by JoAnn Ross
“Okay.” It was crazy. He wasn’t going to allow himself to get romantically involved with her, because she might as well be wearing a shirt that read Here There Be Dragons, but except for a marriage proposal, this woman could ask him for anything, including a kidney, and he wouldn’t hesitate to give it to her.
“I found some furniture for the apartment on Craigslist, but it’s scattered over the peninsula, and, just one more time, I need some big strong men with serious vehicles to pick it up for me and bring it back to the house. My dad’s taking care of Port Townsend, Sequim and Port Angeles. I was wondering if you could handle Port Ludlow and Port Gamble.”
“No problem. Does this mean you’re moving in?”
“You’ve got the third floor all ready and now that Kylee and Mai have brought little Clara home, I’d like to be closer to them since they asked me to be her godmother.”
“There’s a coincidence. Because I’m going to be the godfather.”
“Huh. Kylee had failed to mention that. You don’t think—”
“That they made that choice to push us together?” Seth shook his head. “I doubt it. They’re both only children. Kylee lost her mom, her douche of a dad is out of the picture, and Mai’s family’s all back in Hawaii, which means that although they’re close, they’re not going to all be able to get together that often.
“Plus, you don’t spend all that time with people building their home without getting to know them. And they were easy to get close to, so I figure they just needed a guy and since my mom’s officiating at their wedding and whatever type of baptism they’re coming up with at the same time, asking me was the logical, and maybe only, choice they had.”
“You’re underestimating yourself. Personally, I believe they chose you because you’ll be an excellent male influence. But whatever the reason, it’s nice that we’ll be sort of sharing Clara.”
“We probably would anyway without any official designation,” he said. “The four of us are connected in a lot of ways. Not only through the house—”
“Especially your giving them a dream nursery.”
Zoe’s dream, he thought, then forced his mind to shut down those voices that some days badgered him from the moment his eyes opened until he finally fell asleep. And even during too many nights they were like foghorns, tolling forbiddingly in the darkness.
“I’m just glad they like it.”
“How could they not?”
“Hopefully, they won’t feel superstitious since she died before we could have a baby.” If it creeped them out, he’d remove it right away and take it all to Goodwill. Because someone’s baby should be able to enjoy it.
“Kylee was also best friends with Zoe,” Brianna reminded him. “I suspect that it will make it even more special to her. Because she’ll realize all the love that went into it. Love that Zoe would’ve felt for Clara.”
“She would have adored her.” He tried not to think that their child would have grown up with Clara.
“It’s almost as if she’s here with us,” Brianna said quietly.
“Yeah.” He watched Mai showing baby Clara the orcas mobile that he’d searched all over for, finally finding a woman in North Carolina on Etsy who was willing to make him one. He’d planned it as a surprise.
It was only as she went over to join the new mothers and baby that he realized that, little by little, Brianna Mannion was unbreaking his heart.
* * *
THE BED WAS going to be perfect. It was a sleigh bed style, made of iron rather than wood. The gracefully curved bars, along with the pewter finish that she’d worried she should have gone to see in person first, were unscratched and gleaming, making it look lighter and more modern. It had chosen to be a bit more of a problem trying to get it up the curving stairs, even after Seth had dismantled it to fit it in the truck.
“Did you have to get a king-size?” he asked as he and his dad, who’d returned to town and had been making templates for the bits of missing plaster molding he was going to have to replace, struggled to get the mattress up to the third floor.
“It was the only bed I found that I liked,” she said. “And admittedly, it’s larger than I need—” she could lie in the center with her arms and legs stretched out like she was making snow angels and still not touch the corners “—but the room is large enough to handle it. And after I move into the carriage house, it’ll be a bonus feature.”
“There’s always the possibility that you can add a second ghost to the house’s lore after this damn mattress knocks me down the stairs, cracks my head open and crushes me,” he muttered, maneuvering it around another corner.
