“Aren’t you going to do that magical thing where I’m suddenly on a bed?” she asked. Because she really, really wanted him to.
He made some space between the two of them. “I don’t know. I haven’t made my mind up yet.”
“What could possibly involve our minds?”
She’d been joking, but he looked serious.
“One question,” he said. “If we do this… if I make love to you… what happens next?”
“We go unconscious?”
“No, after that. Does it mean that you’re going to move from your room and into mine?”
“Well, no. But it does mean we’ll both be less tense.”
He shook his head. “That’s not good enough for me, Kate.”
“But back at the hotel you would have…”
“You’re right. But I’ve been thinking about this since we were out of town, and it turns out that I’m not a fling sort of guy. Actually, once I considered I aliit, I realized I never have been.”
Something wasn’t computing. “What about your Keene’s Harbor’s reputation as the resident Don Juan?”
He shrugged. “I’ve dated my share of women, but none of those women have anything to do with you,” Matt said. “You and I are in a different place. We’re friends-the kind of friends I don’t want to give up unless we become something more. So if you and I go there, it has to be with the full commitment to be my lover, because no way am I going to risk our friendship for less.”
“You’re scaring me a little.”
“I probably should be scaring you a lot. Because I mean it, Kate. Once I’m in, I’m
So unless she was ready for commitment, she had struck out?
“And what about The Nutshell?” she asked.
“It has nothing to do with us. It’s all business.”
Kate crossed her arms. “You wouldn’t say that if it was your house or your brewery.”
“Kate, I paid the bank $200,000 for that mortgage. I gave you until Thanksgiving to make a go of it. But I can’t afford to wait any longer than that. I need the money, either from you or from the restaurant I plan to open next summer.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just not ready for this.”
And while it was tougher than any trek she’d ever taken, Kate retreated to reclaim her poodle. She might be ten kinds of stupid, but for now, she’d managed to avoid adding an eleventh.
THE NEXT morning, Matt walked into his office-or what had been his office before he’d made Kate his personal assistant. Now ownership was questionable.
“Ginger just called,” Kate said.
“What did she want?” Until he had a signal from Kate otherwise, he planned to keep it all business.
“She’d like to know your Traverse City schedule. We’re working on coordinating your calendar so that someone other than you has a clue where you’ll be at any given time.”
“Nobody but me really needs to know.”
“Nice try, but untrue. We also talked about getting bids from subcontractors on the Tropicana, since you’ve decided to be the general contractor. I know you wanted to keep the bids local, but it’s a motel, Matt. You need to take advantage of that. We think you should widen your net some, since you can offer up rooms in exchange for lower price quotes.”
Matt smiled. “You look comfortable there.ortf s”
She looked around. “Where?”
“Behind my desk. With your papers everywhere.” There was a certain order to his pile filing system, and he hoped she hadn’t messed with it.
“Where else would I work? I mean, I suppose I could go use the phone at the servers’ stand, but I figure folks should have to work a little harder for their gossip than just lurking behind me.”
“How about we switch off and at least I get the spot behind my desk for a while?” he asked. “I need to get to the computer.”
She rose. “Do you want me out of here?”
And that was the thing of it. Even though they had a long way to go on a personal basis, and it made him a little crazy to have her close, he wanted her nearby.
“You can stick around,” he said. “I’m just placing a yeast order. We’re coming to the last generation we can use to brew.”
Kate had just moved to the visitor’s side of the desk when a knock sounded at the door and Lizzie poked her head into the office.
“So, business or pleasure?” Matt asked.
“Business, definitely.” Lizzie sat down. “Chief Erikson asked me to stop by and give you an update on the incident with Kate in the brewhouse.”
“I’m guessing that it’s more of a no-news update, or Clete would be here himself,” he said.
Lizzie nodded. “You’ve got his act down. The bottom line is that the brewhouse is as clean of evidence as the arson event. There were no prints that couldn’t be accounted for. I can rule someone out, though.”
“Really? Who?” Matt asked.
“Jerry. It seems that he took on a second job when his wife got laid off from the bank. He was there when Kate took her swim.”
“Good to know. Sort of,” Matt said.
“He thought he could pull off a second job without rocking the boat, but it’s been a scheduling mess,” Lizzie said. “He’s going to come talk to you.”
Matt nodded. He wished his manager had done that earlier, but he knew all about overconfidence sending a guy out to the end of a branch about to break. Matt had done it both literally and figuratively. He could forgive Jerry for doing the same.
“It’s a start, but not much of one,” Lizzie said. “For now, let’s keep things status quo. I know you’ve got the guard service, but we’ll continue with the extra drive-bys, too. And Kate, you keep staying at Matt’s.”
Matt looked down at his desk to hide his reaction to this mixed blessing. Then he started reading thtedx201D;
e papers Kate had left there. He picked one up.
“Kate, what’s this about?”
“It’s a booking contract.”
“I see that. And I see that Depot Brewing Company is contracting with someone named Dr. Love.”
“A blues band. I need you to sign the contract first, of course.”
“Nice of you to recall that detail,” he said.
“I know where I am on the org chart.”
“I don’t have an org chart.”
Kate pointed at a file folder at the top edge of the desk. “You do, now. I was going to post it by the time clock.”
“This is a microbrewery, not a multinational corporation,” Matt said. “With the possible exception of you, everyone knows who’s in charge here.”
Lizzie stood. “I’m all done here. I’ll just leave you to do… whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Witnessing a pretty impressive attempted coup, I think,” Matt said.
“Okay, then.” Lizzie gave Kate a wave. “Coup away!”
Matt turned to Kate as soon as Lizzie left the room. “What is the brewery going to do with a blues band?”
“Start a summer music series out on the terrace when the weather allows and in the taproom when it doesn’t?”
At least she’d made her statement sound more like a question.
“Look, I’m not saying that the idea is bad, because actually it’s great,” he said. “I just don’t have the time to
