A Lot Like Love

by Jennifer Snow

  Right now, six little old ladies sat sipping their tea, watching him work.

  He descended the ladder and, folding it, he carried it under one arm toward the storage shed. He waved to them as he passed. “How’s the book?” he asked with a chuckle, nodding to the Oprah’s book pick, sitting untouched on the table in front of them. The same one as last time.

  Mrs. Granier flushed slightly. “Oh, you know, lots of hype…” She waved a hand.

  He put the ladder away and climbed the deck. “Well, enjoy your new bird feeder.”

  She reached for her wallet, but he stopped her. “It was my pleasure, Mrs. Granier.” He took her hand and kissed it quickly. The older woman looked like she might faint, and the gaping mouths around the table had him hiding a grin. “Ladies, nice to see you all again. Until the next bird feeder,” he said with a wink as he headed back to his truck.

  He pulled on his shirt as he climbed back inside the cab and a moment later, he headed down Main Street toward the inn. This time of day was quiet along the otherwise busy street. Most offices didn’t open until nine and the shops around ten. The pace of small-town life suited him just fine. He waved to Jessica, seeing her load her delivery van outside Delicious Delicacies, and she smiled back at him as she worked. She must love having Sarah in town for a while. Jessica, Sarah, and Whitney had been inseparable through the school years. They were all so different personality-wise that they seemed to complement one another. Balance one another out. Jessica was the bubbly, optimistic, friendly one who was as sweet as her baked goods. Whitney was a determined go-getter with a fierce loyalty to her family and friends. And Sarah was the quirky, lovable, slightly self-deprecating optimist often masquerading as a pessimist.

  Or at least that’s who she used to be. He couldn’t really claim to know her anymore. After high school, she’d left Blue Moon Bay for college and had never looked back. They were Facebook friends, but he wasn’t a fan of social media, so he hadn’t really used the platform to spy on old acquaintances.

  Wes slowed the truck as he approached the vacated office space on Main Street that used to house his office. The For Lease sign had gone up on the property again the week before. Pulling to the side of the street, he got out. Cupping his hands around his face, he peered in through the front window. The thousand-square-foot space was small, but it suited his company perfectly. A comfortable reception area, two offices, a boardroom, bathroom, and kitchenette. Nothing fancy, but at least it wasn’t his kitchen. A law firm had moved into the space after he’d vacated it three years before, but now it was available again.

  If there was any way…

  The inn renovations might be enough to secure first and last month’s rent on the space, but he’d need to generate more future business to ensure he could sustain the payments. Real estate on Main Street was higher than other parts of town, but the visibility was worth it.

  His goal was to expand his company from repairs and renovations to new construction projects, new developments on vacant property around town. Unfortunately, he needed the money to invest to get started, and so far there was nothing on the horizon.

  Climbing back into his truck, he headed home.

  “Morning, Carmen,” Wes said, entering the kitchen twenty minutes later, the smell of banana bread making his mouth water. “Something smells amazing,” he said. He really didn’t deserve Carmen. She not only kept track of the books, she cared for Marissa and insisted on spoiling them with her delicious baked goods.

  He’d always been close to his only aunt. His parents had both been workaholics, climbing corporate ladders for big corporations in town, and therefore his aunt had stepped in to help raise him over the years.

  She peered at him over the rim of her glasses as she held up an unpaid invoice that had been sitting on her desk for weeks. “Did you tell Mrs. Sampson that you wouldn’t charge her for painting her deck?”

  Wes opened the fridge for a bottle of water, avoiding his aunt’s disapproving stare. “Mrs. Sampson is eighty-six years old.”

  “And she’s using her age to take advantage of everyone in town,” Carmen said, waving the invoice at him.

  That might be true, but no one could call the sweet old woman out on it. A former elementary school teacher, Mrs. Sampson had taught Wes in the fourth grade. She volunteered on all the committees and was just as much of a landmark as the statue of the town’s first mayor in the center of Main Street. “The deck was small. It only took a few hours.”

  “Every few hours of work adds up, and no one should expect you to work for free.” Carmen sighed. “Look, honey, I know you have a good heart, but no more freebies, okay?”

  He nodded. “You’re right.” It wouldn’t be easy to start charging all the familiar faces in town, but if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have the business much longer. He couldn’t keep making plans to build his company if he wasn’t proactively taking the right steps toward success. “I should take a shower and head out…” He wanted to get an early start on the inn. Overhearing Sarah’s conversation the day before with her boss, he needed to ensure the renovations were done as soon as possible.

  Getting her out of town quickly had nothing to do with the fact that his body’s reaction to her the day before had him slightly freaked out.

  “Hey, honey, any chance you could bring Marissa with you today? I forgot about a doctor’s appointment I have this afternoon,” Carmen said.

  Wes frowned. Doctor’s appointment? Those words stopped his heart these days. Since so much of Kelly’s last year had been spent at hospitals and medical clinics, Wes tried to avoid them at all costs. Whenever Marissa so much as got a sniffle, he was on high alert. “You okay?” It was probably none of his business, but he couldn’t not ask.

