Billionaire Bachelors: Garrett. Anne Marie Winston

they get around it by hiring part-time help,” she said succinctly. She shrugged, and lifted out a large box. “The flexibility works just as well for me.”

      He started down the path. “Follow me and I’ll give you the nickel tour of the cottage. I had the caretakers clean and open it earlier today.” But he couldn’t keep himself from wondering why she worked two low-paying jobs. She seemed bright enough. Surely she could find something more suitable. She did, answered his cynical side. Bewitching an old man.

      Unaware of his thoughts, she said, “Good idea.” She hefted her box with both hands. “I’ll have to go and meet them. Did you tell them I’d be arriving?”

      “No,” he said shortly.

      There was silence behind him as they came to the porch. He set down the bags and unlocked the door, then picked them up and shouldered his way through the door, leaving her to follow with her unwieldy box. She wasn’t there by his choice, he told himself fiercely, and he wasn’t going to spend thirty-one days being courteous, holding doors and carrying everything in sight. In fact, it was probably better if they established ground rules first thing.

      He headed straight for the stairs, ignoring her, and took his bags to his bedroom. When he came down again, she was still standing in the living room, looking out through the plate glass at the lake. It was nearly dark now so he knew she couldn’t see much.

      He said, “The bedroom to the left at the top of the stairs is mine. You can have the other one that has a lake view. The one to the back is—” he caught himself “—was Robin’s den.”

      She nodded.

      “This is the living room and back there is the dining area. Those doors lead to the deck. The kitchen’s through here and—” he moved through the house “—this is my office. There’s a half bathroom in the hall and a full one upstairs. Laundry room is opposite the downstairs bath.” He paused as he realized just how intimate this enforced cohabitation was going to be. “Tomorrow we’ll make up a schedule of who gets the bathroom and the kitchen at what times. You’ll have to help chop and stack wood, too.”

      Her eyebrows rose. “You don’t buy it by the cord?”

      He shook his head. “Nope. A lot of it’s broken limbs we salvage from the previous winter’s storms. If you want to share this place fifty-fifty, you’ll have to share half the work.” He doubted she was used to lifting a finger to do much more than some light cleaning. After all, she’d sold her own home rather than deal with maintenance and upkeep. Cleaning. “The caretaker’s wife comes in once a week to clean,” he told her, “but you’ll have to do your own laundry, dishes and pick up any messes you make.”

      She simply nodded.

      There was an awkward silence.

      “Well,” he said. “I guess I’ll finish unloading.”

      Ana awoke to the sound of a bird trilling insistently right outside her window the next morning. The quality of the light coming through her window told her it still was very early. She’d been exhausted after the long drive and unloading her car last night, and she hadn’t expected to wake at dawn, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep now.

      She threw back the light blanket and sheet with which she’d made her bed last night. Roadkill, the cat, leaped off the foot of the mattress where she’d been sleeping with a startled hiss and disappeared beneath the bed. She chuckled. “Relax, girl. I bet you’ll come out of there fast enough when I return bearing food.” She sat up and put her feet on the floor. Brrr! Even in midsummer, the night was cool.

      Sliding her feet into sandals, she went to the window. Her bedroom looked out over the lake, and from this floor, she could see the earliest of the sun’s rays making the water sparkle and dance, casting outsize shadows from anything in its path. The cabin was situated on the west side of the little lake, facing the sun, and its warmth was just beginning to steal over the horizon. She’d stopped at the little general store for directions and soda last night, and the clerk had told her the lake was small. But looking north and south, she couldn’t see either end. Across the lake, there was a wooded shore. Farther down, just one other house peeked from between the trees, its dock floating out from the shore into the water.