And then she’d taken on the herculean task of cleaning up that lobby that smelled like it hadn’t had a deep scrub down in months.
But could Mr. High and Mighty acknowledge any of that?
I think you missed a spot.
She fumed about it the whole drive home.
The nice guy from last night was definitely all mirage.
Isobel mopped her sweaty forehead with her forearm and then wrinkled her nose when she caught sight of herself in the little mirror on the sun visor.
Or maybe he just got a good look at you in the light of day.
Because God, did she look like a wreck.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the ugliest of them all?
Her hair was coming out from her ponytail everywhere, except from the very front where sweat had slicked little wisps against her forehead.
She pulled in front of the ranch house and parked. She angled the mirror to take a better look at herself.
Oh God. No wonder Hunter was so eager to rehash last night. Ugh.
She slammed the visor back up and squeezed her eyes shut. She and mirrors had a bad track record and she knew better than to look.
“Enough.” She gritted her teeth, then grabbed her purse and headed inside.
She was looking forward to a long bath and some time to decompress, but the first thing she heard after she walked in the door was her name being called out.
“Isobel!”
Startled, she looked over toward the open room and saw one of the twins jogging toward her. He was the one with the dreadlocks. What was his name again?
“You’re just in time for dinner.”
“Oh.” She glanced around at the meatloaf and mashed potatoes heaped on everyone’s plates. “That’s okay, I’m not—”
“It’s Reece,” he said, pointing at himself. “I don’t know about you, but I always mix up people’s names when I first meet them.” He smiled warmly. “Come on, you can meet everyone properly.” He put his hand to her upper back and started herding her toward the table where they were all sitting.
He was being nice and she didn’t want to come off as a bitch, just running away to her room the first night. She took a deep breath and pasted on a smile. Even though she felt like scuttling and hiding behind the curtains at the way all the eyes in the room were zeroed in on her.
Liam was seated beside Reece’s twin Jeremiah. He gave her a blatant once over and then grinned unabashedly. She tried not to wince when she remembered that she looked like death warmed over. Mack just glanced over his shoulder at her then went back to his food while Nicholas gave her a welcoming head nod.
“Mel and Xavier have already gone up for the night,” Reece explained. “I usually put the boys down before dinner. Bossman likes having the wife to himself in the evenings.”
“To think, they actually need a break from our fabulous and magnanimous company,” Liam shook his head.
“Hi again, everyone.” Isobel gave a short, awkward wave.
Reece urged her toward the side table where the food sat steaming in heated chafing dishes. “What’s your pleasure? We’ve got meatloaf tonight. Green beans, along with a vegetable medley over here to the right. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Biscuits. A little bit of everything?”
Isobel’s eyes widened as she took it all in.
Calories.
Fat.
CARBS.