“What?” Seth asked, looking at her with his dark brows pinched together.
“Everett isn’t one of your hired models,” she whispered heatedly. Seth gave her a bewildered glance. Joy shook her head in frustrated disgust. She stalked out of the kitchen down the hallway.
“Everett?” she called around the partially open door that she knew led to Katie and Rill’s bedroom.
“Joy?” he said. He stuck his head around an interior door. He already had shaving cream spread on his chin. Joy hurried into the bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it had obviously been recently remodeled and was decorated in comfortable luxury.
“You don’t have to shave right now. Not if you don’t want to.”
He blinked. She noticed the large smear of shaving cream still in his right hand.
“What, did Katie say lunch was ready? Should I shave afterward?”
“No . . . no, I mean . . .” She paused, flustered. “It was . . . it was just the way Seth said it to you, that’s all.”
He continued to look at her like she was speaking a language he hadn’t yet mastered.
“Like you were an inanimate object. He said to shave off your goatee so he could experiment with makeup without even thinking twice about it.”
Everett’s expression shifted. “Why should Seth think twice about it? I didn’t. It’s just hair.”
“Well, yeah, but—” She broke off and made a futile gesture with her hand. “It’s your hair. I . . .”
“What?” Everett persisted when she faded off, his focus on her sharp.
“I happen to like your goatee,” she burst out.
“You do?” He leaned his thigh against the marble countertop of the sink as if he was settling in for a nice, long conversation of interest. Joy experienced a need to backpedal.
“I just mean . . . he shouldn’t have talked to you that way. Shave it off when production begins. You don’t have to do it right this second just because Seth mentioned it.”
He smiled slowly. Joy blushed and took a step back.
“Do whatever you want. I just thought—”
“You just thought you’d try to stop me from shaving because you’ve become partial to my goatee,” he said, his eyes taking on that heated gleam to which she was also becoming partial.
“You are as bigheaded as Katie says,” she mumbled. “I just didn’t like the way Seth said it so flippantly. That’s all.”
Everett straightened and held out the hand that didn’t have any shaving cream in it. He came closer and draped it around her shoulder, halting her exit.
“I’d prefer to think you’ve become partial to my goatee. Can I just go on believing that version of things?”
Her annoyed glance faded when she saw the humor in his eyes.
“If you like,” she said quietly. “Everett, don’t!” she cried when he started to kiss her, forgetting the shaving cream on his face.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, although he didn’t look it. He sobered when he met her stare. He smoothed her short hair and paused to caress the top of her ear with his fingertips. She’d had no idea the little fold of flesh was so sensitive, she thought as a shiver coursed down her spine.
“It really is just hair, Joy. I couldn’t care less. If you don’t want me to shave for a while, though, I won’t.”
“No. No, of course not. It’s got nothing to do with me,” she said, mortified now that she’d ever brought the whole thing up.
“I’ll let you be the judge of that,” he murmured soberly before he went back to his task.
* * *
Joy helped Rill clean up the lunch dishes while Katie fed Daisy and put her down for a nap and Everett