by SUE FINEMAN
“But I only have one at a time.”
A little giggle slipped out of Julie, but Andy didn’t see anything funny about it. “We’ll talk about it when the house goes up. Maybe you’ll have a steady girlfriend by then.”
“Steady?” Charlie’s voice squeaked. “You mean as in a commitment? Come on, Andy, if you can’t make a commitment to a great girl like Julie, how do you expect me to settle for one woman?”
“This discussion is over,” Andy said firmly. He didn’t want to discuss women with his flighty brother. If Charlie wanted to stay out on the farm, they’d figure out something. The old trailer wasn’t in good shape and probably wouldn’t last much longer. If he could find the extra money for a big garage with an apartment upstairs like the one behind his parents’ house, Charlie could live there.
But he’d have to feed himself.
<>
After dinner that evening, Julie pulled out an envelope. “This is Otis’s will. He asked me to be executor, since I’ve been paying his bills.”
She read from the handwritten page:
“This is the last will and testament of John Otis Bedford.
“I’m leaving $20,000 to Charlie Kane for seed money for the farm.
“I’m leaving all my mother’s things, including her crystal ball and the trunks in the loft of the barn, to Julianne Tandry, to do with as she pleases.
“Any money that’s left after all my bills are paid goes to Andrew Jefferson Kane, to put toward the building of the Jefferson Inn.
“I want to thank everybody for being so kind to me these last few months. I’ll see you all on the other side someday. I hope it ain’t anytime soon.
“He signed and dated it the same day you bought the farm, Andy.”
Andy nodded. “I remember. He should have some hefty medical bills, what with the private nurses. Will there be anything left?”
“There should be at least three hundred thousand left. Medicare covers most of his medical bills, and he didn’t have any other bills.”
“Three hundred thousand? You’re kidding!”
“No, he had a bank balance of nearly a hundred thousand before he sold the farm. He owed nearly twice that much to the bank, but the loan was paid off out of the proceeds of the sale. The bills for the private nurses were steep, but it was money well spent.”
“Yes, it was,” said Dad. He rubbed Andy’s shoulder. “Get your house plans approved, so we can start building in the spring. Then we’ll start on the inn. It’s a great idea, Andy.”
“I’ll help with the financing,” said Billy.
Mom nodded. “So will we, Andy. It’s a good family project and a good investment.”
Dad held up his hand. “One thing at a time. First, you need a place to live with all these dogs. Then we’ll talk about the inn.”
Andy blew out a breath. Whatever made him think he could afford a farm with a new house and an inn?
Julie folded Otis’s will and put it on the table. “I know you’re worried about money right now, Andy, but think about this. That new housing development with the golf course my father talked about isn’t just a rumor, and it’s only a few miles down the road from the farm. Once that goes in, land out that way will increase in value. Your strip of land along the river will double in value, and if you section off the part on the ridge on the other side of the county road, you could build luxury view homes and sell them for a nice profit.
“You might also want to make plans for a nice restaurant near the inn. I’m not saying you have to do all this right away, but if you plan carefully, in a few years you could be a very wealthy man.”
“What about crops?” Charlie asked.
“There would still be plenty of land to farm,” she replied.
Andy felt overwhelmed. So many things had happened in the past few weeks. It wasn’t just finding Julie and buying the farm. Losing Otis had left a sadness deep inside his soul.
“Maybe I should build the inn first and wait on the house for a couple years. I can’t afford both.”
“We’ll help you,” said Billy.
“You’ve helped me enough. I don’t want to owe anyone any more money.”
Billy leaned on his elbows on the table. “If Andrew Jefferson had built that inn himself, he would have had to borrow money from someone. It’s a small hotel, Andy. It not only has to be built, it has to be furnished and staffed. Unless you have a few million tucked away somewhere, you’ll need financing.” He leaned back. “If you’d rather go to a bank—”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I know what you meant,” said Billy. “You feel like you’re drowning in responsibility, like you’ll never be able to pay all your bills. I felt that way when I inherited the Goodman mansion. A teacher’s pay only stretches so far, and the utility bills alone nearly broke me. But you make good money as an architect, and you can afford to build yourself a nice house. For one thing, it’s good advertising for your design business.”
Julie nodded. “He’s right, Andy.”
Billy continued. “As far as the inn goes, we’ll work up a business plan before we start building, maybe create a corporation to keep everything legal. But that’s down the road. Build your house first, Andy. If you need money to cover the building expenses, we’ll—”
“I have enough to get started.”
Julie put Otis’s will in the envelope. She had a purchase and sale agreement on Brent’s house, so she’d have the money to build Andy’s new house. But Andy didn’t intend to share it with her.
She’d buried more than a good friend today. She’d buried her hopes and dreams for a future with Andy Kane.
Julie quietly cleared the table while the others talked about Andy’s farmhouse, Andy’s inn, and Andy’s future. She loaded the dishwasher and thought about what she wanted to do with her life. But the only thing she wanted was out of reach.
Andy Kane.
