Page 33 of Fire in My Heart

“Out of house and home.”

“That’s not going to happen. I like feeding people.” My face flamed hotter. Did he have any idea what I was thinking about? Probably not because his mind wasn’t in the gutter.

He gave me a confused look. “Is everything okay? You look flushed.”

I jumped up. “It’s hot in here, isn’t it?”

“Is the furnace pumping out too much heat?” Teddy looked like he was ready to go fix something, so I hurried to say. “It works just fine. I’m just warm from the alcohol.”

“Ah,” Teddy said and ate half of a taco in one bite.

I continued to take small bites of mine, conscious that he was watching me eat. His attention was different than other men. I could feel his focused gaze on me. Most men talked about themselves, occasionally throwing out a question, not even bothering to let me respond.

“How is the house?” He sipped the margarita. “The bathtub working out for you?”

My shoulders relaxed. “I love the tub. Thank you so much for letting me live here.”

“I thought we established that was my dad.”

“You could continue to give him trouble for it, but you aren’t.” Not that I was aware of anyway.

Teddy cleared his throat. “Even I know when to let things go.”

I raised a brow, and he did the same.

“What? I can,” he protested.

“You did in this case, and I’m grateful,” I said swirling the margarita in the glass.

Teddy was so large he took up all the space in the breakfast nook, and he smelled like evergreen. It was a fresh, clean scent, and it made me want to climb him like a tree. “You want to talk about work?”

Not at all. I jumped up again to wash my hands and grab my tablet. I moved my chair next to his, then sat down.

He turned so his knees bracketed mine.

“I inputted the information and made this handy pie graph. You can see how many people have come here every year, the ones who are first timers. Then this part of the graph represents the ones who asked about other amenities. I placed those suggestions on a separate graph. You’ll see that photographs were the winner.”

“You’re thorough.”

“I love graphs. They’re colorful, pretty—” he made a noise in the back of his throat—”and so helpful.”

“It’s only one day of data, but you’ve made your case for photos. What do we need to do to prepare for the festival?”

Excited he was interested, I pulled out the diagram I’d made for the event and talked through the entire day’s schedule. “I’ll just need help moving the picnic tables?—”

“I can get my brothers to move them.”

“I need to create a nice space for the photos. I have a chair for Santa, a few large candy canes, and presents.”

Teddy frowned. “Who paid for all of that? I haven’t seen any receipts.”

I shrugged. “I did. I wasn’t sure if you’d be on board with it, and I wanted to show you what we could do. Sometimes seeing it is better than talking about it.”

“Send me the receipts so we can reimburse you.”

“I can do that.” I hadn’t expected that. “Why are you being so cooperative all of a sudden?”

“You’ve obviously done your research. And like you said, we’re just trying things. It doesn’t mean it will work.”

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