The Home They Built

by Shannon Stacey

  She squealed, laughing against his chest, as her clothes absorbed some of the water that saturated his. When she braced her hands against his shoulders, he assumed she intended to push him away, so he dropped his arms. He was playing, not holding her captive.

  But she didn’t push him away. She ran her hands over his shoulders and tilted her head back so he could see her face. And what he saw there was an invitation to kiss her.

  Finally.

  Kissing Anna was everything he’d hoped it would be and more. Her lips were soft against his, and he cupped the back of her neck with one hand. He wanted to run his hands through her hair and feel the long strands tangled in his fingers, but she had her hair up in a ponytail and now wasn’t the time to free it.

  Instead he explored her mouth, dipping his tongue between her lips. Her fingers gripped his upper arms before sliding back to his shoulders. The tiny moan that escaped her and the way her teeth caught his bottom lip drove him wild inside and he wished they were anywhere but where they were.

  Finn reluctantly pulled away when approaching footsteps broke through the haze of desire clouding his brain. Anna took a step back, running her thumb over her bottom lip just as Eryn appeared in the doorway.

  Her assistant stopped short and her gaze bounced between them before doing a long sweep of Anna’s body that made Finn wince. Anna’s clothes were definitely not dry anymore. The front of her clothes, anyway—the side of her that had been pressed up against him.

  “I was, uh...helping Finn put the cap on the pipe,” Anna said, as if there could be some other explanation for her current state.

  “You mean the cap that’s on the floor in the corner?”

  Anna’s cheeks turned a darker shade of pink. “I was going to get it, but I tripped and Finn caught me. You know how clumsy I can be.”

  “Oh, absolutely,” Eryn said, and if Finn was her boss, he’d give her a significant raise based on her ability to keep a straight face alone. “At least it happened at the end of the day and not the beginning.”

  “Yes,” Anna said. “We can head out so I can just change when we get back to the campground. Joel’s bringing dry clothes for Finn, and on our way out, I’ll tell Frankie to come cap that pipe off.”

  “If you see my grandmother on your way out, tell her I said thanks so much for the cold shower.”

  “I guess we’ll see you tomorrow,” Anna said since there was nothing left to say in front of Eryn, but she looked over her shoulder at him on their way out, and gave him a look that meant there was probably going to be another, more deliberate, cold shower in his future. But with the memory of her mouth against his still fresh in his memory, it was a price he was willing to pay.

  Three hours later, he was pretending to look at his laptop while actually planning how he might get Anna alone for some more kissing tomorrow. He was trying not to grin, since his dad had caught him smiling at his screen earlier and he’d had to mutter something about a client’s portfolio. It was hard not to smile when he thought about kissing her, though.

  Then he got a text message from Anna that sent him on a roller-coaster ride from the high of seeing her name in the notification and then plunging to the low of reading what she wrote.

  No more kissing. I shouldn’t have done that. I have to be professional, so no matter how much I liked kissing you, no more kissing.

  At least she’d confessed to liking kissing him. Part of him wanted to send a flirtatious response, such as asking her if that only applied to kissing her on the mouth? Or reminding her there were a lot of ways to touch that didn’t involve kissing.

  But if she needed to be professional, he had to respect that, so he limited himself to agreeing.

  Okay, no more kissing. Let me know if you change your mind.

  Chapter Eight

  “Hey, Anna, the electrician wants to know if you can meet him for a few minutes this evening. He said there’s an ice cream stand with tables next to the town park, about seven o’clock?”

  She looked over at Eryn, frowning. “Did he say why?”

  “Nope.” Her assistant held up her phone to show her the text. Hers was always the number given to the property owners and contractors they hired, since she had a separate, personal cell phone. Anna only had the one and didn’t like giving out the number. Then Eryn moved closer to Anna so she could keep her voice low. “Maybe there’s a problem and he doesn’t want to talk to you about it with the family around.”

  Apprehension made Anna’s skin prickle. What if the electrician was having some kind of crisis of conscience and wanted to confess that the whole Bayview Inn thing was a fraud? “Tell him I’ll be there.”

  She knew it was going to cause her some anxiety for the rest of the day, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. If Brady did try to tell her Tess was lying about the house’s history, she might be able to shrug it off. She could tell him that some properties were more historical than others, but that the house and location were too beautiful to pass up. And she had learned from Joel that his great-great-great-grandfather had built the house. It was a historical family home. It just wasn’t an inn and never had been. If Brady wanted to reveal something about Tess being a fraud, she’d just have to get him on board as far as continuing to go along with the story.

  Shortly after their lunch break, Anna filmed some segments in the guest rooms upstairs with Mike while Eryn and Cody were with the family downstairs. Basically just her walking through the rooms and giving a recap of what they’d done and what they were hoping to accomplish. She kept it short and simple, since she already knew they wouldn’t need filler for the Bayview Inn episodes.

  Once they were done, she lingered in the room. It looked out over the back of the property, and she had to admit that given her age, Tess kept some incredible gardens. A lot of the beds were perennials and wildflowers, but they were beautiful riots of color and free of weeds. Considering how early it was in the season, a lot of thought had obviously gone into the planning.

