by Natalie Ann
“Thanks,” she said, shocked, but pleased he said something nice to her, giving her a little boost she needed in her life. She felt herself starting to relax a tiny bit.
The waitress brought their drinks and asked if they were ready to order. She deferred to him. “I’m not fussy with food. Whatever you say is good, I’ll eat it.”
“Great. We’ll take a large pizza, loaded, and an antipasto with an order of hot wings.”
“I guess you are hungry,” she said when the waitress walked away.
“It makes good leftovers too. So tell me, what brought you to Saratoga?”
Just the opening she was waiting for. Maybe she could find out some things about the town and the people. She had to figure out how to broach the subject of why she was really here without going into too much detail. She didn’t want to come off like she was on a fool’s errand.
Judging
Drew looked at Jordyn sitting across from him, trying to look confident but not fooling him one bit.
He couldn’t get over how bashful she seemed. One minute she was looking anywhere but his eyes, the next a blush came across her face, and then once in a while she would blurt out such a straightforward question, then almost be mortified over doing that.
She looked so different to him right now. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting her to look like when he picked her up, but not like this.
Rather than leggings and a big shirt hiding herself, she looked put together. He knew she was thin, he’d noticed that much by the leggings she always wore, but he didn’t expect her to not have much in the way of curves. Not that he cared, because everything about her seemed to work well.
Her shirt was tucked in, fitted to her waist and unbuttoned on top, hinting at a tiny bit of cleavage. On any other woman, he’d think she was teasing him. But on Jordyn, nope, he’d caught her hands going there several times, if not her eyes, checking to make sure she was covered.
She seemed to be hesitating over his question so he rephrased it. “Is it a secret why you moved to Saratoga?”
“What? Oh no, nothing like that. Not really. I guess you could say I’m looking for something.”
“What are you looking for?”
She tilted her head to the side, almost as in thought, then said, “I’m not sure yet.”
“Well, I hope you find it,” he said, grinning at her.
She nodded, gave him a sweet smile and said, “Me too.”
“Okay, then let’s try something different. You ask me a question.”
She looked around nervously, then said, “Tell me about Saratoga. Since I’m new here, what’s there to do? What’s interesting about it?”
She was something else. “That’s not really a question I thought you’d ask, but we’ll go with it. I’m sorry to say I’m not going to be much help to you. At least I don’t think so. I’ve only lived here since the spring myself.”
“Oh. I think I just assumed you grew up here since Brynn is married to one of the owners of Harper’s. I did my research on them before I called and they’ve been around for a long time. And there were articles about how Alec and Phil were born and raised in this area, and committed to expanding it.”
She looked disappointed and he didn’t know what to make of that. “It’s true, the Harpers have been here their whole lives. Brynn has been here about two years now. She relocated for the job, which is how she met Alec, and the rest is history.”
“So you moved here to be by Brynn?”
That was more the type of question he’d thought she’d ask, something more personal.
“Yeah. My mother died when I was in college about nine years ago, so that left my father, Brynn, and me. We’ve always been a close family, so the loss was a shock and hard to handle. Having Brynn move away two years ago felt like a knife in my heart again.”
He didn’t know what possessed him to say that. He’d never said that to anyone else before.
She reached her hand over and laid it on his, no hesitation in her movements, her eyes full of sincerity. “I understand. My mother died less than a year ago. It was just me and her, so I guess you could say I’m on my own now. Alone. I get the knife to the heart reference.”
Alone. Did she just say alone? “You have no other family at all?”
“Not that I know of.” She picked her hand up and waved it, dismissing her comment, her moment of tenderness gone as fast as it came. “So your father moved with you then, right? You said he works for Harper’s, too.”
He didn’t miss how she changed the subject so fast, or the transformation in her demeanor, like they didn’t share some common bond seconds ago. He already missed the closeness he felt when she had momentarily dropped her wall, and was hoping to bring it out again.
“Yes, we moved together. I thought it was Brynn’s idea that we work for Harper’s, but it was actually Alec’s. We came to visit over the past few years, and every time we were here we’d end up working. He never wanted us to, or asked, but we’d get bored and it was something to do. They were growing so much and Alec felt like he wanted to have an electrician as part of his team and my father to run all the rehabs so Alec could focus on developing new builds. Plus, they’re in the process of buying more land for another development outside of the city.”
“That’s nice that he thought of you and brought you all back together like that.”
It was nice of Alec to do that. And again, he wondered why he explained so much to her just now.
He didn’t understand why he felt comfortable opening up like he was, but he did. Maybe that barrier she’d dropped was contagious and he found himself doing the same.
“So anyway, that is how my father and I ended up here living together again.”
“You live with your father? How old are you?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, a bit defensively. “It’s just temporary. And I’m twenty-nine.”