Chapter Twenty
Andy returned to work the day after the funeral, and so did Julie. She stopped at a drug store on the way to work and bought herself a pregnancy test kit, which she used in the restroom at the office. By this time, she’d thought so much about the comparisons between her life and Paulina’s, she’d convinced herself she was pregnant.
She peed on the wand and waited the required amount of time, then stared at the wand in disbelief.
She wasn’t pregnant.
Julie didn’t need a baby now, so why did she feel like crying? A baby would just complicate her life and push Andy into saying and doing things he didn’t want to do. She wanted his children, but she wanted him to love her for herself, not because she was giving him a child. But it wasn’t an issue now, because she wasn’t pregnant.
Sitting on the toilet lid, she tried to will her hands to stop shaking. No baby and no Andy. It shouldn’t hurt so much, but it did.
Even if she was pregnant—which she wasn’t—Andy had no intention of including her in his life as long as he was mired in the past. His first priority was to resolve the issues from the past. His second was to build a new farmhouse, and the inn was third. If her name was on his priority list at all, it had to be near the bottom.
Someone pounded on the door. She’d been hogging the restroom too long.
Stuffing the test in the drug store bag, Julie took it outside to the dumpster and dropped it in. Nobody needed to know about the test.
Especially Andy.
After writing newspaper ads and checking on her listings to make sure she didn’t miss any potential buyers, Julie searched the newspaper for rental houses. One was a small house with a fenced backyard. She drove out to see it and fell in love. It was an older house, a little shabby, but with plenty of character, and it had two bedrooms. She could use one for an office. The yard was perfect for Cassie. Would Andy let her take the dog? After what she’d been through with Brent, she didn’t especially want to live alone.
Andy would understand why she had to leave, wouldn’t he? She’d given him
plenty of opportunities to say he loved her, but the words had never passed his lips. He’d spent a lot of time on the plans for the new farmhouse, but he’d never shown them to her, never asked her opinion. What else could she think except he didn’t intend for her to live there? He’d planned his life without her, and it hurt down deep in her bones.
His family loved her. Why couldn’t he?
Julie was about to leave the rental house when Mary Clancy called. “Julie, would it be possible to take possession of the house on Manor Drive a few days before closing?”
“When do you want in?”
“Thanksgiving weekend. Closing is the following Tuesday, and we’d like to paint before we move our furniture in.”
Could she get rid of the furniture and everything else in that house in ten days? “That should be okay, Mary. It isn’t as if I’m living there.”
“Thanks so much. The kids want to be settled in our home before Christmas, but they can’t move in until we move out.”
“I understand. Do you know anyone who would want some of the furniture in that house?”
“No, I don’t.”
Maybe Hannah would take it for the Hospital Guild Thrift Store.
Julie called Hannah, then drove to Manor Drive. She stripped beds, folded the linens, and stacked them on the beds. Then she emptied the kitchen cabinets. There wasn’t much else in the house except furniture, rugs, and those awful bloody paintings.
After Hannah arrived, they walked through the house together, looking for anything Julie might have missed. Hannah picked up one of the pots. “These are good quality, and they’re all brand new. Are you sure you don’t want them?”
As tempting as it was to keep some of these things, like the new beds, the big desk in the study, and some of the kitchen items and linens, Julie shook her head. “Every time I used them, I’d think of Brent, and I don’t want to keep anything that reminds me of him. I wouldn’t have taken possession of the house unless I thought I could sell it.” She hadn’t expected to sell it so quickly, but it was just as well. The upkeep on a house this size ate into her living expenses.
“Trevor gets back from Tacoma tomorrow. He and Donovan and the boys can help move things this weekend.”
“There’s no need, Hannah. I’m moving into a little rental a few blocks from your house on Friday. I asked the movers to move these things, too. All they need is a destination.”
Her mouth dropped open. “But what about you and Andy?”
Julie wondered how much to say. She didn’t want to make Andy look bad in his mother’s eyes, as if that was even possible. “He’s not ready for a long-term commitment, and I can’t stay without it. I haven’t told him yet, so don’t say anything.”
Hannah hugged her. “I don’t know what’s wrong with that boy.”
“I think he’s still tied up in Andrew’s life. If and when he comes back to the present, maybe he’ll change his mind, but I can’t count on it.”
No matter how much she loved him, she couldn’t stay if he didn’t want her.
<>
On Thursday, after completing his work for the morning, Andy pulled out Andrew’s plans for the inn.
Pete looked over his shoulder. “What is that?”
“An inn. A friend of the family drew these plans in 1918. I’m going to update them, and one of these days, I’m going to build the inn on a piece of property I just bought.”
“Was this friend an architect?”
“No, he was a builder with no formal education. A man with a vision.”
“Why didn’t he build it?”
“He was murdered.”
“Bummer.” Pete glanced at his watch. “I have a date for lunch, so I’ll see you later.”
Pete had been tripping all over himself to please the others in the firm since the day Byron was fired. His work was nothing special, not good enough to distinguish himself as a talented designer. Andy couldn’t figure out why Mike had hired him. Wouldn’t the business do better producing a few high quality designs than a lot of so-so designs?