  She heard footsteps enter the room and turned, expecting Mike or Eryn. But it was Finn, and he stopped short when he saw her. “I didn’t know you were in here. Hope I’m not interrupting.”

  It was three days since he’d kissed her. Or she’d kissed him. The only thing she knew for sure was that she had enjoyed that kiss thoroughly, and it was probably for the best that they hadn’t been alone since.

  No more kissing. Possibly the rashest words she’d ever sent in a text message, and she wished she could take them back. It wouldn’t be smart on her part, but depriving herself of this man’s kisses—and possibly more—for the duration of her stay in town didn’t feel like a smart decision, either.

  “Just going over my to-do list in my head,” she said, since telling him she was spending her alone time worrying about an off-site meeting with the electrician would only lead to questions she didn’t have the answers to. And probably wouldn’t want to give him if she did.

  “We’re looking for my dad’s phone.”

  She smiled. “I guess you’ve already tried calling it?”

  “Yeah, but he silences it so it doesn’t go off while the cameras are on, and it’s not vibrating enough to be found. Its last known location is in this house, but that’s not super helpful.”

  “I don’t think I’ve seen it,” she said. “But I know Mike and Cody had a pile of tech stuff on the kitchen counter. It might have gotten tossed in with that accidentally.”

  “Thanks.” He started to leave but turned back to face her. “Are you okay? You seem a little... I don’t know. Sad? Upset?”

  “I’m fine. It’s been a long day, I guess.”

  “You’re sure?” he asked, the warmth in his eyes making her feel all sorts of things she didn’t want to be feeling.

  Please just go.

  Please come over here and kiss me again.

  “I’m sure.”
>
  “Okay. Let me know if you need anything, though.” And then he was gone, leaving her staring at the empty doorway and thinking she could really use a hug. Among other things, of course, but right now the thought of his strong arms wrapped around her and holding her close almost brought tears to her eyes.

  After shaking off the melancholy, she got back to work. They were going to tackle the kitchen very soon and though the room didn’t allow for a lot of flexibility in design, she wanted to have plenty of notes to go over with Tess. They’d have a one-on-one meeting—or one-on-four, actually, since the rest of the family wasn’t going to let Tess make design choices unattended, thanks to the salmon pink—within the next couple of days, and it would be tight filming since they’d have both cameras in the kitchen with them.

  She took measurements and made sketches until it was time to call it quits, and then she ate a light dinner with Eryn and the crew. The big RV had an outdoor kitchen and they grilled some chicken breasts while Mike made what he called a garden salad but was really a pile of tomatoes, shredded cheese and croutons, with just enough cucumber and lettuce to make it respectable.

  When the alert went off on her watch, she went to her RV to freshen up and grab the car keys. Even though she hadn’t eaten much, her stomach was tied up in such a knot of nerves that it almost ached. After brushing her teeth and redoing her ponytail, she grabbed her bag and stepped back outside.

  Eryn was waiting for her. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

  “I’m sure.” She couldn’t take the chance the electrician wanted to expose the scam Tess was running, and this was about the time of day Eryn usually called her wife. “I’ll probably only be a few minutes, and you know you want to FaceTime Kelly before the baby goes down for the night.”

  “It just seems a little off,” Eryn said, her eyebrows drawn together in an impressive scowl. If she only knew just how off everything really was.

  “We’ve already met the electrician. And we’re meeting in a very public place. Go make your call and I’ll probably be back before you’re done.”

  Her confidence faded as soon as she was in the car, and her hands trembled as she gripped the steering wheel. She couldn’t take Eryn with her. Or any of the guys, for that matter. She couldn’t take that chance without knowing what was on Brady’s mind. But it was odd that he hadn’t just stopped by the house to talk to her.

  When she reached the ice cream shop, she didn’t see him anywhere, so she bought a soda and a small dish of twist with jimmies and sat at one of the small wrought iron patio sets between the shop and the park. She wasn’t sure she even wanted the ice cream, but this was where she’d agreed to meet and it would have felt strange to sit at one of their tables without buying one.

  She’d eaten about half of it and abandoned the spoon in the rapidly melting ice cream when he finally approached the table. “Anna? Brady Nash. We met briefly at Tess’s the other day, but it was pretty busy and I wasn’t sure you’d remember.”

  “I remember, and it’s good to see you again,” she said, deliberately keeping her tone light so he wouldn’t see her underlying tension. “Please, join me.”

  After pulling out the chair across from her, he sat and folded his hands on the wrought iron tabletop. “You scored a table in the shade. Well done.”

  “Do you want an ice cream?” She gestured at hers with her spoon. “It’s good. I would have gotten two, but I wasn’t sure what flavor to get.”

  He smiled, and something in his eyes set off alarm bells, though she couldn’t say why. There was something vaguely familiar about his face, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “I’m all set, thanks. When I leave, I’m going to grab some to take home to Reyna—my wife.”

  “Reyna.” Anna tilted her head. “She and her mom own the combination car repair shop and bakery?”

