“Still a lot of grass to be cut,” she observed, nodding toward the line between where he had run the mower and the grass was still tall, easily past his knees.
“Yes. I just knocked back the area around the house. My brothers will help get the rest in order when they get here.”
“Good,” she said, not mentioning anything about him passing out. “What should we do now?”
“Well, it’s getting late. We should probably eat something. Come on back inside and I’ll show you the pantry under the house.”
“Sounds like something out of a horror movie. Guy tells girl to come down to the basement, and that’s the last anyone ever sees of her.”
“You never know. I might have brought you here to keep you captive as my sex slave.”
“One can only hope,” she laughed.
“Cheeky,” he teased, smacking her playfully on the backside before leading her back into the house. He locked the doors and put the key away, showing her where it lived before heading back downstairs.
She watched as he moved the rug from over the hatch and opened the door beneath, revealing the steps down into the cellar. He went first, flipping on the lights as he descended so she could see to follow him.
“Seems a bit inconvenient,” she laughed.
“Well, we don’t go down here all the time. It’s just for storing long-term goods so that there is something here if we come up and don’t or can’t get to the grocery right away. Usually, we have the caretakers stock fresh things upstairs before we arrive, but I didn’t call ahead.”
“Yeah, the dead deer and jungle outside were a clue.”
“Aye. Anyway, there’s all sorts of booze down here, along with canned goods and usually some things in the freezer. I don’t know how long it’s been since they came out, so there might not be anything edible in there.”
“I guess we could always go into the woods and kill our own food,” she laughed.
“We could, but all you’re gonna find out there is small game unless you want to pick off one of the neighbor’s cows.”
She laughed and walked over to where he stood above the freezer. He opened it and looked around. It looked like it had been refilled within the last few months, so there was plenty there to choose from.
“Want to grill steaks? We don’t have any fresh potatoes to bake, but I see some frozen sections we can put in the oven, and there’s some dry gravy mix on the shelves somewhere over on the wall and maybe some frozen corn? It’s not fine dining, but it will do for tonight.”
“Sounds good.”
“Great. We’ll grab that for tonight and take some more stuff upstairs for later. You have any preferences, allergies, stuff like that?”
“Nope. I’m not picky at all. Oh, but I’ll take that tub of moose tracks ice cream right there for later.”
“Wise choice,” he laughed.
He grabbed a plastic crate stacked in a nearby corner and began filling it with some of the stuff from the freezer. Maeve wasn’t shy about pulling out a few things she fancied, as well. Once they finished there, they loaded up another crate with more bottled water, wine, vodka, and whiskey before grabbing some of the stuff off the dry and canned goods shelf.
“Looks like we’re feeding an army,” she laughed.
“These are just staples for upstairs. We will be feeding an army once my brothers get here. We’ll have to go to the store to replace this stuff and buy some fresh stuff tomorrow.”
“Sounds like an adventure,” she laughed.
“Oh, it will be. They’ll tell you all the embarrassing stories they can think of, some from when I was a kid and some that are just off-color, at best.”
“Must be nice having brothers to make your life hell,” she laughed.
“You don’t have any siblings?” he replied, picking up one of the crates to haul upstairs.
“No,” she replied, attempting to pick up the other crate.
“Leave that. I’ll come back down and get it. It’s heavy.”
“Well, I feel useless,” she told him.
“See that cabinet right there in the corner? Check it for clean bed linens and towels. I don’t know when things were last changed here. Even if they did change them after Fergus was here, that’s been a while, so better to freshen them up.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
Ronan was returning for the second crate when she met him at the top of the steps with an armload of linens. He waited for her to exit and kissed her on the cheek as he passed, retrieving the other crate and coming back up to deposit it.
“What can I do to help?” she said.
“Nothing. I’ll take it from here.”
“Doesn’t seem fair. I’ll go replace the linens on the beds and in the bathroom.”
“Don’t bother with any but the main one at the front of the house. The guys can fix their own beds when they get here. I’ll thaw these steaks and get the grill started.”