She set down her cup with a thump. “Come with you? Tomorrow?”
He studied her closely. “Yes. Every task you just listed for your job can be done on a computer in my home office. Someone else can sit at the reception desk while you handle the marketing, right? I mean, that’s the part of your job you specifically trained for and that you like the best.”
She planned to take over the marketing and events scheduling full-time after the baby was born. The family had already discussed hiring someone from outside to run the reception desk full-time so it wouldn’t have to divide her time any longer, especially with a baby to care for. Lori was available to man the desk during her summer break, with Mimi there to relieve her, so certainly it would be possible for Hannah to take off for another couple of days. Which didn’t mean she was going to do so.
“I don’t think it’s necessary for me to actually leave the resort. You pointed out yourself that I’ll be surrounded by family—probably more than usual now. I’ll be safe while you’re away.”
Andrew shook his head. “It isn’t just your safety—though I have to confess that’s the most compelling reason I’m asking. You have to admit it’s been almost impossible for us to have a long, serious discussion here. Every time we start, we’re interrupted. We could talk in Dallas over dinners. Make some plans, some decisions. And maybe I could introduce you to my parents. You’d like my mom. You know she’s a senior partner in an ad agency, right? The two of you actually have quite a bit in common.”
She swallowed hard. His parents. Her child’s other grandparents. Of course she should meet them, because they would be an important part of her daughter’s life—but not yet. Surely she could face that ordeal later.
He must have seen the panic in her expression. His face softened. “Hannah, it’s time for us to...”
Someone knocked loudly on her front door, cutting through his words. Andrew sighed. “See what I mean?”
She was already on her feet and moving toward the door, seizing the interruption with relief bordering on sheepish cowardice.
“It’s probably Aaron,” Andrew said, rising more slowly from the table. “He’s meeting me here this morning to get a closer look around the place in daylight.”
Rather than Aaron, she found her father standing on her porch, a piece of broken railing in his hand and a frown of concern on his weathered face. “Hannah, what on earth happened here? You didn’t fall, did you?”
“No, Dad, I didn’t fall. But Andrew did.”
He looked both relieved and worried in response to that information. “Is he hurt?”
“I’m fine, Bryan,” Andrew said, moving to stand behind her.
Her dad studied Andrew’s bruised face, and she wondered if he was asking himself what Andrew was doing there so early. “You’d better come in, Dad. We need to talk to you about what happened.”
Shaking his head, her father glared down at the board in his hand as he entered. “I can’t figure out how this would have happened. I built that porch and railing myself. I’ve never seen one just snap like this.”
“It didn’t exactly snap,” Andrew said, motioning him toward the table. “Let me get you some coffee and I’ll tell you about it.”
If her dad had questions about Andrew’s presence there or his apparent comfort in Hannah’s kitchen, he was too distracted by last night’s events to mention it. It was all Hannah and Andrew could do to talk him out of storming off to find Chuck Cavender after he heard about the deliberate damage to the handrail. Maybe Andrew didn’t try very hard to stop him, because he still seemed inclined to confront Chuck himself.
“I never liked that man,” Hannah’s dad muttered. “I tried to be civil while Hannah and Wade were married, but there’s nothing to stop me from whupping his ass now.”
Hannah’s father was not a violent man; in fact, he was one of the kindest, gentlest men she knew—unless anyone threatened his family. “We don’t even know it was Chuck,” she reminded him. “Let Andrew and Aaron look into it, okay?”
“I don’t want you staying alone. You need to move back into the house with your mom and me until this is settled.”
Hannah sighed. Why was everyone so determined not to leave her alone? She really was capable of taking care of herself. “We’ll talk about it later, Dad.”
“Perhaps it’s best if we don’t discuss this in front of your grandmother right now,” he suggested. “The past few weeks have been a bit too eventful for her.”
“She may have already heard,” Hannah warned him. “Maggie and Shelby and Aaron and Steven all know about it. They were around when Andrew fell.”
“You should have called me,” her dad chided.
“There was nothing you could do last night,” she replied with a shrug. “And, um, Andrew’s been keeping an eye on things here—just as a precaution. An unnecessary precaution, I’m sure.”
She wouldn’t mention just how close an eye Andrew had kept on her last night, of course.
Her dad nodded toward Andrew. “I appreciate your watching out for her.”
Andrew gave Hannah a quick, wry look before replying, “My pleasure.”
Her dad went out to look at the porch again, promising to have it repaired that very morning.