“I’m not judging,” she rushed out, the flush he was coming to expect filling her face. “I lived with my mother before I moved here. I’d only lived by myself for a few years and even then it was only a few miles away. I moved back home to help care for her over two years ago.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m twenty-seven, so I was glad to know I wasn’t the only one that lived with a parent until recently. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
She looked so upset right now he felt bad that he’d thought she was judging him.
“No worries. I guess I feared people would think I was some kind of bum who couldn’t take care of myself and was living off my father. But the truth of it is, my father had a pretty nasty accident over a year ago. Since then, I’m sort of nervous leaving him alone. He’d be mad if he knew that, so I was glad that Alec wanted us to live in the model home in the development right now.”
“The Harpers gave you a house to live in too?” she asked, astonished.
“It was Brynn’s house. She lived there and worked out of the house. She still works out of it for the new builds and to show clients. There’s a finished basement; I live down there, and my father has the rest of the house for the most part. We have our own space, but he is there in the development if there are any issues after work hours.”
“Oh, I guess that’s a good thing too. And I’m sorry if you thought I was judging you. I really wasn’t.”
He pushed back as the waitress brought their wings and salad out first. “Your pizza will be about ten minutes.”
“Thanks,” Drew said. “Dig in,” he instructed Jordyn, pushing the salad toward her, but she bypassed that and went right for the wings. He watched her put a few on her plate, then dish up some salad. He liked a girl who wasn’t afraid to get messy with wings.
“I haven’t had wings in a long time either.” She took a big bite and closed her eyes in appreciation, humming low in her throat. “These are awesome.”
He couldn’t remember the last time he went on a date and a woman ate wings. They always complained they were too messy to eat and passed on them,
always wanting food that didn’t require the use of their fingers.
“I told you.” He decided to eat a bit before they started to talk again.
When she was done with her wings, she wiped her mouth, but missed a spot of sauce. He lifted his finger and touched it on the outside of his lip, but she didn’t get the hint. Must have been too subtle.
“You missed a spot.”
She tried to find it and kept missing, so he grabbed his napkin, reached over and took care of it for her. Her eyes locked on his and held his stare, her face turning a lovely shade of red, while his heart started to thump in his chest. He swore the air sizzled between them.
He cleared his throat as she rushed out a “Thanks.” Then she picked up her fork and started to eat her salad with her eyes downcast. He tried not to sigh over her sudden shyness again.
“So tell me a little about the things you’re going to do with this website for Harper’s.” She looked apprehensive for a minute, and he said, “It’s okay. It’s not a secret. I don’t think Brynn will care if you ran some ideas by me of what you two talked about. I’m just trying to make conversation.”
“Oh. No secret. We talked about different layouts and such. I guess one of the things I really wanted to do was have different pages for the different things they do. New builds, rehabs, flips, and rental properties. I’d already taken pictures of my house before the guys started working, and then when you leave each night I snap a few. I suggested it might be nice to show the whole process, not just before and after pictures. More like a slideshow really.”
“You take pictures when we leave each night?” he asked, amused.
“I like photography. It’s another hobby of mine. And since the whole house is new to me, I thought it’d be nice to look back on it when it was done.”
He shouldn’t have been surprised that she had another hobby that was considered a solo-type thing.
“I think it’s a great idea. I’m sure some of the guys wouldn’t mind if you took the pictures while they were there. We could pose all friendly-like too. You know, ‘friendly service with a smile,’” he said, joking.
“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll run it by Brynn,” she said, excited. “Anyway, she said she had some before and after pictures of other properties, but nothing in detail. I showed her some of my photos and she liked them and asked if I wouldn’t mind stopping in on some of the projects to take the pictures myself, and to photograph all the rental properties as they come vacant. She asked to add a page for APH Real Estate too and if I could update the listings and pictures for the flips. I didn’t even realize there was a real estate end to it.”
“It’s relatively new, and Brynn’s baby. I guess this is turning into more than web design for you then, isn’t it?”
“It is. I’m thrilled too. So thank you again. I appreciate that you thought of me and are helping me get a good start.”
He was glad he thought of her too and knew he would be doing it a lot more after tonight.
Tread Carefully
“Hey, Dad,” Drew said to his father later that night.
“Just get back from your date?” Andy asked, looking over from his recliner and taking a sip of his beer, the baseball game playing on the TV.
“Yeah.” He walked into the kitchen and got himself a beer, his second one of the night. He’d only had the one when he was with Jordyn. Since she didn’t drink, he didn’t want to push it by drinking two and getting her nervous with him driving. Two was the most he ever had when he was out anyway, and he already knew she was the nervous type.
“How was it?”
“It was good. She’s a nice girl. A little lonely, I think.”
“How do you suppose?”
“She said she is all alone. I knew she didn’t get out much, she said as much before. And that she didn’t know anyone in the area. I didn’t know that her mother died this year and she has no other family.”
