The Summer Sisters (Juniper Springs Book 2)

by Sara Richardson

  She skirted the edge of the trees all the way to where Tony stood. “Good morning.” She kept her distance in case Colt was inside the cabin. “Anything I can do to help you out before Dally gets here?”

  “Yeah.” Tony lumbered down the steps to join her. “Colt could use some help finishing up the trim in the Reindeer Cabin.”

  “Oh.” Her heart got all squirmy, but she refused to let her smile fade. “Well, I would love to help with that. Of course I would. The problem is…” She couldn’t be in the same room as Colt right now. Obviously her body wasn’t ready for that, what with the swooshing of her blood and the triple beat of her heart. “I don’t really know anything about trim. But I would love to—”

  “You don’t gotta know anything.” Tony stuck a pencil behind his ear and headed for his truck. “Colt knows it all. We need you to hold stuff up, help him measure. Things like that. We got a lot to do today to wrap things up.” He didn’t wait for a response before he opened the tailgate and started to rummage through his tools.

  “Right. Okay. Sure!” Rose did an about-face and blew out a trembling breath. Earlier this week, she and Colt had been joking around about her home improvement ignorance. He’d teased her about how she’d held a hammer. They’d talked about his travels with Sassy. But when she’d found out he was leaving, it was like her heart had gotten away from her, and now she didn’t know how to act in front of him.

  Case in point—each step that brought her closer to the Reindeer Cabin also seemed to lodge her heart higher into her throat. She didn’t have time to stuff it back where it belonged before Colt walked out onto the porch where a big table saw sat.

  He noticed her standing at the base of the stairs right away. “There you are.”

  “Here I am.” She tried not to stumble on the first step.

  The careful way the man was watching her didn’t help with her balance. Colt seemed to see her. All of her. And she wasn’t used to a man looking so deeply into her.

  “You seemed upset in the hardware store, and—”

  “Upset?” She choked out a laugh. “No. I wasn’t upset. Why would I be upset with you?” If she admitted she had been emotional about him leaving, she would have to explain why, and she couldn’t. What would she say? I don’t want you to leave because I’ll miss you too much? She hadn’t earned the right to tell him what to do with his life. “I was stressed.” Rose found herself nodding slowly. “Yes, very stressed. My mom is in town, and she stresses me out.”

  “Oh.” Colt’s gaze dove to the ground between them. “I see.”

  “Yep. I’m super stressed.” Rose took the opportunity to steer the conversation away from how upset she’d been. “She’s already had one altercation with Grumpy. She told him she was going to leave a bad review online because he didn’t have almond milk.”

  “Yikes.” Eight months ago when they’d met, she’d been lucky to see a shadow of a smile cross Colt’s lips, but lately he’d been grinning a whole lot more. Probably because he was looking forward to starting a new life. “Bet that went over well.”

  “About as well as you would expect.” She eyed the saw behind him, ready to move on and find a distraction. “So anyway, that’s what was wrong. Sorry I took it all out on you.”

  “No problem.” Colt turned around and lined up a long piece of decorative trim on the saw to make a quick cut. His face changed when he got seriously focused on something. His eyes tapered slightly in the corners and his lips bunched. He still hadn’t trimmed his hair since his vacation…some of it nearly got into his eyes when he bent his head.

  She needed to stop noticing the details that made him so appealing. She cleared her throat. “Tony thought you could use help holding things and measuring.” Since that about covered the list of her construction qualifications.

  “That’d be great.” Colt lifted the trim and opened the door.

  Rose followed him inside.

  “What you’ve done with this place is incredible, Rose.”

  There went that melting sensation dead center in her chest again. “I didn’t really do the work. Tony—”

  “But this is all your vision.” Colt carried the trim to the opposite side of the living room and leaned it against the wall. “Tony and his crew have done the work, but you’re the one who brought this cabin back to life. You’ve made it into a special place.”

