Love Shack (Tiny Houses, Big Hearts) (6 page)

“Of course I like Nutella. Are you sure you don’t want to eat here?”

Her guest was getting worried about going home. She had her own reservations about where she would sleep tonight, but it was hard to be too worried when she could feel the sauce warming her hand through the recyclable container.

“The food will spoil. And you need to get used to the house. You are going to be staying with me for a month, remember?”

“How could I forget?” he mumbled as he climbed into the cab of the truck.

She looked over at him.
His
mood had turned quickly. “Be nice or I won’t share the chocolate sauce.”

She meant for it to be a joke, but something in his eyes told her he was thinking of something else entirely.

“Do you really leave without thinking about it?” he finally asked.

Felicity tucked a few hairs behind her ear, but the fresh air grabbed them again and the light curls were flying all around before she slammed the door of the truck. “I think about everything I do, I just don’t have the kind of landlocked ties that you do. If I want to up and travel across the country, I can do that.”

“You realize that’s not something really smart to tell your banker.”

She slapped the back of her hand against his chest. “Look at you…cracking a joke. I’m impressed.”

“Don’t be. We’ll be back to your house soon, and I’m probably going to say something rude. So just try and remember when I was charming here.”

Sure enough, he put his foot in his mouth the second they took off. One ugly glare his way and it was quiet the rest of the ride to her house. Her passenger looked a little sick as they made the turn down the small road next to the cemetery.

Felicity realized she was sharing why she loved the area with Brandon this afternoon. Helping him discover all the little treasures in the small artisan township was sharing a bit of herself too. She’d adored the freedom the tiny house afforded, but this was the first time she’d had such a sense of home. Opening the doors to her tiny house wasn’t as important to her as him seeing why she was staying here.

She’d give him the benefit of the doubt, but Felicity wouldn’t put up with his attitude for much longer.

She pulled her key lanyard out from her purse and hung it around her neck. The key fell down the front of her blouse like always. She didn’t pay it much attention, but someone else did.

Brandon was staring. At her chest.

“You might think you’re charming,” she told him to draw his eyes back to hers. “But I assure you it’s a subjective assessment.”

He had the decency to look embarrassed at least.

She sighed. “I won’t tell Debbie if you want to stay at a hotel.”

“Do you think I can’t handle living in your shack?”

“Ti—ny—house.” She frowned at the thought that she’d just ground her teeth at the man next to her. Her mother used to do that to her. “I don’t want you here if you’re not going to give it a chance.”

“Miss Newhouse…”

“If we are going to share two hundred twenty-one square feet, I think you can call me Felicity.” She got out of the truck and unloaded their bags from the backseat. When she turned around, Brandon was standing behind her.

He took her bags. “I’m not used to being out of my element. Can we just go in?”

That was probably as close as Felicity was getting to an apology for his shitty mood. She’d have to take it. At least they’d bought wine. She hurried inside to get to the corkscrew.

She flipped on the lights and, despite the situation, she smiled. The light fixture was one she found at an antique shop in New Orleans. The wall art was from an artist in Philadelphia. By force of habit, she turned on some music. It was the first thing she did when she got home. Her hips swung to the gentle beat. She stopped and felt the heat rise up her cheeks when she heard the cough behind her.

Looking outside Brandon was still standing in front of the hay bale. It put his face right in line with her ass. Oops.

“Sorry. It’s a habit.”

His smile from Main Street was back. “You dance when you come home?”

She tried to grab the bags from him, but he swung them out of the way and she stepped aside to let him into the space. He watched the floor as he stepped on the hay bale and rubbed his shoes slightly on the fluffy mat at the entrance.

She’d sprung for a larger kitchen, so there was plenty of room to place all of their things. After placing the gelato in the freezer, he handed her the candle.

“Why don’t you light this while I put the rest away?”

“Because there is a lot more than I usually have and it’s going to take some mad Tetris skills to make it fit.” Felicity struck a match and moved the candle to her foldaway table.

The light did its comforting glide up the walls, and the flame seemed to dance along with the quiet music.

She expected to turn around and find him struggling with her system, but he’d already pulled down two wine glasses and uncovered the corkscrew.

He asked about her wine rack as she put the bottles into a small space just off center of the sink.

“I like wine. It’s a vice that I have absolutely no intention of giving up.” She handed him the one bottle she didn’t set into the wine rack. “Pop that one in the freezer and we’ll be able to have a chilled drink sooner.”

A bit of alcohol didn’t sound bad at all. He seemed shocked when he opened up her three quarter sized refrigerator.

He tilted his head to the side as he said, “I thought all of these units have dorm sized fridges.”

“The best part of living small is figuring out what you want to have in your life that you are so determined to have, you’re willing to sacrifice something else.” She pointed to the galley style layout of the rest of the home. “I don’t have much of a lounge space, or much area to watch television. But I wanted a full kitchen and more of a bathroom than some.”

“
That
is
more
of a bathroom?”

She just shook her head. “I could show you some of the other sample layouts I have and remind you about where the space goes, but I have a feeling you won’t be able to see the big picture.”

“I always see the big picture. It’s why I’m a manager.”

He was nearly pouting. The big baby would have to deal with it.

“The big picture isn’t about a job,” she tried again. “And that’s why it would be hard for you to see it.”

Felicity turned away from him and began pulling pans and spices off various hooks and magnetized containers around her.

