Page 46 of Same Difference
“No, I mean no need to go all the way out to my hotel. Go take a peek around the house.”
Well, that made her curious. Still barefoot, Delta made her way to the side of the house and skidded to a stop in front of a trio of large, blue hardware store buckets. All three were steaming, and there was a metal loop with a shower curtain hanging from it attached to the side of the house. She pushed it aside and there was a plastic shower head secured to the siding.
“Oh my gosh,” she murmured, studying the buckets. They all had thermometers and heaters in the water, and a cord ran from here to his truck, which must have been the source of power to heat the water.
Nathan had made an outdoor shower for her.
Touched, she backed up a few feet and studied the set-up again. How had he tracked this all down so fast?
“Amazon Prime,” he called down to her.
An impressed laugh escaped her. She looked up and he was there, on this side of the roof, looking down at her.
“Are you going to watch me shower?”
“Wasn’t planning on it, Delta-Girl, but now I’m tempted.” The teasing was back in his voice, and she was relieved that their awkward moment from last night was just a distant memory. He was getting them back to an easier place.
“Want some coffee?” she asked.
“Maybe after your shower,” he said. “I need to turn off the truck soon.”
Right. He didn’t need his truck dying out here. Neither one of them would have a ride to town.
The shower was heavenly. The water was the perfect temperature of scalding that she enjoyed the most. She checked above her a dozen times, but Nathan never peeked over the side. A little bit of her was disappointed, but that was okay. He was here early, working on her den, setting up a shower, and that counted for a hell of a lot.
All clean, she wrapped herself in a towel and tramped through the snow back into the cabin. Gah, she was glad she’d been born a werewolf. The chilly bite to the air didn’t even bother her. Inside the little house, the fire was just embers, but it was still warm in here. She’d gotten up two times in the night to add wood to the stove, and she’d stayed nice and toasty.
It was snowing again, and she stopped right before she went inside to look at the piney forest that surrounded the clearing. Besides the nailing that echoed through the mountains, it was completely peaceful here.
She could see why Nory and Liam had fallen in love with this property. She would have to take some pictures later for her dad, so he would stop texting her all worried.
Nathan jumped off the roof and landed gracefully beside her. He had the tool belt with a hook for his hammer. Just when she thought he couldn’t physically get any hotter, he went and knew how to fix things.
“I have to repair some of the outer walls, and see what is happening with the electric and pipes when I open them up, but in a few days, you should have access to the other rooms without the whole damn thing falling down on you.”
“It’s a lot of work for a temporary den,” she pointed out.
Nathan shrugged and let himself into her home. “Nory said you can have this place if you want.”
“Wait, what?”
He pulled off the belt and set it onto the ground near the front door, then fiddled with the wire that she could latch the door closed with. “I picked up a new lock, but the doorframe needs to be completely rebuilt,” he told her. He gripped the frame and pieces of wood crumbled easily in his hands. “Rotten right through.”
“It adds character,” she joked as she pulled her body lotion out of her toiletries bag.
“I like the way you look without make-up,” Nathan said. “Just so you know.”
Surprised, she turned to him, but he looked completely serious.
He gestured to her face. “You have some little freckles.”
Delta looked down, feeling self-conscious, and Nathan approached her, removing his work gloves off his hands one by one. He tossed them onto the arm of the couch bed and hooked a finger under her chin. “We’re friends, remember? You don’t have to get all shy around me.” His eyes were soft and the color of good whiskey. He didn’t smell like fur right now. Only his cologne.
“I like that smell you wear.”
“I know. You told me.”
She frowned. “I don’t remember telling you that. When?”