  She nodded as she reached for the oven mitts. “Just fine, honey. Yearly check-up, that’s all. Nothing to worry about.”

  He swallowed hard. Kelly had said the same thing after the first couple of appointments. She hadn’t admitted she was sick—really sick—until she’d had no other choice but to tell him. “Okay. Well, yeah, of course I’ll take Marissa. I’ll get her.”

  “Great. I’ll package some of this to go,” she said, setting the banana bread on top of the stove.

  “Thanks.”

  “Oh, and Wes,” she said as he turned to leave the kitchen.

  “Yeah?”

  “You need to tell Marissa she can’t go to that science camp this year. Time’s running out,” she said, cutting into the loaf.

  Shit. His aunt was right. He needed to grow a set and be honest with his daughter.

  Chapter Six

  The delivery truck was right on time. Bringing the B&B into the twenty-first century made sense. Sarah could still preserve its charm and uniqueness, while transforming it into a property people would want to buy. She wasn’t installing virtual reality or anything…not yet anyway. Just the basics that guests expected from other vacation properties.

  She’d done her research. Countless searches and online tourism review sites had provided all the data she’d needed to finalize a list of upgrades that would make Dove’s Nest more appealing to travelers and help establish it as the place to visit along Highway 1.

  A few rush overnight order shipments had cost more than she’d originally planned on spending, but adding these elements to the renovations were increasing her confidence level, and they would only help her secure the best price when the time came to sell.

  “What’s this?” Wes asked, coming up behind her. He wiped his dirty hands on his jeans, and his bare chest glistened with sweat. As usual, his half-dressed state had Sarah’s heart pounding. How was she supposed to have a conversation with him when she was continually distracted by the toned, sculpted, tanned muscles?

  Could she make it mandatory for her hired workers to wear shirts? Then again, she’d really only be hurting herself. This daily viewing of Wes’s hot body
was the only “action” she was getting or had gotten in a long time.

  “Just some stuff I ordered,” she said casually. She suspected he’d be annoyed by her plan, and she’d already decided to take care of most of the work involved with the upgrades herself—like installing the TVs in the bedrooms and internet modems, projectors and screens in the large meeting rooms, and the like. She would only need Wes and his crew for the big stuff…

  He squinted to read the boxes the delivery men unloaded from the back of the truck. “Flatscreen televisions?”

  “I decided the B&B could use some upgrades.”

  His hands on his hips only drew her attention to the oblique muscles disappearing beneath the low-hanging denim, weighed down even farther by his heavy tool belt.

  How did one even get stomach muscles like that?

  “Dove never wanted televisions in the guest rooms.”

  Sarah sighed. Her grandmother hadn’t watched television a day in her life. She never owned one herself and insisted that guests on vacation didn’t need one, either. No one ever complained, but that was before Yelp reviews gave everyone a public voice to share their opinion.

  “All rental properties have televisions,” she said. It was a basic expectancy.

  “The inn was great the way it was,” Wes said tightly. His jaw was tight, as though he were clenching his teeth. But this wasn’t his decision to make.

  “In your opinion,” she said, waving to the delivery truck driver. “The front door’s open. Just bring them inside.”

  “I thought you were trying to keep the reno costs low?”

  Sarah averted her eyes and shrugged. She had dipped further into her savings than she’d planned, but with a quick sell, she’d recoup the extra expenses. “Let me worry about that,” she said, taking a list out of her pocket. “And you can worry about these.” She handed him her new list of construction improvements, and he lifted his sunglasses over his dark hair to read.

  Sarah stared at the soft-looking, messy locks. What would it feel like to run her hands through his hair? She’d always been tempted to. He’d always had great hair. He hadn’t buzz cut it like most of the other athletes in high school and he hadn’t let it grow long like the stoner, surfer kids. It was always clean-cut but just long enough to fantasize about.

  Fantasies that had just left her heartbroken. Time and distance hadn’t changed the fact that Wes had only ever seen her as his tutor. After that night in the water, they’d barely spoken, and once school had ended and she’d moved away for college that September, they hadn’t kept in touch. She may be stuck there longer than she planned, but that didn’t mean she had to get sucked right back into old habits and unrealistic hopes and dreams.

  “Solar panels…” he was saying, as though she were asking for spaceships to be installed on the roof.

  She waited. He was going to love the next one.

  “You want to put balconies off the rooms?” His eyebrow rose as he glanced up at her. “All of them?”

  She’d considered only adding them to a few of the bigger rooms but then decided to go all in. Even if she wasn’t going to be running the inn herself, she wanted Dove’s Nest to be special for everyone who stayed there, not just the guests who booked premium rooms. She knew her grandmother would approve of that choice as well. “Yes. The rooms have an amazing view of the ocean. Both sides. It’s a shame that there isn’t a place where guests can sit and enjoy the view with their morning coffee or evening glass of wine.” The reviews online had been significantly higher for resorts and hotels that provided that extra outside comfort.

  “That’s why they leave their room and go to the beach or sit out on the existing deck,” Wes said, folding the list and handing it back to her as though her requests were never going to happen.

  Which just fueled her fire even more. Sarah took a deep breath. “And I’m sure most guests still will, but I’d like to give them an option. It’s their vacation. They can choose if they want to go outside or watch Netflix all day.”

