“Looking for a pregnant woman and a donkey.”
“That’s not funny,” his father said.
“Neither is you turning up on Caroline’s doorstep.”
“I need a place to stay. The pub is full, and all the B&Bs—the whole three of them—have guests coming in. Guests that want to ogle your farce of a wedding.”
Josh folded his arms and glared down at his father. “Yep, that’s exactly the right thing to say to get us to take you in.”
“Helen threw me out. It’s only for a night or two.”
“Don’t ask me.” Josh cocked a thumb at Caroline. “Ask Caroline. It’s her house.”
Brilliant. Now he’d offloaded it on her. She bugged her eyes out at him in reproach. Then she looked back to his father. He was still as unflinching and cantankerous as he’d been when she’d first met him. Only this time there was pain in his eyes. The man was hurting.
“Of course Josh’s father is welcome to stay.” She hop
ed she sounded convinced, because she definitely didn’t feel it.
Josh sighed beside her. When she looked up at him, his lips thinned and his eyebrow went up. She raised her palms in a “what could I do?” gesture. He shook his head in disgust.
Enough of this. Caroline pushed past the two of them to open the door. Two hulking men, who barely fit in her home, followed her into the kitchen.
“Got any beer?” His father dumped a heavy bag on the floor.
“Uh, no,” Caroline told him.
The man’s expression made it clear that he considered her lack of beer to be another failure on her part.
“Yeah, we do.” Josh opened the fridge. He caught Caroline’s eye and gave her a small smile. “I’m going to be here a while, so I stocked up.”
Caroline bit back a snarky comment. “The bathroom is upstairs, Andrew. There’s another bed in the room Josh is staying in. You can take that.”
“Don’t bother.” Josh finished taking a swallow of his beer. “The beds are so short, half your legs hang off. Better take the couch. It’s next door.”
Without a word, Andrew lifted his beer, and his bag, and strode to the living room. Oh yeah, having him around was going to be delightful. Caroline rushed up the stairs to grab some bedding from the closet in her bedroom. She stopped dead—her bedroom door was gone.
“Josh!”
His face appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “I was going to mention that.” He gave her a cheeky smile.
“Where is my door?” It took all of her self-control not to start throwing things at his head.
“I removed it. That way you won’t lock me out again.”
She ground her teeth. “Bring back my door.”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow, baby. Right now we have more important things to deal with.” He cocked his head towards the living room and his father.
“You’re going to regret this,” she promised.
“I thought I might,” he mumbled as he headed back to his dad.
Caroline resisted the urge to kick the wall nearest her. What was she supposed to do without a bedroom door? There were two men in her house. Two men she hardly knew—even though she couldn’t keep her hands off one of them—and she didn’t even have privacy in her bedroom. She eyed the guest room. That had a door. Maybe she should sleep in there. That would serve Josh right. She looked back at her large, soft bed and let out an angry mewl. Her bedroom was the one place in the house where the décor reflected her. The one place she felt at peace. She’d be damned if she’d give it up for Josh. Let him sleep on the tiny beds. Door or no door, he wasn’t getting her bedroom.
Fuming, Caroline grabbed some bedding and stomped back down the stairs. She found Andrew sitting in the middle of the sofa with a TV remote in his hand. His eyes glued to the spot above the fireplace. For a second Caroline was confused, then she turned to find a brand new flat-screen where a painting of a swan used to be.
Caroline pointed at the TV. “What’s that?”