Trish Milburn - Her Very Own Family

Staring at warm, enticing female flesh wasn’t a problem after Audrey returned to the roof. Thing was, he was hotter now than he’d been sitting on tin with the sun beating down on him.

His dad walked across the room, moving to the open doorway in Brady’s peripheral vision.

“She’s a good girl. Don’t trifle if you don’t really like her.”

Nelson stepped outside without giving Brady the chance to respond that he had no intention of trifling. Dang, all he’d done was look. He was a red-blooded male, young, healthy, single. When a beautiful woman was nearby, he tended to notice. But anything beyond that with someone his dad considered a friend had bad idea written all over it. Because Brady wasn’t a long-term kind of guy—not anymore.

An engine started outside, and it only took a moment for Brady to realize it was his truck. By the time he reached the door, his dad was heading down the lane toward the road.

First his dad told him to steer clear of Audrey then he left the two of them alone. What was the old guy up to?

Audrey sat back on her heels and watched as Brady deposited some useless bits of wood in the burning barrel.

“Where’d your dad go?”

He shrugged. “Heck if I know. He just took off.”

“That’s odd. Was he feeling bad?”

“No more than a throbbing finger. Need some help?”

She nearly declined, but honestly she was pooped and the initial tension between her and Brady had eased. At least the tension regarding his father. The other tension on her part wouldn’t fade unless Brady fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. “Sure.”

Brady climbed the ladder and made his way over to her side of the roof. “This may qualify as the fastest roofing job ever.”

“It’s only going to get hotter, and I don’t fancy roasting into a lobster up here or going broke buying sunscreen. The curse of the blond.” She gestured toward her hair.

After getting another piece of roofing in place and attached, Audrey lay back. “I am one hundred and ten percent wiped. I feel like I could lie in the grass and sleep for about two days.”

“We’re almost done. Come on.”

With a moan, she raised herself and got back to work. “This can’t be your idea of a good time on vacation.”

“It’s not really vacation. Seems like Dad’s doing okay though, so maybe I should just go back home.”

Audrey retrieved a nail and set it in place while trying to ignore the thought that she’d miss seeing his face. “Do you have something pressing at work?”

“There’s always something pressing at work.”

“Something your business partner can’t handle?”

He glanced over at her, gave her a half smile at the focus she put on the word business. “No.”

“Then maybe you should just hang out with your dad. I’m sure he enjoys being with you. And he might not say anything or act like it, but I suspect he needs the company when he goes home at night.”

“He seemed surprisingly okay last night, except for the scolding I got for being rude to you.”

Her eyes widened as she looked at him. “Scolding? At your age? How embarrassing.” She pressed her lips together to stifle a giggle at the image.

Brady snorted. “Guess I deserved it.”

“Don’t worry about it. I understand your wanting to look out for your dad.”

After all, there were people out there more than willing to bilk others out of their hard-earned money. She knew that firsthand.

THEY FINISHED attaching the roofing but left applying the sealant for another day and climbed down the ladder. Brady followed Audrey to the side of the creek, where she untied and removed her boots and socks then slipped her feet into the flowing water.

“Ah!” She flopped back into the grass, letting the water bob her feet. “I may never move again.”

“You’ll move. The ants, mosquitoes and chiggers will eventually find you and have you for lunch.”

“Oh, fine, ruin the moment,” she said in a light, teasing tone.

This was definitely better than suspicion and animosity. So she was hiding something. Who didn’t have secrets? It didn’t mean it was anything aimed at hurting him or his dad. Roasting hot himself, Brady gave in to temptation and shucked his boots and socks, too. After rolling up his pant legs to the knees, he stuck his feet in the water and lay back in the grass only a couple of feet from Audrey.

“I haven’t done this in years,” he said.

She turned her head to look at him. “What, stuck your feet in the creek?”

“Yeah. That and just lie in the grass, looking up at the trees.”

Audrey let out a slow sigh as she returned her gaze to the sky above. “Guess we forget the simple ways to enjoy life when we grow up.”

“That why you bought this place? To enjoy life?”

“It just felt right. I woke up one morning and realized I needed a change.”

“Was your job boring?”

She didn’t answer immediately. He glanced toward her, but she was still staring toward the treetops high above them.

“I was between jobs. Seemed like the right time to ask myself what I really wanted. Only, I had no idea what that might be. I went for a walk one afternoon, and I somehow ended up at a bookstore. I don’t even know why I went in, but I found myself standing in front of the magazine section. I started flipping through different magazines, and this story about a woman who refurbished an old lighthouse and made a B & B out of it caused something to click inside me. Needless to say, not a lot of lighthouses in Tennessee. But that’s when I remembered this mill. I had no interest in a B & B, but I love to cook and thought, why not a café?”