Brandon worked the corkscrew into a bottle of red best enjoyed at room temperature. She was glad he was finally doing something with his hands other than wringing them like an old woman worrying about the size of her bathroom.

He handed her a glass half filled with wine and sipped his own while he put away the rest of the perishables.

“There’s not much here, even if I struggle, I think I’ll figure it out pretty quick.” He motioned to her nearly filled to bursting open shelving. “I thought you said you didn’t entertain?”

Felicity really didn’t want to say that she’d gone out and bought new dishes so that she had more than one of everything. It was never something she’d needed before. He made it sound like a bad thing. “I have friends.”

“Don’t get offended, that’s not what I said. I just thought wine glasses were a bit of a splurge for a minimalist.” He did that evaluating squint she’d seen on his face at the bank. “You just bought all this.”

“No,” she lied.

Brandon turned away from her and started flipping over all the plates and bowls. Pulling out the items she’d acquired just last night, he held out a bowl to her. A sticker was still stuck on the bottom. Damn.

“How do you keep the stickers on it if it’s not new?”

She tried to snatch the bowl from him, but being that he was so tall, he just held it up higher. When he bumped the low ceiling, he held it behind himself.

“So I bought a few things.” Felicity tried to reach around him, but he just did a quick spin and put the bowl away.

“I’ll reimburse you for any of the items you bought for me. I know you’re trying to get a business off the ground.”

Felicity downed the wine. She usually only drank out of her coffee mug. There was something sensual about twirling the slim stem of the glassware between her fingers. The glasses had some multi-colored dots that swirled toward the base. She followed the dots with a delicate touch. She might keep these even if she donated the rest of the dishes to Goodwill after this was over. She needed something decadent in her life.

That thought brought her eyes up to her guest. Something made him look at her, and just for a moment she thought he was going to get this whole lifestyle.

“So I was thinking if we get something worked out on your business plan, we might be able to get this set up to last a week instead of a month.”

Or he was just working an angle. This was the first time Felicity had had anyone spend the night in her home. She was already self-conscious. Now she was losing the few nerves she had left. She poured a full glass of wine this time.

“Are you going to spend the entire time here working on how to get out of the bet?”

“You can’t want me here for a whole month.”

Felicity pushed him out of the kitchen.

He finally dug in his heels when she got him closer to the storage steps that led to the bedroom. “If you kick me out, you automatically forfeit you know.”

“I’m just moving you out of my way.” Felicity grabbed the half apron she had hanging in the broom-sized cubby beneath the stairs. “If you are going to be obsessed with plotting and planning, I’m going to have to make dinner.”

“Maybe I’ll just eat the gelato.” He grumbled.

Felicity grabbed the spatula that hung on the side of her cabinet and rushed over with it held high. His eyes locked onto the royal blue slatted tool.

“If you don’t eat dinner, you don’t get dessert.”

With that, she spun around and started a pan heating on the stove to work up a quick lemon butter sauce for the fish.

Chapter Twelve

Brandon watched her hips sway. Her curves were framed by the tails of her apron strings. He had the biggest urge to tug on them.

He didn’t get what her problem was, but he put down the wine glass because he was going to get into big trouble if he lowered his inhibitions too much.

This woman was nothing like the ones he met through his online dating profile, and that had to be the reason he was so aroused around her. She was novel. A new song started on her tablet and, even with only a small speaker, the space filled with the beat. She sang along. Off key. And even that was cute.

“Where can I go to make a private call?” he asked.

She danced in a circle. Had she refilled her wine glass again?

“The only privacy in this place is the bathroom and outside.” She laid the fish they’d bought into the small pan and it sizzled.

The bathroom was behind her, right off the galley kitchen. She probably wouldn’t have been able to hear him over the background noise, but he wasn’t willing to take the chance. He went outside.

Brandon woke the device and scrolled past his boss at the top of his auto-call list. It took a while to find the person he wanted to talk to. Brandon didn’t talk to his sister enough.

“Little brother! I told you to sit down and eat. You are not playing Minecraft at the dinner table. Don’t dunk your green beans in the milk either. So what’s going on?”

He was pretty sure only the first and the last part of that verbal stream was meant for him. This was why he didn’t usually call his sister. All of their phone calls seemed to last ten times longer than necessary, because she was constantly pulled in a million directions by all the kids she’d had the misfortune to want.

“Is there any chance I can talk to you for a minute?” he asked.

“If you want me to give you undivided attention, you either need bailed out of jail, or someone’s dead. Otherwise you know you should have called after bedtime.”

He put a hand on his forehead. “I just need some advice on how to be patient, and I figured I could practice while listening to you yell at your children.”

He heard some crinkling and muffled rumbling. “Okay. I have left the kids alone to go in my room, so you have about six minutes to talk before my house burns down.”

“Have you seen the news?”

“Unless it airs on Nick Junior, no.”

“I’m living in a tiny house with this woman, and I need someone to remind me how I get myself into idiotic situations. I figured you were the person to call.”

His sister laughed. How she had any energy to laugh with four kids he had no idea. He’d babysat for her one night and had to take the next day off work to sleep off the effects, and wash off the permanent marker mustache they’d drawn on his upper lip.

“You must really love this chick to downsize. I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone.”

“Whoa. No. I don’t love anyone. It’s a…well, I guess it was a bet, or a goodwill gesture…” Brandon pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe you don’t watch the news.”