Her Unexpected Detour (14 page)

Chapter Sixteen

K
ayla headed inside after finishing with that last flower bed and kicked her dirty shoes off by the inn’s back door—no sense in making anyone do extra cleaning on her behalf. Or maybe she could make a mess and then volunteer to clean it up. Might help keep her away from the pond.

Of all the places he could have picked to ask for help.

With a frown she headed upstairs. He’d probably laugh at her if he knew she couldn’t swim, or that the mere mention of any significant body of water made the hairs on the back of her neck stand upright. She’d just have to play it cool and hope like heck they wouldn’t go anywhere near the water. Maybe there was a picnic table in dire need of repair, or a little shed that needed to be re-shingled.

She’d take heights over water any day.

A quick check of her inbox soon had her forgetting all about the water, though. Six emails awaited, all from different staff members on her team and all very excited. She plunked down in front of her laptop and quickly answered their questions and offered a bit more direction. Unfortunately, what felt like a minute had turned into ten. Brent was sure to be pacing by now.

With a sigh, she closed her machine, hit the bathroom, and headed downstairs. In truth, there wasn’t much more she could do from here now, so the outing with Brent couldn’t have come at a better time. Though with the way he’d been acting of late, she would have to keep her guard up. Who knew what that man was up to?

Kayla slipped her shoes back on and headed out the door. Brent sat in the Gator’s driver’s seat, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
Not big on patience, this one
, she thought with a grin.

“Oh, good. I was beginning to think you’d drowned in there. Nearly called 911.”

“Sorry, had to squeeze in a little work.”

He frowned. “I thought you were off this week.”

“Well, technically.” She took a seat beside him and shrugged. “But I think I found a surefire way to get my boss to overlook Friday’s little incident.”

“If he does, he sure as hell better pay you for your time off, too.”

Brent’s voice was low and menacing as he steered them for the barn. Not exactly the mood she’d hoped he would be in this afternoon. No, what she’d been hoping for was a lot more smiling. Maybe even him getting all hot and sweaty and needing to take his shirt off, giving her another peek at those amazing abs of his.

“Well, if he doesn’t, would you drive down there and beat him up for me?” She threw him a grin—it had been her daydream since the moment she first saw him, after all.

He looked at her in surprise for a moment, then shook his head and chuckled. “Wow. Groundskeeper, hit man—I’m building up one heck of a resume here.”

“
Pfft
, like you need one. Ruby will never fire you.”

“Not unless she has to.”

“Has to? Why would— Oh. You mean if the inn closed?”

Brent nodded. “Yeah. Ruby thinks we’ll be fine, but Miles…well, Miles isn’t so sure. Truth is, I think he’s already putting out feelers, trying to see if there’s any interest in buying the place.”

“Oh, I sure hope not. I mean, I’ve never actually seen it open, but it’s so quiet and peaceful right now. Not noisy and crowded like normal hotels.”

“It gets a little noisier with more guests here, but not by much. People come to relax, to get away from work and stress and whatever else is plaguing them.”

He was quiet for a moment, intent on the trail that wound down around the barn and out into the woods beyond. Ruby had taken Kayla down this same path on Monday, but the mood this trip was far more melancholy. She wished there were something she could do to help. There was no doubt Ruby loved this place—it shone in her every gesture and word.

“What we need is a way to draw people back to the Checkerberry, help them rediscover the road less traveled, you know?”

“Do you guys have a website?”

Brent shrugged. “Yes, but it probably hasn’t been updated in a while. In fact, I don’t know that anyone’s even touched it since we hired our chef Maddie, and that’s been a few years.”

“Oh, wow. Yeah, you’re probably missing out big time there. If Maddie’s half as talented as you all say she is, you could be advertising her menus. Draw people here just for the meals, and when they fall in love with the atmosphere, they’ll spread the word.”

He grinned.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing. The website update sounds like a great idea, but I don’t know how much money we have in the budget for that.”

