Her Very Own Family

by Trish Milburn

  Nelson pointed toward where she kneeled. “Brady, get up there and help her.”

  “No, really, I’m fine.” The last thing she needed while perched on a roof was Mr. I’m Watching You by her side, no matter how good-looking he was.

  As if to spite her determination to work alone, however, she moved her foot and accidentally sent her hammer sliding down and off the edge of the roof onto the ground below. She bit down on the expletive, not wanting to utter it in front of Nelson.

  She glanced at Brady to determine his reaction. His face was hidden from her, however, as he bent to retrieve the hammer. Nelson shook his head as he headed indoors.

  Audrey directed her gaze at the tree canopy above and took a few deep breaths, told herself that everything would be fine. All she needed to do was let Brady get to know her a little so the suspicion she’d seen in his eyes the day before disappeared. Maybe it was just a small-town suspicion of newcomers and nothing more. She’d have to overcome that to make her café successful, so she might as well start tackling it now.

  Brady appeared at the top of the ladder, hammer in hand.

  “Thank you,” she said as he handed it to her.

  Without asking, he stepped onto the roof and slid one piece of tin after another into place while she hammered.

  “I can do that for a while if you like,” he offered.

  “Thanks, but I’ve got it.” Actually, physical labor felt good, cathartic even.

  A couple of minutes went by before he spoke again. “Did the tin do something to tick you off?” he asked, a touch of teasing in his question.

  She stopped, realized thoughts of the past had caused her to start hammering harder. She leaned against the roof and wiped the sweat off her forehead again. “I just want to get done.”

  “Won’t do you any good if you beat a hole through the roof.”

  Audrey stared down at her boots, frustrated that the past still had the ability to make anger pulse through her. She didn’t want to be that angry, disappointed person anymore. She took several seconds to cool off and catch her breath then went back to hammering, though less violently this time.

  “So, how’d you and my dad meet?” Brady asked.

  She swallowed her instinctive aversion to questioning and replied in an even tone, “At the grocery store. I helped him find something he was looking for.”

  “And that led to him working out here every day?”

  Audrey glanced at Brady. “You’re the inquisitive sort, aren’t you?” she asked, keeping her question light, not accusatory.

  Brady sat back and propped one forearm on his upturned knee. “I’m just looking out for my dad.”

  “That’s what I’ve been doing.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he seemed like he needed it.” One glance at Brady told her that he had, indeed, simply been concerned for his recently widowed father’s welfare. She remembered how lost Nelson had looked in the grocery store and understood Brady’s concern. Just because the concept of a close relationship with a parent wasn’t within her current realm of possibility didn’t mean they didn’t exist anymore. Even she had once enjoyed such a relationship.

  Nelson wandered outside to dump some wood scraps into the burning barrel. Neither she nor Brady spoke until the older man stepped back inside.

  “Listen, I’m not sure what you were thinking, but I’m not out to get anything from your dad. He’s a nice man, and I’ve liked having him around. And he appears to like coming out here.”

  Brady stretched his legs out and leaned back on his palms. He stared toward the gentle flow of the creek. “I’m sorry. He was just acting so different from the last time I saw him.”

  “But that’s a good thing.”

  Brady looked at her, questions written all over his handsome face.

  “When I met your dad, he was standing in front of the cherry pie filling in the grocery store, totally overwhelmed by which one to buy. He was on the verge of tears. It made my heart break. He looked so relieved when I helped him pick a can for cobbler.”

  Brady lowered his head, as if he were trying to see his dad through the tin of the roof. “Mom’s cobbler. It’s his favorite dessert.”

  “I didn’t know about your mom then. I thought your mom had sent him to the store to do the shopping she normally did.” She told him about her conversation with Meg the cashier and her subsequent encounter with his dad in the parking lot. “I was only trying to help him in that moment. But once he came out here with those picture frames, he seemed to want to talk. The more we talked and I told him about my ideas, the more of his sadness drifted away. I mean, I still see it sometimes, but I honestly think it’s good for him to stay busy. It keeps his mind on something other than how much he misses your mom.”

  And Audrey was the expert on staying busy to keep other thoughts at bay.

  “I know. That’s part of the reason I came up here. I was worried about him. He hasn’t been the same person since Mom died.”

  “That’s understandable. They were married for a long time. This isn’t something you get past in a few days.” She remembered the deep sorrow that had cloaked her own mother in the weeks following the unexpected death of Audrey’s father.

  Brady glanced up at her. “You say that like you know from experience.”

  She swallowed and shook away the unwanted memory. “Just common sense.” She lifted the hammer and moved toward the top of the roofline. “We should try to finish this before it gets too hot. I’m already sweating like I’ve been jogging across Death Valley.”

  The old keeping-busy philosophy at work. If she filled her mind with roofing and painting and electrical wiring, she didn’t have to remember the father she’d lost. Or the mother she’d walked away from.

  AUDREY YORK MIGHT NOT be after his father’s money, but she was definitely hiding something. Call it gut instinct, but he’d seen something in her eyes, almost a touch of fear. Fear that he’d find out something she wanted to keep hidden? He shook his head, realized yet again that he was comparing her to a bad memory. His brain knew all women weren’t like Ginny, but his gut kept missing the memo.

