Make Me Stay

by Jaci Burton

  "Is that what he really said?" Bash asked.

  "No. He told me not to screw this up."

  Bash grinned. "That sounds more like Deacon."

  Reid laughed. "Come on, let's go take a look at the closet."

  Chelsea led the way. "Sam called me right before you got here. She's not going to be able to make it, either. She said her grandmother isn't feeling well."

  "Oh," Reid said. "I hope she's okay."

  "Me, too," Chelsea said. "Anyway, as far as the closet, it's over here, in a hallway between the master bedroom and master bath."

  Reid tucked away his disappointment at not being able to talk to Sam. He followed Chelsea, deciding he needed to concentrate on this task and get Sam out of his head for now.

  The hallway had good space leading into the master bath, but the two closets on either side of the hallway were super small.

  "You need a bigger master closet."

  "Yes."

  "She has a lot of shoes," Bash said.

  Chelsea nodded. "This is true."

  "What are the closets in the other bedrooms like?"

  "Not very big."

  "Okay. Let me do a walk-through of the entire house."

  He went into the master bath, noting the size, then got out his tape measure and jotted down dimensions, including the hallway. Then he walked out of the bedroom and into the hall, following it to the other three bedrooms, as well as another full-sized bathroom, making notes along the way. When he finished, he met up with Bash and Chelsea in the kitchen.

  "Great house."

  Bash smiled. "You haven't even seen the backyard yet."

  Bash opened the sliding glass door and led them out into a very spacious yard.

  "Now, granted, we have a small dog, but Lou will still enjoy all this space."

  Reid laughed. "Yeah, I could see a Chihuahua thinking this was like having her own private oasis."

  The yard was super spacious, with more mature trees and great landscaping. There was a deck covered by a wood arbor and lots of greenery, which would provide shade in the hot summer months. Flowering bushes surrounded the deck, and there was still plenty of grassy area for Lou to play in, and even add more dogs--or kids.

  "Great yard."

  "Isn't it?" Chelsea said. "We're already planning parties back here."

  They headed back inside, and Reid laid his notebook on the counter. "So the only holdout is the closet space. Actually, the ones in the other bedrooms aren't too bad. You have a walk-in in one of the bedrooms. Not a huge one, but it's workable."

  "True," Bash said. "They're not bad, just not acceptable to the closet queen here."

  Chelsea elbowed Bash. "Hey. I like closet space."

  Reid took out his pencil and started drawing. "This is going to be rough, but here's what I think is your best option. You can lose the hallway and redo the master bath." He drew a rudimentary sketch, showing how to make best use of the space. "This will not only expand your bathroom area, but also your closet space."

  He handed the drawing to Chelsea and Bash. Chelsea's eyes widened. "This is perfect. The size of the closet is just what I'm looking for."

  Bash nodded. "It would definitely work, without sacrificing the square footage in the master bedroom."

  "Right," Reid said. "All I did was eliminate the hallway between the bedroom and bath. Now as far as the other bedrooms, since they're all good-sized, I could add closet space, but you'll lose room square footage."

  Chelsea stared at the drawing, waving her hand at Reid. "This is all I need." She looked up at Bash. "All we need. Don't you think?"

  "I agree," Bash said. "Expanding the bath and closet in the master makes this the perfect house for us."

  "Yay," Chelsea said, grinning. "I think we've found our house."

  Chelsea and Bash embraced and kissed.

  "That's my cue to get out of here," Reid said.

  "No." Chelsea grabbed his arm. "Thank you. I knew what I wanted, but without your vision, this would never have happened. So now what?"

  "I'll draw up something that looks a lot better than this. Once you buy the house, you can hire Deacon, or whatever contractor you want, to make it a reality for you."

  "Fantastic." Chelsea hugged him. "Thank you, Reid."

  "You're welcome."

  Bash shook his hand. "Thanks, man. You helped me out again. You should consider sticking around Hope."

  Reid smiled. "Well, you know I have a business in Boston."

  "You could have a lot of business here, too."

