THE NEXT TWO weeks passed in a blur. Along with moving into Herons Landing, which, as Seth had predicted, was turning out to be hectic, dirty and noisy, Brianna continued to shop for all the innumerable details like door handles, faucets and even ceiling fans for all the rooms. Especially her bedroom, which, despite a spike in outdoor temperatures, hadn’t reached the heat level she’d experienced watching him put together her bed.
And speaking of beds, she was discovering that her nights were as restless as they’d been at the farm. Her dreams were becoming more vivid, which wasn’t helped by spending eight hours a day with the man who starred in her X-rated scenarios. Last night he’d used his leather tool belt, sans the tools, to tie her wrists to the top rail of the sleigh bed. Which had her waking up damp, needy and unsettled, because she’d never, ever fantasized about playing sexually submissive.
“You know what I miss?” she asked Kylee and Mai as she sat on their sofa holding baby Clara, who was wearing a pink onesie that read, “I get my ’tude from both my moms.” Pleased that they’d chosen to dress her in one that she’d bought, Brianna brushed a thumb over the baby’s pink cheek and felt a physical pull as ancient as time.
“The hustle and bustle of Vegas?” asked Mai, who was folding a stack of pastel onesies from a wicker laundry basket while Kylee heated up a bottle of formula.
“No. Never. I didn’t fit in the entire time I was there. At least Hawaii had a welcoming aloha vibe. Las Vegas was nonstop. I’m realizing that I never caught my breath until I moved here.”
“There are times I miss Hawaii,” Mai confessed. “But I’ve also fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest.”
“With our careers, we figure we can switch back and forth when Clara gets a little older. Then, once she starts preschool, we’ll settle down and save Hawaii for those winter vacations when we can’t work that much and are in serious need of sunshine,” Kylee said, shaking the bottle and testing the temperature of the milk with drops on the inside of her wrist.
“Sounds like a plan.” Brianna picked up a little foot wearing a pink sock with a ruffle around the top. Was there anything cuter than a baby’s foot? She didn’t think so.
Perhaps it was because after years of traveling, she was finally settling down. Adulting. Perhaps it was because for the first time in her life, she was able to take stock of what she wanted to do and what she felt she needed to do to get ahead. It could be the slower pace of life that gave her time to take a walk along the waterfront or into the woods.
Last Saturday she’d even picked up a chicken wrap and iced tea to go at the diner and driven up to Hurricane Ridge to sit on a rock wall and watch a herd of deer graze in the meadow. How many times, she reminisced, had a group of friends gone into the park for sledding or snowboarding in the winter, or picnics on sunny summer days? There were also swimming outings to Lake Crescent, Lake Quinault or Mirror Lake just outside the park, when Brianna had envied Zoe’s lush curves in those bikinis she’d shown off so well. Two weeks before she and her best friends had headed off to UW, six of them had spent the night camping out at Mirror Lake. They’d cooked s’mores, sung around the campfire and watched the sparks fly into a midnight-dark sky studded with diamond-bright stars.
Zoe and Seth had brought along their own tent, of course, and Brianna had done her best not to feel a little prick of jealousy. The next morning she’d been the first to crawl out of her sleeping bag into a dense layer of fog. The air was chilled and scented with old growth fir and cedar trees that made it smell like Christmas in August.
Remembering that time, when the entire earth had seemed to stand still, and she listened to a seabird call from somewhere in the mists, she wondered how she could have ever left this place that had always held a part of her heart.
“You were telling us what you miss,” Kylee said, handing her the bottle. The baby, gurgling deliciously, latched onto the nipple. As she drank, Clara’s eyes closed in what appeared to be more bliss than sleep. She was nothing short of a tiny package of awesome.
“Sex,” Brianna admitted. “I haven’t had sex for over two years.”
“You’ve gone two years without an orgasm?” Kylee asked, her eyes widening.
“I didn’t say that. I just haven’t had sex. You know, body to body, that kind. With a guy.”
“But you were living in the land of high rollers. You took trips with them—”
“With their families. Wives and children. Sometimes even grandchildren.”
“Don’t tell me none of those guys ever hit on you,” Mai said.