“It might not cost all that much, actually,” she said. “Especially with Central Michigan being right here in Mount Pleasant. You could probably get some college kid to do the changes pretty cheap.”

“Maybe. Though wouldn’t an ad in the paper be better? Miles said you gave him a few pointers on one he’d been toying with.”

“I did. Has he sent it off yet?”

“Lord, I hope not. Did you not take a close enough look at the thing? Bear could have done better.”

Kayla laughed. “It wasn’t
that
bad.”

Brent threw her a flat look.

“Yeah, all right, it was. But yes, I gave him some pointers that should have helped clean up a lot of it. I haven’t seen a finished product yet, though, so who knows what the final version will look like. And honestly? People don’t read the paper looking for ads like that. They look online. Advertise on a travel site and I bet you’d strike gold.”

“Not with Miles’s chicken scratch we won’t. What we need is a professional’s touch, someone who knows this place well and has an eye for this kind of thing.”

And there it was—the reason he’d been so nice to her the past day. Dang it, she should have known. Kayla curled her hands into fists and looked away, trying to keep her temper under control. Why? Why did everyone she meet feel the need to take advantage of her giving heart?

No more.

“Stop the cart.”

B
rent slowed the Gator to a stop at Kayla’s demand.

“What’s wrong? Did we forget something?”

“Nope.” She climbed out of her seat and started back the way they’d come.

“Then where are you going?”

“Back. I’m going back, where I should have stayed all along.”

Shit
. This wasn’t how he wanted the day to go. Brent jumped out and jogged after her.

“Kayla wait.
Wait
.” He snagged her arm, but she refused to meet his gaze.

“I’m done, Brent. Done letting people take advantage of me.”

“What are you talking about?” But he already knew and felt terrible about it. He never should have listened to Miles. Then again, had Miles not planted the crazy idea in his head to ask her for help, he wouldn’t have allowed himself to get close to her yesterday. And she’d needed him, almost as much as he’d needed her.

Her healing had become his own. And he’d be damned if he was going to tuck tail and run so soon.

She tugged free of his grip. “Really? I mean, really? You act all nice to me, let me cry on your freaking shoulder, and then drive me out here and just happen to mention that you could use some cheap help with advertising?”

“I’m not
acting
nice. There is never butt-swatting involved in acting nice. And that’s not why I brought you out here.”

“Oh, yeah? Why’d you bring me out here then, huh?”

His body moved faster than his brain. Suddenly he had her in his arms, his lips on hers. Kayla’s body went rigid with surprise. She pressed both hands to his chest, but he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss.

The hands on his chest softened…then collected two fistfuls of his shirt. Her sweet lips parted, and then it was her tongue seeking his. He opened to her, allowed her to roam, to explore. Her hand slid to cup the back of his neck and she pulled Brent closer. A shiver of delight rippled through him.

Kayla’s lips tugged into a grin over his. She nipped at his lower lip, then pulled back as though her conscience had finally caught up with her actions. Brent wrapped his arms around her, unwilling to let go just yet. Hell, if she promised to kiss him like that every day he might never release her.

The thought both startled and scared him. He tipped his forehead to hers and waited for his pulse to slow. “I’m sorry for upsetting you.”

“Yeah, well, I might have overreacted a tiny bit. It’s just…I stink at sticking up for myself. But you.” She shook her head. “You bring out a whole other side of me. The feisty side.”

Brent bent to kiss in the hollow beneath her ear. “I kinda like feisty.”

“I can tell.” Her breathy answer had him hard as a rock. “But, um, didn’t you say you were on a tight schedule?”

“Schedule? What schedule?” He traced her ear with his nose. It was her turn to shiver.

“Brent…”

He sighed. She was right, of course. Didn’t make getting back to work suck any less.

“Fine.” He released her and looked toward the Gator, then to Kayla. “You coming, or you heading back?”

“If I go with you, you’ll probably just tick me off again.”

