Page 17 of The Guest Cottage

He enjoyed the way her soft brown eyes took in everything with interest.

She accepted her shortcomings with humor and faced new challenges with grit.

Her idea of casual style was still high class, but he doubted she could be any other way. Even barefoot and in secondhand clothes, she’d own any room she entered.

Would she take a job at the tavern? Of course she would, if for no other reason than to prove she could do it. He also got the feeling that, despite a self-confessed life of luxury, Marlow was not a woman who enjoyed too much idle time. That was something they had in common.

He had to remind himself that she was recently widowed, and not just in normal circumstances but with a lot of anger and hurt riding along with the grief. She was strong, but he knew well that even the strongest warrior had a breaking point.

Thankfully, Marlow seemed resilient, rebounding with iron resolve and a lot of good nature. She still needed time. Time to regroup, to recover. To grieve.

And in the meantime, he’d continue to get to know her better. Not a hardship at all.

She was a breath of fresh air, a woman full of wit, resolve, and charm.

After labeling her with all those complimentary traits, he realized he was smiling and didn’t care. The town could use a breath of fresh air—and honestly, so could he.

CHAPTER3

Over the next ten days, Marlow fell into an agreeable routine that, for the most part, kept her busy—or at least, busy enough. Her favorite part of each day was coffee on the dock watching the sun lighten the sky in varying hues. Some mornings were more pink, some deep purple, others transitioning quickly from dark starry skies to bright blazing sunshine.

It was especially nice on the days when Cort was there fishing.

On the day after she’d been rude to him, she’d found him on the shoreline when she came down. Not one to shirk responsibility, she’d walked directly over to him and said, “I apologize for snapping at you last night. I don’t have a good excuse except that my mother-in-law is enough to frazzle anyone.”

To which he’d replied, “No problem, I get it.”

And indeed, it seemed he did, because he didn’t hold a grudge.

Each time she saw him after that, he was the same friendly landlord, still laconic in his replies, but she understood that was just his way.

A week later, he surprised her by cutting her lawn. One minute she’d been online, searching for any available properties near Bramble, and then she’d heard the rumble of the mower. Her thoughts had immediately veered away from her future to land squarely in the here and now.

When she’d stepped outside, she’d found Cort on a big riding mower.

Shirtless.

That had arrested her attention for several seconds because, seriously, he lookedfine. Muscular and firm and strong.

Intent on steering around the trees, he didn’t notice her, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. His skin glistened with sweat beneath the sun. On his upper arm, she noticed a tattoo but couldn’t make out what it was.

Perhaps she stared at him too long and hard, because he suddenly glanced her way, frowned, then stopped the mower and committed the awful crime of pulling on his shirt.

A moment later, he was striding toward her, and she couldn’t very well duck away or pretend she hadn’t been staring.

“Hope you don’t mind the noise. I forgot to tell you I’d be mowing.”

Thankful for the utterly mundane comment, she replied, “I hadn’t thought much about the grass, but it has gotten longer, I guess.” She’d noticed it tickling her ankles when she went down to the dock just that morning.

“It’s not your job, so you don’t need to think about it.”

“That’s a relief, actually, because I know absolutely nothing about landscaping—or even simple lawn work. That’s the sort of thing we’ve always hired out.” Sayingwefelt wrong, since she wanted no further association with Dylan, so she amended it with, “That is, I’ve always had landscapers who handled all the outside stuff.”

“I get it.” He looked up at the sky. “Looks like rain might be moving in, so I’d better finish up.”

With that shirtless visual of him still crowding her thoughts, she nodded. “Thanks.”

Unfortunately, after that, he left the shirt on.

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