  The compliment embedded itself deeper than she wanted it to. “We’ve all made it into a special place. It’s the memories we have here.” Though she didn’t quite remember being with Colt as a kid, her aunt told her they’d spent some time together the year before her family had stopped coming to visit.

  “What are your favorite memories?” He seemed to look for something in her eyes.

  “Christmas, of course.” She stared back at him, a warmth rising through her. “The ice-skating and tree decorating and sledding down the hill.” Had Colt done those things with them? He seemed transfixed on her, waiting as though he knew she wasn’t done.

  Once she got to talking about how much she’d loved this place as a kid, she might never be done. “Then in the summer…Sassy would create this magical night on our last evening here.” She closed her eyes, still seeing the sight. “She would put floating candles on the pond and hang up colorful lanterns on the trees.” A laugh snuck out. “She always told us the fairies had come and decorated for us—bringing us into their magic.” And when she’d seen that pond all lit up it had felt like walking into another world.

  “I was there for that once. The last summer you came.”

  Rose suddenly felt a heightened awareness of his closeness, his eyes on hers. Her breath caught. “You remember me from back then?”

  According to her aunt, Colt had picked her flowers when they were young, and Lillian threw them in the trash, but she hadn’t realized Colt had remembered.

  “I could never forget you.” The tenderness in his voice matched his expression.

  Rose couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe. Was he speaking as a friend or…something more?

  Before she got her wits about her enough to ask, Colt had turned away and knelt to line up the trim against the wall.

  “We should probably get back to work. Can you hold this?” The man gestured to the trim.

  Right. She was supposed to be helping him, not standing there struggling to think.

  “Sure.” Rose knelt on the floor and held the trim against the wall while Colt put nail after precise nail in place. At least watching him work gave her something to look at besides his face.

  “You okay?” Colt paused with the nail gun.

  “I’m great.” She turned her head toward the remaining pieces of trim so he couldn’t see too deeply into her eyes. “It’s a relief to have this almost done.” Let him think she was tired from the long renovation process instead of awkwardly trying to feel her way through certain desires she didn’t know what to do with. “I guess my next project will be working on the main house. Sassy mentioned her home was always the last priority and hasn’t been updated in years. She said she’d love to see some renovations.” Though they’d have to wait until they actually had a positive cash flow. If they ever had a positive cash flow…

  Colt paused, holding the nail gun against the trim while he focused on her. “What do you want to do with the place?”

  “How much time do you have?” she joked. His quick smile drew her in. She could live to see this man smile. “I’d like to completely open up the main level. Take out a few walls. Update the kitchen and flooring. I’d love to do a lot of the work myself so I can save money.” She cut herself off before she got carried away. “That’ll happen someday. Right now I have to finish this project and get through Sassy’s celebration first.”

  “You’ll be ready for a vacation after the party.” He popped the last couple of nails into place and stood. “You can always come visit me if you need to get away this fall.”

  Did he want her to come visit him? She couldn’t tell. This fal
l meant he planned to leave right away. “Have you started looking at places yet?”

  “I’ve found a few houses in Idaho that look interesting. There’s some beautiful country up there.” Colt selected another long section of trim from the collection that leaned against the small island in the kitchen. “I’d better figure it out soon. I might have an offer coming in on the store.”

  “Already?” Her voice squeaked. Rose followed him outside to the porch and watched him make the cuts on the saw. She’d assumed the sale would take some time.

  “My real estate agent is cautiously optimistic.” Colt pulled out his measuring tape and checked the length of the trim. “Can’t say too much about it yet, but the sale could happen much faster than I thought.”

  “That’s great news.” Back when she’d been engaged to marry into a high-profile family, Rose had been good at acting, but she was losing her touch. She tried to infuse more enthusiasm into her tone. “I’m happy for you.” The words were true. She’d never realized it was possible to be happy and hurting at the same time for the same reason.

  Colt should follow his dreams. He hadn’t had an easy life with his mom passing away when he was young and then his dad going to prison when he was a teenager. Even with all that going against him, he’d built a successful business. He’d become a good man. “You deserve this.” She held the door open so he could haul the trim back inside.

