Night Whispers - Leslie Kelly [13]
Mitch bit back a retort. He hadn’t meant to patronize her. But he’d promised her parents she’d be safe living in Baltimore. He hadn’t been around to keep an eye on her for the first several months, but intended to remedy that starting right now. He was going to look after her whether she liked it or not.
Kelsey saw the caretaker look in his eye and was not in the mood to deal with it. No way was she going to start explaining to him about Night Whispers and hear his lecture about why she shouldn’t do it. That would come soon enough.
“Thanks for your help. I’ll see you later,” Kelsey said as she tried to stack the two laundry baskets together.
Mitch grabbed one away from her and said, “Let me help.”
Kelsey moved toward the heavy oak door that led into the hallway. The hall extended along one side of the house, from back to front. She always used it to access the kitchen and, of course, the basement laundry room. Mitch, however, walked toward the other door, which led into his living room. She followed him.
There were two entrances to Mitch’s apartment, one from the main foyer of the house, and the other from the kitchen. Kelsey had felt free to enter his private rooms to clean and decorate while he was away, but had not set foot in this area since his return. The first thing she noticed was the clutter.
“Good grief, have you put anything away since you got home?”
Papers and pamphlets covered the coffee table, and six months’ worth of junk mail erupted from the top of the trash can. She figured he was using the living room as a temporary office because the room he used as a study was already crammed with books, papers and files.
“You need a maid.”
“Volunteering?”
“Not on your life,” she retorted. “I remember how you nearly ripped my head off when I was twelve and I tried to clean off that desk you and Nathan used to share.”
“Don’t go there, Kelsey. You purposely threw out a lot of my mail. And you tossed one of Nathan’s songs.”
“Well,” she admitted, “I was getting a little sick of you rereading those notes from Melanie Thompson. And the day Nathan actually learns to play the guitar and write music will be the day I sprout wings and fly home.”
“Thank goodness he gave up on that,” Mitch agreed with a grin.
Kelsey returned the bright smile, thinking how unfair it was for a man to have those gorgeous dimples and sensual lips. She walked past him as he held open the door to the foyer with his foot.
Mitch walked up the steep wooden stairs right behind Kelsey. Watching her walk in tight jeans was a joy any man would want to behold, and he enjoyed every moment of it. He found himself wondering once again when she had filled out so beautifully. Before he thought better of it, he asked her. “Kelsey, when exactly did you change?”
She laughed lightly. “I haven’t changed, Mitch. I’m still the rotten little teaser I was all those years ago. I’ve just learned some self-control.”
“I meant physically.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You mean, when did I fill out?”
Mitch nodded. He really didn’t know why he’d asked her—it seemed stupid to come right out and admit to her that he’d noticed her looks. The woman was already too confident. “You’re…so different than you were.”
“I’m a late bloomer, I guess. Mom said she was the same way and she kept promising me that one day I’d wake up and not look like a Popsicle stick with a head on it. She was right.”
She most certainly was. Kelsey was curvy and feminine, soft and supple. He found himself thinking about how perfectly their bodies would fit together, but realized he could get totally lost if he let his mind travel down that road. And the fact that he was having these thoughts about little Kelsey Logan made them even worse!
“Anyway, I realized I had ‘arrived’ when I was a sophomore in college and was out running. The captain of the football team ran into a goalpost when I went by. I didn’t know why until my friends told me it was because he was staring at me.”
“What did you do?” he asked. “Reenact the whole