“You’d know what that is like, losing your mother.”
“I would and I do.”
“Sounds like she is a tough girl under it all.”
“How’s that?”
“She picked up and moved to a new state by herself, not knowing a soul?”
“She did.”
Why didn’t he think of that? Here he’d been thinking she was shy and possibility timid, not to mention awkward, but it never occurred to him how independent or strong she must have been to do what she did. The courage it must have taken. Grieving for her mother on top of it, because he hadn’t missed how sad she looked when she mentioned her mother had recently passed and that she had cared for her the last two years.
He’d almost asked what happened but decided it was too personal of a question to ask on the first date. He would ask her another time, because he knew he was going out with her again. He even told her so and had laughed at her shocked expression when he said it. She didn’t need to know he held his breath waiting for her reaction, or that he was thrilled when she grinned right back at him and said, “Really?”
“Yep. We’re going to have a second date. Next time though, I’ll let you plan it.”
She looked startled, but nodded her head, and said, “I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”
“Drew.” His father called his name, bringing his thoughts back to the present.
“What? Did you say something?”
“Yes. I asked what you thought of her personally.”
“I like her.” And he did. She totally wasn’t his type, but he found he was drawn to her—the innocence of her. Maybe it brought out the protective-brother mode he always had with Brynn. Or always wanted to have with Brynn, except she never seemed to need it.
“That’s good. Glad you’re getting out.”
“Me too.” He took a swig of his beer, then hesitated and finally said, “I’ve been thinking of talking to Brynn about finding a house to buy.”
“What for? Are you looking for an investment?”
“Yes and no. We can’t live here forever. They’re going to want to sell this house at some point.”
“True. I haven’t put much thought into it, but you’re right.”
“I thought maybe I could find a two-family house to work on while I live here. We could work on it together and each take a floor. What do you think?”
“I think you’re going to get to a point in your life where you don’t want your father living in the same house as you,” he said laughing.
“It wouldn’t be much different than this really,” Drew argued. He hadn’t expected his father to oppose it.
“I guess. I’ll tell you what. You talk to Brynn and we’ll go from there. You know I’d love to help you work on it regardless.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
***
“Come see Uncle Drew,” Drew said, reaching into the playpen to pick up his niece. She was wide awake, kicking her feet and waving her arms at him. At least he didn’t have to worry about Brynn yelling at him for waking Grace again.
“What brings you by on a Saturday morning?”
“I need a reason to come visit my sister and favorite niece?”
She snorted. “No, but it’s a little early for you to be out and about.”
“True.” He cradled Grace in his arms and leaned down close to her face, blew a few raspberries on her cheek and was rewarded with a deep belly laugh. “Where’s Alec?”
“He ran to Phil’s to help him with something. Why, is there a problem?”
“No. I was just asking. Anyway, the reason for my visit is personal. I wanted to know if you knew of any two-family houses for sale.”
“For you?”
“Yeah. I talked to Dad last night and told him I thought it might be good to get one for the two of us to work on. We can’t live in the model home forever and this would give us time to work on it and not live in the mess. I suggested we could each take a floor.”
“How did he feel about that?”
Drew frowned. “He said he woul
d definitely help, but he wasn’t as agreeable to the living-together part.”
“I didn’t think he would be. Why would you think otherwise?”
“Brynn, he’s old now. I’m not sure I want to leave him alone again. What if he has another accident and no one is around?”
She burst out laughing. “Please don’t tell him you think he’s old. He’s fifty-five. That isn’t old. He’s in better shape than most forty-year-olds and you know it.”
“But—”
“No buts. What’s this really about?”
“I told you. What if something happened to him and no one was around?”
“Come sit down, Drew. Listen, we’ve always been honest with each other. I couldn’t bear to have anything happen to him. I don’t think I could handle losing the last parent we have, and I never want to even think about going through what we did with him a year ago.”
“You understand then.” He knew she would and was glad he came over.
“I do. But I also know he will fight it every step of the way. I was thrilled that Alec suggested you guys come work for him. I wanted to suggest it so badly, but it wasn’t really my place. That he thought of it meant the world to me. I knew you guys wouldn’t hesitate to take him up on it to get closer to me. Especially with Grace’s birth coming up.”
“We appreciated Alec’s job offer. Dad would never tell you, but we’d talked about moving here and looking for jobs before Alec’s offer.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“We didn’t want Alec to feel like he had to offer us a job. It worked out better this way. We knew he wanted us for our work and not for you.”
“What’s wrong with wanting you guys for me?” she asked, lightly punching his shoulder.
“You know what’s wrong.”
“Yeah, I know. You wanted to be appreciated for what you could do, not who you are. I get it.”
“Anyway, I understand what you’re saying about Dad and I’ll tread carefully. Until then, do you know of any properties?”