FROM THE MOMENT they’d left the farm, Brianna’s mother had been snapping away with her camera, capturing the varying shades of green of the Douglas firs, western hemlock, Sitka spruce, the reddish brown bark of the western red cedar, along with the brighter hues of the leafy spring sword ferns. Fortunately, meadows, mountains and lowlands were in wild spring blooms, so the scarlets of rhododendrons and paintbrush, delicate whites of the trillium, blues of the starflower and reddish-pinks of the bleeding hearts also ended up in Sarah Mannion’s extensive photo files.
The sky, even more unpredictable than usual this time of year, would change from gray to bright blue with all the combinations in between. The water, too, ranged in shades, and as they stood on the outer deck of the ferry chugging out of the harbor, her mother aimed her lens at the shades of white and gray in the driftwood lining the beach, and the varying colors of brown in the aged pilings.
“I love the bright orange of the pelicans’ beaks during their breeding season,” Sarah said as a pod flew by, as if in parade military formation. “You could use that as a pop of color somewhere. Or soften it to a coral. Oh, and how could I forget?” She turned, focused on Brianna’s paper cup and snapped. “You can’t not include the Northwest’s most famous drink in its palette.” The deep, almost black-brown was added to the palette.
Three days later, they were back on that same ferry. Brianna had often felt exhausted at the end of a long day’s work. And she was admittedly tired to the bone today. Although she hated to admit it, she suspected she might be out of shape because her mother had definitely seemed to have far more energy as they’d gone from store to store, wholesaler to wholesaler. By the time she’d collapsed into bed last night, Brianna was surprised that her credit card hadn’t burst into flames from having been run through so many readers.
The difference between today and other times she’d been worn out was that beneath the fatigue was a buzz of exhilaration. “It’s all going to be so stunning,” she said as the gleaming white boat with its iconic green stripe plowed through the water.
“It’s a good thing you’re doing,” her mother said. “Not just for your own business, but for the town. That poor house has stood there like a destitute bag lady for too long. Now you’re going to bring her back to life as a dowager. Not a stiff, formal dowager, but one suited for her place and time.”
“That’s pretty much what Seth said. He called it dressing my Victorian dowager in flannel shirts, jeans and hiking boots, while keeping her good set of pearls.”
“He’s a talented young man. Not only is his workmanship impeccable, he has an artist’s eye. Which I suspect he inherited from his mother. Mike and I were talking and I mentioned how, if she hadn’t married and settled down to work at Ben’s construction company, she could well have had a successful career as an artist.”
“It’s not too late for that,” Brianna pointed out. “Look at you.”
Sarah laughed. “And isn’t that exactly what your uncle said? I’m so excited for Caroline. She’s possibly going to have an exhibition at the Honeymoon Harbor Days boat festival.”
“I saw her illustrations in Seth’s office. I was already planning to drop in to the exhibition, of course, but now I’m going to make sure I get there early so I don’t miss out.”
“Oh, I don’t think you need to worry about that, darling. She’d be more than willing to paint whatever you’d like. You are, after all, almost family. And, although I realize it’s a topic you’re not comfortable with, I will admit that there were several times that she and I would be sitting over glasses of lemonade and shortbread cookies watching you and Seth playing in the sandbox or running through the sprinkler, and indulge ourselves in planning your wedding.”
“Mom...”
“I know. But since you’ve never mentioned anyone you were dating—”
“Because there wasn’t anyone to mention. My work took up nearly all my time and with the frequent moving, a relationship didn’t seem practical.”
“I understand your point, though I’m not certain practicality is the first thing a person should be looking for in a relationship.”
“You won’t get any argument from me,” Brianna said. “I suppose the fact that I never felt inconvenienced proves that I’ve never met Mr. Right.”
“Or the time wasn’t right. Unless you plan to flip Herons Landing—”
“I don’t. I dreamed of that house growing up. Did you know that Seth owns it?”
“I do. I also know that after having two failed starts, he was determined to sit on it until the right buyer came along. Obviously, he realized that you’re the one he’s been waiting for.”
“To buy the house,” Brianna clarified. There was too much baggage between Seth and her to even think about anything but a contractor-client relationship. She’d do well to remember that.
