchen cupboards. This place is old and I don’t think it’s had much maintenance over the last decade.”
“Programmer slash handyman,” I teased. Hot.
“I used to work construction when I was younger,” Peter said.
Images of Peter working shirtless and in a pair of torn-up jeans drenched in sweat washed over me. My nipples went hard and I let out a little breath of surprise as my insides squirmed. What kind of body was hiding under his shirt?
“You okay?” Peter asked, watching me with concern.
I nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’m fine.”
More images of Peter working under the glaring hot sun tortured me. In my hallucinations, he had deep V-cut hips and a trail of dark hair around his navel that disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans in merciless teasing. His hair was slicked back with sweat and he straightened to face the sun.
I crossed one leg over the other and adjusted myself in the chair.
Peter finished his coffee and set his mug down on the porch. He began fidgeting mindlessly with the bracelet I’d noticed the other day. He twirled the lava rock beads in his fingers as he stared into nothingness.
“Where did you get that?” I nodded at the bracelet.
He glanced down at it as if remembering it was there. “This thing?”
“Yes.”
He took the bracelet off and held it in his palm. “My brother gave it to me. We used to fight a lot, like brothers do I suppose. He ran off when he was nineteen and he was gone for a few years. When he came back, he had this. He’d picked it up in Thailand, the first place he went, and carried it with him to eight other countries to bring it back home to me. He has one, too.”
“That’s sweet.”
Peter shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d say Mike has ever done anything sweet, but it is… I don’t know. Wearing it reminds me that even if he and I don’t see eye to eye for years at a time, we’re still brothers.” He pulled the bracelet back on and smiled at me. “You