  "Yeah, I'll think about it. In the meantime, I'm sure your agent is outside waiting to hear what you've decided."

  "Oh, right," Chelsea said, then looked at Bash. "We should tell her we're ready to make an offer."

  "And then we have to sell my house."

  Chelsea was nearly vibrating. "I'm so excited right now."

  Reid said his good-byes and headed out. He left a message for Deacon and told him about the house, just in case he wanted to touch base with Bash and Chelsea. He figured Deacon would be perfect for the renovation.

  All in all, not a bad end to the day. He'd like to see how that renovation turned out, but it wouldn't happen while he was still in Hope.

  Too bad.

  As he drove away, he thought about calling Sam. Or maybe dropping by. But in the end, he decided she likely had her hands full dealing with her grandmother, so he'd let things settle. For now.

  Or maybe not, because he thought about her for the entire drive back to the ranch, so after he got home and had dinner, he pulled out his phone and texted her.

  Sorry you couldn't make it earlier.

  It took her about five minutes to reply.

  I'm sorry, too! Grammy Claire was a bit under the weather.

  He texted back: Is she okay?

  She replied with: She's fine. An upset stomach, but I figured I should stay with her tonight.

  He sent back: I'm glad it's nothing serious.

  She replied: Me, too.

  He should have let it go at that, but he couldn't, so he sent back: I missed seeing you tonight.

  Within a minute, she replied: I missed you, too. Can't wait for the barbecue Saturday.

  He smiled and felt a lot better.

  Chapter 20

  REID HAD BEEN working nonstop all week. Between meetings with the engineer and the city inspectors, not to mention having to tiptoe around the stiff requirements laid down by the historical society as far as what they could and could not do to the building, he'd been up to his eyeballs in paperwork and red tape--the parts of his job he hated the most. He had a multipage list from the society of what couldn't be changed, and unless it was a code violation, certain standards had to be maintained to keep the building as close to its original condition as possible. Fortunately, that was his plan all along, so he and the historical society were in agreement on that. It was just getting there that was going to be a headache, and having bureaucrats breathing down his neck wasn't going to be fun. He knew what he was doing and so did Deacon, and having people who didn't have the first clue about renovating a building monitoring every step in the process would only put them behind.

  He'd put in long days that had somehow fallen into early evenings. By the time he'd gotten back to the ranch, he'd managed to stuff dinner into his mouth, carried on mostly one-syllable conversations with Ben, Martha, Logan, and Des, and then had dragged himself off to bed to face-plant into an exhausted oblivion.

  Today, though, was Saturday. He could have gone in to work to catch up, but that wasn't going to happen today. He planned to drink a lot of beer and eat a metric ton of barbecued ribs.

  And not think about work. At least not anything associated with the mercantile. Martha, on the other hand, had put them all to work early that morning getting the ranch ready for the barbecue. He, Logan, and the ranch hands had pulled the picnic tables from storage, scrubbed them clean, and made sure there was plenty of seating for everyone. Because when the McCormacks hosted the
ir annual barbecue, hundreds of people attended.

  Not My Dog followed him around all morning as he washed down driveways and furniture and prepped the multiple grills they were going to use for the ribs. Wherever he went, the dog was right next to him.

  Like always. He was getting used to Not My Dog being an extra appendage.

  When Luke and Emma arrived, Emma dashed into the house, and Luke found Reid. They'd brought their three dogs: Boomer, Luke's German shepherd; Annie, the pit bull; and Daisy, the lab. Not that he blamed them. There was nothing better than letting your dogs run wild and free on ranch property. There was so much land, those dogs could roam for hours and miles and be exhausted by the time Luke and Emma brought them home tonight. Plus, they'd play with all the ranch dogs, which would further wear them out.

  The dogs all sniffed and huddled around Not My Dog, who wagged his tail and played.

  "Got yourself a dog, I see," Luke said.

  "Not My Dog."

  Luke laughed. "Yeah, I heard about his name."

  "I tried to disown him, but he seems to have attached himself to me."

  "Apparently he's pretty popular in town."