  “That’s her.” He practically glowed when he said it, and Anna felt a pang of jealousy. She wouldn’t mind having a man look that proud when he talked about her. “She’s probably already getting text messages from people speculating about why her husband is having ice cream with the pretty out-of-towner from the TV show.”

  “Gossipy town, huh?” Luckily, the inn was a big enough project to exhaust her crew, so they were mostly traveling between the campground and the house, without spending a lot of time in town.

  “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “So what can I do for you, Brady?” It was time to cut to the chase. “My assistant told me you didn’t really say.”

  He was silent for so long she had time to register the ticking sound wasn’t in her head and that there was a real, old-fashioned pedestal clock with a second hand standing a few feet away.

  “I’m pretty sure you’re my sister,” he finally said in a voice that was very low and suddenly sounded very rough.

  Tick. Tick. Tick.

  After finally remembering to swallow and finding it difficult, Anna took a sip of her soda to wet her dry mouth. Her mind was reeling, but she had to say something. Anything. “So the people speculating that this meeting might be gossip worth reporting to your wife either don’t know I’m your sister, or they have seriously twisted imaginations.”

  “Mom, my brother, Chris, and our wives are the only people who even know I have a sister.” Mom. She must have made a face because he winced. “Christy. My moth...our mother, I guess. If I’m right.”

  “You’re right,” she whispered.

  Christy. Christine Elizabeth Smith... Nash. Anna hadn’t known she went by Christy. When her dad had broken the news of her biological mother to her, that was exactly how he’d referred to her. Your mother. He hadn’t even called her by her name, never mind a nickname. She’d found that out when she was finally given the birth certificate she’d never seen before.

  “I’ve only known since a few days before Christmas,” he continued, keeping his voice low, though the rough edges had smoothed out. “She had some dental surgery and the drugs made her loopy. She told me enough to make me ask more questions when the drugs wore off.”

  “What did she tell you?”

  “Honestly, not much. Your name and that you were on TV, but when we asked her more questions, she dug in her heels. She said she was ashamed and didn’t want to talk about it. And that she checked on you once, but your father told her you were happy and healthy and loved the woman he’d married as if she was your own mom. She didn’t want us turning your life upside down.”

  Heat flooded Anna’s face and her fingers curled until her nails were pressing into her palms. “She was ashamed.”

  Brady started to reach across the table, as though to comfort her, but froze just shy of touching her arm. After a few seconds, he pulled his hand back. “Not of you. She was ashamed of herself, because she left you.”

  Then why didn’t she come back? Anna didn’t voice the question because she wasn’t sure she could just ask it. She was afraid if she finally asked the question that had haunted her since she was sixteen, it would be at full wail and within minutes, everybody in town would be talking about her.

  But Brady—holy crap, her brother—must have run out of bombs to drop because he was just watching her, waiting for her to say something. After mentally shoving back The Big Question, she realized she did have others.

  “Is she married? Who’s your dad?” She stopped for a second, blinking. “Are there more brothers or sisters?”

  “It’s just Chris and I, although I guess I could have other siblings out there, but I wouldn’t have any way to know since my father never looked back after he left us.”

  He said it matter-of-factly enough, so maybe it was her own issues when it came to an absent parent that had her looking for the tightness around his mouth and tension in his shoulders.

  “So I got the dad and no mom, and you got the mom but no dad,” she said softly, even though it wasn’t really tru
e. She’d had a mother. Just not the mother she’d been born to.

  “Chris and I are both married. His wife teaches school and they have two boys—CJ and Benny. And my wife, Reyna, and I have a little guy named Parker who’s almost eleven months old.”

  Anna’s head spun as she absorbed the information. There was this entire family she belonged to, yet didn’t even know. “I have two half sisters, from my dad. And I was married once. I’m divorced now.”

  “When I heard you were in town, I did a Google search. I’m sorry your divorce went down like that.”

  Anna’s face flamed, as it always did when she thought about her ex-husband. Finding out about his infidelity when her phone blew up with texts from friends with a link to the tabloid photos had been so traumatizing that she still wanted to curl up in a ball when reminded of those dark days. But a more relevant thought pushed its way through the lingering humiliation. “How did you know who I am?”

  “You look like her,” he said bluntly. “From when I was a kid.”

  “People keep asking me if they’ve met me before, so I figured there had to be a resemblance.”

  “A very strong resemblance. Remarkable, really. When I first saw you at Tess’s house, you were on the phone. The way you looked and sounded in that moment—even the way you were standing—was like the strongest déjà vu I’ve ever experienced. Add in the fact I knew you had a TV show and she told us your first name.” He shrugged. “I just knew, I guess.”

  “Who else knows?” she asked in barely more than a whisper because it was so hard to force the words out. “That I’m here, I mean.”

  “Right now, as far as I know, I’m the only person who knows. I was going to tell Mom because there’s this part of her heart that’s broken by what she did, but...” He paused for a few seconds, shaking his head. “But as much as I’d hate keeping this big a secret from her, it’s really your choice if you want to meet her or not.”

  Meet her. Anna’s hands trembled and she clasped them in her lap. “She still lives here? Or close by?”