Shaving her legs would have to wait, even though it really couldn’t, but she needed to wash the suds out of her hair at least. She hung the suction-cup rod back in place; then, taking a deep breath and summoning all the courage she could muster, she ducked her head under the freezing water.

Her breath came in a succession of short gasps as the drops cascaded down her back. Dancing from one foot to the other, she struggled to stay beneath the stream, but fear of hypothermia had her shutting off the taps within seconds. Goose bumps, the size of golf balls, appeared on her skin, despite the sweltering heat in the un-air-conditioned bathroom.

Shivering, she wrapped her towel around herself and slid her feet into a pair of slippers.

Her hair, soapy and flat to her head, the strands dripping down her back, she rushed downstairs and out onto the front deck. Making her way to the side of the house, she stopped when Wes’s ladder came into view, propped against the side.

“Wes!” Damn, this was embarrassing. It might have been better to let him catch her in her pajamas, but she needed to finish her shower and hit the road as soon as possible. “Wes!” she called louder over the hammering.

He stopped and bent his head lower beneath the awning to see her. “Good morning.”

“Nope. Not even close,” she muttered. She gripped the towel tighter at the top of her breasts with one hand and tried to yank it lower with the other, suddenly aware of how small it was. A warm ocean breeze blew across her legs, reminding her of how long it had been since she’d shaved them.

Damn. Could he see how hairy they were from that distance?

His gaze drinking her in made her wish she’d braved the cold water a little longer. The hot sun beating down on her wasn’t to blame for the heat rushing through her core. It wasn’t lust or desire in Wes’s eyes scanning her, but a hint of amusement.

No doubt he was thinking that she hadn’t changed a bit since high school. So much for trying to rewrite the local perception.

“There’s no hot water,” she said.

“Oh shit, sorry. I thought you’d be done by now. The plumber arrived and needed to shut the hot water off to do some repairs. As promised in the quote, we’re replacing the hot water tank with a higher efficiency unit.”

She’d appreciate that once she was dressed and dried off and all the soap was out of her hair, perhaps. “Can he turn it back on just for a few minutes?” She hadn’t exactly been prepared for him to start the renovations that day, but she vaguely remembered agreeing to it after the second bottle of wine the evening before.