I’d been working on Ana’s house for a week. The outside was all nailed back together, and the inside was coming along well. It pained me each time I walked inside the place, but every day the pain lessened as I saw her put every ounce of energy she had into redeeming the place. In some way, fixing the house was helping me too.

By the fifth day, her house was almost furnished. I emptied my home and filled hers, but the stuff I brought took on new life the moment it entered her home. The drab brown sofa looked like warm milk chocolate in her place. The leather chair my dad would sit in at the end of the day made a perfect place for her to sit back and read.

Each layer I peeled from my existence and brought into hers was like a weight lifted from my chest. The things that reminded me of my family pressed down on me in my home, but buoyed my existence when placed in hers.

She breathed new life into everything. I even brought her the old metal desk from the garage, and she painted it to look like a masterpiece. It was where she set up her computer and stacked the books she found at the thrift store. Little by little, the abandoned building had become a home.

The Skype ring had me racing toward the empty office. I hit the answer button and watched my brother’s face filter through the choppy screen. I slid to the floor and pulled the computer onto my lap.

“Hey,” I said. Happiness pulsed through me.

“Where are you at?” Rooster moved his head like he was trying to look behind me.

“I’m in the office.” I lifted the computer and gave him a panoramic view.

“It looks different.” A question lingered in his eyes. “You remodeling?”

“Yeah, asshole. I’m adding a Jacuzzi and a sauna for when you return.” I wanted him to return. I missed him more than was manly to admit.

“No, really, what’s going on?” He shifted and put his arms behind his neck. He was always in motion. Silas was a live wire that needed a constant supply of energy to keep him going.

“I gave the desk away.”

“Dude, you could have sold it and used the money for the investigator.” He lunged forward and brought his face close to the screen. “We really need to move forward. We’re running out of time.”

“I’m working on it, but I just keep thinking, what if he’s got a good life? What if finding him really fucks him up somehow? What if he’s better off without us?”

Silas pushed off the table and rocked his seat forward so he was inches from the screen. Close enough for me to see the shadow of his unshaven face. “The fact that you’re asking that question means he wouldn’t be better off not knowing us. We’re family, and family sticks together. Now tell me why you gave Dad’s desk away.”

How did I explain my insanity? “I’ve been working for the woman who’s living in Sparrow’s house. She had nothing, so I shared what I had with her. No use having things collect cobwebs here when they could be useful someplace else.” I leaned back and rested my body against the wall. “The shit in this house isn’t worth the time it would take to place an ad, but she appreciates it, and I like feeling appreciated. Besides, she paid me for the first week, and it was enough to put Henry back to work.”

When my brother smiled, I followed with a grin that hurt my jaw.

“What’s she like?”

I tried to act nonchalant about her even though the mention of her made my pulse quicken. She’d worked herself inside me somehow. She started out as an annoying splinter under my skin, and now she was the force that held me up most days. She gave me purpose.

“She’s just a woman who needs help. There’s nothing special about her.” Could my brother see the lie in my eyes? Everything about Ana was special. Not special in the way Sparrow was because Sparrow was bigger than life. Death had a way of making people remember things different from the way they actually were. I’d turned Sparrow into a saint of a child when in truth she was a precocious little brat, but I loved her spirit, and in some weird way, Ana reminded me of her with the way she didn’t back down, and the way she fisted her hands on her hips and stomped her feet when she got frustrated.

“I’m calling bullshit. She’s done something to you. Have you fucked her yet?”

I sat up tall and nearly knocked the computer off my lap. “No, it’s not like that.” Not that I hadn’t thought about what it would feel like to sink myself into her body. I’d spent all week thinking about it, but I couldn’t. She was exactly like Hannah in a totally different way. She would expect more than I could give. She would want something I didn’t have to offer—my heart.

“You sure light up when you talk about her. Remember when Stacy Hammond showed you her tits in junior high? You had a smile a mile wide for a week. I’m seeing something different in you. Like maybe a hint of happiness.”

“Shut up, loser.” I tried to look serious, but I couldn’t. A broad smile took over my face.

“Fuck you and please fuck her. I think it would be good for you.” Silas tilted his head like he’d just thought of something. “She’s not like an old lady, is she?”

“No, she’s young. Like in her twenties.”

“Ugly?”

“No, she’s hot.”

“Fat?”

“God, you’re an asshole. She’s got all the right stuff in all the right places.” I licked my lips, thinking about her in that kitty cat underwear and the look on her face when I’d told her she had a nice pussy … cat.

“Yep, I’m definitely calling bullshit. You need to tap that and quick before someone else in town does.”

The thought of anyone else with Ana stirred something unpleasant inside me. My fists ached to connect with the face of whomever that someone could be.

There was a ruckus in the background, and Rooster said he had to go. The feed cut off before I could say goodbye. It weighed heavy on me to let him go. He lived in a war zone, and every call could be the last. Thankfully, this one ended on a good note. When was the last time Silas and I laughed and joked? It had been too long.

* * *

The next day, Ana put me to work in the kitchen. She wanted to take the hinges off the cabinets and spray paint them to remove the rust. Thinking that things would go faster if we moved on it together, we worked side by side. I used good old-fashioned brawn and a screwdriver to remove the hinges. Ana tried using the drill on reverse.

I stood back and watched her line up the screwdriver head to the hinge and then press the button. The thing took off like shrapnel from an explosion. She ducked, and the hinge crashed against the wall behind her, leaving a dent in the drywall.

I laughed my ass off as she looked at the screwdriver, the hinge, and the ding in the wall. “Great, another thing I have to fix.”

My belly hurt from laughing. With my arms wrapped around her, I positioned my body behind her and held her hand. “You need to torque it down so it spins slower.” I turned the knob on the drill and showed her how to click it down into what I’d describe as a lower gear. I leaned into her so we touched everywhere we could, and it was so damn good. “Some things are better done with slow precision.”

My mouth was close to her ear, and her body shuddered when I spoke. I’d seen her look at me. It wasn’t the look of a woman without interest. She ate me up with those big brown eyes of hers. “You can make it come … out better if you take your time.” I was playing with fire here. I knew it, but I’d be damned if I could help myself. Ana was the first woman I’d felt anything for that wasn’t simply a twitch in my dick. I liked her. I liked the way she challenged me. It was like she had an internal bullshit meter, and she wasn’t putting up with any of mine.

She turned and looked over at me. We stared at each other for a beat too long, and I leaned in to touch my lips to hers. Just as the heat of her lips brushed mine, a knock came on the door, dragging us out of our moment.

Ana broke away from me, but not before looking at my lips. Was that regret I saw on her face? Regret that we almost kissed or regret that we didn’t get to?

She rushed from the kitchen to the living room to answer the door.