“Of course,” her mother said with a look of pure innocence.
“Well, I’m glad he did hold on to it because now that it’s mine, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then, just take things a day at a time,” Sarah advised. “You never know what the future’s going to bring.”
And weren’t Doctor Dick, her out-of-the-blue inheritance and her house suddenly coming on the market proof of that? Still, as tempting as it might be to see if there were any embers left to be stirred from her old crush on Seth Harper, Brianna had way too many things on her plate to even think about.
Just keep telling yourself that, a dry voice somewhere in the dangerous zone of her head advised. And maybe you’ll even believe it.
* * *
SINCE HER MOTHER had a PTA meeting to attend, they’d driven to the ferry dock in separate cars. Brianna hugged her goodbye, and thanked her for being the best mom ever. Then she decided that rather than go back to the farm, she’d show Seth her purchases. It wasn’t that she was dying to see him again. Not even a little bit. He was her contractor, after all. He needed to know what she’d chosen in order to price out the job. And start planning the plumbing, framing, all that contractor stuff.
After dropping by the office, and suspecting her excuse didn’t fly with the sharp-eyed Ethel for a minute, she tracked him down at Kylee and Mai’s house, which was only the cutest Folk Victorian ever. The robin’s-egg-blue siding set off with snowy white shutters and trim was perfect for brightening gray days. A welcoming front porch just made for sitting and watching your neighbors featured a cedar ceiling and white railing that echoed the picket fence surrounding the lot. Instead of a more formal, and to her mind, boring lawn, the front yard was a wild and free cottage garden. Patches of bright green Scotch moss edged a stone paver pathway.
She’d just gotten out of the car when the front door opened and Bandit shot out like a bullet. Bracing herself for impact, she reached out and slowed him down as he barreled toward her, a muddy green tennis ball in his mouth.
“Sorry,” Seth said. “I think he’s in love.”
“It’s mutual.” She bent down and rubbed behind his velvety brown ear, which had the dog immediately swooning to the ground in dog ecstasy as he wiggled on his back next to an old rain barrel with pillowy flox spilling over the edges. “You’re a good boy, aren’t you!” She rubbed his belly, causing more grumbling moans.
“I heard you were in Seattle with your mom,” he said, crossing through the spikes of delphinium, hollyhocks and scarlet foxglove that were starting to bud.
“I was. And I have so much to show you.” Bandit, who’d gotten up, dropped the ball at her feet. She picked it up and threw it away from the garden.
“He’ll chase that all day if you let him.”
“Exercise is good, isn’t it, handsome boy?” she said as he brought it back. She threw it again, this time harder. Farther, which caused it to roll beneath her car. Which appeared not to deter the dog as he began to shimmy beneath it.
“While he’s busy fetching, will you give me a tour of this adorable house? It looks like a blue-frosted gingerbread house. But without the witch. You’ve created magic.”
Seth rocked back on his heels and looked up at the house. “It was easy. Kylee and Mai were very specific.”
“Oh.” As soon as they’d entered, she paused in the doorway, looking up to where a high ceiling crossed with beams painted buttermilk white added the illusion of yet more space. “It’s so much larger than I would’ve guessed.”
“We ditched the dining room and blew out that wall into the kitchen,” he said.
“Just like on HGTV.”
“Yeah. Although I’ll admit it drives me crazy when everyone on those shows blithely says ‘blow out the wall,’ as if contractors all have magic wands. Fortunately for Kylee and Mai’s budget, it wasn’t a load-bearing wall. The dining room and laundry became the third bedroom and three-quarters bath they wanted for guests, especially when Mai’s family comes from Hawaii to visit.”
That room, too, was done, although not yet furnished or decorated. “We didn’t have a separate room for the laundry, but we put a stacked set in that closet with a set of open shelves.” He opened the folding closet door, showing off the stainless steel washer and dryer. “I was worried they wouldn’t go along with the idea, but Mai really likes it because it got her out of laundry duty.”
“Because she can’t reach up inside the dryer to get the clothes out without a ladder.”
“Exactly.” When Seth felt his lips doing that odd, tugging, smiling thing again, he realized that the muscles around his mouth seemed to have gotten out of shape from disuse. Who knew?