“Quit acting like a girly man,” Ben said. “I’m not going to drop it on you. I may not be as young as I used to be, but I’m still strong as an ox.”
“And stubborn as one, too,” Seth muttered beneath his breath.
“I heard that. Just in case you were counting on me getting deaf in my old age.”
Listening to them as they’d cussed and grumbled their way, first with all the iron railings, then the box spring pieces, and now the mattress, which wasn’t turning out to be all that bendable, Brianna could tell that despite their differences, there was true familial love there. She also suspected that, at least in Ben’s case, bitching and complaining was his way of showing it.
Once they had everything laid out on the basketball-court-size floor, Seth went back down the stairs and returned with a seriously big red toolbox, and father and son got down to work putting the frame together.
With the only power to the house being a cord plugged into a temporary electrical post outside, there was no air-conditioning operating yet. And making things worse was that the day had dawned a bright one, hinting at the upcoming summer.
Although she’d opened the windows to allow the salt air in, the third floor room grew much warmer than the outdoors.
Or, it could simply have been her reaction to him grabbing hold of the back of his T-shirt, pulling it over his head and tossing it onto the floor. There was an old saying that Pacific Northwesterners didn’t tan, they rusted. In this case, it was wrong. Because Seth Harper’s chest was a deep and tawny gold, much like the color that bathed the deep Olympic forest at twilight. And if she’d found his chest intriguing when she’d first seen him get out of the truck at the park, viewing it in its full, naked glory nearly made her drool.
And then, wow, Kylee hadn’t been kidding when talking about those squats. When he went to work, screwing the end piece into the side, her eyes were drawn straight to his butt. And fit, defined, amazing thighs.
Just looking at him caused such a sheer burst of lust that either a bolt of lightning had struck through one of the open windows or she’d just experienced a decades-early hot flash.
“I think I’m going to go down to the ice chest and get a bottle of water,” she said. Preferably to pour over her head. “Would anyone else like one?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” said Ben, who was holding the side rail steady, while his son worked the bolt into the slot.
“That’d be great,” Seth agreed. When he glanced up at her over his shoulder, the gold flash in his brown eyes revealed that he’d caught her watching the flex of his back muscles while he’d been screwing in that bolt. “It has gotten warm in here.”
He ran the back of his arm over his sweaty forehead, giving her an even better view of a physique that hadn’t been created in any gym, but by hard, physical work. And the creative hand of God on one of his more generous days.
“I’ll be right back.”
She was not running away, Brianna assured herself as she practically raced down the curving stairs to the small ice chest sitting in the back seat of her car. She was merely taking a time out. To cool down. And try to clear her mind of that too-tempting fantasy of rolling around her king-size mattress with Seth Harper.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
; THE NEXT TWO weeks passed in a blur. Along with moving into Herons Landing, which, as Seth had predicted, was turning out to be hectic, dirty and noisy, Brianna continued to shop for all the innumerable details like door handles, faucets and even ceiling fans for all the rooms. Especially her bedroom, which, despite a spike in outdoor temperatures, hadn’t reached the heat level she’d experienced watching him put together her bed.
And speaking of beds, she was discovering that her nights were as restless as they’d been at the farm. Her dreams were becoming more vivid, which wasn’t helped by spending eight hours a day with the man who starred in her X-rated scenarios. Last night he’d used his leather tool belt, sans the tools, to tie her wrists to the top rail of the sleigh bed. Which had her waking up damp, needy and unsettled, because she’d never, ever fantasized about playing sexually submissive.
“You know what I miss?” she asked Kylee and Mai as she sat on their sofa holding baby Clara, who was wearing a pink onesie that read, “I get my ’tude from both my moms.” Pleased that they’d chosen to dress her in one that she’d bought, Brianna brushed a thumb over the baby’s pink cheek and felt a physical pull as ancient as time.
“The hustle and bustle of Vegas?” asked Mai, who was folding a stack of pastel onesies from a wicker laundry basket while Kylee heated up a bottle of formula.
