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“Hi.” Kate stood at the door. After her sisters left in their bathing suits and flip-flops, she dashed upstairs and changed into fitted jeans and a relaxed white t-shirt. She’d already blown her hair out that morning and felt that only a quick smear of lip gloss and light coat of mascara would be enough to greet Matt.
She was right. He grinned broadly from the welcome mat. “Hi, Kate.”
The moment would be perfect for some affectionate gesture, but she might not execute it well and instead fumble awkwardly through a side hug or force him to kiss her ear instead of her cheek. The smooth thing to do was wait for his lead.
A shared chuckle took the place of their momentary silence. The opportunity passed, and Kate’s heart sank a little, but that was okay. They had time.
The plan for that day was for Matt to take measurements for her in the basement and start creating an informal blueprint for her plans to add additional guest rooms. Once they were downstairs, he also offered to help her go through the boxes and bins and move out the furniture. On a whim, she accepted, but mostly because she didn’t want him to leave quite yet, even if they would be seeing each other on a more regular basis.
“You don’t have another project going on today, do you? I’d hate to keep you from your real work,” Kate asked as she brought down two tinkling glasses of iced tea. Matt had grabbed a dolly from the bed of his truck and was pulling stacks of boxes from one corner for her to peek into and decide about.
He eased the dolly down, his hand gripping the box on top. “I have to be home by five to cook dinner with Viviana, but otherwise I’m all yours.”
Warmth flooded Kate’s heart. A man raising a daughter alone tugged at her heart. She wondered how he would have been with Clara. She wondered how he was with Viviana. Kate swallowed a lump in her throat. “Tell me about her.”
“About Viv?” he replied.
“Yes. I have a sudden urge to know everything about your life.”
He grinned and rolled the dolly to a new stack, and Kate realized she’d better start doing her part or they would never get out of that basement. The one where there used to be an old set of sofas, situated around a thin limp rug, board games piled high in the corner between the sofas.
Rolling over another stack of dusty, decaying cardboard, Matt gave her a pointed look. “What about you?” he asked. “Tell me about your sons.”
Pride flooded Kate. She wasn’t the sort of mother to pull out a photo of her handsome boys and flash it in the checkout line at Town and Country, but when given the chance, Kate was liable to talk a man’s ear off on the subject. She tried to refrain, but details poured out. Matt listened on as she shared their academic pursuits. Both boys wanted to be engineers like their dad. They eschewed frat life in favor of intra-murals and other on-campus clubs. Ben had a serious girlfriend. They called her every Sunday. She tried not to bug them during the week too much.
“They sound a lot like you,” Matt observed when she stopped for a breath.
Kate smiled. “I’d like to think so. I miss them a lot, but I know they’re happy. One day, I think they might settle somewhere near here. They claim to be city boys, but we’ll see about that.” She flipped open the four flaps of a box nearby and peered inside. Mottled, dust-caked afghans. A sigh escaped her mouth. “Keep,” she mumbled, drawing a finger toward the side of the staircase they’d designated for Things to be Dealt with Later. “And Viviana? I love her name, by the way.”
“It’s Italian, if that’s not obvious. I had to fight my ex a little. She wanted something white bread and midwestern. Even Vivian would have been a stretch.” He chuckled, but Kate knew better than to engage in that particular line of discussion. The laugh fell away, and Matt’s expression darkened. “Viv is incredibly smart. Too smart for her own good, if I’m honest.”
“I think that’s the norm with teenage girls.”
“Maybe.” He sighed. Instinctively, Kate knew there was a lot more to the story, but she was not bold enough or rude enough to pry.
Licking her lips, she found a response. “With a father like you, I can’t imagine she’s anything less than perfect.”
Grinning again, Matt fixed his gaze on Kate. “You do like me, don’t you?”
She flushed and grabbed a dusty throw pillow from the next box she’d opened. “Don’t tempt me,” she warned, holding it up like a teenager at a sleepover.
Matt pushed his hands forward. “Don’t start something you can’t finish, Katherine Nora Hannigan.”
At that, Kate lowered the pillow. Her lips curled up at the corners. “Actually, Matt,” she began, taking a slow step closer to him. “I think we already started this. Thirty years ago.”
***
With the basement well underway and an afternoon of innuendo and flirtation (and only one surprising visit from her nosey sisters), Kate and Matt climbed up the stairs and into the kitchen.
Her notepad was flipped open on the island, and as Kate took his glass and hers to the sink, she caught him peek at it.
“Call me a dreamer,” she confessed, trying to hide her embarrassment before he could tease her.
He covered for his snooping by shaking his head. “What do you mean?”
Kate indicated the list she had compiled. All the to-dos of setting up a small business. It looked silly when handwritten on lined paper with a pencil like she was some schoolkid. “I’m probably making a huge mistake,” she answered half-heartedly.
“I’m lost. A mistake regarding...” he passed his hand between them, and Kate felt her heartbeat double.
“Well that too.” Her skin grew warm beneath her t-shirt, and she wondered if he could see the splotchiness climbing up her neck, a dead giveaway for when Kate was overwhelmed with emotion.
Matt licked his lips. “Turning this place into a bed-and-breakfast is a no-brainer. You’re smart to do it. You’ll need help, though.” His voice deepened into a playful warning.
“I can’t disagree there.” Kate made a mock-serious face, narrowing her eyes and batting her lashes up at him, like a helpless damsel. Then she drew back, playing coy. “It’s a good thing I have my sisters for help.”
He smirked. “True. I guess you don’t need my help.”
Suddenly, they were standing just inches apart, and Kate had no idea how it happened. Was she floating toward him? Was there some magical magnetism at play? She didn’t know. She didn’t care. Leaning in, she hooked her hands on his shoulders and raised onto the balls of her feet. Matt lowered himself, gently holding her waist in his hands.
Had he done that ten years ago, she’d have squirmed away. She could stand to lose ten or fifteen pounds, and her body parts weren’t the same firm, supple accoutrements that they had been in high school. But Matt’s gentle touch and kind, weather-worn face made her feel at once at ease.
Kate pressed her lips to his cheek then whispered, “I don’t need you in my life, Matt.” He pushed away and stared at her, apparently caught off guard. She giggled before pulling her face back to his, kissing the other cheek and then adding, “I want you in my life.”