  Reid rolled his eyes. "Yeah. I don't know what's more popular--the dog or the mercantile. But a lot of folks have stopped by the mercantile to visit the dog. And ask about the building. So maybe both of them."

  Luke walked in step with Reid as he headed toward the barn to grab a side table to put in between the two grills.

  "How's the reno going, by the way?" Luke asked.

  "This week was a lot of red tape and paperwork, so a pain in my ass. Otherwise, it's going okay."

  They carried the table out and set it between the grills. Luke started up the grills just as Logan came out carrying pans of ribs.

  "More of these inside," Logan said.

  Reid nodded, and he and Luke went inside to grab the pans.

  "Are you as hungry as I am for these?" Luke asked as they walked back outside.

  Reid juggled multiple pans loaded with ribs. "Like you would not believe. I'm amazed I'm actually in town for this. It's been years since I've been here for the barbecue. I actually have dreams about it."

  Luke laughed. "Hey, you know where the ranch is. You could come home more often."

  "Not as easy as it seems."

  "It's as easy as you want to make it. All you have to do is buy a plane ticket."

  He waved his hand to dismiss his brother. "Yeah, yeah."

  Logan looked up from where he was placing ribs on the grill. "Why would you even want him to come back here for the barbecue, Luke? You've seen how much he eats. That's just fewer ribs for you and me."

  "You make a good point, Logan." Luke turned to Reid. "Never mind. Stay in Boston."

  Reid laughed. "You're both assholes."

  "Like that's a revelation," Logan said. "Now grab some tongs and help me get these spread out on the grills. And someone needs to drag a cooler of beer out here."

  "I'll get the beer," Luke said.

  Reid took charge of one of the grills. It felt good to be home again, to be cooking ribs with his brothers at his side. This had been a McCormack family tradition every year, going back to when his dad was still alive. His father and his grandfather had stood at the grills cooking together when Reid had been just a kid. He could still remember knocking around in the front yard with his brothers, the smell of those ribs cooking for hours while they threw the football around or played in the dirt.

  As the day progressed, people would show up at the house bringing food. By late afternoon, Reid's stomach would be growling from smelling the meat cook.

  He was certain today would be a lot like that. Except for wrestling his brothers in the dirt.

  "You must be thinking deep thoughts over there," Logan said, "because you haven't said a word."

  He slanted a look at his brother. "I was thinking about how long this annual barbecue has been going on, and how you and me and Luke used to play in the front yard all day, just smelling the ribs cooking and getting hungrier every hour."

  Logan's lips ticked up. "And Dad and Grandpa would sit in their chairs, drink beer, and occasionally yell at us to break up a fight."

  Reid smiled at the memories. "Yeah."

  "And when Mom was around, she'd be pissed that we got dirty."

  Logan's lips curved. "She was always pissed about something."

  "Don't miss that."

  "Me, neither."

  That was one thing the brothers all had in common. They had loved their father, and had always stuck together when their mother had gotten riled up about something trivial--like young boys getting dirty.

  Their mother hadn't been happy being a ranch wife and mother. Fortunately, their dad had taken up the slack and loved them enough for two people.

  And so had Martha and Ben. They'd had plenty of love and parental influence, so once their mother had divorced Dad and taken off, Reid figured they were all better off without her.

  Which had suited him just fine. He sometimes wondered where she was, but he didn't wonder enough to look her up. She'd remarried some guy and was apparently living her happily-ever-after city life somewhere on the east coast. That's all he knew and he didn't care to know more.

  Some people just weren't cut out to live life on a ranch. Or to be a parent. And that's just how it was.

  A car drove up, and Reid thought for a minute it might be Sam.

  It wasn't. It was Megan, who pulled up to the front driveway. Emma, Des, and Martha came out and helped her bring boxes into the house.

  He saw Luke come out carrying a large cooler. Reid and Logan went and grabbed several chairs, then set them up while Luke and Logan flipped the ribs. They opened their beers and took seats.

  Another car pulled up. Reid took a look, but it was one of Martha's church friends.

