Page 41 of Serenity Harbor

She didnotwant to hear the answer to that. He gazed blankly at her for about two seconds before he realized she was gesturing to the suitcase at her feet.

“Oh. Right. In between nannies, I’ve been sleeping in the room next to his down here so I can hear him if he wakes up and starts wandering in the night. With you here, I’ll move back upstairs to the master bedroom.”

“I don’t want to kick you out of your bed,” she protested.

What about yours?

Yeah. He needed to get out of here before he said or did something stupid that he couldn’t take back. “The master bedroom upstairs is bigger, with a nice balcony overlooking the lake. It’s the room I prefer, actually.”

“There are plenty of bedrooms up there. Why didn’t you move him up near you instead of vice versa?”

“The first week or so, I was worried enough about him slipping out without me knowing and didn’t want to have to worry he might fall out of a second-story window, too.”

“Good thinking.”

“I changed the sheets for you and cleared out the few belongings I’ve been keeping in there.”

“Thanks.”

“Milo,” he called to get his brother’s attention, “let’s help Katrina with her bags.”

His brother didn’t hesitate. He shoved his toy into his pocket and picked up her laptop bag. Bowie picked up the suitcase, and all three of them made their way to the hallway on this level that contained two bedrooms and his home office.

He opened the door and carried her suitcase inside. “Will this work? Sorry it’s not very big.”

She looked around at the bedroom that did have a lovely view out over the patio to the lake’s edge. “Trust me, it’s just fine. Great, actually. I’ve got a bed with an actual mattress and an en suite bathroom. Compared to some of the places where I’ve slept the last year, this is like a five-star hotel.”

He could only imagine. Given that he once spent six months when he was thirteen sleeping in the back seat of an Oldsmobile, it wasn’t that tough to picture.

He didn’t like thinking of her in primitive, dangerous conditions. “What did your family think about your taking off to a bunch of Third World countries?”

Her features grew pensive. “About what you might expect. My mother wasn’t thrilled. She thought I was going to be kidnapped and held for ransom. She had Marsh, my brother who’s the sheriff, recount all the bad things that might happen to me and she made Elliot, my brother the FBI agent, send me a list of every government travel warning in the region. Wynona didn’t understand why I couldn’t just take a sabbatical and hike across the country or something.”

“Despite their objections, you did it anyway. Were you at all anxious about traveling alone?”

“I wasn’t alone,” she said after an awkward moment. “Not at first, anyway. I went with...a friend.”

“A friend.”

More than that, he suspected, judging by the color soaking her cheeks. “Carter was a climber trying to summit the highest points in every country in South America. I was part of his support crew.”

“Wow. I thought you said you’d been teaching English in Colombia.”

“I have been, for most of the time I’ve been gone. The climber thing didn’t work out and we...parted ways.”

She said nothing more and he didn’t press, sensing she didn’t want to talk about it. He couldn’t help wondering, though. What kind of idiot would drag her to South America and then walk away from her? Or had she been the one doing the walking?

“Why didn’t you come back after things ended?” he couldn’t resist asking.

“You sound like my mom. Because I met Gabi. I already loved her and knew I couldn’t simply leave her there. Could you have left Milo in another country and gone on to merrily live your life without him?”

“Not a chance,” he answered without hesitation. The moment he found out about his little brother, Bowie knew his life was about to change. He owed Milo the sort of childhood Bowie had always wanted, no matter how difficult it might prove to deliver.

At his answer, her expression softened. “I know it’s not the same. Gabi isn’t my blood, but I loved her from the beginning. Even if I hadn’t met Gabi, though, I wouldn’t have come home right away.”

“Why not?”

“And prove everybody right? Not a chance.”

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