He judged her to be only about twenty-five feet, but he wasn’t going to quibble. “Something like that,” he murmured.
He hadn’t expected to like Eben Spencer. When Sage had first fallen for the man, Will had been quite certain he would break her heart. As he had come to know him these last few months, he had changed his mind. Eben was deeply in love with Sage.
The two of them belonged together in a way Will couldn’t have explained to save his life.
“You look like you could use a hand clearing this up.”
He raised an eyebrow. “No offense, but you’re not really dressed for moving my grimy tools.”
“I don’t mind getting a little dirty once in a while.” The other man hefted two sawhorses over one shoulder, leaving Will only his toolbox to carry.
“Thanks,” he said when everything had been slid into the bed of his pickup truck.
“No problem,” Eben said again. “You’re staying for dinner, aren’t you? Sage has decided to throw an impromptu party since Chloe and I are back in town for a few days. I really don’t want to be the only thing around here with a Y chromosome. Beautiful as all these Brambleberry women are, they’re a little overwhelming for one solitary man.”
“Don’t forget you’ve got Simon Blair around now.”
Eben laughed. “Well, that does help even the scales a little, but I have a feeling Sage and the others will be lost in wedding plans. I wouldn’t mind company while I’m manning the grill.”
He was tempted. He knew he shouldn’t be but his empty house had become so oppressive sometimes he hated walking inside it.
“Got anything besides veggie burgers?”
“Sage talked to Jade and Stanley and they’re sending over some choice prime-cut steaks from The Sea Urchin—the kind you can’t buy at your average neighborhood grocery store.”
“Sage must be in love if she’s chasing down steaks for you,” Will said, earning a chuckle from Eben.
“She might be a vegetarian but she’s very forgiving of those of us who aren’t quite as enlightened yet.”
“Maybe she’s just biding her time until you’re married, then she’ll start substituting your bacon for veggie strips and your hamburgers for mushroom, bean-curd concoctions.”
Eben smiled, his expression rueful. “I’m so crazy about her, I probably wouldn’t mind.” He paused. “Stay, why don’t you? Anna and Sage would love to have you.”
What about Julia? He wondered. His attention shifted to her and that longing came out of nowhere again, knocking him out at the knees.
“Sure,” he said, before he could give himself a chance to reconsider. “I just need to run home and wash off some of this sweat and sawdust.”
“Great. We’ll see you in a few minutes then.”
He drove away, already regretting the momentary impulse to accept the invitation.
CHAPTER NINE
AN HOUR LATER, after taking a quick shower and changing his clothes, Will stood beside Eben at the grill, beer in hand, asking himself again why he had possibly thought this might be a good idea.
It was a lovely evening, he had to admit that. A breeze blew off the ocean, cool enough to be refreshing but not cold enough to have anybody reaching for a sweater.
The sweet sound of children’s laughter rang through the Brambleberry House yard as Chloe and the twins threw a ball for Conan. Sage, Julia and Anna were sitting at a table on the weathered brick patio looking over wedding magazines.
Abigail would have adored seeing those she loved most enjoying themselves together. This casual, informal kind of gathering was exactly the kind of thing she loved best.
He only wished he could enjoy himself as he used to do, that he didn’t view the whole scene with his chest aching and this deep sense of loss in his gut.
“My people at The Sea Urchin tell me the work you’ve done on the new cabinetry in the lobby is spectacular,” Eben said as he turned the steaks one last time.
Will forced a smile. “I had great bones to work with. That helps on any project.”
“She’s a beautiful old place, isn’t she?” Eben’s smile was much more genuine. “I’m sorry I haven’t had the opportunity yet to see what you’ve accomplished there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when I have a chance to check out the progress of the last three weeks while Chloe and I have been overseas. I’ve been getting daily reports but it’s not the same as seeing it firsthand.”
“I think you’ll be happy with it. You’ve got some real craftsmen working on The Sea Urchin.”
“Including you.” He took a sip of his beer, then gave Will an intent look. “In fact, I’ve got a proposition for you.”
Will raised an eyebrow, curiosity replacing the ache, if only temporarily. Another job? he wondered. As far as he knew, The Sea Urchin was the only Spencer Hotels property along the coast.
“Spencer Hotels could always use a master carpenter. We’ve got rehab projects going in eight different properties right now alone. There’s always something popping. What would you say to signing on with us, traveling a little? You could take your pick of the jobs, anywhere from Tokyo to Tuscany. We’ve got more than enough work to keep you busy, with much more in the pipeline.”
He blinked, stunned at the offer. He was just a journeyman carpenter in piddly little Cannon Beach. What the hell did he know about either Tokyo or Tuscany?
“Whoa,” he finally managed through his shock. “That’s certainly...unexpected.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. When I received the glowing report from my people here, it just seemed a confirmation of what had already been running around my head. I think you’d be perfect for the job. I usually try to hire workers from the various communities where my hotels are located—good business practice, you know—but I also like to have my own man overseeing the work.”