  “I don’t know about that. There’s a lot I’ll miss here.” His eyes grazed hers, and then he kneeled down to match up the trim on the wall near the door, all focused and closed off.

  Rose knelt right next to him, a tremble in her knees. Would he miss her? She was too afraid to ask. It wasn’t like anything could happen between them. She probably wasn’t his type. She wasn’t outdoorsy enough or tough enough. Or quiet enough…

  “Don’t worry, though. I won’t leave before the big party for Sassy.” Colt picked up the nail gun. “I wouldn’t miss that for the world.”

  “Me neither. It’s going to be—”

  A tickle skittered across her leg. Rose looked down. “Whaa! Mouse! Mouse!” She leapt for Colt, throwing her arms around his neck and climbing halfway up his body.

  “Whoa.” He dropped the nail gun, which went off and sent a nail flying straight through the brand-new window across the room.

  Rose didn’t care. “I feel like it’s still on me! Is it on me?” Clinging to the man, she tried to inspect her legs. “I felt it run. Across. My. Thigh.” She nearly gagged. “Oh my God! A mouse touched me!”

  For a second she couldn’t tell if the trembling was coming from her legs or shoulders, but then she realized Colt shook with laughter.

  “Where’d it go?” She frantically searched the floor, but there was no sign of the mouse.

  “I think you scared it away.” The man was laughing so hard he could barely speak.

  “It’s not funny! It’s still here somewhere.” The rodent was probably waiting for her to climb out of Colt’s lap so it could touch her again.

  “A little mouse won’t hurt you.” Colt had stopped laughing but amusement still flickered in his eyes.

  Oh mama, those eyes. They were bright and close. So close to hers. A new awareness seemed to flood her body. Somehow Colt’s arms had ended up around her. He didn’t move, didn’t push her away. If anything his hold on her seemed to tighten. His eyes were darker now, more intense, and she wondered if he could breathe because she definitely could not.

  His lips parted like he wanted to speak. Or maybe he wanted to kiss her the way she wanted to kiss him…

  “Rose?” Footsteps pounded the porch steps outside.

  She and Colt seemed to move at the same time, both scrambling to stand and back away from each other.

  The door opened and Dally strolled in, completely unaware that something had almost happened. Had something almost happened? Or had Rose imagined the way Colt’s face had tipped toward hers?

  “Hey, you two.”

  “Dally!” Rose had never been so happy to see her sister. “You’re here already. Oh, wow.” Words were coming out of her mouth, but Rose had little control over them. “Great. We have a ton to do with the decorating. We have to put out the cute pillows and signs I bought.” She let her gaze graze over Colt, who had stooped to pick up the nail gun. “You can finish up here? It looks like it’s almost done. I’m sure I’m not much help anyway with the holding and the measuring.” And the freaking out about mice that led to much bigger problems like her almost kissing him.

  “Sure. I can finish up.”

  Rose was too chicken to bring his face into focus. Was it amusement she detected in his tone? Revulsion? She couldn’t hear clearly with the panic rebounding from her heart to her head. No complications! That’s what she’d told Marigold earlier. “Okay, great! Then we should get a move on. We want everything to be perfect for the Cleary family. I bought some really cute pillows.” She linked her arm with Dally’s.

  “You mentioned that,” her sister said as Rose led her hastily out the door. She moved at full speed, prodding Dally down the steps and along the path that led to the Mistletoe Cabin on the other side of the pond.

  “Either you had five cups of coffee this morning, or something weird happened in there before I showed up.”

  You couldn’t get anything past Dahlia. She had a mom’s Spidey sense. Rose kept her mouth bolted shut until she and Dally were safely locked inside the Mistletoe Cabin alone.

  “What did I miss?” Instead of unpacking the boxes Rose had hauled in here yesterday, her sister parked herself on the brand-new leather sofa. “I obviously missed something good.”