  But he had to give credit where credit was due. She was indeed a hard worker. She was slicked with sweat, cuts and scrapes covered her hands and knees, her hair was coming loose from her ponytail, and she didn’t pay any of it a moment of attention. Her single-minded focus stayed on getting this roof completed in record time.

  He paused for a moment to watch her hammer. Even disheveled, she was a beauty. And she acted like she was either unaware of that fact or didn’t care. Before his work pants became uncomfortable, he pulled another piece of tin into place.

  “Dad said you moved from Nashville. Did you run a restaurant there?”

  Audrey made one last strike of the hammer before shifting to the right and the next piece of tin. “No.” She paused to lift her sweaty face to what little breeze was stirring the air. She seemed to hesitate before continuing. “I was a fund-raiser.”

  Fund-raiser to restaurant owner—odd transition. So was Nashville to Willow Glen.

  “What about you?” she asked. “I hear you have a construction company or something.”

  Brady noticed how she deflected the focus back to him, how she seemed unaware of how big Witt Construction was. Maybe he’d just acknowledge the small Kingsport location and see how she reacted. “Half of one. My partner, Craig, owns the other half.” He caught the quick, questioning glance she tossed his way. “That’s business partner, not partner partner.”

  She laughed. “You guys are so overly sensitive about that topic.”

  “Just clarifying.” Wow, she should definitely smile more often. It rocketed her from beautiful to stunning.

  “What?”

  The questioning look on her face told him he’d been staring again. She had that effect on him. “Nothing. I was thinking you seem to be in a safer mood now that you’re not trying to murder the tin with that hammer.”

  She hel
d up the tool in question and stared at it. “Guess I worked out most of the frustration I was feeling.”

  He held up a hand, palm out. “Remind me to never frustrate you.”

  Damn, he was flirting. He wasn’t here to get a date. He’d left a pile of his own work behind to make sure his dad was okay. But he’d done that and yet here he still was, working for no pay. Seemed his dad was no longer the only person on his mind.

  Audrey shook the hammer at him in mock threat, then went back to her task.

  Just because he wasn’t looking to hook up didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the view while he worked.

  They were putting the last piece of tin on one side of the roof in place when a racket and then a string of curses came from inside the mill. They nearly tripped over each other getting to and down the ladder. When they rushed inside, Nelson was holding his hand and still uttering a few choice words.

  “What’s wrong?” Audrey rushed toward Nelson.

  “Ah, I smashed my finger with the hammer.”

  “Let me see.”

  Brady watched as Audrey took his dad’s hand in hers, turned it over carefully and examined it. Something shifted inside him at the gentleness and concern. He didn’t think anyone could fake with that much authenticity.

  “We need to take you to the emergency room, make sure you haven’t broken anything,” Audrey said.

  His dad moved his hand out of hers. “No need for that. It’s nothing.”

  “It’s turning a nice shade of eggplant,” she argued, her hands on her hips.

  “Honey, if I’d gone to the hospital every time I smashed my fingers, I’d have funded an entire new wing by now.”

  Brady smiled, glad to see more and more of the dad he’d always known coming back to the light of day.

  “At least let me get you an ice pack.”

  “Okay, if it’ll make you feel better,” Nelson said with a teasing smile.

  “It’s supposed to make you feel better, you stubborn old man.” She shook her head, acting exasperated with him.

  Brady tried to hide a laugh but didn’t fully succeed.

  “What are you laughing at?” his dad asked. “You get over there and finish up what I started. And try not to hit your finger. She’ll be hauling us both off to the E.R.”

  Audrey swatted Nelson on the upper arm as she headed for the cooler in the corner. After fixing Nelson an ice pack and sitting him in a lawn chair in the corner, Audrey pulled a couple of bottles of water out of the ice. She tossed one to Brady as he moved toward the window frame his father had been constructing.

  Brady turned in time to see Audrey down about half her water before coming up for air. Condensation from the bottom of the bottle dropped onto her chest and rolled downward toward the scoop of her tank top. Brady’s skin heated, and he licked his lips before he could think not to.

  “Ow.” Brady winced at the sudden pain in his leg and turned around to find his dad giving him the look he always used when he’d found Brady misbehaving. So the old man hadn’t missed his gawking.

  “What?” Audrey asked as she rolled her cold bottle of water to her forehead.

  “Nothing,” Nelson said. “Just giving the boy a little nudge.”

  Yeah, if you called a kick to the calf with a steel-toed work boot a nudge.

  Staring at warm, enticing female flesh wasn’t a problem after Audrey returned to the roof. Thing was, he was hotter now than he’d been sitting on tin with the sun beating down on him.

  His dad walked across the room, moving to the open doorway in Brady’s peripheral vision.

  “She’s a good girl. Don’t trifle if you don’t really like her.”

  Nelson stepped outside without giving Brady the chance to respond that he had no intention of trifling. Dang, all he’d done was look. He was a red-blooded male, young, healthy, single. When a beautiful woman was nearby, he tended to notice. But anything beyond that with someone his dad considered a friend had bad idea written all over it. Because Brady wasn’t a long-term kind of guy—not anymore.