“They should put the bed against that wall,” she decided. “That way they can look out at the mountains.”
“That’s exactly what they decided to do. It’ll be delivered in the next few days.”
While Bandit, seemingly bored with a tour of a building where he’d spent so many hours, went outside to patrol the perimeter in hopes of finding a rabbit or squirrel, they went back through the great room and kitchen to the other side of the house, where the other two bedrooms were located. She paused on the way, checking out the cabinets and beadboard on the small but efficient island and the ceiling.
“I want that in my kitchen,” she said, looking up at the white board ceiling. “But in a different color. I’m still working on shades with Mom. There are so many hues on the peninsula to bring in. I’d never imagined. I found this amazing French oven that’s hand-built with an enamel exterior. Since that’s going to be the focal point of the room, everything else will have to work around it.”
“Hand-built French,” he murmured. “How much did that set you back?”
He prided himself on not blinking when she tossed off an amount that was probably equal to at least 10 percent of what her entire budget would turn out to be. “But it has five sealed burners, dual ovens, true European convection, a 15,500 BTU triple ring burner that can hold five pans at different heats at a time and two rotisseries.”
“Plan on doing a lot of rotisseriing for breakfast?”
“Hey, you never know. Maybe down the road, I’ll add dinner. Besides, did I mention how beautiful it is? And that it comes in the most scrumptious colors you’ve ever seen?”
“Jack down at the Olympic Mountain Paints spray-painted a fridge for me last month.” It was a damn good thing she had deep pockets, because apparently the girl who’d grown up on a Christmas tree farm in the far northwest corner of the country had come back to town with champagne tastes.
“How handy of him,” she said dryly. “But wait until you see it, Seth. It’s so gorgeous. Herons Landing was once a spectacular house. It has a Whistler mural, for heaven’s sake. This stove is like the best kitchen jewelry. She deserves it.”
He wasn’t surprised that she’d anthropomorphized the house. He’d done that before on occasion. Including a former sea captain’s house that from the moment he’d first walked in the door, he’d always thought of being a manly place. Fortunately, the wife of the couple must have shared his vision, because she’d ended up with a home that an old whaling captain like the bearded guy in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which his mom had watched about a bazillion times, would’ve felt right at home in.
“You look great.”
She’d been checking out the walk-in pantry when he’d heard himself saying the words. Turning, she appeared as surprised as he felt.
“Thanks.” She ran her hands over the full short skirt. Like seemingly all her clothes, it looked like a garden in bloom and showed off those long, long legs even better than the jeans and leggings had. “It felt a little bright for the Pacific Northwest, but even though Seattle’s more casual than some cities I’ve lived in, I didn’t want to go serious shopping in jeans.”
“This part of the country could use more brightness.” And so could he. A video flashed through his mind of her standing in front of her colored jewel of a stove, bustling between all those burners, while he was outside searing meat on a grill the size of Alaska, and a passel of kids ran around an emerald lawn, chasing each other with water blasters. Just as she came outside, a bright red bowl of potato salad in her hands, she walked straight into a stream of water, which soaked the front of her dress, turning it almost transparent, revealing a lacy bra and, oh, hell, was that a thong?
No. Just freaking no. Don’t even go there.
“Seth?” Her voice held a question, with a touch of concern.
“I was imagining the backyard.” The fantasy, in vivid technicolor with surround sound, had seemed to last only a fleeting moment. But from the way she was looking at him, a vertical line between her worried eyes, he realized he’d zoned out. Something he hadn’t done since those first weeks after Zoe’s death. “Maybe you might want to add an outdoor kitchen. For entertaining.”
He nearly groaned when she touched her index finger to her glossy lips and considered that suggestion. “We could have event nights for the guests,” she said. “Like on the Fourth of July, since you can see the fireworks over the harbor from here. Or Labor Day. It’d be a short season, but it could be an extra draw. I know there’s not a motel or hotel in town offering anything like that. Oh, and it stands to reason we’d get wedding parties staying here. Maybe we could offer the space for the rehearsal dinner. And I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but Kylee could offer photos of the patio dinner as part of the package. Or I could include a discount at the B and B with her wedding photo gig.”
