His concern would have been touching if Casey had been in the mood to be touched. “I am so sorry, Andrew. I was stuck in traffic on the bridge and then my car died.” At Andrew’s shocked look she rubbed one eye tiredly, further smearing her mascara. “I was just lucky that a mechanic was stuck right behind me.” Her tone was rueful. “He fiddled with my engine a bit and got it started. I have no idea what he did, but it works now. I was just going to go straight back home and call you, but the traffic was just as bad going back across the bridge and I couldn’t face it.” She glanced around uncomfortably. “I feel bad about showing up looking like this, but I just didn’t know what else to do….”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Andrew’s voice was almost angry. “Of course you were right to come here.” His tone softened as he rubbed an oil mark off her arm. “Now do you see why you need to carry that cell phone with you?”
“Yeah, I guess it would have been nice to have right about the time the car died.” She agreed.
“Come on up to the house. You can use my room to freshen up a bit.”
She smiled tiredly and reached up on tiptoe to give Andrew a quick kiss. “Thanks for caring but I just need a long cold drink, and I’ll be fine.” She stepped back a couple of paces and ran her fingers through her sweat-dampened hair. The beautifully coiffed ‘do’ of this morning had been transformed into a riot of untameable corkscrew curls.
He didn't argue, but was pretty sure she'd change her mind when she caught a glimpse of the disarray. "This way," he said. Allowing her to walk ahead of him he ushered her up the flagstone path into the house.
It was a beautiful house. Certainly not on the scale of the Hunter’s Bay retreat but lovely in it’s own right. It was a modern design. Low and sleek with stucco exterior and very few ground level windows in the front wall. Probably for security and privacy, Casey surmised as they stepped through the heavy oak door.
Andrew quickly escorted her across the living room to the stairway leading up to the bedrooms.
Casey shot him a wry look. “Where are you taking me?”
Reading her thoughts Andrew chuckled. “Don’t worry, I know you said a cool drink would be enough to help you feel better, but I think that you might want to get freshened up a bit, before I introduce you to my family.”
“Your family. Oh God, that’s right.” She ran a hand through her hair again. “I must look a wreck.”
“You look beautiful. A bit bedraggled, but still beautiful.”
“Bedraggled eh? Gee thanks, that makes me feel a lot better.” Casey retorted and stomped up the stairs. Andrew’s laughter followed her.
“In there.” Andrew pointed to the door leading to the guest room he had been using.
Casey opened the door and gasped. What a beautiful room, so bright and sunny, and that view. She walked over to the large plate glass window that looked out over the North Shore Mountains. “This is a great room. It’s beautifully decorated.” She turned back to face Andrew as he approached. He stood close enough to touch.
“I’ll pass the compliment on to my sister.” Andrew reached out and gently brushed a stray lock of hair off Casey’s forehead. He played with it absently. “If you’d like to take a shower…” He gestured towards a small door across the room. “There’s an en-suite bathroom through there and a robe you can use hanging on a hook on the back of the door.” He smiled briefly. “It’ll probably be way too big but it should do. Anything else you need should be under the sink… I think there’s even a hair dryer in there.” Removing his hand from her hair he turned and walked back toward the door. “I’ll wait for you in the kitchen. Just come on down when you’re ready.”
“Thanks, I’ll only be a minute.” Casey felt strangely alone when he walked out. As if he had taken some of the sunshine from the room. Shrugging off the feeling she rushed to get ready.
Casey looked at herself in the large oval mirror hanging over the sink and stopped dead. My God! No wonder Andrew was in such a hurry to get her into the shower. She looked like something the cat dragged in and then discarded in disgust.
Her hair was plastered to the top of her head and then curled wildly around ear level, the mascara that had been so carefully applied only an hour or two ago was smudged almost down to her cheek. She had chewed off all of her lipstick and to top it off there was a smudge of dirt and rust on one side of her jaw, probably from leaning out the car window, and a smear of black grease ran down her left arm from shoulder to elbow. She looked like a demented clown, although from Casey’s point of view there was really nothing funny about it.
She looked down at the light yellow cotton dress she had on and was relieved to see that it had survived relatively unscathed. It was a little wrinkled but had come through the trip without getting too dirty or sweat dampened. She smiled grimly at her reflection. Her antiperspirant hadn’t let her down either; the ads were right for a change.
Quickly stripping out of her dress, Casey hung it carefully on the hook behind the door and stepped into the glass shower stall. How decadent, she thought looking around her. She felt like one of those shower dancers at a strip club. Not that she’d actually ever seen one…Turning on the water, she cleaned off an hour’s worth of sweat and grime and running makeup.
Finishing, she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel hanging nearby. She placed the towel against her face and breathed deeply. The towel smelled like Andrew. Mmmm, she sighed, just like him: strong, spicy and very masculine. How very intimate. The thought popped unbidden into her head. She blushed and, embarrassed, finished drying off, glad that no one could read her mind.
Casey put her dress back on, dried her hair and re-applied her makeup. Much better. She gave the bathroom a quick cleaning up and went in search of her date.