“No. Never. I didn’t fit in the entire time I was there. At least Hawaii had a welcoming aloha vibe. Las Vegas was nonstop. I’m realizing that I never caught my breath until I moved here.”
“There are times I miss Hawaii,” Mai confessed. “But I’ve also fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest.”
“With our careers, we figure we can switch back and forth when Clara gets a little older. Then, once she starts preschool, we’ll settle down and save Hawaii for those winter vacations when we can’t work that much and are in serious need of sunshine,” Kylee said, shaking the bottle and testing the temperature of the milk with drops on the inside of her wrist.
“Sounds like a plan.” Brianna picked up a little foot wearing a pink sock with a ruffle around the top. Was there anything cuter than a baby’s foot? She didn’t think so.
Perhaps it was because after years of traveling, she was finally settling down. Adulting. Perhaps it was because for the first time in her life, she was able to take stock of what she wanted to do and what she felt she needed to do to get ahead. It could be the slower pace of life that gave her time to take a walk along the waterfront or into the woods.
Last Saturday she’d even picked up a chicken wrap and iced tea to go at the diner and driven up to Hurricane Ridge to sit on a rock wall and watch a herd of deer graze in the meadow. How many times, she reminisced, had a group of friends gone into the park for sledding or snowboarding in the winter, or picnics on sunny summer days? There were also swimming outings to Lake Crescent, Lake Quinault or Mirror Lake just outside the park, when Brianna had envied Zoe’s lush curves in those bikinis she’d shown off so well. Two weeks before she and her best friends had headed off to UW, six of them had spent the night camping out at Mirror Lake. They’d cooked s’mores, sung around the campfire and watched the sparks fly into a midnight-dark sky studded with diamond-bright stars.
Zoe and Seth had brought along their own tent, of course, and Brianna had done her best not to feel a little prick of jealousy. The next morning she’d been the first to crawl out of her sleeping bag into a dense layer of fog. The air was chilled and scented with old growth fir and cedar trees that made it smell like Christmas in August.
Remembering that time, when the entire earth had seemed to stand still, and she listened to a seabird call from somewhere in the mists, she wondered how she could have ever left this place that had always held a part of her heart.
“You were telling us what you miss,” Kylee said, handing her the bottle. The baby, gurgling deliciously, latched onto the nipple. As she drank, Clara’s eyes closed in what appeared to be more bliss than sleep. She was nothing short of a tiny package of awesome.
“Sex,” Brianna admitted. “I haven’t had sex for over two years.”
“You’ve gone two years without an orgasm?” Kylee asked, her eyes widening.
“I didn’t say that. I just haven’t had sex. You know, body to body, that kind. With a guy.”
“But you were living in the land of high rollers. You took trips with them—”
“With their families. Wives and children. Sometimes even grandchildren.”
“Don’t tell me none of those guys ever hit on you,” Mai said.
“A couple. But I never had anything to do with them again and turned them over to someone else the next time they came to wherever I was working. I’d never have an affair with a married man.”
“From what you’ve told me over the years, you don’t have affairs, period,” Kylee said. “You’re more into hookups.”
“Not hookups. Exactly.”
“You’re right. That sounds too skanky for a good girl like you. But you were definitely into hit-and-run relationships.”
“I could take offense at being called a good girl,” Brianna complained.
“It wasn’t a judgment call. Just a fact.”
“You should have at least had a fling with one of those male exotic dancers,” Mai said. “I’ve seen Magic Mike. Those guys are superhung and know how to move. I’ll bet one could find your G-spot without you having to pull out a map.”
“Mai!” Kylee covered Clara’s ears. “No dirty talk in front of our daughter.”
“She doesn’t know what I’m saying.”
“Not now,” Kylee said. “But who knows when words start clicking in? Do you want our child’s first word to be G-spot?”
“Or how about vagina?” Brianna suggested, enjoying watching her one and only remaining BFF blush to the color of a boiled Dungeness crab.
