Chapter Eight

Elise sat straight up in bed, jolted awake by a noise she couldn’t quite identify. She sat silently for a moment, straining her ears to listen.

It had almost sounded like… like a scream.

It was high and piercing, and if she didn’t know better, she would have sworn it was human, but instead, was probably a coyote searching for its pack.

Not hearing anything else, she realized she was wide awake now and going back to sleep was an impossibility. Stretching, she climbed out of bed and walked slowly to the window, the sun just breaking across the horizon of the lake below.

A movement near the beach caught her eye, and she craned her head to see what…

Oh.

OH.

Mr. Hale – Tucker – whatever she was supposed to call him, was swimming in the lake, his arms carving powerful strokes through the water as he swam parallel to the shore. She watched him for several long minutes, as he appeared not to tire, not to flag in his rhythmic swimming back and forth for quite a distance. Eventually, he made for the shore and stood, water streaming down his body.

His, well, his almost entirely unclothed body.

Despite the chill of the water, Mr. Hale was wearing only a small, form fitting bathing suit as though the water temperature was nothing to be concerned about. Having dipped her toes in the lake the day before, she knew the water to be freezing cold.

He sluiced the water from his hair with a sweep of his hands and began to rapidly dry off with a towel he’d dropped nearby.

Much as she hated to notice it on her new employer, Mr. Hale had a nice body – toned and taut, lean in all the right places, his chest covered with a dusting of dark hair, his legs long and muscled.

Definitely not her type, she assured herself, but a fine specimen of a man.

He glanced up, as though feeling her gaze, and she shot away from the window, hoping he hadn’t seen her.

God, how mortifying if he had.

#

Tucker wasn’t positive, but he had a feeling someone was watching him as he dried off on the beach.

He glanced at all the windows, but didn’t see anyone.

He vigorously dried off, and then ran the towel over his hair as he began walking back up to the house, trying to get the blood flowing from the cold water.

He had to start his day with a swim, no matter how cold. Somehow it reset any bad days, and set him up for good days – and it helped to keep him in shape without having to do something tedious like jog or lift weights over and over.

Tucker Hale hated to be bored.

If he wasn’t working, he was reading, or traveling, or collecting or something. Idleness didn’t come to the Hales easily – he’d learned that from his father.

He glanced up again, noting that the curtains to Elise’s room appeared to be open now. She must be an early riser, he mused, stepping into the house and heading for the master suite.

His new roommate, to say the least, intrigued him. She seemed at once timid and afraid, and yet with a spark about her when pushed – and with an edge of sarcasm to boot. Her credentials from the University of Northern Iowa and her teacher recommendations were top notch, so he couldn’t help but wonder why a young girl like her would choose isolation over a regular school setting, or living in a place with lots of people and bars and excitement like most twenty somethings. The Upper Peninsula wasn’t exactly known as a hotbed of activity, unless it was of the outdoorsy type.

She seemed… fragile, but determined not to let people know it. He’d sensed that the moment he met her, though he would never tell her that.

She seemed a capable sort of person, and Betsy had already raved about how much she liked Elise – and apparently she made ‘good food’ according to Betsy.

He was looking forward to finding that out for himself, he thought, realizing he was starving, not having really eaten dinner the night before, what with settling in and all.

He knew he had a ton of phone calls to make today – his distributor was making noises about being late again – but he found himself instead drawn to spending time with Betsy, and Elise and Rose and whoever else was around.

When he’d been in Oregon last week, he’d spent an evening at the home of one of his father’s old business associates, and found himself unexpectedly jealous. The man was successful and financially secure, same as Tucker, but had a wife and two kids, and they were obviously all crazy about each other. They even had the requisite Golden Retriever to complete the perfect family portrait.

Without realizing it, Tucker wished he had family.

With his parents gone, and now his sister, he was alone in the world, save Betsy. And he wanted to know her before she was grown and gone.

And maybe he needed to get a dog, too.

Laughing to himself, he pawed through his closet for something clean to wear, even as he mind wandered back to Elise.

She had flashing green eyes he’d noticed immediately, and thick hair a man could lose himself in. Her smile was fleeting, but pretty when it appeared, and though she was hidden behind a baggy sweater and jeans, he sensed a full, round body underneath the clothes.

Tucker had always like a woman with a figure, and an appetite.

God, he really was starved for affection if he was musing on the underneath of his new employee’s clothes.

His very young employee, he reminded himself. By his calculations, she couldn’t be more than twenty four or twenty five, years younger than his own thirty six.

Get it together, Hale, he ordered himself as he tugged on a clean flannel button down shirt and dug around for his favorite faded jeans.

Get it together, and spend some time with your family today, he repeated, bounding down the stairs towards the smell of coffee in the kitchen.

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