“A couple. But I never had anything to do with them again and turned them over to someone else the next time they came to wherever I was working. I’d never have an affair with a married man.”
“From what you’ve told me over the years, you don’t have affairs, period,” Kylee said. “You’re more into hookups.”
“Not hookups. Exactly.”
“You’re right. That sounds too skanky for a good girl like you. But you were definitely into hit-and-run relationships.”
“I could take offense at being called a good girl,” Brianna complained.
“It wasn’t a judgment call. Just a fact.”
“You should have at least had a fling with one of those male exotic dancers,” Mai said. “I’ve seen Magic Mike. Those guys are superhung and know how to move. I’ll bet one could find your G-spot without you having to pull out a map.”
“Mai!” Kylee covered Clara’s ears. “No dirty talk in front of our daughter.”
“She doesn’t know what I’m saying.”
“Not now,” Kylee said. “But who knows when words start clicking in? Do you want our child’s first word to be G-spot?”
“Or how about vagina?” Brianna suggested, enjoying watching her one and only remaining BFF blush to the color of a boiled Dungeness crab.
“You two are terrible.” Still, her lips curved and it was obvious she was struggling not to laugh. Then, like so often could happen, Kylee’s mood turned on a dime, her expression serious. “Did you ever, back in the day, consider stealing Seth away from Zoe?”
“Of course not! They were my friends.”
“But you were hot for him forever and might have gotten him. Especially that time they had the big blowup over her joining ROTC.”
“Would you have done anything like that?”
“No. But I wasn’t carrying a torch for the guy all my life.”
“We were lucky,” Mai said. “We knew right away, so we didn’t have to go through all the does-she-or-doesn’t-she-love-me suffering.”
“I did love him. But it was only one-way and later, once I started working, my career came first.”
“And look how well that turned out. Here you are. Out of work and celibate.”
“I’m not out of work.” When Brianna went to wave that thought away, Clara grabbed hold of a finger. The newborn’s nails were like pink pearls with white crescent half-moons and made Brianna’s heart melt a bit inside.
“This isn’t a big city, but there are a lot of single hot guys here. Like Flynn Farraday down at the fire station.”
“You should see him playing hoops on the station court,” Mai said. “Not only did the guy play basketball for Annapolis, he’s built... He should go on the calendar,” she told Kylee.
“Definitely. I’m thinking July. Dripping wet, wearing his helmet and turnout pants.”
“Hanging low on his hips,” Mai said. “So that hot V thing, whatever it’s called, shows.”
“And Cam Montgomery,” Kylee said. “Since he’s a vet, I could pose him bare-shirted holding a puppy.”
“Dogs and guys are definitely hot,” Mai agreed.
“You two are not helping,” Brianna complained, thinking of the other day when Seth was outside by the trunk and dumped some of the water from the orange cooler over his shirtless chest. And surely those soaked raggedy cutoffs he’d been wearing couldn’t be OSHA-approved construction clothing?
“Yes, we are.” Kylee reached for her daughter, who’d polished off the bottle and put her over her shoulder, patting her back. “We’re reminding you that if you’re sexless, it’s only your own fault. Have you seen Luca at the Italian place? He’s hot. And he cooks.”
“There’s only one guy I want,” Brianna admitted.
“Then go for it,” both women said together, just as Clara let out a loud belch that sounded like a drunk frat boy at a spring break kegger.
“Maybe I will,” Brianna said once they’d all stopped laughing.
Later, driving back to Herons Landing, Brianna pulled over at the park and watched the children playing on the swings and sliding out of purple tubes on the red, blue and yellow play fort. The noise level undoubtedly rivaled that of a jet engine, and every so often, as the laughing shrieks of the girls threatened to shatter her eardrums, Brianna realized that she wanted more than sex, even as she knew how hot sex with Seth would be. What she wanted, she realized, was what Kylee and Mai had. What her parents had. She wanted a family of her own. And not just that—she wanted to create that family with Seth Nathaniel Harper.
* * *
IT WAS THE end of a long day, but things were going smoother than he’d expected and Seth was feeling good about the project. As much as he liked Kylee and Mai, he had to admit that even with the chemistry vibes zigzagging around between Brianna and him, it was a lot easier working with her than it had been with the brides-to-be on their just-finished cottage.
