by Natalie Ann
She wanted to spend the weekend looking things up, but she was behind in work and had to spend time catching up there, not to mention she wanted to spend time with Drew, too.
They’d gotten into a rhythm on the weekends. Even though they spent time together, it wasn’t always doing something together. Sometimes it was just him relaxing, watching TV while she worked, other times they watched a movie together. She even found him tinkering in her attic one day.
“What are you doing?”
“Just looking around to make sure everything is secure up here. It’s an old house and I hadn’t been in here before.”
“Everything look okay?” she asked.
She loved the attic; that was the reason she bought this house. Right now she was storing some boxes that held the few things of her mother’s but nothing more. If there was something that needed to be done up here, she wanted to make sure it happened.
“Yeah. These boards could be replaced,” he said, pointing a few out. “I could put some drywall up here if you want. This could be a nicer space. Or you could keep it as storage.”
“What do you mean by nicer space?”
She didn’t want to turn it into an extra bedroom or anything. There was plenty of room to do it and lots of windows, but it was cold up here too. Besides, the house already had four bedrooms; she had more room than she needed as it was.
“It could be a nice playroom someday for kids. Or at least part of it.” He stopped and looked at her face and shrugged. “Just a thought.”
She liked that idea a lot, bringing up memories of her own childhood.
Her mother’s attic was nothing special, but wouldn’t it be nice to have an organized place for kids to play when they got older?
“It’s a good thought. We can talk about it at some point.”
Especially since she could see herself with a child. She’d been honest with Drew a while back when she’d said it was just the natural progression of things, but in the last several months, she’d started looking at it differently.
Now she saw herself wanting a child of her own, yearning for one more than just assuming she’d do it someday.
She heard her email ding, bringing her back to the present. She lifted her head, read the message from her boss and let out a breath. It was a good thing she wasn’t finding anything on the Triple H Haven, because she didn’t have time to research more.
So far, all she knew was what she found out from odd newspaper articles throughout the years. An organization started by a Jeremiah Hansen. There were more women than men, and it was suspected he had multiple wives, but it was never verified. The girls were hand-selected for older men to marry and very rarely left the ranch they lived on.
Everything they needed was grown or brought in by the men. Other than that, she didn’t find out much. At least not on the women. They did cattle ranching and farming to earn a living, and one article mentioned that several of the women sewed dresses and quilted blankets for income too.
With nothing else left to do, she pushed it from her mind and went back to her real job.
***
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Drew asked Brynn as he walked by her office door and noticed her at the desk.
“Dad stopped over this morning and decided it was time he had some quality time with Grace and kicked me out for a few hours.”
“How come I don’t get any alone time with my Gracie bear?”
Brynn snorted. “When you change a diaper, you can have alone time.”
He laughed. “I can change a diaper.”
“I haven’t seen it happen yet.” She shook her head and looked down at the papers in his hand. “What do you have?”
“Just a proposal for a new client. I was on my way to drop it off to Sean for a quote. I’ll let you know if they accept or not.”
“Sounds good. How are things going with Jordyn?”
He walked into her office and sat down. It looked like she wanted to talk and he didn’t get much one-on-one time with her either. “Good, why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
He didn’t believe her. “There’s always a reason.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at him. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with her.”
“I have. Is there a problem with that? I thought you liked her.” He hoped that didn’t come off as defensive, but was afraid it did.
“I do. I guess I was trying to find out how much you like her.”
“A lot.”
She sat there grinning at him, never breaking eye contact. “Are you in love with her?”
Well, that was a bold question. He wasn’t about to say yes to his sister when he hadn’t even said it to Jordyn. “I might be getting there.”
“Has Mom talked to you yet?”
“No.” He was still bummed about that. He’d been waiting, but she hadn’t come to him again since that one night she told him to let go.
“She will when she’s ready. Or she thinks you’re ready. Anyway, I wanted to tell you I talked to Ben about what you told me happened in Texas. I hope that was okay.”
“Yeah.” He’d filled her in on what Jordyn found out this past weekend when Jordyn was working and he was just hanging out. He didn’t think Jordyn would mind, and it wasn’t like she really found out anything. “What did Ben have to say?”
“Not much. He said he would look into that too. He has more connections than we do, but he’s a little preoccupied with Presley and the baby right now.”
“How are Presley and Chad doing?” he asked.
“They’re both doing well. Ben is almost as bad as Alec in terms of hovering over Presley. I thought she was going to haul off and smack him when we went to visit on Sunday.”
“Must be a Harper thing,” he said, grinning.
“It is. They all think we women can’t get a glass of water after we have a baby.” She was laughing when she said it and Drew knew it was said in jest.
“How come I get so much grief when I try to help you or Jordyn? It doesn’t seem fair if others are doing the same thing I am.”