Andy walked to the window and watched Pete walk out to a car and jump into the passenger seat. Byron’s car. “Damn!” The son-of-a-bitch was meeting Byron.
Quickly checking Pete’s computer, Andy found duplicates of all his designs, including the condos and Billy’s house. “Mike,” he yelled. “Get in here. You’ll want to see this.”
Swearing under his breath, Mike scrolled through one of Andy’s designs after another. “He’s finished here.”
“So am I,” said Andy. “If you’d paid any attention to what those two were doing, they wouldn’t have stolen—”
Mike whipped around to face Andy. “Hey, wait a minute here. I can’t do my work and watch over their shoulders, too.”
“Why the hell not? You did with me. You checked every aspect of my work for months, yet with those two bozos you didn’t bother. Why?”
“They came highly recommended by their professors.”
“And I didn’t? I was the top student in my class.”
“Andy, I don’t know what to say.”
“I do. I’ll finish the two designs I have started, then I’m outta here. I want every design I ever did for this firm erased from every computer, starting with Pete’s.”
“He’ll be gone by the end of the day.”
“I don’t want him selling my designs elsewhere, if he hasn’t already.”
Andy knew he could be cutting his professional throat, but so be it. He’d come to work here to gain experience and build a professional reputation. He had the experience, but if he hung around here much longer, his reputation could be sullied beyond repair. No one would want to do business with a designer who represented a business that didn’t protect the integrity of the work.
Pete had probably copied those designs and given them to Byron.
What in the hell did Byron intend to do with them?
<>
Julie met Andy at the door that evening. “We need to talk.”
“Not now.”
“But—”
He walked away as if she hadn’t been waiting for him, as if she couldn’t possibly have anything important to say. She wanted to tell him her news in private, before she told the rest of the family, but he wasn’t giving her the chance.
“Andy, is something wrong?”
“Not now, Julie,” he snapped.
Whatever was bothering him, he wasn’t about to share it with her, but then he hadn’t been sharing anything with her lately.
“Dinner is ready,” Hannah called.
Julie sat at the kitchen table with Andy, his parents, and Charlie. Andy still wasn’t talking, but she couldn’t wait any longer. She had to tell him.
After they’d all eaten, she said, “I rented a small house this week. It has a big fenced yard, so I’ll keep Cassie until you get your house built, Andy. I can keep Sadie Belle, too, if you want.”
Andy stared at her, his eyes filled with hurt and disbelief. “When were you going to tell me?”
“I tried to talk to you earlier, but you didn’t want to listen.”
Hannah looked like she’d cry any minute, and Donovan slowly shook his head. Julie’s throat tightened at the stricken look in Andy’s eyes, and she had to look away. Andy had to make a decision. Either she was a part of his life or she wasn’t.
Cassie put her head on Julie’s lap and whined. She knew something was happening. Poor dog was already lost without Otis and the farm. Julie rubbed her head and watched Wilma shove her dish around with her nose. The puppy was trying to tell Charlie she was hungry.
Without another word, Andy left the room.
Julie looked around at the others. “I want to thank you for allowing me to be part of your family for these past few weeks.”
“We love you like a daughter,” Hannah said, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. “We thought…”
“I know. I thought so, too, but Andy isn’t ready. Maybe someday he will be, but he isn’t ready
now.”
Charlie drained his glass. “He thinks he’s gonna end up dead like Andrew.”
“That’s nonsense,” said Donovan. He pushed his chair back. “I’ll go talk with him.”
With a heavy heart, Julie went upstairs to pack. Andy and Donovan’s angry voices followed her upstairs, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. She had a feeling she didn’t want to know.
Brushing away tears, she pulled out her suitcase and began to pack. She’d be alone again, as she was before Andy came into her life. Cassie would live with her for a few months, but it wouldn’t be the same as living with Andy, feeling his strong arms around her, hearing his deep, sexy laughter, and sharing his passion.
<>
“That was rude, Andy,” said Dad.
“What about her? She didn’t have to announce it in front of the whole family.”
“That’s your own damn fault. If you’d talked to her when you got home instead of blowing her off, you would have known sooner. If you weren’t so obsessed with Andrew’s life and the fortune teller’s predictions, she wouldn’t be leaving you.”
“Dammit, Dad. I have other things on my mind today.”
“More important than Julie?”
Nothing was more important than Julie, but he couldn’t give her what she wanted, what she needed.
“The two recent college grads the boss hired have been stealing my designs. I caught one the other day and today I caught the second one. They’ve both been fired, but I’m afraid they’ve been selling or using my designs, probably passing them off as their own work.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“File a formal complaint with AIA and find another job.” Andy waved toward the stairs. “Why in the hell did she have to pull this today?”
“Did you talk to her today? Did you tell her what’s going on at work?”
“No. I quit my job today. Mike knew what Byron had been doing, and he should have checked on Pete, since they were such good buddies. But he didn’t. I don’t trust him.”
“Aw, Andy, you can’t afford to quit now.”
“I don’t have any choice,” Andy yelled. “I’m not giving them any more of my work.” He paced in the study, frustrated not only with the job situation, but with Julie.
