Page 20 of Hot for the Jerk

“We’ll see about that,” Raina said, taking a rather savage bite of her sandwich.She shook her head and turned to me.“Do you have a tapeworm or something?”

Chewing, I ignored her and took a sip of my coffee, letting the vanilla notes of the medium roast mix with the chocolate and raspberry in my mouth.“You’re a very cranky person in the morning,” I noted.

“And you’re just as annoying in the morning as you are the rest of the day.”

Lenora came back into the dining room with a fresh pot of coffee, and I pivoted in my seat to face her.“Lenora, my love?”

Instantly, the little woman with curly, white hair blushed as she paused, waiting for my question.

“Would I be able to do some laundry today?I only packed enough clothes for the one night I spent in Seattle.And yesterday’s clothes are pretty damp.I’m happy to pay.”

“We have a laundry service here,” she said with a sweet smile.“I’ll bring a basket up to your room.Just place whatever you’d like washed into the hamper outside your door, then I’ll have it all washed and ready for you by supper.”

“You’re a peach, Lenora.”I winked at her, which just made her blush even deeper before she shuffled back into the kitchen.

“Do you just flirt with everyone?With anything?”Raina asked, sipping her coffee.“If it’s warm, and gullible, you’ll try to get into its pants.Be it a woman, a duck, or a radiator?”

“What duck wears pants?”I asked.“Not Daisy.Not Donald.Not even Daffy.And I would never fuck a radiator, not even one that filled out a pair of Lululemon tights nicely.”I finished my croissant, then picked up my second sandwich and tore into it, growling as I did so and keeping eye contact with the antagonistic woman to my right.

“God, I hope there’s somewhere else on the island with a vacancy,” she murmured, finishing her sandwich and standing up to take her plate to the dish tub on the shelf beneath the center console table.

“You and me both,” I said, unable to resist watching her walk away as she headed upstairs, tripping on the transition between the sitting room and hallway and nearly eating it, but saving herself at the last minute.I smothered my chuckle in my sandwich, but she must have heard me, because she spun around as she held onto the wall and righted herself, a murderous glare in her eyes.

Hopefully, some fool on the island took pity on her and gave her a cot, or a manger, or something to sleep in.Because she sure as hell wouldn’t be bunking with me again tonight.

I took my time finishing my breakfast.My headache was more or less gone, now that I had some caffeine and food in my system, and while I still didn’t feel like I could run a marathon, I was no longer knocking on death’s door either.

I figured that if I took my time getting back to the room, Raina would be all packed up and ready to check out by the time I did.

Not quite.

The laundry basket sat in front of the door, so I brought it into the room with me, only to find Raina on the phone.She wore an exasperated look—and she was still in her pajamas.“What do you mean?”she asked the person on the other end.“Yes, I know what ‘no vacancy’means, but … no, I am aware of that.Yes … I’m just asking if the family who is renting two rooms would consider just renting one so I could have the other.I’m happy to pay more … hello?Hello?”

I snorted as I stalked to my duffel bag and dug out my dirty clothes, loading them into the hamper.I went to the bathroom next and the stuff from last night’s deluge on the ferry hadn’t even begun to dry where I’d hung it up in the shower.That went into the hamper too.

“Hello, yes, my name is Raina Aaronson.I am one of the owners of Westhaven Winery on San Camanez, and I’m wondering if you have any vacancy?I’m happy to sweeten the deal with a year’s supply of wine.A case a month?Two cases a month?No?You don’t have anything?Not even a couch in the lobby?”

Back in the bedroom, I located the dark-gray sweatpants I packed as just-in-case pants, and carted those into the bathroom, where I quickly changed.Unfortunately, I didn’t have any extra socks, which was not like me at all.Normally, I had extra socks packed; I had extra everything packed.Joining her back in the room, she seemed more frustrated and defeated than ever.

“No luck, Elsa?”I asked, plopping my duffel bag on the bed to give it another thorough look-through.There had to be socks in there.

Raina cast me another homicidal glare.

“Well, the ferry was full.And every person on there got rerouted to Wayman.Every person is stuck here for a second day.And no vessels are leaving the island, so nobody can leave.Not previous guests of accommodations.Not us.”I shrugged.“I need to go buy socks.Wanna go check out the town center?”

“You find this hilarious, don’t you?”she said, almost on the verge of tears.“It’s not like you have a kid at home waiting for you or anything.This is just one big joke, right?”

“Just because I’m not a parent doesn’t mean this isn’t massively inconvenient for me.I’ve been theextraparent to my nieces and nephews for over five years.I would kill and die for all of them, and me not being home right now is probably fucking things up because I do a hell of a lot of babysitting.”I shrugged.“Or maybe it’s not.I don’t know.What I do know, is that there’s no sense dwelling on it.We’re not leaving the island.It’s not safe to leave the island.At least we have a place to stay.And I need socks.”

Her glare softened … minimally.

“I’m asking you if you’d like to go with me into town.Or whatever semblance there is of a town on this tiny-ass island.I’m sure I’ll be able to find socks somewhere.”

“I don’t have any clean or dry clothes,” she said, swallowing hard, which did a bang-up job pulling on my heartstrings and making me feel sorry for her.

“Then wear your pajamas,” I said with a shrug.“I don’t think anybody will care.And if they do … fuck ’em.”

She blinked at me a few times.“We are going to need food for lunch and dinner, I suppose.”

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