The Home They Built

by Shannon Stacey

  Her assistant narrowed her eyes. “This is about the Bayview Inn, isn’t it?”

  “I’m not saying anything else until you decide if you want on this ride. If you’re not comfortable with it, the conversation ends here with nothing else said. And yeah, you’ll wonder what it is and you might even figure it out, but you won’t be complicit.”

  “Fun word, complicit.” After a few more seconds of silent deliberation, Eryn stuck out her pinky. “I’m in.”

  Anna smiled as they locked pinkies. “You didn’t even ask if it involves dead bodies.”

  “When I asked what the stakes were, you didn’t mention prison.”

  “Good point.” After taking a deep breath, Anna started talking. She started at the beginning—the very beginning—and wasn’t surprised Eryn gasped when she got to the part about her and the electrician sharing a mother.

  “I can’t believe Brady Nash is your brother. That’s wild.”

  When Anna finally finished talking, Eryn took a moment to digest it all. “Okay, my first question is why you decided to tell me, and why now.”

  “Because I’m supposed to tell Finn tomorrow if I still want to have sex with him when I’m sober and I do, and there’s no way I can keep all these secrets from you. You’re going to notice if I’m not here and where am I supposed to tell you I am?”

  “But why tell me about the inn? You could tell me you’ll be sneaking off with Finn without telling me all the rest.”

  Anna took a sip of her water and then sighed. “I’m up to my eyeballs in secrets and it’s exhausting. It’s stressful. And it’s hard not having anybody else to talk to about it. I trust you.”

  “You know I have your back. Always.”

  She did know that, and tears shimmered in her eyes until she blinked a few times. “I don’t want you involved at all. I just don’t want you to be blindsided if Duncan finds out about what I’m doing here.”

  Eryn snorted. “I knew it was something, right from the beginning, but I couldn’t figure it out. Now that I know, I’ll keep an eye out for anything that could trip you up.”

  “Thank you.” The sense of relief she felt just from talking about it with Eryn made her body feel limp. “Tess built quite the house of cards and I don’t want anybody else buried in the rubble if it all comes crashing down.”

  “There’s no reason for that to happen at this point. It probably would have fallen apart in the beginning if it was going to.” Eryn rapped her knuckles on the back of the dinette bench, and Anna chose not to point out it wasn’t real wood. She’d settle for any good luck she could get. “Let’s go back to the sex. Finn lives with his parents. Where are you planning to have sex with him? Are you going to rent a hotel room for the night?”

  She sighed. “Finn made it clear there’s no way he and I could rent a room in this town without everybody knowing. And I really want you to be the only person who knows.”

  “I could go home for the weekend. You’d have the RV to yourself.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but remember the other night when you sneezed and some woman walking by said ‘bless you’ and you said ‘thank you’ and it was so weird? I don’t want to have sex with Finn in the RV.” She thought about it and then shrugged. “Not the first time, anyway.”

  Eryn laughed. “Good call.”

  “I expected you to ask me more questions about the Bayview Inn,” Anna said, picking at the label on her water bottle with her thumbnail.

  “That never added up to me and there have been questions in the back of my mind since you overturned our decision to put the inn in the rejection pile. I had questions before. Now I have answers.” Eryn shrugged.

  “I’m sorry I put the show at risk, which could affect all of you.” Her stomach ached thinking about the possibility of cancellation. “I got wrapped up in the idea that it could be a sign I should find out more about my birth mother. I should have slowed down and thought it through.”

  “Look at it this way,” Eryn replied, holding out her hands. “It’s too late to back out now. And I wouldn’t even want us to, because Tess is awesome and she deserves our help. But most important, when it comes to the network, this might be the best project we’ve ever filmed. The Weavers are something else.”

  Anna laughed, feeling lighter than she had in a while. “That they are.”

  “And you keep changing the subject back to work.” Eryn grinned. “I think the important thing here is that you figure out where you can be alone with Finn.”

  “I definitely need to give that some thought.”

  She was still thinking about it when they showed up at Tess’s house on Monday morning. And she still didn’t have an answer. But he had told her he’d figure something out and he knew Blackberry Bay a lot better than she did, so she’d leave the logistics to him. Assuming he was still interested.

  She’d only been on-site for an hour when she got a text message from Finn. Meet me by the storage pods in 5 minutes.

  Anna sent back a thumbs-up emoji, but she was only giving that thumbs-up to meeting him there. She was not having sex in a storage pod.

  But when she excused herself from a surprisingly heated argument about crown molding, she found him leaned up against one of the pods—one that was out of earshot of the house, but she could see windows and that meant people inside could see her—with his arms folded across his chest.

  “It’s Monday,” he said.

  “It hasn’t been Monday for very long,” she pointed out. “We didn’t set a time.”

  “I couldn’t wait anymore,” he confessed, and then he gave her a sheepish smile. “Yesterday was a very long day.”

  “Yeah, so I said some things on Saturday night.” She turned her phone over and over in her hands, trying to figure out what to say next.

  “Is this where you tell me you were drunk and you didn’t mean the things you said?”

  That would be the easy—the smart—way out of this, especially since neither his expression nor tone gave any hint of which way he was leaning. She only had his impatience to have this conversation to pin her hopes on. “No. I wasn’t as drunk as you think I was and I did mean what I said.”

