He tossed another armful of stone into the bed of his truck with perhaps a little more force than was absolutely necessary, causing the happy chatter emanating from the kitchen to come to an abrupt stop.
Vivi had opened all four sets of French doors and the kitchen windows once the sun had started to edge toward the horizon. The air cooled quickly at this elevation and the heat of day was already receding. He glanced over to find Avery and Vivi both looking his way in concern. He made a motion that all was fine and went back to work. He purposely did not look toward the fields. At least she’d stopped singing.
He wasn’t used to having his head turned so easily. Or at all, to be honest. Will’s focus for the past seven years since his mom had passed had been on providing a life for and single-handedly raising his now fourteen-year-old son, Jacob. Will’s mom had been born and raised in the Falls and had come back there to live full time after Will’s dad had been killed in combat in Iraq. So everyone in the Falls knew Will’s story even before he’d processed out of the marines and moved to Blue Hollow Falls full time.
They knew he was a widower. Hard not to know since Jake had come to stay with his mom after Zoey’s death, while Will had still been deployed. And most of them probably thought he was something of a sad or pathetic figure for still carrying a torch for his wife all these years later, despite having lost her when Jake was barely old enough to walk. It wasn’t like he’d planned to feel that way or thought he should or shouldn’t feel that way. But even though Zoey was no longer by his side, the spot she’d always occupied in his heart was still hers. It was as simple as that, really.
The very, very few times he’d made an effort to move on, he just couldn’t find it in himself to get past coffee, or dinner. Not even for his son, to give him the benefit of a woman’s nurturing kindness in his life. It just hadn’t felt right.
He smiled briefly and shook his head. Zoey would be horrified that he’d gone on all this time alone. His wife would have been the first one to tell him that life was for the living and to get on with it already. He got that. He’d have wanted the same for her if the situation had been reversed. It was still shocking to him that it hadn’t been the other way around, given the tours of duty he’d done in some of the most unstable places in the world. He’d been doing just that, in fact, when she’d been killed in that car accident. So, in his head, he knew moving forward was the right thing, or at least the healthy thing to do. He just had never figured out how to make his heart okay with it. After a while, it had just become easier not to try.
Despite that, he was a happy man. Or a contented one, at any rate. He had a son he was proud of and loved with every part of himself. He and Jake were both fit and healthy. Will had a job that allowed him to work with his hands, something he was good at and that gave him a strong sense of fulfillment, as well as allowing him to provide for himself and his son. Jake was a good kid who was turning into a wonderful young man. Will was biased in that regard of course, but his son was well-liked by everyone who knew him, and that was a balm to Will’s soul.
Will and Jacob had both come to love Blue Hollow Falls, so putting down his own roots where his mom had grown up, and her parents before her, hadn’t been as much of a challenge for Will as he’d feared, given his own military brat upbringing.
The Falls had quickly come to be more than just a place he’d spent the occasional summer as a child, visiting his grandparents while his parents packed up and moved all of his stuff to yet another military base. It was truly home to him now. He’d wanted to put down roots to create a strong foundation for Jake, given the boy had lost both of the women who had helped to raise him. Certainly more stability than Will had had as a child, moving all around the world, then enlisting himself as an adult. Blue Hollow Falls had a way of pulling a person in, and the people of the Falls held on to the ones they cared about. They had with his mother, and with his son, and now with Will. He couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
He straightened and wheeled the now-empty barrow back out into the yard and saw Hannah had come back in from the fields while he’d been unloading the debris, lost in his thoughts. Mercifully, she hadn’t caught him staring after her like a lost puppy, so there was that. She’d just crossed the front landing and let herself into the house as he set the wheelbarrow down again.
Laughter from the kitchen followed soon thereafter, drawing his attention back to the French doors and the women inside. He’d done about all he could do outside for the time being. He needed to get inside and at least check out the dining room fireplace before calling it a day. He would put in a longer day if he could, but he had to pick up Jake. He washed his hands with some of the water from the big jug he always kept on his job sites, getting a layer or two of soot and grime off them.
He’d just crossed the veranda and was about to announce his presence to the women before opening the screen door when his phone rang. Vivi, Hannah, and Avery, who had all been bent over studying some sort of contraption that was set up on the edge of the kitchen’s big center workstation, turned, looking momentarily startled.
“Sorry,” he said, then turned his back to the door so he could take the call from his son without interrupting them further. “Hey, Jake. Almost done here. Tell Seth and Pippa I’ll be up there in about an hour.” He checked the time on the phone. “Sorry, I’m running late. We had a bit of a problem with one of the chimneys coming down.”
“Seth and Pippa just left to go down to the music venue for some meeting and Bailey has already been picked up,” Jake told him. “They offered me a ride but I thought you were on the way. I can just hang out in the stone barn—”
“No, I’ll come and get you. Sorry, buddy, it’s just been a day.”
“Can I help?”
Will turned to find Hannah standing behind him in the doorway.
“I’m sorry,” she said, appearing a bit abashed. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop.”