He and Bri still thought a great deal alike, which helped because it saved him a lot of explaining when needing to make a point about a decision. Her mother, he suspected, had also proven a plus because the colors she’d chosen combined the more expected monochromatic Pacific Northwest shades taken from the grays, blues and greens, and added unexpected bright dashes of salmon and golden yellow to counter the rainy season.
As he’d expected, given her previous occupation, Bri was also the most organized client he’d ever worked with. Her spreadsheet was linked with her phone, iPad and computer, along with a paper printout kept in a three-ring binder for backup. Because, she’d claimed, it might be considered old-fashioned, but she liked being able to see the pages written down. The same as he did with his schedule coordinating subs. But in his case, the schedule was on a large whiteboard on the wall of his office, where he could see it all at a glance.
Herons Landing was going to be a showpiece, he decided as he arrived back to the house after a trip to Port Angeles for the barn door that would be going in the bridal suite. They’d already changed the exterior paint color to a soft yellow, which made him feel better every time he arrived.
She hadn’t been kidding when she said that she’d wanted to be hands-on. Over the past week and a half, she’d painted the walls of the bridal suite and another room across the hall while managing to stay out of the way of the crews. Her work was as professional as that of the crew who’d be painting the majority of the large house.
Everyone else had gone home, or to their favorite watering holes, leaving hers the only car in the driveway. He found her on the second floor, using the steamer his dad had taught her to use, going to work on decades of layers of wallpaper. His mother, who watched all those TV remodeling and flipping shows, had told him wallpaper was making a comeback. Which meant that the entire cycle of papering and eventual removal would begin again. Thus keeping future generations of Harpers in work.
It had first occurred to him a few weeks after Zoe had died that unless he had any secret half sibling somewhere, there wouldn’t be any other generations of his branch of Harpers to carry on the company. He was, literally, the end of their line.
Putting that idea aside, he entered the room that was becoming uncomfortably warm and decided he’d made the right decision putting in the AC. The ceiling fans Brianna had chosen to add to all the rooms would be a help once they got installed closer to the end of the job.
She was standing on a ladder, her back to him, earbuds in place, long, smooth arms moving the steamer up and down against the bright peacock-feathered printed paper, warming the room up even more. But not as much as the sight of her hips, clad in a pair of red cutoff shorts, wiggling along with her belting out “Fight Song” at the top of her lungs.
Her strong, slightly off-key rendition had him thinking back on that night when they’d all gone camping at Mirror Lake and had sat around the fire ring, toasting marshmallows in the last days of summer before Zoe, Kylee and Brianna headed off to Seattle. Leaving him behind. That night alone with Zoe in the small tent he’d brought along had been bittersweet, but once the trio was gone, he’d been surprised at how much he’d missed each and every one of them.
Every time she reached up, her tank top rose, displaying a mouth-drying display of pale golden Vegas tan that hadn’t entirely faded. Although it was a ridiculous response for a man of his age, that bared bit of back and the thin pink-and-white polka-dot bra straps riding on her shoulders was all it took to make him hard.
Not wanting to surprise her and cause her to fall off the ladder and break her neck, he mentally went through the multiplication tables the way his high school coach had taught the guys to do whenever they got boners watching the cheerleaders flashing their royal-blue panties while doing flips on the sidelines. When the song ended with her still believing, he called out to her. When she still didn’t respond, he carefully reached out and tapped her bare shoulder, which had her twisting around so fast, she slipped down a step.
Dropping the bag of tacos, he grabbed hold of her hips to steady her.
She jerked the buds from her ears. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
“Sorry.” Not sorry. Not when she was safe and his fingers were splayed on her very fine butt. She kept having him feeling stuff that he didn’t want to feel. But Seth was discovering that want and need could be two very different things. “I called out to you. More than once. But you were busy belting out about taking your life back and didn’t hear me.”
“I thought I was all alone.” She looked around, as if checking to see if any others of the crew had witnessed her less than professional performance.
“You were. But I got the barn door, so I thought I’d bring it by.”
