Page 147 of Hope & Harmony

“Baron?”

With wide eyes, he lifted his hands. “What are you doing here?”

Her expression froze, as if she’d been doing something she wasn’t supposed to. She’d had the same look on her face yesterday when he’d told her she was violating the town ordinances.

“I…um, I was just taking a shower.” She walked closer, a faded beach towel wrapped around her body.

He shouldn’t have been thinking about how perfect she looked, with her bright-blue eyes and her dark-blond hair in wet streaks over her tanned shoulders. Or her thighs peeking out from under the towel that he suddenly wanted to rip away so he could take in all of her. Every sweet, delicious inch of her…

“Why…” He cleared his throat and forced himself to a more decent line of thinking. “Where exactly are you staying, Cora?”

“Staying?” Her voice was high, like a child caught in a lie.

“Where did you stay last night?” He said each word slowly, quietly demanding that she offer up the truth. A truth he truly didn’t want to hear, because then he’d have to do something about it. And hewoulddo something about it.

Cora nibbled at her lip and stared down at her bare feet. “I stay in my car sometimes, you know, when money’s tight. It’s no big deal.”

“Your car? It can get close to freezing around here this time of year.”

“I have a really good sleeping bag. Someone actually gave it to me?—”

“Not to mention you’re a target forpeoplewho may not have the best intentions. You have special victims unit written all over you.”

She winced. “I do?”

Baron sighed and sliced his fingers through his hair. “Can I offer an alternative, at least while you’re staying in town?”

Her lips parted, like she was afraid to take him up on his offer.

“I own a bunch of rentals here in town. Most of them are empty with it being off-season. I can set you up in one.”

Cora shook her head and wrapped her towel a little tighter. “I don’t usually say no to a helping hand, but you’ve already done too much, Mr. Porter.”

“Baron.”

“Baron… I… I’ll be fine in my car, I sw?—”

“Completely out of the question. Not to mention another violation of town ordinances. This one I’ll enforce.”

Cora’s face broke with a smile. “Mr. Rules is back, I see.”

Baron’s shoulders relaxed, maybe from the sight of her smiling and hopefully relenting. “Please accept, and we can end this conversation and have a coffee. I really need a coffee right now.”

Cora lifted a shoulder. “I guess so. Give me a few minutes to get ready.”

Ten minutes later, Cora emerged dressed and bundled in her puffy jacket. “My car is over there.” She pointed twenty feet away to the sole car in the beach access lot, a patchy red Honda sedan. “But can I follow you?”

He could read the embarrassment in her eyes. Of course she didn’t want him to see inside her car, where she was storing everything to her name. “No need. The place is right down here. I was walking back that way anyway.”

CORA

“This is too much.” Cora let her coat slip off her shoulders as she walked toward the wall of windows facing the sunrise stretching over the Gulf of Mexico. When Baron said he had rentals, she was imagining small apartments, maybe not that unlike the motel room she’d gotten used to staying in. Nothing in her imagination could have dreamed up the pristine beach house he insisted was hers to occupy for as long as she was in Cape Haven.

“It’s nothing. I’m not earning anything on this place right now anyway. I trust you’ll take care of it.”

“I will,” Cora rushed to say. “I’ll clean up after myself before I go. You’ll never know I was here.”

He waved his hand. “Make yourself at home.”

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