“I don’t know what good I would be in that capacity. I don’t speak any language except good old English and a little bit of Spanish.”
“The Spanish might help. But we always have translators on site, so that’s not really a concern. I’m looking for a craftsman. An artisan. From what I’ve seen of your work, you definitely qualify. I also want someone I can trust to do the job right. And again, you qualify.”
He had to admit, he was flattered. How could he not be? He loved his work and took great pride in it. When others saw and acknowledged a job well done, he found enormous satisfaction.
For just a moment, he allowed himself to imagine the possibilities. He had lived his entire life in Cannon Beach—in the very same house, even. Though he loved the town and loved living on the coast, maybe it was time to pick up and try something new, see the world a little.
On the other hand. he wasn’t sure the ghosts that haunted him were ready for him to move on.
“You don’t have to give me any kind of answer tonight,” Eben said at his continued silence. “Just think about it. If you decide you’re interested, we can sit down while I’m here and talk details.”
“I’ll think about it,” he agreed. “I...it’s a little overwhelming. It would be a huge change for me.”
“But maybe not an unwelcome one,” Eben said, showing more insight than Will was completely comfortable with.
“Maybe not.” He paused. “I’ve got a buddy up in Ketchikan who’s been after me to come up and go into business with him. I’ve been tossing the idea around.”
“That might be good for you, too. Look at all your options. Take all the time you need. As far as I’m concerned, you can consider the Spencer Hotels offer an indefinite one with no time limit.”
“What offer?”
He hadn’t even noticed Sage had joined them until she spoke. Now she slipped her arm through the crook of Will’s elbow and gave his arm an affectionate squeeze. Of all his friends,
Sage was the most physical, and he always appreciated her hugs and kisses on the cheek and the times, like now, when she squeezed his arm.
He didn’t like to admit it, but he sometimes ached for the soft comfort of a woman’s touch, even the touch of a woman he considered more in the nature of a little sister than anything else.
“You won’t like it,” Eben predicted.
She made a face. “Try me. Believe it or not, I can be remarkably open-minded sometimes.”
“Good. It might be a good idea for you to keep that in mind,” Eben said with a wary expression.
“What are you up to?”
“I’m trying to steal Will away from Cannon Beach to come work for Spencer Hotels.”
She dropped her arm and glared with shock at both of them. “You can’t leave! We need you here.”
“Says the woman who’s going to be moving to San Francisco herself in a few months,” Will murmured.
She tucked a loose strand of wavy blonde hair behind her ear, flushing a little at the reminder. “Not full-time. We’ll be here every summer so I can still run the nature center camps. And we’re planning to spend as much time up here as we can—weekends and school holidays.”
“But you’ll still be in the Bay Area most of the time, right?”
“Yes.” She made a face. “I’m selfish, I know. I just don’t want things to change.”
“Things change, Sage. Most of the time we have no choice but to change, too, whether we want to or not.”
She squeezed his arm again, her eyes suddenly moist. He saw memories of Robin and Cara swimming there and he didn’t want to ruin her night by bringing up the past.
“I’m not going anywhere right now,” he said. “Let’s just enjoy the evening while we can.”
Eben kissed his fiancée on the tip of her nose, an intimate gesture that for some reason made Will’s chest ache. “These steaks are just about ready and I think your bean burger is perfect, though I believe that statement is a blatant oxymoron.”
She laughed and headed off to tell the others dinner was ready.
“Give my offer some thought,” Eben said when Sage was out of earshot. “Like I said, you don’t have to answer right away. Maybe you could try it for six months or so to see how the traveling lifestyle fits you.”
“I’ll think about it,” he agreed, which was an understatement of major proportions.
* * *
THEY ATE ON the brick patio, protected from the wind blowing off the sea by the long wall of Sitka spruce on the seaward edge of the yard.
While he and Eben had been grilling, the women had set out candles of varying heights around the patio and turned on the little twinkling fairy lights he had hung in the trees for Abigail a few summers earlier.
It seemed an odd collection of people but somehow the mix worked. Sage, with her highly developed social conscience. Anna with her quiet ambition and hard work ethic. Eben, dynamic businessman, and Julia, warm and nurturing, making sure plates were full, that the potato salad was seasoned just so, that drinks were replenished.
A group of very different people brought together because of Abigail, really.
Conversation flowed around him like an incoming tide finding small hidden channels in the sand and he was mostly content to sit at the table and listen to it.
“You’re not eating your steak.”
He looked up to find Julia watching him, her green eyes concerned. Though she sat beside him, he hadn’t been ignoring her for the last hour but he hadn’t exactly made any effort to seek her out, still disconcerted by that moment in the hallway when he had wanted to kiss her more than he wanted oxygen.
“Sorry,” he mumbled and immediately applied himself to the delicious cut in front of him.
“You don’t have to eat it just because I said something.” She pitched her voice low so others didn’t overhear. “I was just wondering if everything is okay. You seem distracted.”