“Oh, yay!” She’d never been one to hold a grudge. Either large or small. Another plus in the hospitality business, he decided. The same as his job. He’d had clients yell obscenities to his face after he’d been forced to break bad news about unexpected costs not covered in the original estimate, only to have them turn around a few years later and hire him to either do more work on the original project or fix up a new place.
Because she wasn’t complaining, and he was in no hurry to move them, he kept his hands where they were as she backed the rest of the way down the metal ladder.
Before heading to the door, she stopped at the brown paper bag. “Are those tacos I’m smelling?”
“Yeah.” He scooped up the bag. Fortunately, nothing felt crushed. “I stopped at that food truck, Taco the Town, and picked up dinner. I bought extra in case you wanted some.” Stopping at the truck, which he passed every day on the way to the pub, had been an impulse. One more step out of his comfort zone.
“Are you kidding? Who’d turn down a taco? What kind?”
“Carne asada made with skirt steak. Rubbed with spice, marinated in lime juice and topped with pico de gallo and lime crema.”
“Oh, yum. With guac?”
“Absolutely. And chips. Also, there’s Dos Equis in the cooler.”
“That sounds fabulous. I haven’t had a taco in, well, like forever, and didn’t even know I was craving one until I smelled it. But what are you going to tell my brother when you don’t show up at his pub?” she teased.
He put his arm around her shoulder, easily, not like he was hitting on her or anything, just like two friends walking out the door. Liar. “I’ll tell him I found a preferable Mannion sibling to dine with.”
“Ah.” She lifted her brows. “Dine sounds a bit fancy for a taco truck meal.”
“It’s not as much the meal as the company.”
She’d found an old iron bench at Treasures for the front porch, intending to spray paint it and buy some cushions. They sat on it the way it was, the take-out containers on their laps, enjoying the cooling breeze coming off the bay, the brisk scent of salt and fir mingling with the aroma of spicy grilled meat, and the sight of the sailboats skimming over the jeweled blue water.
They talked easily, about the changes that had taken place in the town while she’d been away, and how her house was coming together so well because, as she echoed his thoughts, they’d made such a good team, just as they had when they built the volcano for chemistry week in fourth grade.
She told him about Clara, about how, despite having been born early, she seemed to be growing every day. He laughed about the burp, as she’d meant him to, and then, once they’d wadded up their taco wrappers and put them and the cardboard containers in the recycling bin, that now-familiar sexual tension, which they’d both been trying to avoid, hung between them, sparking like a downed electrical wire in a thunderstorm.
Which was when Brianna noticed the red splotch between her breasts from the pico de gallo that had dropped unnoticed out of her taco. “I’m a mess.”
“Tacos are supposed to be messy.” He was definitely noticing her breasts. And not in a way that suggested he was thinking of taco sauce. “That’s part of the fun.”
“It’s not just that.” Brianna pushed her bangs back from her forehead, which had been dripping salty sweat into her eyes while she’d been steaming the wallpaper. Oh, yeah, she totally looked like a woman a guy would want to do. Not. “I need a shower.”
“Me, too.” With a guy’s lack of body self-consciousness, he lifted his arm and smelled his pit. That shouldn’t be sexy, but damned if her lady parts didn’t begin to purr. “I heard on the radio that the weather bureau is predicting the hottest summer in a decade. They may even have to start limiting what days people can water their lawns and gardens.”
“I hope we can get all the landscaping in and well-rooted before that happens.”
“Conserving water is always a good thing,” Seth said.
“I’m all for saving the planet.” There was another, longer, more significant pause as she looked up at him through her lashes in a flirtatious way that she’d always considered overkill when she saw other women doing it. But if she was going to break through that damn stone wall he’d built around himself, she figured she’d better pull out all the stops. “Perhaps we should consider practicing conservation together.”
The invitation was unmistakable. She held her breath as she watched him process it. Then a grin Brianna had feared she’d never see again spread across his face. And there was a sexy gleam in his eyes that she’d never, ever thought would be directed at her.
Then, just in case the lash-upward-gazing thing had been a bit too subtle, and, although he might have thought she’d been talking about saving the planet—which, while admittedly important, wasn’t at the top of her priority list at the moment—Brianna considered WWKD. What would Kylee do?
“I need to take a shower,” she repeated. “And I want—no, I need—to take it with you.”