Cooper (The Family Simon #6) - Juliana Stone Page 0,2
here. End of story.”
“Coop—”
“I’m not doing this with you, Charlie.”
His sister-in-law said something not fit for human ears.
“Your vocabulary is interesting. The way you mix up nouns and verbs into something so naughty I just might have to use it myself.” He was trying to lighten things a bit, but with a sigh, Cooper leaned against the door and squeezed his eyes shut. It wasn’t working. Charlie wasn’t so easily swayed.
“It’s her father’s business and she’s…well, she’s helping out at the moment. They need the work.”
“She needs the work? What the hell do you think I am? Some kind of charity?”
A noise caught his attention, and Cooper’s eyes flew open. He whipped up his head in time to see two feet disappear back upstairs. Well, shit.
“I gotta go, Charlie.”
“Cooper—”
Tight-lipped, he tossed his cell back onto the table, cutting off his sister-in-law, and without pausing took the stairs two at a time. No sense putting things off. He would let this Morgan know she could finish up whatever it was Charlie had hired her to do for the day. He would pay her and then get on with things.
Cooper strode across the landing and peeked into the first bedroom, but it was empty. He spied a plastic purple caddy filled with cleaning products and other stuff near the bathroom and took exactly two steps in that direction before a woman appeared in the doorway. She met his gaze for all of two seconds and then proceeded to toss a few more cleaning supplies into the caddy before disappearing back into the bathroom.
Huh. Seems he’d been dismissed.
She reappeared with a mop and bucket and paused. The lighting up here was dim, especially at this time of day, but it was enough for him to see that the woman was angry. Or annoyed. Or something. Her lips were pursed tightly, and she pushed back a strand of dark hair that fell over her eyebrows.
“Do you always walk around the house in dirty boots?” She glared at him as if he’d just committed some sort of crime.
He glanced down at his feet and then slowly met her gaze again. He’d just tracked a boatload of crap all over his newly refurbished hardwood floors, so he wasn’t exactly winning points, but then, he didn’t exactly care.
“Not generally, no,” he replied slowly.
She was on the tall side for a female—maybe five foot ten—and every inch of her was covered. Loose track pants and a long-sleeved sweatshirt gave no indication of her shape. Hell, she could have been hiding an entire litter of kittens under there for all he knew. She was pale, as if she didn’t get out much, and her hair was scraped back, secured into a low ponytail. She had high cheekbones, a generous mouth, but from where he stood, he couldn’t tell what color her eyes were.
He squinted a bit. There was something on the side of her neck…a tattoo maybe?
Small dots of red appeared on her face, and Cooper realized that he was staring at her, which was rude. His eyes fell away, and that was when things got awkward.
She cleared her throat, and he found himself watching her once more as she bent down to retrieve the caddy.
“Take your boots off, and I’ll clean up after you,” she said, voice curt and to the point. Her eyebrows rose as she met his gaze once more. The anger or whatever it was he’d seen before was gone. There was just…nothing. It was as if she’d pulled down the blinds and disappeared.
Cooper wasn’t exactly used to women reacting to him this way, and it piqued his interest.
Still unsure, Cooper kicked off his boots and held them in his hands as she walked past with her caddy and headed downstairs. She set it near the front door and then climbed the stairs once more—her steps were slow and even, but something about the way she moved was odd. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“Here, let me.” He could clean up his own damn mess.
She ignored him and didn’t utter a word as she passed by. She grabbed the mop, cleaning the floor where he’d tracked dirt, and then each of the stairs. He followed her back down and felt like a complete ass as she set about cleaning the foyer, and then back into the kitchen, where he’d traipsed all over the place like a spoiled, uncaring child.
“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking,” he said, but again, she remained silent.