Her brain wouldn’t work. All she could see were more bubbles coming from the tub. Frenzy clawed at her stomach, and she waved her hands, even though the motion seemed totally useless. “Hurry, shut it off!”
He reached over and somehow found the right button to push. The sound of the jets shut off. Dani glanced around the room, now completely ruined. Hysteria made her hyperventilate as she thought about how much it would cost to replace all the carpet, and fix all the mess. Her father was going to kill her, if he found out. Tears sprang to her eyes, and a large sob escaped.
“Hey,” Austin said, gripping her arms. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. Look what I did! How am I going to pay for all this damage?”
“Your father—”
“No!” she yelped. “He can’t know about this.” No one could ever know. She’d never live it down. Who poured cleaner into a running Jacuzzi tub? Obviously, it was the wrong thing to do. She’d be laughed at for months if this leaked. She was already called horrible names on social media. This would just give more fuel to her haters.
Austin seemed to assess the situation. “Well, let’s clean it up then. I’m sure there isn’t any damage. It’s just soap bubbles.”
No damage? A ray of hope lit in her. She wiped at her face, still trying to get the bubbles off. “Really?”
“I’ll go grab the shop vac. We can clean the bubbles and then vacuum the floor.”
Her throat closed again, but this time from gratitude. “You’d do that?”
“Sure. It won’t take long.” He pulled out some keys. “There’s a Shop-Vac in the maintenance shed. I’ll be right back.”
Dani watched as Austin left, her heart thumping. Was he limping? She hadn’t noticed it before. What had caused that? Had he injured himself? She hoped he wasn’t in too much pain.
She glanced up at the mirror and about gasped. Bubbles covered every part of her except her face. She looked like she was to play the part of the abominable snowman. Or trying out for a Mr. Clean commercial.
A giggle snuck out, which only made her look even worse. No makeup, soap suds everywhere, and her reflection was staring back at her with a wild look in her eyes, laughing. Fantastic. She was going to end up in the loony bin.
Austin carried the Shop-Vac to room 225. Before he reached the door, he heard Dani inside, laughing. He entered the room and grinned at her. She must have seen herself in the mirror, because she stood before it, tears streaming down her face as laughter shook her shoulders. He was relieved. “I’m glad you see the humor in this. I was worried you were going to have a breakdown.”
Dani wiped at her eyes, bubbles still stacked on top of her head like a cone-shaped hat. “Don’t give up that notion too fast. I might be having a breakdown. I feel like laughing and crying at the same time.”
He shook his head. “You’ll be fine.” He plugged in the vacuum and began sucking up the suds. Dani brightened as parts of the carpet began to show through all the mess.
“It’s working.”
He turned around and stuck the vacuum hose in her direction. “Hold still.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“Stay put. I’m going to vacuum you off.”
She squealed as he came at her with the extension. “Stop!” she said, giggling.
“But you’re covered in bubbles, ma’am. I need to clean you off, too.” She ran from him, and he chuckled at the way she looked, foam flying from her hair. This was so not the image of the prissy heiress he’d seen everywhere in the news. This version of Danica Jordan was much better.
“Come on. It will just take a second.” He stuck the hose out, and it caught a hold of her shirt. He didn’t mean to. And he certainly didn’t mean for it to suck up enough to expose her belly button.
Dani yelped and shoved the vacuum away, but that only made it worse as more of her shirt rose. Austin dropped the hose and turned before he saw more skin, his face heating. “Sorry, ma’am! I didn’t mean to…” He reached down and flicked off the vacuum.
Dani’s laughter filled the now silent room. “You can turn back around. I’m put together again.”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to turn around. His face felt like a flame of fire. Surely he was as red as a tomato. “I’m sorry,” he finally said as he braved a glance at her.
“I think you sucked all the suds off me,” she said, a teasing smile in her eyes.
“That’s not all I almost sucked off you.”
“At least you didn’t do it on purpose.” Her smile faded. “Or on camera.”
He wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but he nodded anyway. “I’ll keep working on the carpet.”
As he vacuumed the floor, she went to work on the Jacuzzi tub, wiping down the sides and running the water to wash down all the soap. It took a good fifteen minutes before the mess was cleaned up. He reached down and flicked off the Shop-Vac.
Dani looked relieved. “I can’t believe it. You can’t even tell. You’re brilliant.”
He smiled. “I don’t know about that. Just doing my job.” Yeah, right. Why did that come out of his mouth? Was he insane? Did he want to pretend to be a maintenance worker every time he saw her? Why didn’t he just come clean?
“Well, you saved me. I don’t know how I’ll repay you.” A loud growl came from her stomach, and she blanched.
He lifted one eyebrow. “Hungry?”
She slowly nodded, her hand on her stomach. “Yeah. I haven’t had anything to eat today.”
That was one thing he hated about celebrity women. They starved themselves to look good. It was stupid. She looked like she was ready to eat the vacuum. “On a new diet?”
“Something like that.”
She didn’t elaborate, and he wanted to get out of there anyway, so he simply packed up the equipment and motioned to the door. “I’ll be going, then. I’ll see you tonight, for dinner.”
“Bye.” She waved.
Austin headed toward the maintenance shed. He couldn’t get the picture of Dani with the soap suds all over her out of his head. He chuckled as he stuck his key into the padlock. She’d looked so distraught when he first entered, he thought she was going to melt into a puddle of tears. But she’d pulled it together and helped him clean it up.
Maybe there was more to Danica Jordan than he’d originally thought.
Chapter 5
A knock came on his door and Austin got up from the deck chair he’d been occupying for the last couple of hours. He’d left his patio door open so he could listen for Dani. He went inside and closed the sliding glass, locking it into place. Then he answered Dani’s knock.
She wore the clothes he’d seen her in earlier—white blouse, designer slacks with sandals that screamed, “I paid way too much for these.” Still no makeup, but he was beginning to like that natural look on her. “Hey,” she said, ducking into his room. She glanced behind her before her shoulders relaxed.
“Are you being followed?” He scanned the area. No one was there.
Her cheeks reddened. “No. I’m just being cautious.”