Nina had made her rounds of the cabin and the immediate surrounding property under the pretense of making sure it was safe and secure, and of course she did all that within the first half hour after they arrived. This glimpse into Ewan’s life before the money and the fame fascinated her.
She’d given him the all-clear to stay in the kitchen while she looked over the cabin’s small upper level. The peaked roof meant she had to watch her head as she moved through the single bedroom to look out one of the windows tucked into a gable. To say the view was breathtaking felt like a cliché, but was the truth. A vista of forest and fog-shrouded mountains in the distance, a hint of water through the trees, clear blue skies. There couldn’t have been a prettier sight if Ewan had paid to have one installed.
The room itself included a cozy double bed with a white iron headboard and covered with a blue and white quilt that looked handmade. A battered wooden dresser with a mirror. A rocking chair. A small set of nightstands sported mismatched lamps. A rag rug covered the otherwise bare wooden floor. Through a small door at the bedroom’s far end was a functional but far from luxurious bathroom. This cabin was nothing like Woodhaven, and she already adored it.
“It will be easier to defend,” she told him in the kitchen, where she found him unpacking the saddlebags from the buzzbike. “Only two entrances. Limited windows.”
“If that’s a polite way of saying it’s really small, I got it.” He gave her a glance over his shoulder as he pulled out a few bottles of wine from one of the bags.
Nina chuckled and leaned against the counter to watch him curiously. The man she’d met a couple weeks ago had relied on a full staff to cater to his every need, and he’d never seemed hesitant to take full advantage of that. He’d told her he hadn’t grown up with money, but it had been obvious he’d taken to it like a natural. Since making their escape from his estate, though, Ewan had taken charge of nearly everything that didn’t have to do with security. She couldn’t say it was a different side of him—she’d seen him be in control with many aspects of his life, but something about all of this was definitely making him seem . . . humbler. More accessible.
“It’s bigger than some of the places I’ve lived,” she told him. “Prettier than most of them, too.”
He laughed and nodded as he emptied another cloth bag of some dry goods and set it aside with the others on the round, scarred kitchen table. He turned and put his hands on his hips, looking around the kitchen. “I always loved this place. Gray Tuesday made it easy to remove all the evidence that I was ever connected to it, but it was harder to erase in my mind than I’d thought it would be.”
“Probably better that you did, or else we wouldn’t be able to be here now.” She moved next to him to look over the array of bottles and jars laid out on the countertop. “I can help you put this all away, if you tell me where it ought to go.”
Ewan shook his head and moved a half a step away from her. He didn’t make a big deal out of it, but she noticed. He was making sure to keep his distance from her, a fact Nina couldn’t blame him for. That kiss in the tunnel had been electric. Her choice to kiss or touch him, she’d told him. Her choice to take him to bed or not. Why, then, didn’t she feel affronted that he’d kissed her despite her already telling him no? Why was she regretting that she’d pushed him away?
“The kitchen’s not really big enough for two to be messing around in it. I got this. Everything under control everywhere else?” He’d turned again toward the food and started tucking it away into cupboards.
He was dismissing her, and not subtly.
“Yes,” Nina said. “You don’t have the perimeter security you had at Woodhaven, but you’ve got so much more land here, and if it’s really true that nobody knows you even own it . . .”
“It’s true,” Ewan said sharply with a narrow-eyed glance. “I told you it was. All the records were scrubbed, and I made sure nothing was left to connect it to me.”
Nina frowned. “I didn’t say I didn’t believe you. I just mean that clearly, no matter what you might think about your private life or your past or how carefully you erased all of this, it’s also entirely possible that someone, somewhere knows the truth. Despite Gray Tuesday.”
“Nobody knows about this place, Nina. If there was something I would swear my life on, that’s it.”
“You might have to.” She did not make it sound offhand or light, not teasing, because it was the truth.
Ewan stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah. I get it. But that’s why you’re here with me. Right?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Because I’m paying you,” he added.
She waited a beat before answering. “Yes.”
“It’s your job,” Ewan said without looking at her.
“Of course it’s my job. But, Ewan . . .” She trailed off, uncharacteristically uncertain about what she meant to say. Something had shifted between them in the past few days, and while it might have had something to do with how close he’d come to being killed, she wondered if there was something deeper to it.
She wondered if she wanted there to be.
“I’m going to make something to eat. You need food. Is pasta all right?” he asked, still without looking at her.
Nina nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to take another swing around the property. Just check things out. Be clear that it’s all good. Are you sure you don’t need me to help you with anything?”
“Positive. It will be night soon,” he pointed out. “Be careful.”
There was very little in the dark that could hurt her, and she’d discovered that long ago. Instead of pointing that out to him, Nina merely took her leave. Outside, she drew in several long, deep breaths of crystal clear mountain air and wondered if she should go back inside. Confront him. He needed to understand that the kiss in the maintenance room had been nothing. A lapse of judgment. She didn’t hold it against him, and she didn’t expect it to mean anything. It didn’t have to affect their relationship.
Except that it had, Nina thought with a look up at a blue sky going indigo around the edges. The moon had risen, glowing faint but proud on the horizon. That kiss had changed everything between them, and she didn’t know what to do about it.