“By you?”
She laughed. “No, I couldn’t find a good enough tutorial on the internet, so I saved up and hired an electrician.”
He walked farther into the house and peered into the bedroom.
She joined him in the doorway, looked him up and down, then glanced at the twin bed with a pastel pink duvet and frilly white bed skirt. “You may not fit on that.”
“I’ll make do,” he said. He set his pack on the floor and gestured to the door against the wall that separated the homes. “Why is this here? It must connect to…”
“My bedroom,” she supplied, a little too quickly. “Yeah, it’s kind of weird. I guess the sisters were pretty close, like wear the same outfits every day and have the same hairstyle.” She picked up a framed photo of the siblings resting on a dressing table and held it up. “This is Gertrude and Glenna.”
“Which is which?” he asked, touching the frame.
She inhaled sharply. The very nearness of this man left her gasping for breath—her fingers tingling with the desire to touch him. It had been such a long time since she’d been this close to a man. A long time since she’d been alone in a bedroom with a man.
That had to be it. The loss of her husband. Mountain Mac vanishing like they’d never spent hours chatting back and forth. No wonder her body responded to Camden. Not to mention, it had been years since she’d felt a man’s touch.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling that it felt like more.
She set the picture frame on the dressing table and took a step back. “I’m not sure which is Glenna and which is Gertrude.”
It was time to pull herself together. She gestured toward the bathroom. “Everything in there works. I still need to change the showerhead and tighten up a few things, but it should be fine for now. I’ll get to it in a few days.”
He watched her closely as the light from the window faded into a misty twilight.
“Do you want it?” she asked, her words sounding huskier than she’d anticipated.
His eyes widened.
She tried again, this time using her teacher’s voice. “The house. Do you want to stay here?”
“Yeah, I’ll take it,” he answered, their gazes still locked.
She broke the connection, unable to read him. “I’m next door if you need anything.”
“I know,” he answered with a low grumble that left her off-kilter as a rush of heat surged through her body.
“Right, right,” she answered, shaking her head to clear the cobwebs.
She needed to get out of there. As quick as she could, she slid the key to the unit off her keyring and handed it to him, careful not to allow her fingertips to brush against his. He had nice hands. Large hands. Strong hands.
She blinked. Snap out of it!
“I’ll leave you to it,” she said and headed out of the room.
“Wait,” he called just as she’d made it to the front door.
She stopped, and her pulse kicked up at the sound of his footsteps coming up behind her.
“You forgot your purse and your…” He glanced in the bag. “Your doorknobs?”
“Oh, thanks. Those daisy doorknobs are not easy to find,” she answered, her heartbeat slowing.
“Daisy doorknobs?” he echoed.
She took one out and held it up. “Yeah, these were the knobs that originally came with the house when it was built back in the thirties. Several sets were missing when I got the place. It’s been sort of my mission to replace every missing knob. They’re pretty rare.”
He held out his hand, and she passed it to him. Aside from herself, she’d never seen anyone stare that closely at a doorknob.
“Do you have a thing for antique door parts?” she asked, half-joking until she saw his expression grow serious.
“No, for daisies,” he answered.
She narrowed her gaze. “The flower?”
Now he was shaking his head like one of those bobbleheads. “Yeah, sure, it’s a nice flower,” he answered gruffly and handed her back the knob then reached past her and opened the front door, presumably for her to exit.
That certainly wasn’t subtle.
She stepped onto the porch. “The fridge has some bottles of water, and there are some snacks in the cupboard. Help yourself to any of it. I leave it here for when I’m working. Rest assured, they’re not from the 1930s like everything else in the house.”
He stared blankly at her as her attempt at humor fell flat.
She twisted the strap of her purse. “Let me know if you need anything.”
He rested his head against the side of the door. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m going to take a shower then hit the sack. It’s been a long day.”
“Well, welcome home,” she said, unsure what the heck to say to the brooding giant.
He nodded, utilizing his bobble-headed caveman method of communication. She turned to go and hadn’t even made it down the two porch steps before the door slammed shut behind her.
“And you’re welcome for giving you a place to live,” she said under her breath as she walked across the lawn on the uneven circular pavers that led from porch to porch. She’d need to replace the stones at some point, too. She ran a hand down her face. Just add it to the renovation to-do list. Another Post-it note. Another task to complete.
She unlocked her door then sat down in the darkened room when her phone pinged.
Could it be Mountain Mac?
She held her breath, reached into her purse for her phone, then exhaled a forlorn little sigh as the light from her phone screen illuminated an in-coming text.
Abby: Is everything okay? Is Camden going to stay in your rental? Everyone is still freaking out that he’s back.
Cadence slumped in the chair.
Cadence: Yes, the brooding hulk has agreed to stay.
Abby: Did he tell you anything?
Cadence: Oh yeah, he explained his prolonged absence, and then we braided each other’s hair and made friendship bracelets.
Abby: You may be doing that soon with all the time you’ll be spending with him.
Cadence stared at the message with a creased brow.
Cadence: I don’t see him coming over for backyard barbecues.