With every atom of his body focused on those lush, pink lips, her words were an incomprehensible buzz in his ears. “Sounds good to me,” he said, figuring that was a safe enough response since, rerunning it through his suddenly sex-flooded mind, he didn’t remember hearing a question.
“Doesn’t it? I’m so glad you thought of it because it’ll be easier to plan in an outdoor kitchen from the start, right?”
“Sure. Right. Definitely easier. And less expensive.” His tongue, which had tied in knots, weighed a ton. Fortunately, judging from the light in her eyes, she was too busy imagining and planning to notice.
Seth was trying to think of something, anything to say, when he heard Bandit barking. Not the wild, crazed bark of a dog in hapless pursuit of a squirrel, but a sharp, all-too-familiar demand. One Seth knew he’d keep up until he got his canine way.
“Your dog’s barking,” she said as the earsplitting barks became louder and closer together.
“Yeah. He does that. I told you he was a stray.”
“Who stole food.”
“Yeah. Well, the thing is, he was pretty much feral. So, Cameron Montgomery, he’s the new vet in town—”
“What happened to Doc Palmer?”
“He retired last year. Cam grew up in Port Angeles, but was working down in Sacramento. He wanted to come back up here, so he bought Doc Palmer out. Anyway, he suggested putting Bandit on a schedule, to give his life a structure he’d probably never experienced before. Unfortunately, not only did it work, he’s smarter than he looks because he latched onto the concept of daily repetition.”
Given the rut Seth’s own life had dug into, that hadn’t proved a problem.
“I see. What are you supposed to be doing now?”
“Going to Mannion’s for dinner.”
“Quinn lets dogs in his pub?”
“Naw, he can’t do that, though he does bend the code and allow them on the deck on nice days. But it doesn’t matter, because we always do takeout.”
“Oh.” Again that slender finger to her lips, which caused another tug. This time not in the gut, but lower. “Would you like some company?”
“For dinner?”
“I didn’t come by to see this house, as fabulous as it is,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you about all the fixtures Mom and I found. I thought, since you’re going to the pub anyway, that we could do it over dinner.”
Unfortunately, do it were the words that got through the buzz in his head.
“After all, we both have to eat,” she was saying when he regained his focus. “So, this will save time. And it’s a gorgeous day. If we eat on the patio, Bandit can join us.”
The dog’s bark, which had changed from demanding to enthusiastic, suggested he might have actually understood her. Which made one of them.
Dinner on the patio overlooking the water. Wasn’t that like a date? Which he hadn’t done in so many years, he wasn’t sure how dates worked. She’d spent a lot of time traveling the world and living a city life. Would she be expecting to hook up?
And your problem with that would be? the devil that had suddenly appeared on his shoulder asked.
The problem was that if he ever got to the point he was going to give up celibacy, it wasn’t going to be relationship sex. And there was no way he could have booty call sex with Brianna Mannion, who’d not only been Zoe’s best friend, but a lifelong friend of his. Even the idea of it was too messy and complicated to consider.
“But if you don’t want to—”
“No.” Damn, he’d hurt her. Although outwardly, she appeared as calm as a sea on a soft summer day, that little line had appeared between her blond brows again. “It sounds great and you’re right, I need to know what you’ve chosen to start working on a cost analysis, and this is the most efficient way. Give me a second to lock up, and I’ll meet you there.”
The line smoothed, and her smile lit up those lake-blue eyes. “I’ll snag a table.”
She headed back toward her car, stopping to pat Bandit on his broad head, which set his tail to wildly wagging.
“It’s just dinner,” Seth reminded himself. “The same as every other night.”
The same he might have with any other client. In fact, he’d broken his pub habit last week when Mai had insisted on making him a Hawaiian dinner and although he’d never in a million years thought he’d eat raw fish, the poke bowl of ahi tuna she mixed up with scallions, soy sauce, avocado, white rice and a bunch of other stuff had been one of the best meals he’d ever had. He’d even suggested she open up a food truck, which had made her laugh, and he’d enjoyed the evening.
So, the thing to do was to think of dinner with Brianna the same way. Simply a client dinner, and the one thing he was sure about was that Quinn wasn’t going to be putting raw fish on his menu anytime soon. Like ever.