  An engine started outside, and it only took a moment for Brady to realize it was his truck. By the time he reached the door, his dad was heading down the lane toward the road.

  First his dad told him to steer clear of Audrey then he left the two of them alone. What was the old guy up to?

  Chapter Three

  Audrey sat back on her heels and watched as Brady deposited some useless bits of wood in the burning barrel.

  “Where’d your dad go?”

  He shrugged. “Heck if I know. He just took off.”

  “That’s odd. Was he feeling bad?”

  “No more than a throbbing finger. Need some help?”

  She nearly declined, but honestly she was pooped and the initial tension between her and Brady had eased. At least the tension regarding his father. The other tension on her part wouldn’t fade unless Brady fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. “Sure.”

  Brady climbed the ladder and made his way over to her side of the roof. “This may qualify as the fastest roofing job ever.”

  “It’s only going to get hotter, and I don’t fancy roasting into a lobster up here or going broke buying sunscreen. The curse of the blond.” She gestured toward her hair.

  After getting another piece of roofing in place and attached, Audrey lay back. “I am one hundred and ten percent wiped. I feel like I could lie in the grass and sleep for about two days.”

  “We’re almost done. Come on.”

  With a moan, she raised herself and got back to work. “This can’t be your idea of a good time on vacation.”

  “It’s not really vacation. Seems like Dad’s doing okay though, so maybe I should just go back home.”

  Audrey retrieved a nail and set it in place while trying to ignore the thought that she’d miss seeing his face. “Do you have something pressing at work?”

  “There’s always something pressing at work.”

  “Something your business partner can’t handle?”

  He glanced over at her, gave her a half smile at the focus she put on the word business. “No.”

  “Then maybe you should just hang out with your dad. I’m sure he enjoys being with you. And he might not say anything or act like it, but I suspect he needs the company when he goes home at night.”

  “He seemed surprisingly okay last night, except for the scolding I got for being rude to you.”

  Her eyes widened as she looked at him. “Scolding? At your age? How embarrassing.” She pressed her lips together to stifle a giggle at the image.

  Brady snorted. “Guess I deserved it.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I understand your wanting to look out for your dad.”

  After all, there were people out there more than willing to bilk others out of their hard-earned money. She knew that firsthand.

  THEY FINISHED attaching the roofing but left applying the sealant for another day and climbed down the ladder. Brady followed Audrey to the side of the creek, where she untied and removed her boots and socks then slipped her feet into the flowing water.

  “Ah!” She flopped back into the grass, letting the water bob her feet. “I may never move again.”

  “You’ll move. The ants, mosquitoes and chiggers will eventually find you and have you for lunch.”

  “Oh, fine, ruin the moment,” she said in a light, teasing tone.

  This was definitely better than suspicion and animosity. So she was hiding something. Who didn’t have secrets? It didn’t mean it was anything aimed at hurting him or his dad. Roasting hot himself, Brady gave in to temptation and shucked his boots and socks, too. After rolling up his pant legs to the knees, he stuck his feet in the water and lay back in the grass only a couple of feet from Audrey.

  “I haven’t done this in years,” he said.

  She turned her head to look at him. “What, stuck your feet in the creek?”

  “Yeah. That and just lie in the grass, looking up at the trees.”<
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  Audrey let out a slow sigh as she returned her gaze to the sky above. “Guess we forget the simple ways to enjoy life when we grow up.”

  “That why you bought this place? To enjoy life?”

  “It just felt right. I woke up one morning and realized I needed a change.”

  “Was your job boring?”

  She didn’t answer immediately. He glanced toward her, but she was still staring toward the treetops high above them.

  “I was between jobs. Seemed like the right time to ask myself what I really wanted. Only, I had no idea what that might be. I went for a walk one afternoon, and I somehow ended up at a bookstore. I don’t even know why I went in, but I found myself standing in front of the magazine section. I started flipping through different magazines, and this story about a woman who refurbished an old lighthouse and made a B & B out of it caused something to click inside me. Needless to say, not a lot of lighthouses in Tennessee. But that’s when I remembered this mill. I had no interest in a B & B, but I love to cook and thought, why not a café?”

  She turned her head and met his eyes. “And that’s way more info than you asked for.”

  “It’s okay. Saves me the trouble of asking more questions.”

  She huffed out a laugh. “You have your dad’s sense of humor.”

  “Really? I’ve been accused of having no sense of humor.”

  “Everyone has one, some just deeper than others.”

  He returned his gaze to the sky peeking through the trees. Something about her confession about her life unsettled him. Was it that she had indeed shared too much of herself with him? He’d turned into a surface-relationship kind of guy, much to his family’s disappointment. Nothing too serious. Not that he and Audrey had or would have a relationship beyond temporary coworkers.

  “So why didn’t you hire roofers?” he asked.

  “I like my arm and my leg, thanks. The cost of the electrician and the plumber is going to kill me as it is. Plus, I like to do things for myself as much as I can.”

  “Hey, I bet you have contacts from being in fund-raising. Maybe you could find an investor for your business.”