“You aren’t married to Jordyn. It’s different when you are. And who says Alec and Ben don’t get grief? Even Sophia lost her temper with Phil after Ian was born. It’s sweet how caring and loving they all are, but we women are pretty tough.” She stopped and eyed him hard. “So is Jordyn; don’t you forget it.”
“I don’t think she’s going to let me.”
“Good, she’ll keep you on your toes.”
He didn’t want to talk about that right now. He wished Jordyn would let him do more but was learning to take what he could. He was thrilled she agreed to talk about him doing work in her attic at some point. He was hesitant to even bring it up, but was glad he did when she agreed.
“While I’ve got you here, have you heard anything on that two-family house yet?”
“It’s actually on my list of things to do. I know they have a Board of Trustees meeting tonight. They pushed it off because of the holidays, but tonight they should be looking over their foreclosure properties and voting on any offers. I’m going to put a call in and gently nudge on how eager we are before the meeting.”
“It’s not for APH though,” he argued.
“I’m representing you. I put the bid in under APH Real Estate. Trust me, it will push it through faster than if you did it on your own. You know that, Drew. Otherwise you would have made the offer yourself to the bank.”
“I know. I guess I just didn’t want special treatment.”
“What, you can do things for others, but they can’t for you?” she said, giving him a knowing look that he hated so much.
“True.” He wasn’t about to argue with her. He knew that look, and it meant she was ready to take a stand and put him in his place. Instead, he said, “Well, I hope it goes through. More so with your help. I’m looking forward to having the project.”
“I know. You’re getting itchy because we aren’t as busy as normal. Hopefully by ne
xt week we can move on it.”
He hoped so. He liked that he wasn’t laid off over the winter like on his old job, but he still wasn’t as busy as he was during the summer. And Jordyn was so busy with her work, he felt like he was twiddling his thumbs half the time. “It’ll be a good investment.”
“Not looking to live there?” she asked, her eyes laughing at him.
He shook his head at her, amusement riding high. “I’ve got a place to stay right now, so I’m in no rush.”
“Maybe you’re thinking of another house you’d like to move in to.”
She was too smart for her own good. “Don’t go there, Brynn. I haven’t yet. Besides, I want Dad to move in at some point.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
“Why?”
“Because not even half the plots are developed right now and Alec and Phil want Dad to stay there at least another year. And it looks like this other development is going to go through. When it does, I think they want Dad to move into a model home there. They like having the property to store things and having Dad on site for issues. He likes to feel needed on top it. I think it’s a win for everyone.”
Drew wanted to argue, but he couldn’t. He knew his father loved his new job and loved being needed. His father walked around the development all the time talking to the owners and they liked how easily he was accessible to them.
“I’ll figure it out. There’s plenty of time.”
“You keep telling yourself that. Time always flies when you’re having fun.”
Important
“Hurry up, you’re moving too slow,” Drew said to her, pulling her along the sidewalk.
It was freezing outside and dark on top of it. She had no idea what was going on. He walked into the house after work, and told her to grab her new winter boots and bundle up. They were going for a walk. She wasn’t thrilled about it, but he had a look of excitement in his eyes that she found contagious, so she saved her work, pushed back from her computer, and did as he said.
“I’m not used to walking in these boots. Cut me some slack.”
“You didn’t need to buy the biggest, chunkiest pair of snow boots you could find, did you? A simple pair of work boots would have sufficed, you know. It’s not like you spend more than a few minutes outside.”
He was laughing at her and she didn’t appreciate it, even if he was right. She didn’t go outside for longer than it took to get the mail. And then she hated even doing that.
During the week she found she didn’t leave her house at all if she didn’t need to. Everything she needed for her job was at her fingertips. When she needed food, she waited until the weekend and she and Drew went grocery shopping together.
“How was I supposed to know? I’d never seen snow before this last month.”
“This isn’t much snow. Really, you’re in for a shock come February. That’s when there are greater chances of large snowfalls. Not to mention colder temperatures.”
“It gets colder than this?” she squeaked out. She could barely tolerate this.
“Wait until it gets below zero. Add to that the wind chill, and trust me, you will let your mail sit there all week. Just consider yourself lucky you don’t have to leave the house if you don’t want to.”
She did consider herself lucky. “Where are we going?”
“I want to show you something,” he said, yanking her along a little faster.
She stumbled and righted herself. “How far is it?” She had no idea what he could be showing her. There was nothing around here but houses.
They’d walked about ten houses past hers, then turned the corner, walked past another five houses and then walked up five more houses farther away. “Here we are. What do you think?”
She looked around the neighborhood, confused. “About what?”
“This house,” he said, pointing to the large home. It looked to be a multiple family house, but was dark inside, with no cars in the driveway. Matter of fact, the driveway didn’t even look to have been cleared this winter.
“I don’t understand,” she said, her confusion not diminishing a bit.