“You two are terrible.” Still, her lips curved and it was obvious she was struggling not to laugh. Then, like so often could happen, Kylee’s mood turned on a dime, her expression serious. “Did you ever, back in the day, consider stealing Seth away from Zoe?”
“Of course not! They were my friends.”
“But you were hot for him forever and might have gotten him. Especially that time they had the big blowup over her joining ROTC.”
“Would you have done anything like that?”
“No. But I wasn’t carrying a torch for the guy all my life.”
“We were lucky,” Mai said. “We knew right away, so we didn’t have to go through all the does-she-or-doesn’t-she-love-me suffering.”
“I did love him. But it was only one-way and later, once I started working, my career came first.”
“And look how well that turned out. Here you are. Out of work and celibate.”
“I’m not out of work.” When Brianna went to wave that thought away, Clara grabbed hold of a finger. The newborn’s nails were like pink pearls with white crescent half-moons and made Brianna’s heart melt a bit inside.
“This isn’t a big city, but there are a lot of single hot guys here. Like Flynn Farraday down at the fire station.”
“You should see him playing hoops on the station court,” Mai said. “Not only did the guy play basketball for Annapolis, he’s built... He should go on the calendar,” she told Kylee.
“Definitely. I’m thinking July. Dripping wet, wearing his helmet and turnout pants.”
“Hanging low on his hips,” Mai said. “So that hot V thing, whatever it’s called, shows.”
“And Cam Montgomery,” Kylee said. “Since he’s a vet, I could pose him bare-shirted holding a puppy.”
“Dogs and guys are definitely hot,” Mai agreed.
“You two are not helping,” Brianna complained, thinking of the other day when Seth was outside by the trunk and dumped some of the water from the orange cooler over his shirtless chest. And surely those s
oaked raggedy cutoffs he’d been wearing couldn’t be OSHA-approved construction clothing?
“Yes, we are.” Kylee reached for her daughter, who’d polished off the bottle and put her over her shoulder, patting her back. “We’re reminding you that if you’re sexless, it’s only your own fault. Have you seen Luca at the Italian place? He’s hot. And he cooks.”
“There’s only one guy I want,” Brianna admitted.
“Then go for it,” both women said together, just as Clara let out a loud belch that sounded like a drunk frat boy at a spring break kegger.
“Maybe I will,” Brianna said once they’d all stopped laughing.
Later, driving back to Herons Landing, Brianna pulled over at the park and watched the children playing on the swings and sliding out of purple tubes on the red, blue and yellow play fort. The noise level undoubtedly rivaled that of a jet engine, and every so often, as the laughing shrieks of the girls threatened to shatter her eardrums, Brianna realized that she wanted more than sex, even as she knew how hot sex with Seth would be. What she wanted, she realized, was what Kylee and Mai had. What her parents had. She wanted a family of her own. And not just that—she wanted to create that family with Seth Nathaniel Harper.
* * *
IT WAS THE end of a long day, but things were going smoother than he’d expected and Seth was feeling good about the project. As much as he liked Kylee and Mai, he had to admit that even with the chemistry vibes zigzagging around between Brianna and him, it was a lot easier working with her than it had been with the brides-to-be on their just-finished cottage.
He and Bri still thought a great deal alike, which helped because it saved him a lot of explaining when needing to make a point about a decision. Her mother, he suspected, had also proven a plus because the colors she’d chosen combined the more expected monochromatic Pacific Northwest shades taken from the grays, blues and greens, and added unexpected bright dashes of salmon and golden yellow to counter the rainy season.
As he’d expected, given her previous occupation, Bri was also the most organized client he’d ever worked with. Her spreadsheet was linked with her phone, iPad and computer, along with a paper printout kept in a three-ring binder for backup. Because, she’d claimed, it might be considered old-fashioned, but she liked being able to see the pages written down. The same as he did with his schedule coordinating subs. But in his case, the schedule was on a large whiteboard on the wall of his office, where he could see it all at a glance.