She turned her head and met his eyes. “And that’s way more info than you asked for.”

“It’s okay. Saves me the trouble of asking more questions.”

She huffed out a laugh. “You have your dad’s sense of humor.”

“Really? I’ve been accused of having no sense of humor.”

“Everyone has one, some just deeper than others.”

He returned his gaze to the sky peeking through the trees. Something about her confession about her life unsettled him. Was it that she had indeed shared too much of herself with him? He’d turned into a surface-relationship kind of guy, much to his family’s disappointment. Nothing too serious. Not that he and Audrey had or would have a relationship beyond temporary coworkers.

“So why didn’t you hire roofers?” he asked.

“I like my arm and my leg, thanks. The cost of the electrician and the plumber is going to kill me as it is. Plus, I like to do things for myself as much as I can.”

“Hey, I bet you have contacts from being in fund-raising. Maybe you could find an investor for your business.”

“No.” She didn’t yell or snap, but he heard the strength and finality behind the single word even before Audrey suddenly rose to her feet.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No, you’re fine. Enjoy the creek. I just have a lot of work to do.”

The water sloshed as he lifted his feet out and stood, too. “Audrey, what’s wrong?” Had his bad memories caused him to say something he shouldn’t without realizing it?

“Time is money. I don’t need to be lying around surveying the past, not when I have a blue bazillion tasks with my name on them.”

He watched her retrieve her boots and socks and stalk off toward the mill. He searched back over their conversation but couldn’t figure out what had altered the mood so drastically.

Women. Their moods shifted more than a house built on clay.

BRADY PROBABLY THOUGHT she’d lost her mind, and perhaps she was a bit crazy when it came to asking for money for herself. She simply didn’t do it. She hadn’t even applied for a bank loan to finance the purchase and refurbishing of the mill. Instead, she had liquidated accounts and sold the possessions she could live without. She was doing this alone, even if she had to get another job to make her dream come true. Even if she had to make her last penny scream for mercy.

No one would ever be able to accuse her of being like her mother.

She sank onto the stairs leading to the loft and pressed against the pressure building behind her forehead. What she’d told Brady about why she’d left her life was only partially true. But she wasn’t about to tell him that she’d simply gotten tired of people always watching her, wondering if she would yet prove to be her mother’s daughter in action as well as genetics. Part of the allure of Willow Glen was that no one evidently knew who she was beyond her identity as the newest resident. And she hoped it stayed that way.

When she heard Brady step back into the mill, she rose and climbed the rest of the way up to the loft. Once there, though, she felt trapped with nothing productive to do. She’d already crunched the numbers half a dozen times, and she couldn’t really start refurbishing the living space until the plumber and electrician completed their respective tasks.

It was too blasted hot to apply sealant to the roof, and she was too antsy to spend time in the same room as Brady. She’d really like to grab her camera gear and head off into the woods to photograph some wildflowers, a hobby that never failed to bring her joy. After all, she had all those beautiful, handmade frames to fill. But with so much to do, she knew she wouldn’t fully enjoy the outing. Time was money, and she wasn’t exactly awash in either.

She walked over to the small loft door. It would eventually become a window overlooking a bend in the creek beyond the mill and the long line of weeping willows lining the bank. She envisioned a gazebo in that bend complete with a table and chairs for special, private meals for guests.

Inspired, she grabbed her notebook of ideas and started sketching the gazebo and the surroundings. She pictured it white in contrast to the greens of the trees shading it, covered in twinkling white lights, a quaint table with two chairs in its center. A romantic spot for couples on a special date. She smiled as she imagined marriage proposals being offered there by nervous grooms-to-be.

She might not be lucky in love, but she had a romantic streak several miles wide. And this gazebo idea had it humming. Even though she should be focusing all her energy on the mill and not adding even more expenses, she couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm. The desire to go buy twinkling lights, tulle for the gazebo’s ceiling and magazines with gazebo designs rushed through her, but she forced her attention back to her list of priorities. With the structural work progressing well, she needed to go buy the lumber necessary for the construction of the kitchen in the back corner next to the stairs. She estimated it was time to look at appliances, as well.

After all, she was at a standstill on the mill until the electrician came tomorrow morning. Maybe she could get some landscaping flowers for the area around the front of the mill, and a couple of hanging pots.

Okay, she had to stop her runaway brain before she imagined herself right into debt.

She grabbed her keys and purse and headed for the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she noticed Brady leaning against the railing around the mill’s machinery, wiping the sweat from his face with a paper towel. She swallowed when she saw how his damp T-shirt molded to his honest-work muscles. For a shocking moment, she pictured her and Brady in that fairy-tale gazebo before she looked away and mentally smacked herself upside the head.

“Where you off to?” he asked.

“Need some supplies. I think I’ll drive down to Elizabethton.”