Page 9 of Frosted and Sliced

“Like Casper the ghost?” she blurted.

“If you say so.”

“You can’t, the attic’s not finished, it doesn’t even have insulation. You’ll freeze.”

He shrugged. “I’ve slept worse, colder places. And obviously I’m going to finish it.”

“What?” Her voice had reached that register that only dogs could hear now, filled with incredulity and dismay. “What?”

Burke pressed a palm to his ear and wiggled it back and forth. “Yeesh. Maybe you don’t know this, because you can’t hear yourself, but you’re really loud and shrill sometimes.”

“What?” Georgie demanded, an impossibly few decibels higher. “What nonsense are you spouting? You can’t go around finishing people’s attics for them.”

“Why not? I scouted it last time I was here. The bones are good.”

“The bones are mine, and did you seriously break into every room in my inn?” she demanded.

“Yeah. And how can you say no to someone finishing your attic?”

“Because it’s…because…it’s so notnormal,” Georgie huffed.

“Who cares?”

“I care, my brother cares, this town cares. Do you know what people are going to say when they hear I have some strange guy living in my attic?”

“I thought about that, actually,” he said and paused, as if waiting for her to congratulate him for the forethought. Georgie shrugged helplessly, unable to fathom where to go, or where his brain was. “I could fix stuff.”

“What are you talking about? Fix what stuff?”

“Practically everything. This place is a disaster.”

Georgie didn’t think it was possible for her to become angrier, until it happened. She thrust her finger toward his face. “You cannot disparage my inn.” This inn was everything to her, the representation of her entire life of striving.

Burke looked confused. “Disparage? I’m stating facts, how is that an insult? When a house is almost two hundred years old, stuff breaks, stuff falls apart.”

“It’s fine,” she insisted.

He pointed to a giant water stain in the ceiling above them.

“It’s shaped like Big Bird, it’s practically art,” she maintained. Having him point out the very real flaws in her building made her feel something akin to panic. Georgie was well aware of the disrepair around her, but it was all she could do to keep her head above water. Anything more than survival felt like too much, at this juncture. But she was in good company because no one in town was thriving. The area was depressed and growing more so.

“Okay,” Burke drawled, as if explaining something to an idiot. “Maybe I’m not saying it right. You need a handyman, I need a place to live. I am handy. I will live here and fix stuff.”

There had to be a flaw in that plan, didn’t there? Georgie stared at him, trying to make sense of the confusing jumble in her head. “I don’t understand what’s happening here. You’re really moving to another state, on a whim, to live in my attic and be my handyman?”

For the first time, he broke eye contact and looked away, his expression…pensive? Georgie didn’t know what it was, but itsoftened something inside her. “Haven’t you ever felt the need to get away and start over?”

She had, many times. It was what compelled her to culinary school, to buy this inn. “Yes, but the thing about starting over is that your problems don’t cease to exist; they come with you. Sometimes starting over doesn’t make a difference.”

“This time it will,” he said. He sounded so certain that it softened her even more.

“How are you going to have money? A handyman wasn’t in the budget. I…I can’t pay you.” It was embarrassing to admit she couldn’t pay for something she desperately needed, but it was reality. Any little bit of extra money she received went into her lagging savings, to try and cover the times when things were even more desperate.

Burke’s cheek ticked, increasing her embarrassment. He must realize the disparity here, that she would be getting more from him than he would be getting from her. What was a free room—in an unused space—compared to everything that needed done in the inn? “I have savings.”

“You can’t…” she began.

Burke held up a hand to halt her. “Let me worry about what I can and can’t do. I…need this. I need a fresh start. Also…”

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