Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

The end of the weekend brought a massive influx of check-ins to the inn for the coming week, and though Caroline was grateful that business had stayed steady, she couldn’t help but feel exhausted. It was wonderful , she told herself again and again, reminding herself that they’d had the best holiday season that the inn had known in years, but she was run ragged. Rhonda hadn’t been feeling well, so Caroline picked up as much slack as possible, making dinners in between checking in guests and caring for the animals, and following her mother’s recipe for cinnamon cream cheese pumpkin muffins carefully.

She was in the kitchen, hair falling out of her ponytail and juggling three different pans, the kitchen hot and smelling of both well-seasoned meat and rich pumpkin, when she heard the shrieking of one of the smoke detectors.

Caroline set the pans down, ready to explode as the sound scraped across her senses, the final straw in what had been an otherwise utterly exhausting weekend.

It’s probably because I was using the stove and the oven at the same time, she reasoned.

But it didn’t entirely make sense. Nothing was burning. Not even smoking, really. She’d been stirring a homemade barbecue sauce to spread over the pork roast, and the muffins were still a few minutes from being done. The kitchen smelled like cooking food, but not smoke, and there was no sign of any.

Rhonda appeared in the doorway, brow creased, wincing from the sound. “Your father is trying to shut it off,” she said, her voice still a little hoarse. “I’m calling the fire department.”

“No, don’t—” Caroline started to say, but her mother was already headed down the hallway, out of earshot before Caroline could protest that there was no reason to waste their time.

Only one firefighter showed up. And of course , she thought as he walked into the living room of the inn, it was Rhett.

Caroline sighed as she walked to meet him. She knew vaguely that she was embarrassed that this was happening again, but she was also too stressed out and exhausted to feel very much else at all. She supposed the long hours were starting to take their toll. After so many years, she probably needed a break too.

She wasn’t getting one until well after the new year, that was for sure.

“Nothing is on fire,” she assured him. “It’s just a faulty detector, I think. We got it shut off. My mom just jumped the gun.”

Rhett gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m still going to check things out, just to make sure,” he said, and Caroline let out a frustrated sigh.

“Why are you smiling?” she asked, a little more sharply than she meant to. She felt touchy and irritable, and though she didn’t want to take it out on him, she had no idea what he could have to be smiling about. She’d yanked him away from the firehouse for no reason—or rather her mother had—once again upending his day over what was a foolish miscommunication. It should be frustrating, she thought, not amusing.

Rhett chuckled. “I dunno. You just strike me as the kind of woman who doesn’t like a whole lot of attention brought her way. But your inn seems pretty insistent on it lately.”

That, despite herself, coaxed a smile to Caroline’s face. A small one, but a smile nonetheless. “Exactly right,” she admitted. “I guess you have me all figured out, don’t you?”

“Not entirely.” Rhett looked at her, that smile still twitching at the corners of his mouth. “Let me try and guess though. You like to cook. You have a favorite sweater that you’ve owned for years. You love the cold, but you get tired of the snow after a month. And rabbits are your favorite animal.”

Caroline laughed. “You’re about half right and half wrong,” she admitted.

“Well? Can you break it down for me?”

She shook her head, a small laugh escaping her. He clearly didn’t seem as concerned about the possible fire as he should be, if he was standing here bantering with her, but she didn’t mind it. “I don’t like cooking all that much,” she said. “But I learned how to take some of the load off my mom. I do have a favorite sweater, although it’s gotten a little worn these days. I love the snow for as long as it’s willing to stay. And I don’t know how you guessed the rabbits right, but you did.”

His smile spread across his face, and she hated the way it made a cloud of butterflies take off in her stomach, leaving her feeling the tiniest bit breathless. Stop being foolish, she told herself firmly. He didn’t look that much younger than her—but definitely younger. She couldn’t imagine he actually found her attractive. He was probably just humoring her, the way younger men did with women old enough to be their aunts. Casually flirting to make her feel good.

There was no possible way that it was anything sincere.

“Your turn,” he said casually, catching her off guard, and Caroline looked at him, startled. “Make some guesses about me. We’ll see how right you are.”

She couldn’t fathom why he was still standing there, bantering with her instead of going about his job and leaving as quickly as possible. But she also couldn’t stop herself from humoring him.

“Fine,” she said, her mouth twitching upward into a smile despite herself. “You drive a truck, but you secretly prefer cars—a sports car, maybe. You like dogs but don’t feel you have time for one. Your favorite color is red. And you want your son to grow up to be an archeologist—thus why he runs around unsupervised digging up the neighbors’ yards.” She said the last with a small laugh, so Rhett wouldn’t think she was being mean. She really wasn’t angry about it—maybe mildly annoyed, and a little worried for what could have happened to the little boy if she hadn’t found him. If anything, her irritation came from concern.