Welcome to the club, he wanted to tell her. “Hold on, Jake,” Will told his son, then lowered the phone for a moment. “No, that’s okay. I’ve got to go pick up Jake—my son—at Bluestone and Vine.”
“Seth’s winery?” she asked, her expression brightening. “I’ve been up there and met him and his wife. Beautiful place. Your son . . . does he work for them?”
She seemed surprised. Whether it was by the fact that he had a son who was old enough to work, or by the fact that he had a son at all, he wasn’t sure. “Something like that,” Will told her. “And thank you for the offer, but that’s not something you need to—”
“If it will help, I honestly don’t mind.” She gestured behind her. “I know today has had some unwelcome surprises that have probably really screwed up your schedule with all this.” She gestured behind her. “We’re done with our little chemistry experiment in there, and I wouldn’t mind getting out for a bit.”
“Dad,” came Jake’s voice through Will’s phone. “Dad?”
Will lifted the phone back to his ear. “Just another moment.”
“If it helps you and she doesn’t mind, I’m good with that,” Jake told him. “I could introduce her to Dexter and the gang if she’d like.”
“Dexter?” Hannah asked, then appeared a bit sheepish when Will looked at her. “Sorry. The McCall men’s voices carry, I guess.”
“Excellent,” Jake said happily. “So, we’re all set. Tell her I said thanks.”
Will just shook his head, a smile ghosting his lips. “Apparently I’m not even in this conversation. You can tell her yourself shortly. Hold tight,” he told Jake. “I’ll call you back in a minute.” He ended the conversation with his son, then turned to Hannah. “Thank you for the assist. I—we—appreciate it.”
“Happy to do it,” she said. “Who is Dexter?”
“Seth’s llama,” Will told her, then found himself smiling in full when her pretty gray eyes widened with delight.
“And ‘the gang’?”
“A variety of farm animals. Jake and one of his
friends help Seth out by taking care of them after school and in the summer. If you don’t have time for the tour, just tell him. You’re already going above and beyond.”
“It’s not that far from here and sounds like the perfect break.”
“Break,” he repeated. “You all have more experiments lined up this evening?” He glanced past her into the kitchen, where he saw Avery still hovering over what looked like some kind of miniature distilling setup.
She followed his gaze and laughed. “No, I think we’ve risked life and limb enough today. Essential oils,” she said when she looked back at him and saw the questioning expression on his face. “A few weeks ago we tried making soap, shorted a circuit, and almost set the wall on fire. That was before you started working out here, which is lucky for you. It smelled awful. Today was far more successful.” She beamed. “Our menu of future lavender products is coming together. Slowly. But we’re going to get there.”
“Sounds like you’ve got things planned out,” he said, and got all caught up in the sparkle of unabashed joy that filled her eyes. Hannah Montgomery wore her emotions right on her sleeve, or at least it seemed that way to him. He was more the guarded type. Partly by training, thanks to the US Marine Corp, and partly by nature. “That explains the wall behind the stove being stripped down to the beams, I guess.” He’d noticed that when he’d come in earlier.
She nodded. “Apparently the mice had created quite a homestead in the walls, filled it with all kinds of shredded stuff. So maybe it was just as well we found that out. The restoration isn’t as bad as we feared, but hopefully there will be no more surprises when they check behind the other walls.”
Will tried not to look dubious about that. Mice were opportunistic marauders and the house had sat empty a very long time.
She caught his look and her tone turned wry. “Basically, we’re just hoping the place won’t crumble down around us.” She grinned. “Or on top of us, as the case may be.”
He smiled briefly at that. “I’ll have the remaining two chimneys shored up tomorrow and will be able to give you a better idea of what you’re looking at.”
“Vivi—we all—appreciate that,” she told him. “We knew that a house this old would come with all sorts of issues, but . . .” She trailed off, her gaze traveling from the kitchen to the roof, to the veranda, and back to him. She folded her arms and sort of hugged herself, her eyes sparkling again. “I love it already. It’s an adventure I wouldn’t miss for the world. None of us would.”
He was tempted to ask her how the whole enterprise had come about, but he resisted the urge. In a town as small as Blue Hollow Falls, he was somewhat surprised he didn’t know the answer already. He wasn’t one for poking his nose in, quite the opposite, but knowing everyone’s business was a staple of Blue Hollow Falls life. He didn’t have to participate in gossip for it to find its way to him.
This was different, though. He did want to know. About how they’d decided to take on an overgrown, long-abandoned lavender farm, how the four of them—a more different group of women he was never likely to meet—had come together in the first place. They weren’t just running a business together; they were all living together as well. Well, living on the same property together, at any rate. He hadn’t exactly known what to expect when Seth had passed on the word that the new owner of the old March place was in need of some masonry repair. Running a lavender farm and opening up some kind of café or coffeehouse, or whatever a tearoom was, wasn’t the oddest thing he’d ever heard of, but nor was four women settling in a new place all together under one extended roof a particularly normal thing, either.
He’d yet to speak directly to the youngest one—Avery, he knew now—or the one with the horses, but as an outside observer looking in, they seemed a pretty levelheaded, straightforward bunch. Purple hair and an excess of jewelry notwithstanding, he thought, as he pictured Ms. Baudin. She was a character, but she was no dummy. Which meant she’d fit right in with the folks in the Falls.