Abby: Maybe not, but you’ll both be working at the Bergen Adventure Summer Camp at Baxter Park starting Monday.
“Shut the front door!” Cadence said, smacking her palm to her forehead.
In all the melee she hadn’t connected the dots. Not only was her brooding hulk her neighbor, but she’d be working with him all summer.
Cadence: I forgot.
Abby: HOW COULD YOU FORGET?
Cadence: Between the guy breaking down the gate and watching the world’s most awkward family reunion, it slipped my mind.
Abby: Looks like you’ve got yourself a Bergen brother.
Cadence: Ha, ha! I guess I got what I asked for.
Abby: Good luck! You know Bren and I are here if you need anything. And if it’s any consolation, Bren says Camden has the biggest heart of anyone he knows.
Cadence: He’s big. That’s for sure.
Abby: You may find him charming.
Cadence: If charming is a barely verbal guy who could give Big Foot a run for his money, then yes, he’s all sorts of charming.
Abby: You never know with these brothers. He could surprise you.
That may be true for Abby, snagging the reformed bad boy, Brennen Bergen, and Abby’s cousin, Elle Reynolds, who was engaged to Jasper Bergen, the eldest brother. But she wasn’t like them. Between caring for her son and working on the houses, she didn’t have time for love.
She exhaled a weary breath and hammered out another text.
Cadence: Any kind of relationship would require basic communication skills. Camden Bergen nods more than one of those bobblehead figures people glue to their dashboards.
Abby: Good luck with your bobble-Bergen.
Cadence shook her head and chuckled under her breath.
Cadence: He most definitely is NOT my bobble-Bergen.
She set her phone on the arm of the chair and closed her eyes.
“You get five minutes to rest, and then it’s back to painting the kitchen,” she whispered when something warm brushed against her leg.
She screamed and jumped up as a blur of brown fur scampered behind the large mahogany antique secretary desk that sat in the corner of the room. The thing weighed a ton, and she hadn’t been able to move it herself. She grabbed an umbrella that was propped against the wall to…
To, what? Defend herself. Try to poke the critter until it came out?
She took a step forward then screamed again when another furry creature shot out from behind the sofa and crossed the room.
It was like a horror movie. What was next? If spiders started crawling out from under the bookshelf, she’d really lose it.
Eyes wide, she scanned the cozy living room then let out another scream as the front door burst open and a sopping wet, half-naked man wearing only a towel burst into the room.
4
Camden
“Cadence! Are you okay?”
Camden scanned the room, ready to confront whatever intruder or emergency had Cadence screaming. Except, instead of finding a guy in a ski mask, he saw Cadence wielding an umbrella like a baseball bat. She swung at him, her eyes flashing surprise as he reared back and bumped into a lamp. The damn thing fell over, crashing to the ground, and extinguished the light, leaving them in a hazy darkness.
“Jesus, Cadence! It’s just me. It’s Camden!”
“Camden?” she called out.
“Yes, your…neighbor! The D-canoe!”
What the hell was wrong with him! The D-canoe?
He’d just gotten out of the shower and had seen his reflection in the mirror. With an out of control beard and a dark tangle of wild hair, he looked like he’d been stranded on a deserted island for the last decade. It was a miracle they’d let him board the plane to come home. He didn’t have a mirror in his cabin back in Switzerland and hadn’t given two shits about his appearance until now. He’d found a pair of scissors in the bathroom and had started hacking away at his beard when Cadence’s screams spurred him into action.
“Is there somebody in the house?” he called.
A scratching sound caught his attention, and Cadence screamed again.
Camden tensed, ready to clobber the intruder. “Where is he, Cadence? Where’s he hiding?”
“We have to find them!” she answered back.
“Them? There’s more than one?”
Dammit! He needed a weapon, and he needed to get her out of the house.
“Yes,” she whispered-shouted into the darkness. “The creatures! One of them is behind Glenna’s desk!”
He stilled. Creatures? Glenna?
“Who’s Glenna?” he whispered back.
A whooshing sound cut through the air as Cadence’s dark form swung the umbrella.
“Remember? It’s Gertrude’s sister. The old lady who died here.”
Creatures and dead old ladies? Cadence was a friend of his brother’s fiancée and said she was a teacher. But was she also a lunatic?
He reached for the wall and felt for a light switch. “You think the old lady who died in this place came back as a monster?”
“No! A creature! There are two creatures in the house!” she replied, an edge of irritation to her whisper-shout.
“Not a ghost?”
He was pretty damn sure dead people came back as ghosts, not creatures.
“What?” she replied.
A click sounded, and he looked over to see Cadence standing next to another lamp, bathed in a dim pool of light.
Her jaw dropped, and she cocked her head to the side. “Where are your clothes?”
“I didn’t have time to get dressed. I’m here to save you,” he answered, scanning the front room.
“Why?”
He threw up his hands. “Because you were screaming. Now, where are the intruders? Are they in the back of the house?”
The place wasn’t that big. They had to be close.
