Page 65 of The Summer Show

I raised the plates. “But I ain’t got no hands, Lieutenant Dan.”

“You brought me food?” He sounded amazed, like no one had ever presented him with a plate of food before.

“It’s just some snacks from the bar. You weren’t there.”

“Not really my scene anymore.”

He stuck the keycard in the slot and held open the door for me. I went inside and slid both plates onto the coffee table. While he put the beer in the suite’s refrigerator, I stood in the living room area, awkward and not entirely sure why I was here. Nick had obviously wanted to be alone, otherwise he would be at the party or cruising the promenade for someone to bring back to his room. Instead, he had gone to get beer and planned to spend the night without company.

I gravitated toward the exit.

“Beer?” Nick said. He was holding out a bottle like he wanted me to take it. His expression was soft and not at all like a man who wanted me to leave. The butterflies in my stomach took flight again.

“Sure. Thanks.”

He carried two beers to the coffee table and sat them beside the plates. Yikes. I had almost tried to flee without my food. In my right mind, I would never abandon cheese.

Nick sat on the opposite end of the sofa, close but not too close. He looked perfectly at ease. Relaxed. Comfortable.

The opposite of how I felt.

I tried to settle myself into a position where I emitted the same calm energy … and failed completely.

To compensate, I ate cheese.

“You weren’t at the party,” I said, stating the blindingly obvious.

“Not really my scene. I’d rather drink a couple of beers and relax here before I have to get up tomorrow and do it all again.”

“What do you do during the day? Besides teaching me to swim and saving me from reporters with no boundaries?”

He took a long pull on his beer. “Chores.”

I looked around the room. It was spotless, but I figured that was housekeeping’s doing. A resort like this, they probably magically appeared to whisk messes away the moment they happened. If I dropped a candy wrapper it would be gone before it touched the ground.

“You have chores?”

“Yiayia and Proyiayia save them up for me during the year. Used to whitewash the houses with some of my cousins during the summer, but now most summers I work, so I come during rainy season at home. The small stable at the house for their donkey? I built that.”

I couldn’t keep my eyes off his hands at that point. There was no denying Nick Merrick was devastatingly handsome, but his hands … there were on a whole other plane. There was something so deeply sexy about a man who could make something out of nothing with his hands.

“So it’s not really a vacation then?”

He shrugged. “Used to mind, when I was younger. Now, not so much. Keeps me busy.”

I tore my eyes away from those capable hands to find his face. “What’s next on the agenda?”

“Thea Irini One needs repairs on her roof. She’s expecting me there tomorrow morning.”

There was something about the way he said it. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was, exactly, but it was something. “Is that a problem?”

“I told her I don’t do houses, and I definitely don’t do Greek houses. Rooftops are different here. Back home it’s mostly shingles. In Greece it’s terracotta, slate, or nothing. A lot of places have a flat, white or plain concrete roof with good drainage. They use their roofs to hang laundry and they’re white to help with cooling. Thea Irini One’s roof is flat. She needs someone qualified. My aunt can’t take no for an answer.”

“So don’t do it.”

He grimaced. “I promised her last year, and like an elephant, my aunt never forgets. Since then, circumstances have changed.”

Like him. He’d changed but I wasn’t sure how or why.