Disappointment flared in his chest. Damn, he’d been sure she enjoyed the kiss as much as he had. He turned to go and gave himself a solid mental kick.
This
was why he didn’t put himself out there. Always with the disappointment.

“Then again,” she said. “I kinda hope you do.”

He looked back. “What?”

“Well, you know.” She threw him a deviously flirty look. “I rather enjoy the whole making up part.”

He watched that tight little ass of hers sashay its way back to the Gator. She resumed her seat, then turned to offer him a “come hither” look. Brent took a few deep breaths, to keep from doing just that…and then ravishing her right there in the front seat.

God, she was going to be his undoing. Trouble was, the more time he spent with her, the more open to the idea he became. He was falling for her, hard. But would he be able to pull out of the tailspin that was sure to follow her return to Indiana?

Then again, if she didn’t go back, there wouldn’t be a tailspin, now would there? Brent swallowed hard. His workload had just increased for the day, only this time the new task involved a muscle he didn’t typically let get involved at work.

His heart.

Chapter Seventeen

O
nce Brent knew he could walk without hurting himself, he closed the distance between them and slid into the driver’s seat. After a moment Kayla looked away from the trail to flash him a smile. It wasn’t quite as devious as the one she’d tossed him a moment before, but hey, at least it was a smile. Now if he could just keep her smiling, maybe she’d start to let him into her heart, too.

“This work down at the pond,” she said once they were moving again. “We don’t actually have to go in the water, do we?”

“I sure as hell hope not. This early in the season, the water’s still ice cold.”

“Oh. Good.”

“Not a big fan of water?”

“I’m fine with water. Perfectly fine. Why would I not be? I mean, who doesn’t love water?”

Oh yeah, she’s afraid all right
. “How about I promise to do my best to keep you dry? Will that work?”

“Um, yeah.” The pond came into view, and her gaze grew wary. “So, what was it you needed to do down here, anyway?”

“Well, we’ve had unusually wet springs the past few years, which means the pond has been sitting higher, longer. Since we don’t take the pier out for winter, it got submerged a few times. Sped up the deterioration process. Now we’ve got a couple boards that look like they’re starting to rot. Ruby’s worried about people walking on them and falling through or something.” He parked the Gator a short distance from the pier and climbed out.

“Wouldn’t want that,” Kayla mumbled, eyes on the pier and frozen in her seat.

“Look, all we need to do is pry up four or five boards and then screw the new ones into place.”

“New boards,” she echoed. Her eyes brightened. “Oh, so we’ll need to cut the new boards? And stain them? I could do that for you. The tools are back at the barn, right?”

“Nope, I measured the boards last week. Cut and stained them over the weekend.” Brent walked around and stopped before her, blocking her view of the pier. “All I need you to do is play nurse while I operate. Hand me tools, boards, screws…”

Kayla’s right brow arched higher on her forehead. Oops, so that’d been a bit of a Freudian slip. Not that he’d ever turn her away from playing nurse or offering screws.

One thing at a time, Masterson…

“You think you can handle that?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Of course I can handle it.”

“Good.”

A bee buzzed past his ear, and Brent pushed the whole nurse thing aside—temporarily. DeWalt cordless drill in hand, he headed for the pier. Kayla, however, remained in the Gator, white-knuckling the seat cushion.

“Gonna be difficult to hand me supplies from way over there.”

“I-I’m enjoying the view, all right?”

“If you say so.”

Brent grinned and kept walking. If there was one thing he’d learned being around Kayla, it was that she couldn’t resist a battle of the wills. He stepped out onto the pier and stopped at the first rotten board he came to. Too bad it was a good ten feet out from shore—she probably wouldn’t come anywhere near this far. He flipped the DeWalt’s direction switch to reverse.

“So how long have you lived in Fort Wayne?”

“My whole life,” she called. “My parents, too. Tommy was the first rebel, chose an out-of-state college.”

“Your dad stayed there, then?”

“Oh, yeah. Too many memories he’d have to leave behind.”