She frowned. “Intruders? There aren’t any intruders.”
“Then, why are you screaming?”
She looked at him like he had ten heads. “Because of the animals.”
This was getting crazier by the second.
“What animals?”
She released an audible sigh. “A mouse or something brushed past my leg. I think it’s behind the secretary desk in the corner. And then I saw another one scurry out and go behind the couch.”
He dragged his hand down his face. “You were screaming because of two mice.”
She pointed the umbrella at him. “What would you do if you were sitting in a chair, taking thirty seconds to unwind, when all of the sudden something warm and fuzzy brushed past your leg?”
“Probably not scream,” he answered with a shrug.
Wrong answer.
She scowled and pointed the umbrella toward the door. “Well, there’s no intruder, so you can—”
Her gaze slid to his feet, and she gasped.
“Holy fuck!” he screamed as fur buzzed past his ankle.
“See!” she called, raising the umbrella in triumph. “I’m not crazy! There are two creatures in my house.”
He watched as the tiny blur with a bushy tail scurried behind the large desk.
“It’s a squirrel.”
“Thank, God! I thought it was a rat,” she said, relief lacing her words as she lowered the umbrella. But she quickly raised it as the relief drained from her expression. “I can’t have two wild squirrels in my house!”
He nodded. She was right. She couldn’t. “I think they’re both behind that cabinet.”
“It’s an antique secretary desk,” she corrected.
What the hell did that matter?
He joined her in front of the massive piece of furniture. “Fine. They’re behind the secretary desk. I’ll trap them and then get rid of them.”
She took a step back and pressed her hand to her chest. “Don’t kill them!”
Jesus! Who did she think he was?
“I’m not going to kill them.”
“I’m serious!” she replied, pointing with the umbrella.
“Cadence, I’m not going to kill a squirrel. We’re going to catch them and put them outside.”
She shook her head back and forth furiously. “I cannot be a squirrel killer.”
“You’re not going to be a squirrel killer. I promise. There will be no squirrel carnage.”
She craned her head to try to see behind the desk. “What if we set them free outside, and they can’t find their family?”
She was giving way too much thought to the welfare of animals that spent the majority of their lives collecting nuts. But, then again, there was no way he’d hurt an animal either—so he kind of got it.
He softened his features. “They’re squirrels. As long as they can find shelter, they’ll be fine.”
She nodded and paced the room. “How do you think they got in?”
He glanced toward the back of the house where a thin sliver of light entered from the rear porch lamp.
“I think your back door is open.”
She followed his gaze, then dropped her chin to her chest. “I opened the door for ventilation when I was painting. I must have forgotten to close it this morning. Hold on.”
She jogged to the back of the house, closed and locked the door, then disappeared from his view into the kitchen.
He needed a plan. He turned on another light in the room and assessed the substantial piece of furniture. If he pulled it out a few inches from the wall, that might be enough to spook the squirrels. He’d need Cadence to be ready with a bag or a box to catch them. It shouldn’t be too tricky.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Cadence said, now holding a colander instead of an umbrella.
“Are you making the squirrels spaghetti?” he asked, stifling a grin.
&nb
sp; What was she going to do? Scoop them up?
That tiny cute as hell furrow to her brow was back. “I figured, if you could move the desk, then I could scoop them up.”
He had to work extra hard not to laugh. She was dead serious about the scooping. “Do you have a box or a bag? We need something that we can close fast.”
She snapped her fingers. “So they don’t jump out.”
She ran back to the kitchen and returned with a large pot with a lid.
He gave her a sideways glance.
“For after we catch them. You know, for squirrel stew,” she added, wearing the sweetest smile he’d ever seen.
His jaw dropped. Two minutes ago, she was terrified of becoming a squirrel killer.
“I’m kidding,” she said with a low chuckle as her cheeks grew pink.
The sweet sound of her voice had him hard in an instant.
She laughed again. “You should see your face! Hold on. Let me get a box.”
She set the pot on a side table and disappeared into the bedroom—the bedroom that shared a door with his.
He looked down. Thank Christ, Gertrude or Glenna or whoever the hell the sister was who used to live in his unit had extra-large towels. Because, holy hell, he could not be sporting an erection right now.
He closed his eyes and released a tight breath. “Try not to kill the squirrels. Try not to kill the squirrels,” he whispered. He needed some kind of mantra to get his mind off the gorgeous blonde with perfect curves.
He opened his eyes to find her staring at him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded.
She held up a box. “Let’s try not to kill the squirrels.”
Dammit, she’d heard him. And he thought she was the lunatic.
“I’ll pull the desk out, but you’ll need to be right behind me with the box to catch them.”
“Okay, we can do this,” she answered.
They got into position, and he dragged the massive desk back a few inches.
“Do you see them?” he asked.
“We found you! You sweet little rascals!” Cadence cooed.
He edged the heavy desk back a fraction more. The squirrels sprinted out, and Cadence let out a surprised little whoop.
“I’ve got them! I’ve got them, Camden!”
Man Find (Bergen Brothers Book 3) Page 5