  "Waiting for someone?" Logan asked.

  "No. Just . . . watching."

  "Uh-huh."

  Reid ignored his brother and they spent time talking ranch stuff.

  More cars pulled in. Several people from town arrived. Some of them wandered over to grab beers and talk ranch life, or anything in general.

  "Mercantile's coming along, Reid," Walter Louis said.

  "Yeah, it is."

  "Daisy and I are anxious to take a peek. We figure it's going to be good business for our sandwich shop once you finish it and get tenants in there."

  "I figure it will be, too."

  "Speaking of our sandwich shop, Daisy and I have been thinkin' of expanding, opening up another place on the north side of town."

  "Is that right? Business is that good, huh?"

  Walter offered up a sly smile. "It's decent enough. I was wondering if you had any pointers on where we might situate, and maybe you could think about drawing up some plans. Health food's a big deal nowadays, and we have to compete with the chains as well. The current place is good for the downtown crowd, but we'd like to capture some highway business."

  Before Reid knew what was happening, he and Walter had pulled up chairs and Reid was talking architectural plans for a new sandwich shop. Walter had told him they had looked at some existing spaces, but didn't really see anything they liked. But there was a vacant plot of land near one of the ice-cream stores they were interested in buying, and maybe Reid could draw up plans for the shop.

  Walter had big ideas and just needed a boost. Reid had to admit it would be easy enough to provide sketches for him. He told him he'd try to work that in sometime next week.

  After Walter wandered off, he took over grill duty while Logan went inside to refill the beer cooler.

  "You know, if you lived here, you'd probably have a lot of business," Luke said. "Especially since you're both an architect and a contractor."

  Reid studied his brother. "I've got plenty of work to keep me busy in Boston."

  Luke shrugged. "Just sayin'."

  Reid knew exactly what Luke was saying. And he intended to ignore it.

  "What did
I miss?" Logan asked, setting the rolling cooler down.

  "Luke's trying to tell me that I'd have plenty of work if I moved back here."

  "He's right. You're good at what you do, and there's a lot of growth in Hope right now. Plus you have a contractor's license as well. You could stay busy."

  "Yeah. I'm ignoring both of you."

  "He doesn't like us enough to want to move back here," Luke said.

  "That's not what I meant," Reid said, glaring at Luke.

  "No problem, kid," Logan said. "We don't like you, either."

  Reid rolled his eyes. It was a familiar tune, and he knew both of his brothers were giving him a hard time.

  He refused to entertain the idea, to think it might be appealing, because it wasn't. He was settled in Boston. He'd built a stake there with his business. He had a great condo downtown. He had friends. He made damn good money.

  He was content there.

  Samantha pulled up, drawing his attention away from his brothers. He couldn't help watching as she got out of the car. She wore jeans, those cute pink tennis shoes, and a long-sleeved shirt, wisps of her hair flowing in the slight breeze.

  She went around to the passenger side, and he was happy to see that she'd brought her grandmother with her. Martha and Ben came outside and helped Claire into the house. Sam came back out a short while later and grabbed a bag out of the car. She looked their way as she made her way to the porch, then smiled and waved before she disappeared inside.

  She might have waved to all of them, but he saw the way her eyes lit up when she made eye contact with him.

  Just with him.

  Everything in him tightened.

  "Naw, he wasn't waiting for just one person, was he, Luke?" Logan asked.

  "Not at all." Luke slanted a smirk in Reid's direction and took a long swallow of beer.

  "Which means he was totally waiting for Sam to show up," Logan said.

  Sometimes he wished he didn't have any siblings, especially the kind that noticed every damn thing. "I wasn't waiting for her."

  Logan and Luke exchanged knowing looks.

  "What?" Reid asked.

  "We've been there," Luke said.

  "Really. And where is that?"

  "At the intersection of Love and Denial."

  Reid shot Luke a glare. "Definitely not in love. Not in denial, either."

  "Yup. He's made the turn onto Denial Street," Logan said, getting up to flip the lid open on one of the grills.