He pulled her up the front porch and she realized he had keys in his hand. “It’s mine. I bought it today.”
“You bought a house?” she asked, shocked. He’d never said a word to her about even looking. Especially one so close to her. “I thought you had a place to live for a while.”
“I do. But I wanted something of my own. I can’t live there forever and this is a good investment. It’s a good place to start. If I never live here, then I can rent it out.”
She wasn’t sure what to make of the fluttering in her stomach when he said “if I never live here.” She didn’t know what he meant by it, and she didn’t want to assume. She actually bit her lip to keep from asking. For once she was thankful to have that much control to not let words tumble out like they normally did. “Well, let me see what it looks like.”
Did he look disappointed just now? She couldn’t tell, but his smile wasn’t as bright as it had been. Then he shook his head, almost as if to clear it, and said, “Let’s go.”
He unlocked the door and pushed it open into a hallway. One door on the right and stairs to another apartment above. “Two apartments?” she asked, assuming.
“Yeah. Three bedrooms and a bath in each. It needs some work, mainly cosmetic stuff. It has good bones and lots of space. Brynn, my father, and I looked at it in the fall. It’s taken this long to go through.”
The fall. He’d never said a word in all that time. “Why so long?”
“It was a foreclosure property. They don’t always go through and can take forever if they do. I didn’t know if I would end up with it or not. Last week Brynn told me they accepted my offer after their board meeting. Today I signed all the papers. I’d already been pre-approved, so it didn’t take long.”
Now she was hurt he hadn’t said anything to her in the last week. “I’m happy for you.”
“How come you don’t look it?”
Crap, guess she wasn’t doing a good job hiding that. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know until last week.”
“I know. Why didn’t you say anything last week when you found out?” She hoped she kept the hurt from her voice, but she had a feeling she didn’t.
“You’ve been busy. I didn’t want to bother you with it. And I wasn’t sure how soon we would close. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He took his gloves off and gripped her chin to make her look at him. She wished he’d never turned the hall light on now, because she was pretty sure he could read everything going on in her brain.
“Jordyn, I know you’re upset. The question is why?”
She shrugged. “I thought you would have shared it with me. You’re so excited over it and it’s important to you, obviously.”
“And I hurt you by not sharing something that is important to me?” he asked, figuring it out.
“Yeah. You did.”
***
He watched her face, noticed her eyes getting glossy and felt horrible. He’d wanted to tell her, but he knew she was busy last week catching up on work. He also knew she was focused on finding out anything she could about her past. He was even doing some research on his own time, but he was coming up empty too.
Every time he thought to broach the subject of the house, he stopped himself and wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe because he feared she would bring up the living situation.
He threw it out there, about possibly never living in the house, and she pretty much glossed over it. Guess that was answer enough. He wasn’t sure what he expected she would say, and was sort of glad he held his cards close to his chest in this case.
But he really didn’t want to hurt her either. He guessed they had a lot to work through.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intent. I know you’ve been really busy lately.”
“I have. And maybe I’m at fault for not making more time for yo
u. Have I been selfish lately?” she asked, looking concerned over the possibility.
He didn’t want her to think that. She wasn’t selfish, but maybe he was. Maybe he was being selfish wanting to spend so much time with her and wanting her to feel the same way he did. Maybe she didn’t, though.
“No, you haven’t been. I’m just itching to be doing something. I’m always this way in the winter. I’m glad I’m working, but even then it’s hard to come down from how busy we were before the holidays.”
She nodded, and he was glad he said what he did. “My work isn’t seasonal, really. It comes and goes, but between the new program from my visit in Texas and two more jobs for my website business, I’m busier than normal.”
“You didn’t tell me you got two new jobs,” he said, excited.
“I didn’t want to bore you with it.”
“You wouldn’t have. You should have told me. Is it anyone local?”
He should have taken time to talk to her more about her work rather than sulking that maybe she wasn’t as willing to spend as much time with him as he wanted.
“No. I have my own website, obviously,” she said, chuckling lightly. “They contacted me through that.”
He pulled her close and kissed her on the lips. “Congratulations, I’m thrilled for you.”
“You are?” she asked, shocked. “It’s just work.”
“Yeah, but it’s something that’s important to you. Something you were excited to start, right?”
“I was. I mean I am excited to start this business. And I guess maybe I did the same thing to you. I didn’t tell you about this like you didn’t tell me about your house.”
“New territory for both of us.” And he truly believed that was the case now. “Come on, I’ll show you the upstairs apartment first. See if you can guess what’s my favorite part of the house.”
He started up the stairs, pulled his keys out, unlocked the door and hit the light switch in the living room, thankful the bank had kept the electricity on.
“I’m going to rip up this ugly carpet. I hope there is hardwood under it and I can refinish it, but I don’t think so. So I’ll put new flooring in.”