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and Nate wondered what the hell was going on. This woman in front of him was all sharp angles and cold agendas, nothing like the warm, vulnerable woman he’d yelled at yesterday, and suddenly he wanted to be cleaned up and in a suit before trying to get an apology past her.
    “ Well,” he said, shifting toward the house. “I should probably go take a shower.”
    “ Wait,” she said, stepping a bit closer. “I think we got this whole thing off on the wrong foot yesterday, and I was hoping I might be able to take you out to breakfast this morning.”
    “ Um,” Nate said, not sure if he was more amused or surprised by this turn of events. “No. That’s not necessary. Just… enjoy your stay. When are you planning on checking out, by the way?”
    He realized that h ad come off a little rude, but Freya only smiled wider.
    “ Actually, that kind of depends on you,” she said.
    “ Right,” he said. “Look, I told you. I’m not selling. It’s a waste of your time.”
    “ Why don’t you let me be the judge of what wastes my time?” She pulled the briefcase in front of her, using both hands to hold the handle, looking a bit like a little girl with a treasured lunch box on the first day of school. It was cute as hell.
    “ All right,” he said. “We can talk, I guess. But there aren’t many places around here that are…” He searched for a word that wouldn’t make him sound like a food snob, but gave it up. “The food in this town is total crap.”
    “ Wow,” she said. “Way to support the locals.”
    “ There was a decent diner in the next town for a while, but a McDonald’s moved in next door and they closed down. And the other places here I’ve been to weren’t great, to be honest.”
    “ Well, let me take you out to coffee, then,” she said, taking another step closer. “It’s hard to screw up coffee, isn’t it? And I don’t think this will take long at all.”
    He was suddenly overcome with a desire to make this take as long as possible. “Why don’t you come on up to the house and let me make you breakfast?”
    “ Oh,” she said, looking a little surprised by the offer. “I kind of wanted to talk to you alone. Since this is a business discussion.”
    “ Well,” he said, suddenly determined to win at least this part of the negotiation, “Ruby’s in the office and Piper’s not speaking to me, so she went along with her. We’ll be alone.”
    “ Oh.” Her posture softened as she glanced toward the house, then back to him. “I just wanted to keep things… you know. Professional.”
    Her eyes met his, and she was back, the vulnerable woman he ’d met yesterday. He smiled, hoping to keep this Freya in play. “I can charge you if you want.”
    She raised an eyebrow at him, but her eyes were bright with amusement. “Are you making fun of me?”
    “ A little.”
    “ All right. Fine.” She nibbled her lip a little, and it took Nate a moment to meet her eye again.
    “ Great.” He motioned toward the path that led to the house. “It’s just through here, beyond the trees.”
    They started down the path in silence, Nate following behind her and wondering a little what he ’d just gotten himself into, but not caring much.
     
    ***
     
    Freya picked a grape off the bunch that Nate had set out on the breakfast bar for her and closed her eyes as the cool juices shot into her mouth. The sounds of the shower had stopped a few minutes before, and she could hear his feet pounding through the hallway. She grabbed one more grape and popped it into her mouth.
    “ These are amazing,” she said when he appeared in the kitchen. “I don’t think we have grapes like these in Boston.”
    “ If you’ve got a farmers’ market, you’ve got them,” he said, grabbing a plain white bistro apron off the wall and tying it around his waist. “You just have to get out of the supermarkets, start buying fresh.”
    Freya nodded, as though she had the slightest idea where a farmers ’ market might