  Wes winced, as though that sounded like a horrible vacation to him. Well, not everyone was into surfing and swimming and beach volleyball. Some people went on vacation to relax or get away or be alone. To catch up on binge-watching shows their demanding, fourteen-hour-a-day jobs didn’t give them the opportunity to enjoy. She didn’t expect an extrovert like Wes, who had the freedom to make his own work hours, to understand.

  “These decks are a lot of work,” he said, obviously attempting to sway her with a more logical approach. “We’ll need extra support beams, and depending on the dimensions, you may need to get a building permit.”

  She shook her head. “I’ve already checked into that with the mayor’s office.” Thanks to Whitney. “As long as the decks don’t extend farther than the existing wraparound deck on the lower level of the house, no extra permits are needed.”

  “Wow, you did your homework,” Wes mumbled. “But, Sarah, I don’t think you understand how much extra work is going to have to be done in a short period of time. My quote was for the work I’d discussed with Dove.”

  She refused to let him discourage her. She’d watched episodes of Flip This House and Love It or List It. Under pressure, things could get done fast. “Can you do it?”

  “I can, yes,” he said through gritted teeth, “but I don’t want to.”

  Damn, he was hot when he was annoyed. The stern expression with the tight jaw combined with the slightly reluctant look that said he knew he wasn’t going to win this battle only made him that much more attractive.

  Not attractive enough for her to back down. “Okay.” She shrugged. “I’ll hire someone else,” she said, turning to head inside. One, two, three…

  “Sarah, wait.”

  She hid a grin as she turned back and waited. The first person to speak in a negotiation lost.

  His chest heaved as he sighed. “I’ll get you a new estimate by tomorrow. But I’m warning you, you’re not going to like how much this is going to cost.”

  She walked back toward him and handed him the list. “It will be worth it.” Once she made her improvements to the B&B, the place was going to look amazing and be even more functional than before. Someone would definitely want to buy it.

  Her gut twisted slightly at the thought, which was ridiculous. She did not want to keep the place. Letting it go would be easy. It would not be hard to leave her hometown the longer she stayed.

  Or the hot-as-hell man scowling at her.

  …

  Upgrades. What the hell? Sarah was suddenly going all in, and part of him was annoyed that she was making these changes to the inn, but damn, if she wasn’t uber-appealing when she was getting her own way. The smug look on her face when she’d called his bluff had made him want to kiss it right off. The gleam of challenge in her eye and the pretty pursed lips… He had no idea what was going on there with this unexpected attraction to her.

  He’d hoped the physical labor would help set him right again, but he couldn’t help catching a glimpse of her as she directed the delivery guys. She was definitely more confident and self-assured than the girl he remembered. And despite his personal feelings about these changes to the inn, her new take-charge attitude was sexy.

  “Dad, are you listening?” Marissa asked from below on the wraparound deck.

  Unfortunately. No amount of hammering could deter Marissa from continuing to tell him all about the different course offerings from Camp STEM. And it was the latter that was making his brain hurt.

  When he’d brought her to work with him that day, he’d hoped she’d ride her bike around the property or head down to the beach and build a sandcastle… Instead, she’d brought along her backpack full of books and the brochure for Camp STEM that she’d read cover to cover a million times and was now reading to him.

  “It says advanced students can skip the beginner courses and take the more adva
nced ones…we just need to take an online submission test once we register,” she was saying from her cross-legged position on the deck below him. She twirled a piece of strawberry-blond hair around one finger absentmindedly as she talked. “Do you think I’m good enough to pass that test?”

  Wes hit the next nail harder than he intended, sending it straight through the wood. “I’m sure you are,” he mumbled, Carmen’s warning echoing in his mind.

  “So do you think we can do that soon? Register, I mean. Spaces are starting to fill up,” she said, looking hopeful.

  He had to be honest with her. He couldn’t put it off any longer. He set the hammer on the roof and climbed down the ladder. “Hey, Rissa, can we talk for a second?”

  “Sure. What’s up?” She didn’t look up from the brochure, and he bent in a crouched position and gently took it from her. “What’s wrong?” she asked, seeing his expression.

  “Camp STEM isn’t happening this year,” he said. Like pulling off a Band-Aid. It was going to hurt, but better to do it quickly.

  She frowned. “Dad, I promise you, just let me go for the two weeks, and then I’ll do whatever activity you want me to for the rest of summer vacation. And I’ll still go to Girl Guides camp.”

  Of course she thought he wasn’t on board with it because it wasn’t something physical. “No, it’s—”

  “Fine, I’ll join the fall soccer league, too, and I won’t complain about going to the games. Anything. Dad, please!” She folded her tiny hands in front of her body, and Wes’s heart shattered into a million pieces.

  Saying no to her sucked the life out of him, but he wasn’t comfortable with letting her go. He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Rissa.” He had to tell her the real reason—otherwise she’d think he was punishing her for something. “The camp is just a little too far away.”

  Her face fell, but she hid her disappointment quickly, seeing his. “Oh. Okay. That’s totally fine.”