He held his arms out wide. “I’m here, aren’t I?” He fished the keys out of his khaki shorts and unlocked the door. “Besides, I’m not taking any criticisms from a woman that lives out of her suitcase.”
“Touché.” She smiled, slipping past him into the dark, empty house.
As promised, the tour was short. They made a pit stop in the master suite to christen the king-size bed, then slipped into their swimsuits and took a dip in the cool turquoise pool in the backyard. Like children, they splashed each other and roughhoused in the water, then ambitiously napped in lounge chairs until the rumbling of their empty stomachs distracted them.
Without room service to call on, they wandered into the kitchen to see what Ella had left for them. An ivory note card on the counter informed them about the fixings for homemade pizza in the refrigerator.
“Do you think we can handle this?” Annie looked dubiously at the ball of dough on the counter.
“Oh, come on,” Nate prodded, scooping an armful of food off the shelf. “Certainly we can manage a pizza. Ella’s already done most of the work. It will be fun to try, at least. If it’s a disaster, we can order something later. Here.” He slid a few tomatoes and a pouch of fresh basil across the granite countertop. “You get the toppings for the pizza ready while I work on the dough.”
Nate assembled the pizza, ladling Ella’s homemade sauce and spreading fresh mozzarella slices on the crust. He watched Annie out of the corner of his eye as she worked busily, cutting tomatoes. She looked really beautiful today. Yes, she looked sexy almost all of the time, but most definitely beautiful now. The pool had washed away all traces of her makeup. Her long dark hair was still damp, the thick, corded strands running down her bare back. Her golden skin seemed even darker against the stark white of her bikini. She’d wrapped a colorful cotton fabric around her waist, tying it in a knot slung low at her hip bone. It hid the tiny white string bikini bottoms she’d pressed against him in the pool.
She caught him watching her and she smiled, giggling in a girlish way that made his chest ache unexpectedly. Annie away from the casino was like a new person. She didn’t just look different, she acted different. In only a few hours’ time, he’d gotten to see a more casual, easygoing version of her. He liked this Annie even more than his superconfident but guarded card shark.
But that wasn’t all of it. There was something familiar and soothing about the banality of their actions. Making lunch together in his house away from the casino...it was more significant a moment than he’d expected.
Yes, making love to her again had been great, but this kind of experience seemed important in a different way. They’d never had any real domestic moments together. Suddenly that bothered him more than he wanted it to. They’d never had a real marriage. They’d just had some fantasy honeymoon that existed only within the walls of his hotel. His work quickly became her prison. Making lunch, watching television, even grocery shopping were things they’d never experienced together and it made him sad. Perhaps they would’ve had a shot if they’d done this three years ago.
This week was supposed to be about making Annie miserable and finally being able to put her out of his mind for good, but he wasn’t getting over Annie as he’d planned. The more he had her, the more he wanted of her. He should’ve just signed the divorce papers instead of luring her back here.
“You have sauce on your cheek.”
Nate looked up, his thoughts disturbed. “What?”
Annie reached out and wiped a dab of renegade marinara off his face. She licked it off her finger and smiled. “Ella makes wonderful tomato sauce.”
“She does. It makes me want to stay at the house more often so she can cook for me all the time.”
“Why don’t you?”
Nate shrugged, scooping a few tomato slices off the counter and scattering them on the pizza. The answer was that there was really nothing to come home to. Work always needed him. This empty house, not so much. If he’d had a family, it would be a different story. “No real reason to be here, I suppose.”
“Then why do you have a house?”
“I bought it when the market was low, so it’s a good investment. Someplace to go when I need to get away from work. And...” He hesitated before completing the thought. “I’d hoped that I’d get married one day and have a family here.” He looked up at Annie with a playful grin. “That hasn’t quite panned out for me yet.”