  Rose couldn’t sit. “I don’t know what happened. There was this mouse, so I jumped and landed in Colt’s arms—”

  Dahlia let out a cackle. “You happened to jump into his arms? Oh, that’s good, Rosie.”

  “I freaked out!” Obviously she had a minor problem with freaking out. Being level-headed was Dally’s job. “Anyway, I was sitting there in his arms. There was definitely staring. Everything around us seemed to stop…”

  “And?” Her sister had leaned all the way forward on the couch.

  “And then I heard you call me.” Rose looked out the window. There was Marigold, sunning herself on a patch of grass next to the pond. Things were not simple anymore. Nope. Not after that moment with Colt. Her dog would be so disappointed in her.

  “Damn, I have bad timing.” Dahlia laughed. “And here I thought you were only helping him out with the construction work.”

  “Your timing was perfect.” Rose slumped on the couch next to her sister. “It couldn’t have been better.” At least now she could pretend nothing had happened. They hadn’t crossed any lines. She’d gotten a little flustered about the mouse, that was all. But a kiss…a kiss! That was much harder to come back from.

  Her sister turned to face her fully, pulling both her knees up on the sofa cushion. “Would it be so terrible if I hadn’t interrupted?”

  “Yes.” She let her head rest back against the couch. You could no longer see the damage she’d inflicted on the roof and ceiling earlier that week. Colt had patched the drywall expertly.

  “Oh, come on.” Dally nudged her shoulder. “You two were flirting like crazy the other night. I can tell you like him.”

  “And I can tell you like Ike. So why haven’t you gone out with him once since you moved to town?” Uh-huh. That was right. She knew how to turn around a question.

  “I have two kids,” her sister reminded her.

  “And a built-in favorite-aunt babysitter.” So there. She had no excuses.

  A year ago Dally might’ve shrugged and offered another excuse. But nowadays they didn’t hide from each other the way they once had. Her sister sighed. “I don’t think Maya is ready for me to date anyone yet.”

  “Ah.” She’d detected a ’tude from her niece when they’d all shared dinner that night, but she hadn’t realized it had been directed at Ike. She’d thought it was some hormon
al shift. “That’s a tough one.”

  “Yeah.” For a second it looked like Dally might say more, but then she grinned. “Don’t think I’m going to be easily distracted. If it helps, I think Colt might like you too.”

  “That doesn’t help.” Talk about bad timing.

  Rose had found her purpose in Juniper Springs, and Colt was getting ready to leave this place behind.

  Chapter Ten

  Dahlia

  This is absolutely darling.”

  Dahlia held up the sign she’d unpacked from one of the many boxes she and Rose were working through. “Merry Christmoose. I love it.” The wooden plaque displayed a metal moose with Christmas lights on its antlers. “You always find the best design elements.” It was no wonder Rose had been working toward opening her own interior design business before she left Savannah. “Do you miss doing design work?”

  “Yes.” Her sister clearly didn’t have to think about the question. “But I’m hoping that I’ll be able to do some freelance work when we have things more under control here.” She took the sign from Dahlia. “I’m not sure we’ll both be able to live off what we make from the resort. Revenue is an unknown right now. So interior design would be a good way to make some extra money.”

  She’d been thinking the same thing about their salaries. Right now, Jeff was paying some hefty child support, being out of the country and all, but she didn’t want to rely on his money. “I can find another job too.” She had plenty of bookkeeping skills from the accounting classes she’d taken in college that could be useful to businesses around town.

  “I don’t want you to have to.” Rose held the sign up against the wall near the fireplace. “What about right here?”

  “Perfect.” Dahlia brought over the hammer and nail set they were using to hang pictures, and they spent a few minutes measuring to make sure the nails were even before they hung the sign.

  The MERRY CHRISTMOOSE greeting brought the right amount of fun and charm to the space. “It’s incredibly cozy in here.” The interior of each cabin had been redone with a small stone fireplace, new hardwood floors, and plush furniture that begged to be curled up on while you drank hot chocolate on those cool summer—or frigid winter—nights.