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It didn&039;t take Teddy long to get the fire going He&039;d built it up to a roaring blaze in the hopes of warhtened to head next door and help the girl with carting provisions over when he heard so to the door, he pulled it open and frowned as he stepped out into the vestibule to see his neighbor on the deck, trying to rearrange the boxes she carried to free a hand to knock
"I was just co to see if I could help You shouldn&039;t have carried all that by yourself," he ad for one of the boxes
"They aren&039;t heavy," she assured hi past before he could take one Moving behind him, she set the boxes on the floor inside the open kitchen door and then sat on the bench across the end of the vestibule and set to work on re her boots
Teddy let the screen door close, and then fir toward her A frown crested his lips as she removed one boot and started on the other They were covered with snow and couldn&039;t be worn in the cottage, of course It hy he&039;d re But he still wore his coat, scarf, hat, and gloves While the cottage was as cold as a walk-in refrigerator, the floor was like a slab of ice, and he could see her socks were your garden-variety everyday type, not es
"Here" He slid his feet out of his slippers and pushed the, but will keep you warlanced up with surprise "What about you?"
"I have two pairs of ther into the kitchen and bending to pick up the boxes Teddy grunted as he lifted theht these weren&039;t heavy, she ht with irritation as he hefted theet a look at what they held
"Thank you"
He glanced around as the blonde stepped into the cottage She was shuffling her feet to keep the overlarge slippers on, and itat his lips, but he forced it away In his experience, young people embarrassed easily and he didn&039;t want her to be unco back to the boxes as she closed the kitchen door to the mudroom, he said, "You&039;re welcome What&039;s your name?"
"Oh, I didn&039;t introduceto join hian to remove items from the second box and said, "Katricia, but you can call me Tricia for short"
He noticed she hadn&039;t o for now and merely asked, "Why Tricia, and not Kat?" as he lifted out a can and examined the label to find it was toht Kat sounded kind of bitchy," she answered absently as she worked "Besides, s like Kitty to it, or switching it out altogether for Kitty or even Pussy"
Teddy dropped the latest can he&039;d pulled out of the box and turned to her with arinned at his expression and nodded "Usually guys trying to get intothat would tempt me to sleep with him?"
"Er" Teddy stared at her blankly, coenerally didn&039;t talk quite so openly with hi and respectful It was his title, of course Being police chief meant people treated hiht as Mabel and Elvi came to mind Those two still treated him like the friend he&039;d been to them since their school years Still, even they didn&039;t say things like-
"You wouldn&039;t think calling me Pussy Kat or even just Pussy would make me want to sleep with you, would you Teddy?"
He blinked as those husky words sank through his thoughts and realized that Katricia had turned her body to face his andup at hihtly parted lips that er than he, and ed, the woman was always on him like a tic on a deer whenever he entered a rooe on the mind and he didn&039;t doubt it for a e He&039;d hts scattered as Katricia&039;s pink little tongue slid out to run over her lips, wetting them She had also continued to move closer, he realized with sudden alarm as her coat front brushed his and she raised a hand to brace it against his chest His alar toward her in response like afla his head a shake, Teddy quickly stepped back and began to ree, but it was ti with here It would probably e with such an old fart, but it would be a da for both of the at her so he didn&039;t have to witness her horror as his gray hair was revealed, he -rooave her another moment to deal hat he suspected would be herthe time to re to reveal his weathered face
He expected to find her wide-eyed and openmouthed with embarrass a horse she was considering buying, and then she s man, Teddy Brunswick"
He blinked at the words and frowned "I&039;m an old man"
The words made her chuckle, and she shook her head "You&039;re not twenty-five, but that doesn&039;tface, nice eyes, and a full head of sexy, silver hair" When he just frowned harder, she added, "What? You thought your age made you unattractive? How many women do you think would say no to Sean Connery?"
The question rinned She also removed her own hat and scarf Much to his relief, she didn&039;t come near him but set them neatly on the counter beside her and then turned back to the box of goods to continue e it
The moment she did, Teddy felt some of the stress slip from his body But he didn&039;t move back to join her; instead, he eyed her fro in her profile She wasn&039;t a beauty Her hair was blond, whereas he had always preferred redheads, and her face was pale, her featuresin a Renaissance portrait, but there was so about her, he decided and then quickly tried to erase that thought fro about this young woman, he lectured hiuess A baby, coet that Teddy Brunsas not going to be one of those old fools chasing around little girls young enough to be his granddaughter Nope, he wasn&039;t going to be the kind of man others snickered about behind his back
Suitably chastened, Teddyon, then took a th Satisfied by the heat pouring off of it, he glanced around the room and then toward the hall to the bedrooms He could see the open bedroo?" Katricia asked and he glanced over to see that she&039;d stopped unpacking and atching hi I should close the bedroo the poker back on its holder
"I&039;ll do it," she offered andshe would find the bathroom that way so she didn&039;t have to ask when she needed to use it With her safely out of the roo the contents He alhed aloud when he found the can of coffee Of course, the coffee pot wouldn&039;t ithout electricity, but maybe if he boiled some water in a pot over the fire and then used the drip filter and coffee pot, he could come up with a halfway decent brew A cup of coffee sounded dahts so the cupboards for a suitable pot
Katricia took her ti curiously into each room as she went It was partially out of curiosity and partially to give Teddy so room She didn&039;t need to read his mind to know that he wasn&039;t co too fast, but hadn&039;t been able to help herself The very fact that he ht be her life ry yet, but then the only food around was in cans and boxes There was nothing really to tempt her palate Which meant the easiest way to know for sure was to kiss Teddy and see if she experienced the shared pleasure she&039;d heard so ht be a hard objective to achieve Teddy didn&039;t appear to be coe difference That seemed obvious to her from the way he&039;d quickly re so to take so suit She was already struggling with the urge to siht back out into the kitchen and ju her was the worry that sheThat would be just her luck-kill her life mate with a heart attack before she could woo and turn hi out the rooms She found the one with Teddy&039;s suitcase in it and s it was the room she would have picked, too It was the last on the left, with theoverlooking the drivehere he could easily look out to see as approaching should anyone coood defensive position, and his cop was showing in the choice, she thought with a smile and then pulled the door closed and htly when she found Teddy kneeling by the fireplace, situating a couple of pots at the edge of the fire
"What are you doing?" she asked curiously,back a bit when she sensed hihtening andwater tochicken soup It&039;s not the usual breakfast fare, I know, but beggars can&039;t be choosers"
"Clever," Katriciafroan to measure coffee into a filter
"Hardly clever," Teddy said with as aside and continued rifling through the box "More like desperate I&039; her hands at the fire
"Coffee," he explained and then said, "Since you&039;re over there, keep an eye on the soup forhioing to go see if I can get e et the phone hooked up, I can call Marguerite and see if we can&039;t get the power back on"
"Marguerite?"