The Guest Cottage by Nancy Thayer Read Free Book Online Page A

plus he’s responsible, reliable, honest, and kind.”
    “Oh,” Sophie said, surprised. “Well. That’s good to know. I mean, that you can vouch for his character.”
    “Yeah, well, I hope you’re ugly,” Candace sniffed, then laughed feebly. “Sorry, sounds like I’m jealous. Maybe I am.”
    Well, that’s blunt,
Sophie thought, but again, it was reassuring. “I’m married,” Sophie said, as if she needed to offer a defense.
    “Still, hands off,” Candace said, adding humorlessly, “Ha, ha. Anything else?”
    “Um, no. Thank you so much.” Sophie clicked off and sat staring at the ocean, letting her thoughts settle.
    “What do you think?” Trevor asked. The sun was sinking lower, the ocean’s silver fading to gray.
    “Everyone gave you a glowing report,” Sophie admitted. “Especially Candace Hall.”
    “Oh, Candace, yeah. They’ll be coming to visit this summer. So, you’re feeling okay about sharing the house tonight?”
    “I can’t think of any other solution.”
    Trevor nodded. “I’m glad. It’s a huge house and our kids seem to get along. I’m sure it will be fine.”
    The sun was low when they drifted up the dune to the parking lot. They kicked the sand off their feet, buckled themselves into the car, and drove back to what was probably going to be their summer home.
    At the guest cottage, they sat around the kitchen table eating the snacks, sandwiches, fresh veggies, and fruit that both parents had packed in the car for the trip. Trevor and Sophie set out the food, encouraged their children to eat apple slices even though they had gotten brown during the day, and wiped up accidental spills. The two smallest children were too tired to talk and Jonah kept checking his cell, as if anything there was preferable to the action around him.
    “I’ve got to put my guy to bed,” Trevor said, looking at Leo, who was almost falling asleep on his plate.
    “Let’s go up and organize our territories,” Sophie said.
    The second floor was divided by a large hall around the stairs, with a window seat beneath long casement windows. Long wings on each side of the house held three bedrooms and a full bath.
    “You could have the left half and we could take the right,” Trevor suggested. “Or vice versa.”
    Sophie nodded. “Yeah, that would work. I mean, we’d have to make some rules about not walking around naked.”
    “Mom,”
Jonah muttered.
    Why had she said that? Sophie thought. Her mother would bark:
Get your mind out of the gutter.
“Except the kitchen,” Sophie continued, as they all trooped downstairs. “No way to divide that.”
    “Do you like to cook?” Trevor asked.
    Sophie chewed her lip. Did she want to make the meals for two extra people? It wouldn’t be so different from cooking for the family, back when she had a family with a husband in it, and she’d be happy to get that poor, thin little boy plumped up…
    “I do like to cook,” she admitted cautiously.
    “Then I have a suggestion. What if I went into town and got all the food—which is a pain, let me tell you, with all the congestion and people and not enough parking places and so on. And you cook, but I clean the kitchen.”
    “You can clean a kitchen?” Sophie asked doubtfully. She didn’t think Zack knew where the dishwasher soap was.
    “I can.” Trevor held up his arm and made a muscle. “I’m kind of fanatical about cleaning, to tell the truth. In the best possible way, of course. Aren’t I, dude?” He looked down at his son.
    Leo gave a tiny nod.
    “Are you vegetarian or vegan or lactose intolerant?” Sophie asked, wondering if she was making a big mistake.
    “Nope. We’ll pretty much eat anything, although Leo eats only one thing for lunch. I’ll make his lunch.”
    Sophie glanced at her kids. At home, they alternated nights cleaning the kitchen. They’d be thrilled with this arrangement.
    “Let’s try it for a week,” Sophie suggested. “The whole living together, cooking, cleaning