Seeming relieved, she dropped her hands from her face. “I guess I felt safer in here. Sorry I sort of went all Goldilocks on you.”
That drew a laugh out of me. How perfect—she was goldilocks. “Nah, not a big deal. I'm glad you came. You're definitely safe from the kitty in your cabin, but I can see how it wouldn't feel that way. There's a lot less noise in here.”
She blinked away the last of sleep. Her eyes focused a bit more, but still drooped as she fought off a yawn.
“What did Joshua say?”
An instant scowl marred her face. “Just . . . a stupid email. The feds must be processing something because all the claims I put through were rejected. I think it's made him suspicious. I don't want to talk about him. How was your date?” she asked sleepily.
I shrugged. “Good. I mean . . . fun. I'll never see her again but it was worth the drive and the time.”
“How do you know that?”
“Shanti just wanted someone to have dinner with on her way through here. Wasn't ever meant to be something.”
“Oh.”
She seemed to process that, but the last thing I wanted to talk to her about was my dating life.
“How long have you been home?” she asked with a light color on her cheeks.
“A few minutes. Wanted to get the fire warmed up so you didn't freeze, and before I went to bed.” I paused. “Why don't you stay here tonight?”
She struggled against another yawn. “Really?”
“Of course. It's cold out there. You can take my bed or stay where you are.”
“Here,” she said quickly. “I'm not going to take your bed from you, but thank you for the offer.”
I snorted. “Probably wise. Who knows what it smells like.”
An amused smile threatened her lips. I stretched my arms over my head, my stomach still bursting with a delicious chorizo burrito and the memory of Spanish rice. A little color rose on her cheeks, but she yawned before I could make sense of it.
“This,” she murmured as she snuggled in deeper, “is perfect. Thank you, Mark, for being . . . my friend.”
I dashed up the stairs, grabbed my best pillow and favorite blanket, and brought them back down. She snuggled into them with a grateful little sigh, another garbled thanks, and fell asleep seconds later.
With a warm chuckle, I checked the fire, loaded one last log inside to smolder, flicked the light off, and climbed the stairs.
But it wasn't where I wanted to be.
“ToasterTarts, SugarFlakes, and homemade french toast, but I only have one egg, so it'll be more like . . . toast. That's what I can offer you for breakfast here at Mark's HomeBnB. Can you see why Adventura might be lost?”
Stella's lips twitched.
We stood in front of my small fridge and stared at the less-than-desirable contents with mutual disappointment. She still had a blanket wrapped all the way around her, her hair adorably tousled and eyes still sleepy. Sunlight streamed in through the windows and warmed my bare feet. Outside a brisk wind blew, scuttling leaves across the dirt. In the distance, a deer and her yearling grazed by, oblivious to the nip in the breeze.
I tried not to think about how nice it was not to wake up alone in this cabin. To hear the shuffle of life moving around. The smell of coffee drifting up the ladder to wake me. There were a lot of reasons that I wanted to get that cabin rented, but the top of the list was closer proximity to Stella.
“Can we . . .”
She stopped herself. I lifted my eyebrows and scratched at an itch along my side.
“Can we?”
“Could we go into Jackson City? Isn't there a small diner somewhere or something? I'd like to try something different. We could talk about what Lizbeth said yesterday about her updates. We only have five days left of the seven days.”
“Are you okay with that?”
She nodded firmly.
The idea of going anywhere with her sounded great to me, even with the pall of a five-day countdown hanging over us. Actually, civilization is what we needed. More networking was in order now that Camilo had backed out as a possibility. Overnight, a couple friends had responded to my text messages with interest, but nothing definite. I flicked the fridge door shut with my wrist, gratified that she hadn't scampered back to her place the moment sunshine hit the sky.
“Of course,” I said. “Get some clothes on, girl. Let's get us some literally heart-stopping American diner breakfast.”
15 Stella
The decision to get out of Adventura had been, possibly, too impulsive on my part. My life wasn't a Loveline movie, and I did need to grab a few things, bars of dark chocolate to stash in my cabin included, but the thought of civilization wasn't as easy as it used to be. Even though I wasn't in apparent danger from Joshua, I didn't feel safe amongst unknown people in general.
With Mark though, it all felt so normal.
And right now, I desperately needed to feel normal.
My biggest fears used to be whether or not I'd get an account summarized in time, or whether Joshua would push me into a leadership position I didn't feel ready for, but always rose to the occasion to complete.
Now I feared mountain lions and boredom. My life had fallen apart, taking my personal company down in a blaze of sparks, and I had nowhere to turn except my only remaining client.
Who was Mark Bailey?
The guy that once thought a giant carousel in the middle of his small mountain town would be a massive success and bring in tourists. The world in which I found myself just felt too weird sometimes.
Besides, Mark had played my unexpected presence in his house off so easily last night. I wanted to take him to