Rhett laughed, running a hand through his hair. “I had a sports car, back in the city,” he said. “But truthfully, I think I like the truck I replaced it with better. But the thing about the dog and the color red—you’re spot on. How I got into fire trucks as a kid, actually—I liked the color.”

“Now you’re making fun of me.” Caroline felt her cheeks turn pink, and Rhett chuckled.

“Only a little. I do really like the color red. As for firefighting, I was obsessed with it when I was younger. Carried over into being an adult, I guess. And Jay…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry about that. Really, I am. He’s a good boy. He just gets fixated on ideas, now and then. He’s a complete mathematical genius. The rest of it he struggles with, so when he gets into something else besides numbers, I tend to encourage it. I guess that’s what happened with the fossils,” he added sheepishly.

“It’s really fine. It’s not going to be that difficult to repair.” Caroline glanced back at the check-in desk, glad to see that no one else had shown up yet, then back at Rhett. “I’ve got to go get some things out of the oven. If you want to check on those smoke detectors?”

“Sure thing. I’ll do a quick sweep and be right back down.”

Caroline let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as Rhett started to go upstairs, hurrying back to the kitchen to baste the pork roast and take the muffins out. She set them on the counter to cool, setting a few aside to give to Rhett before he left, and pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart was beating hard, and she silently reminded herself, once again, not to be ridiculous.

He’s just being kind. Trying to fit in, be liked. Make up for his son damaging private property. None of it is what you want to think it is.

She waited until she heard Rhett’s footsteps coming down the stairs and toward the kitchen, and then went about the business of putting the muffins in a cardboard folding to-go box for him.

“Everything looks like it’s fine,” Rhett said, making her jump a little as she turned to face him. She’d known he was heading that way, but somehow the sound of his voice still managed to catch her off guard. “I’m really not quite sure what the problem is. I’d look into getting them changed out, maybe. New detectors, instead of just new batteries.”

Caroline nodded, mentally adding it to her to-do list. One that was beginning to feel seemingly endless, after the influx of guests. “I’ll do that,” she said. “Here—for your trouble.”

She handed him the box. “Homemade pumpkin cream cheese muffins,” she added. “It’s my mother’s recipe. I just did the best I could with it.”

“I’m sure they’re delicious. Jay will devour them. I’ll have to eat one on the way home, just to make sure I get one.” Rhett grinned, and Caroline felt herself blush again.

“I hope you like them.”

“We will.” Rhett started to turn away, and then paused, glancing back at her. “I really am sorry about Jay digging up your yard. Is there a time that’s better than any other for him to come over and fix things?”

“Tuesday afternoon?” Caroline suggested. “By then the guests will be done having breakfast, and we usually have a little bit of a breather.”

“Sounds good to me.” Rhett gave her one final smile. “We’ll be there.”

Her heart inexplicably leapt at that. We’ll be there implied that he’d be coming over too, rather than just sending Jay over.

Which meant she’d have a chance to see him again.

“Well, that was an interesting conversation.”

Caroline jumped for the second time, turning to see that Rhett had gone and her mother was standing in the doorway. There was a small smirk on her mother’s face, which meant that she’d heard at least some of the conversation.

She stifled a sigh, remembering her mother’s machinations in getting Nora and Aiden together. That had worked out wonderfully for her sister, but as she and everyone else knew, Caroline and Nora couldn’t be more different. And this in particular wasn’t going to work out.

“He’s a very handsome young man,” Rhonda said mischievously. “And there certainly seem to be some sparks between you two. He seems to like you.” Her eyes flickered with unmistakable excitement. “And he’s coming back this Tuesday?”

“With his son,” Caroline said pointedly. “To teach him about repairing the holes he digs in other people’s backyards. Anyway,” she added. “I’m not interested. And he’s not interested in me.”

She said it firmly, not wanting to give her mother even the slightest inkling that getting involved would bear any kind of fruit. But secretly, she knew it wasn’t exactly true.

She definitely had an interest in Rhett. A hopeless one, but an interest nonetheless. And if he were interested in her too, she thought—well, she wouldn’t exactly be mad about it.

It felt like a silly, pointless thing to let her mind linger on. But still, as she went back to work preparing dinner and going through the list of other tasks she needed to complete, her mind continued to swirl with thoughts of the handsome, dark-haired firefighter.

Who she would see again, in just a few days.