The kitchen area’s small, which is something I’m grateful for when the world seems too big. All the prep surfaces are against the wall, so I’m facing away from Rosey while I dice onions and press garlic. I listen as she talks to the cat and makes the odd comment on the local weather map.

“Oh, that sounds promising, doesn’t it?” she asks.

“What does?” I ask. I haven’t been listening to anything but the chop of the knife and Rosey’s chatter. It’s oddly meditative.

“They think wind speeds are coming down.”

“They can just as easily climb back up.”

“Let me check outside.”

“Rosey—”

“I’m just going to stand on the porch to see if the rain has started up again.”

She closes the door behind her, but not before a cold swirl of air whooshes inside to curl around my ankles.

She comes back inside. “It’s very black, but it’s not raining.”

“It’s not due to restart until around five tomorrow morning.”

“Star Falls has been good to me so far,” she says. “I have faith this place will come through the storm okay.”

I hope she’s right.

When all my ingredients are in the pan and the hours-long simmering process has begun, I turn to find Rosey staring at me. Has she been watching me the entire time I’ve been cooking? Our eyes lock, and a bolt of energy passes between us, like she knows I’ve been thinking about how she’d taste if I kissed her… everywhere. Like I know she’s thinking about how hard my chest would feel if she pressed her palm against it.

Her mouth parts. She runs her tongue across her bottom lip.

I’m mesmerized.

I’m good at compartmentalizing—like how I keep New York and the Colorado Club separate. How I don’t think about how I’m missing Monday nights with the guys while I’m in Star Falls. I don’t let myself think about how I walked away from everything I knew when I got to New York. I should be able to put Rosey in the box marked “employee” and move on.

But if I’d done that, I’d be up in the Colorado Club now, not down here in the cabins. I wouldn’t have been there when her ceiling started to leak. I wouldn’t be here now, wondering how I’m going to resist her for a full night.

“You want a drink?” I ask.

She nods, not taking her gaze from mine.

I don’t move to make her one. “Anything else you want?” I ask.

She nods again.