Mackinnons #02 For All the Right Reasons by Elaine Coffman Page B

and her apron on. He watched her as she busied herself with taking the rather pitiful assortment of dishes and utensils out of the cupboards. “There’s enough dirt in here to plant a garden,” she said.
    Alex picked up the bucket she had placed on the table. “I’ll get you some water.”
    When he came back a few minutes later, he could see results already. Everything had been dusted and put back into place. He watched silently as she pulled a chair over to the cabinet and stood on the counter so she could dust the top shelves. Her waist didn’t look big as a minute from where he stood. “Where do you want the water?” he asked.
    She didn’t miss a beat. “Just put it on the table.” She was down before he could blink an eye, grabbing the broom and pushing it toward him. “You wanted to borrow a broom, I believe?”
    He eyed the broom. “Did I say that?”
    “You did,” she said, shoving the broom into his hands. “You do know how to use a broom, don’t you?”
    “I’ve a fair recollection,” he said. He laughed then, his hands going around the broom, his fingers brushing hers. He gave a slight tug. She flinched and pulled her hands away.
    He watched her step away, color dotting her cheeks as she turned back to what she had been doing, leaving him to wonder why he didn’t leave instead of standing there. He had no answer for that. He looked at her slim back as she tackled the grimy kitchen window. He had known Katherine all his life and she had always been his friend, someone he could talk to. But now he felt as awkward as hell. He looked at the broom in his hands. He looked at Katherine’s back. With a puzzled look on his face, he walked slowly from the room.
    By the time he finished sweeping the rest of the house and walked back into the kitchen, Katherine had everything in apple pie order. So much order, in fact, that he was amazed. Everything in the room had been dusted and rubbed down. The wood on the cabinets was darker than the cupboards due to the rubbing of lemon oil, and he guessed the table too, although he couldn’t see it for the blue and white tablecloth she had spread over the top. There were even flowers in the center—a few buttercups mixed with heavily scented stems of woodbine poking from a chipped enamel cup.
    “You work fast,” he said.
    She eyed the broom. “I can’t say the same about you.”
    He grinned. “And why is that?” he asked. “And here I was thinking I worked every bit as fast as you.”
    She laughed at that. “I work,” she said. “ You play.”
    “Were you spying on me?”
    “I didn’t have to.” He made a face and she laughed harder.
    “I’ll teach you to make fun of my housekeeping.” He made a dive for her. She shrieked and danced around the table, her eyes alive and sparkling with life. Wagging her finger at him, she spoke in her sassiest way, “I know you, Alex Mackinnon. You were never cut out for housework.”
    “You’re right about that,” he said, laughing, his eyes looking her over. “But neither were you.”
    “Oh, posh!”
    He made another lunge and she darted around the kitchen table, but she wasn’t as quick this time. His arm came out and curled around her waist, yanking her back against him.
    “It’s true,” he said, the smile disappearing from his face as his eyes looked her over even slower this time, from the top of her glossy auburn head to the tips of her worn shoes peeking from beneath her well-worn hem, hitting all the points in between. She was about to say something else, but seeing his eyes upon her as they were she could only stammer.
    She had never felt such a bumbling fool in front of him. “You’d better let me go,” she said in a breathless way, “or Adrian will be madder than an old wet hen when he returns and finds you’ve been playing while he was away.”
    “Yes,” said a feminine voice from the doorway. “You’d better let her go.”
     

Chapter Five
     
    Alex whirled around, his face lighting