“I can understand that.” Brent cast a quick glance back at the Gator. Kayla had still made no move to leave her seat. Wow, she really was afraid of the water.
Best to keep her talking then
. Another bee buzzed by as he knelt down on the pier. “Is that why you stayed, too?”

“No. I stayed because I had a year of college left. And then I got a job offer from Wayne Advertising right after graduation.”

Brent set about loosening the screws from the rotten plank. Once they were nearly out, he stopped with the drill and loosened them the rest of the way by hand to keep them from falling into the pond. With his luck, he’d be the one to step on them this summer and need a damned tetanus shot. “Can’t beat that. Was it the first job you’d applied for?”

“No. But it was the only company where my dad had connections.”

“Ah. Well, you know what they say—it’s not what you know, it’s who you know who knows who you need to know.”

Kayla laughed. “Wow, say that five times really fast.” Her mood sobered then. “Unfortunately, it’s turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing. I’m starting to think I’d rather be hired for what I know, not because of who knows whom.”

“Never underestimate connections, Kayla,” Brent said, freeing the last old screw. “You never know when one might come in handy.”

He stood, tucked the loose screws into his back pocket, then straddled the loose plank. “You ready to help me?” he asked, looking at his still-seated helper.

Her gaze flickered to the pond.

“I promise to keep you dry,” he said, his voice low and sure.

“You already said that.” Her eyes narrowed as she stepped out of the Gator.

He shrugged. “Seemed like something worth repeating. Now, here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to pull up the old boards one at a time and bring them to you. You throw them in the back of the Gator and then bring me a new one. Got it?”

“Got it. Oh!” Kayla swatted at something near her face. “I wouldn’t have expected bees to be out this early in the season.”

“Well, don’t swat at it, you’ll only piss it off.”

She bobbed again and took a few hurried steps toward the edge of the pier. “Give me the board already, will you?”

Brent rolled his eyes. Darned city girl. He stepped forward, knelt down by the pier’s side, and grabbed hold of the board’s edge that he’d just loosened. If he was lucky, the entire piece would come free without snapping. Though judging by how badly rotted the piece was, he didn’t expect that to happen. He gave the board a careful tug. It didn’t move.

“Huh,” he said, glancing back to make sure he’d removed all the screws holding it to the pier. Which, as far as he could tell, he had.

“What, forget to eat your Wheaties this morning?”

“Wheaties are nasty,” he grumbled, and gave the board another tug. Still nothing. Two bees buzzed by. “And they’re missing a key ingredient.”

“What’s that?”

“Bacon.”

Brent tightened his grip once more and gave the board a solid jerk. Still nothing. Pissed that it wouldn’t budge, he stood and straddled the rotten plank, then reached down with both hands.

“Right,” said Kayla. “Because growing boys need their—”

Brent gave the board a mighty tug, and a section of it broke free. Attached to its underside was part of a massive, formerly hidden beehive. In an instant the air around him came alive as an angry swarm of bees blotted out the sun and drowned out whatever Kayla was saying. Brent dropped the plank and scrambled backward. Three steps later, his foot met thin air.

K
ayla watched in horror as a cloak of angry bees seemed to swallow Brent whole. Her fears intensified when, in a desperate attempt to flee the buzzing monsters, he stumbled right off the pier and into the pond.

“Brent!” She screamed, and ran along the shoreline away from the pier, eyes focused on the water’s surface. “Brent!”

Oh, God, where is he?

The swarm of bees condensed over the pier, the buzz nearly deafening. Even if Kayla could swim, there’d be no way for her to dive in from there and save him without getting stung a thousand times. No, the only way to save him now would be by swimming out to where he’d gone in.

Only, she couldn’t swim.

“No, no, no!” she cried, hands on either side of her head. She couldn’t bear to stand there, helpless, watching him drown. In a panic she rushed forward, stopping at the edge of the water.

How hard can it be?
Paddle with my arms, kick with my legs.
Ripples from his splash lapped at the shore, taunting her.