He was distracted by her. By the cherry blossom scent of her, and her softness so close to him and the inappropriate thoughts he couldn’t seem to shake.
“You don’t know me anymore, Julia. For all you know, maybe I’m always this way.”
As soon as the sharp words left his mouth, a cold wind suddenly forced its way past the line of trees to flutter the edges of the tablecloth and send the lights shivering in the treetops.
He didn’t miss the hurt that leapt into her eyes or the way her mouth tightened.
He was immediately contrite. “I’m sorry. I’m not really fit company tonight.”
“No, you’re not. But it happens to all of us.” She turned away to talk to Eben, on her other side, and the prime-cut steak suddenly had all the appeal of overdried beef jerky.
He would have to do a better job of apologizing for his sharp words, he realized. She didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of his temper.
His chance didn’t come until sometime later when everyone seemed to have finished dinner. Julia stood and started clearing dishes and Will immediately rose to help her, earning a surprised look and even a tentative smile from her.
“Where are we taking all this stuff?” he asked when he had an armload of dishes.
“My apartment. My dishwasher is the newest and the biggest. Most of the dishes came out of my kitchen anyway and I can make sure those that belong to Sage or Anna are returned to their rightful homes.”
He followed her up the stairs, then headed down for another load. When he returned, she was rinsing and loading dishes in the dishwasher and he immediately started helping.
She flashed him one quick, questioning look, then smiled and made room for him at the sink.
The sheer domesticity of it stirred that same weird ache in his throat and he could feel himself wanting to shut down, to flee to the safety and empty solitude of his house down the beach.
But he had come this far. He could tough it out a little longer.
“I owe you an apology for my sharpness,” he said after a moment. “A better one than the sorry excuse I gave you outside.”
Her gaze collided with his for just a moment before she returned her attention to the sink. “You don’t owe me anything, Will. I overstepped and I’m sorry. I’ve been overstepping since I came back to Cannon Beach.”
She sighed and turned around, her hip leaning against the sink. “You were absolutely right, we don’t have any kind of...anything. We were friends a long time ago, when we were both vastly different people. That was in the past. Somehow I keep forgetting that today we’re simply two people who happen to live a few houses apart and have the same circle of friends.”
“That’s not quite true.”
She frowned. “Which part isn’t true?”
“That we were friends so long ago.”
Hurt flickered in her eyes but she quickly concealed it and turned back to the sink. “My mistake, then. I guess you’re right. We didn’t know each other well. Just a few weeks every summer.”
He should just stop now before he made things worse. What was the point in dragging all this up again?
“That’s not what I meant. I only meant that the way we left things was definitely more than just friends.”
She stared at him, sudden awareness blossoming in the green of her eyes.
“It took me a long time to get over you,” he said, and the admission looked as if it surprised her as much as it did him. “When you didn’t answer my letters, I figured everything I thought we had was all in my head. But it still hurt.”
“Oh, Will.” She dried her hands on a dish towel. “I would have written you but...things were so messed up. I was messed up. The day we returned home from our last summer in Cannon Beach, my parents told us they were divorcing. This was only two weeks before school started. My dad ended up with Charlie and the house in L
os Angeles, and my mom took me to Sacramento with her. I had to start a new school my junior year, which was terrible. I didn’t even get your letters until almost the end of the school year when my dad finally bothered to forward them from L.A.”
She touched his arm, much the way Sage had earlier, but Sage’s touch hadn’t given him instant goosebumps or make him want to yank her into his arms.
“I should have written to explain to you what was going on,” she went on. “I’m sorry I didn’t, but I never forgot you, Will. This probably sounds really stupid, but the time I spent with you that summer was the best thing that happened to me in a long time, either before it or after, and I didn’t want to spoil the memory of it.”
She smiled, her hand still on his arm. He was dying here and he doubted she even realized what effect she was having on him. “You have no idea how long it took me to stop comparing every other boy to you.”
“What can I say? I’m a hell of a kisser.”
He meant the words as a flippant joke and she gave him a startled laugh, then followed up with a sidelong glance. “I do believe I remember that about you,” she murmured.
The intimacy of the room seemed to wrap around them. For one wild moment, he felt sixteen again, lost in the throes of first love, entranced by Julia Hudson.
He could kiss her.
The impulse to taste her, touch her, poured through him and he was powerless to fight it. He took a step forward, expecting her to back away. Instead, her gaze locked with his and he saw in her eyes an awareness—even a longing—to match his own.
Still he hesitated, the only sound in the kitchen their mingled breathing. He might have stayed in an eternity of indecision if she hadn’t leaned toward him slightly, just enough to tumble the last of his defenses.
In an instant, his mouth found hers and captured her quick gasp of surprise.
So long. So damn long.
He had forgotten how soft a woman’s mouth could be, how instantly addictive it could be to taste desire.
Part of him wanted to yank back and retreat to his frozen lake where he was safe. But he was helpless to fight the tide of yearning crashing over him, the heat and sensation and pure, delicious pleasure of her softness against him.
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