“Actually, Vivi is going to be working on a recipe she’s developing for tea and lavender-infused cupcakes and cookies later,” Hannah said as she turned her attention from gazing adoringly at her new venture to beaming at him. “She’s the baker of our fearsome foursome.”
“Fearsome foursome, are you?”
Hannah’s eyes widened instantly when he smiled. Or her pupils did. In that way a woman’s eyes widened when she was attracted to something. Or someone. It had been a very long time since he’d stood close enough to a woman to notice such a thing. And an even longer time since that look was directed at him. He’d have thought it would have made him uncomfortable, or at the very least prodded him to end the conversation and get on with his work. He wasn’t one for wasting time with small talk, much less encouraging more of it, and yet, there he stood. And his immediate instinct wasn’t to find a way to extract himself from the conversation. No, his immediate instinct had been to take a step closer. Find out what kind of response his nearness would elicit in those expressive eyes of hers.
It was that reaction to her that had his expression faltering and him taking a step back. As if he’d done something or felt something he should feel guilty about. Which was nonsense, but there it was anyway. “I should get on inside and start on the fireplace in the dining room,” he said, not intending to sound curt, but the surprise on her face, followed by her own smile shifting to one of polite friendliness made it clear he had been. “Sorry,” he said, feeling contrite. And confused. Neither of which helped him in the comfort department. “I’m just—”
“No need to apologize,” she told him, her tone easy enough, but her soft eyes telegraphing the sting she’d felt at his abrupt shift. “I’m keeping you from your work. I’ll go on up and get Jake. Do you need him back here at any certain time? If he wants to introduce me to Dexter and the rest, that’s okay?”
“More than,” Will told her, feeling like an out-of-practice idiot. Get it together, man. “I’ve got at least an hour inside, more if you don’t mind Jake staying here for a bit. He’ll be helping me, so he won’t be underfoot.”
Her eyes warmed again. “That’s no bother at all. We’ll need a taste tester for the cupcakes and cookies.”
Will relaxed a little and his smile came naturally again. “You might be sorry you offered that. He eats like, well, like a fourteen-year-old boy.”
Something flashed through Hannah’s eyes at that, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on—surprise, sadness—it didn’t make any sense, but he quickly added, “You don’t have to—”
“Vivi always cooks like she’s feeding an army,” Hannah said with a laugh, recovering so quickly Will wondered if he’d misread the moment. She held her arms out. “Clearly, I know of what I speak.”
Will automatically glanced down at her body, as invited, both surprised and charmed by her easy, open way of owning who she was. She’d said it without any hint of digging for some kind of compliment or other affirmation that women sometimes did. Which he was thankful for. Given his plainspoken way, situations like that often left him feeling clumsy and inadequate. Taking a beat too long to formulate a smooth, sincere reply had been his downfall on more than one occasion.
So, he surprised himself by responding without giving it a second thought. “I don’t think she could ask for a more flattering advertisement.” The moment the words were out of his mouth, he realized she might not take them as intended, and silently cursed himself for once again putting his foot in it. “What I meant to say—”
“I know what you meant,” she said, a shade abashed now, the most delightful rosy shade coloring her cheeks. Then she laughed. “At least that’s the way I’m going to choose to take it.”
“Good,” he said, feeling his lips curving again. She did that to him, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He didn’t think of himself as a particularly dour or overly serious man. Quiet, perhaps. Introspective. Maybe he should smile more. Laugh more. “I—I should get on inside.”
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br /> “Right,” she said, and the moment between them—if there had been one—quickly dissipated. “I promise not to be too long up there. I appreciate your staying to start on the dining room today. Vivi passes it off like she’s unbothered by the whole thing, but I know it rattled her a little bit. Having you in there assessing things before we close up the house for the night will allow her to sleep better.”
“Not to worry,” he said. “Thanks again. For getting Jacob.”
“Anytime,” she told him.
They stood there a moment longer; then Hannah turned. “I’ll just go get my keys.” She disappeared into the house.
Will stood for another long moment on the porch, looking out across the fields, to the mountains beyond. Trying to talk himself out of what the rest of his body was trying to talk him into. And not entirely sure why.
Chapter Four
Hannah pulled her old Jeep Cherokee into the small dirt and gravel lot by the bluestone barn. It was a beautifully restored building that sat just beyond Seth’s gorgeous mountain home, with its soaring A-frame, the glass front glistening in the early evening sun. She got out and turned in a full circle to take it all in. If the view from her farmhouse made her heart swell, the view from up here took her breath away. “Stunning” didn’t do the vista justice.
She took another moment, then another, then silently chastised herself for stalling. She’d come a very long way in the seven years since she’d lost Liam, and while she still missed her son every single day, she’d worked hard to get to this point. She felt good and positive and strong about how she’d decided to go forward with her life, carrying him forward with her, rather than letting his loss hold her back. But that didn’t mean there weren’t still hiccups. Sometimes, like now, they were obvious and expected; other times—most times—they came out of nowhere.
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