But common sense quickly wove its way back into her consciousness. She had no idea how deep the water was, or how she’d ever manage to pull him to shore without drowning herself. That’s when she saw a line of bubbles in the water, running parallel with the shore a dozen feet or so out. A second later, Brent broke through the surface, gasping for air.

“Brent! Oh, thank God. Swim this way, over here.”

His gaze flashed to the buzzing pier, then back to her. “A-a-are y-you al-l r-right?”

“Me?” Kayla stared at him, dumbfounded. What kind of stupid question was that? “I’m fine. Now get out of there before you catch hypothermia.”

“H-hypo-th-thermia’s n-n-not s-something you c-c-catch.”

With a grunt, Brent pushed against something beneath him, and Kayla watched him rise out of the pond. He started toward the shore, the water skimming his upper thighs.

“Wait,
that’s
how deep it is over there? Of all the… Do you know how worried I was that you were going to
drown
?”

A faint grin came to his lips, which, she noticed as he drew closer, had taken on a bluish tint. “P-people have d-drowned in less.” Brent’s gaze shifted back to the pier as he sloshed his way out. “C-can’t believe I d-didn’t s-see the d-damned hive.”

“There was no way you could have. The cattails block the view from shore.”

He stood before her now, soaking wet and shivering, water running off him and dripping to the ground like a soft, spring rain.

“How badly did you get stung?”

“N-not sure. C-can’t feel much. T-too c-cold.”

“Crap, you are going to go into hypothermia.” She hurried toward the Gator and started riffling through its back cart. “Don’t you have a jacket or something in here?”

“Ruby p-packed a blanket,” he managed. “F-for the p-picnic lunch.”

“Well, you won’t have much need for lunch if you go into shock and stop breathing.” She located a patchwork quilt packed alongside the cooler and snatched it up, then hurried over to Brent and threw it around his shoulders. “Better?”

“S-sure.” A spasm rocked through him, and he nearly lost his balance.

“You’re a terrible liar, Brent Masterson. Come on, we need to get you out of those wet clothes.”

His right brow arched, and Kayla’s mouth went dry. “Not here,” she managed to grind out. “Now get in, I’m driving.”

“F-fine,” he said. “B-but not to R-Ruby’s. We’re going t-to my p-place.”

“We don’t have time to drive all the way over there. You need to get dry before the rest of you turns blue. Or pneumonia sets in! And you probably need to see a doctor. Who knows how many times you got stung?”

“No,” he growled, and stumbled into the Gator’s passenger seat. “And I d-don’t need a d-damned doctor. I j-just need a hot s-shower and some d-dry clothes.”

“You aren’t allergic to bee stings, are you?” Kayla jumped into the driver’s seat and stomped on the gas. The Gator didn’t move. “Oh, God, please don’t be allergic to bee stings. How far is it to the nearest hospital? What if we can’t make it in time?” She slammed her hand on the Gator’s dash. “And what is
wrong
with this thing?”

“Kayla, s-stop.” Brent’s hand touched her shoulder, his voice calm. “It’s going to b-be all right. My h-house is on the other side of those w-woods. It’s q-quicker than going back to the inn, and I n-need dry clothes.”

She stared up at him, wanting to believe the sureness in his stormy gray eyes. But his lips…they were definitely blue. Could the Gator really get them to his place in time?

“T-trust me.” He reached up and placed his hand on her cheek.

There he was, ice cold and shivering to beat the band yet trying to comfort
her
. But why? Why was he so worried about her?

Because he cared.

Oh, no. No, this couldn’t be happening. She hadn’t meant to lead him on, didn’t want to break his heart the way his ex-fiancée Nikki had.

I should never have kissed him like that in the woods.

Guilt weighed on her so heavily she wanted to scream. Instead, she drew in a deep breath and focused on doing the responsible thing: take him home and make sure he was okay. After that, well, she’d have to think of a way to let him down easy. Because if things were gearing up back at work like she thought, then her time here was short. Indiana was waiting.

“Fine. Which way to your place?”