  He took a step closer to her, his mouth curving into a smile that—with the help of the heat flaring in his eyes—was somehow a lot naughtier than usual.

  Right answer, Anna.

  “I know I told you not to forget to kiss me on Monday,” she said, jerking her head toward the house. “But maybe not here.”

  He stopped, but his look told her he hadn’t forgotten and that at some point, he was going to catch her alone in a more secluded place. “Okay. I’m going to figure out where we can go on our date, and I’ll let you know.”

  Our date. The way he said it made her smile. “I’ll be waiting.”

  He started walking toward the house, but turned back to wink at her. “You won’t be waiting long.”

  * * *

  It seemed absolutely ridiculous to Finn that a man of his age and means could not come up with a discreet place to make love to a woman.

  It was six o’clock on Monday evening and he was no closer to a solution now than he’d been when he started. And he’d thought about almost nothing else since Saturday night, which made it worse.

  The RV was out. Even if Anna got rid of Eryn for a few hours, those things were as soundproof as a window screen. They couldn’t go parking because he had his bike and he wasn’t even sure he’d fit in her car, never mind get naked in it. Renting a hotel room was out unless they wanted everybody in town to know what they’d been up to by morning.

  A tent out in the woods had even crossed his mind. A nice one, with an air mattress and a wicker picnic basket full of wine, crackers and cheese. Lanterns with soft bulbs in them, since candles and tents weren’t a great combination. But somehow Anna didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who’d
happily pee in the woods, so that was out.

  He’d take her home to his apartment in Portsmouth—which he felt a really strong desire to do—but she would only end up asking a lot of questions about his life he wasn’t sure he could answer. He wanted to focus on her, not on watching every word that came out of his mouth.

  Finn had even sent a text message to Brady, asking him if Reyna had rented out the apartment she’d lived in before she moved in with him. She had, of course, just three days before. Renting an apartment just to spend the night with a woman might seem desperate, but he was desperate. He was also hoping it would be more than one night.

  “Finn, talk some sense into your grandmother,” his mother commanded as she walked into the kitchen.

  “Can’t. I’m working.” He waved his hand over the laptop sitting open in front of him on the kitchen table. Luckily, there was a spreadsheet open to hide the fact he’d done a lot more thinking about the Anna situation than actual work.

  “You can work later,” Gram said, hot on his mother’s heels. “Somebody has to talk some sense into your mother.”

  “When can I work, Gram? In case you forgot, I spend my days pretending to be a handyman for your fake inn.”

  “You can take a break. I read somewhere that sitting in front of a computer for an entire workweek takes five years off your life.”

  “That means I died at least thirty years ago, so leave me out of this argument, please.”

  “Tell your grandmother she doesn’t need crown molding.”

  Finn sighed and saved the spreadsheet so he could close the laptop. “Gram, you don’t need crown molding.”

  “Why does your mother hate pretty things, Finn?”

  His mom picked up the dish towel and for a moment he was afraid she was going to flick Gram with the end of it. But she just twisted it in her hands. “The expense, Tess. The more Anna spends on that house, the deeper in trouble you are if she finds out you lied to her.”

  “That’s a valid point,” Finn said, even though at this point in their deception, what was a little crown molding going to hurt?

  “Anna takes a lot of pride in her work, and she wants her finished homes to look pretty on the show. She’s already invested so much that to have her leave something unfinished doesn’t seem right.”

  “If Anna thinks the house needs crown molding, then it needs crown molding,” Finn said, pushing back his chair to stand. “If you want to compromise, maybe only the downstairs rooms. I don’t know. And I don’t care. I’m taking my work up to my room even though my back will hurt tomorrow because ergonomics matter. Good night.”

  They both muttered a good-night as he picked up the laptop and his notebook and left the kitchen. He usually had a lot more patience when it came to navigating his mother and grandmother’s relationship—and certainly more than his dad did—but he wasn’t in the mood for it tonight.

  The bickering about the amount of money they were getting from Relic Rehab made his stomach hurt. He’d spent two days trying to come up with a romantic place to make love to Anna, and they were talking about deceiving her. He understood budgets and advertising and merchandising and he knew they weren’t literally taking money out of her pocket. And she was getting the product she was paying for—a beautifully restored historical property.

  But it made him uneasy, so when he got to his room, he actually opened the laptop and made himself focus on work. Maybe later, when his room was dark and he couldn’t sleep because his body ached for Anna, the answer would come to him.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Where are we going?” Anna asked, even though she already knew he was going to tell her it was a surprise.

  “It’s a surprise.” When she opened her mouth to ask another question, he shook his head. “No, you can’t get a hint.”

  She laughed and looked out her window, catching glimpses of the lake through the passing trees. He’d borrowed his dad’s truck because there was a chance of rain and while they’d had their first kiss while soaked with cold water, neither of them wanted to see that become a tradition. She’d walked out to the entrance to the campground to meet him, carrying what looked like a beach bag but was doubling as her overnight bag.

  Not that she would be gone overnight. When he’d called her and told her he had a plan, but it involved a cancellation and it had to be tonight even though they had to work in the morning, she hadn’t even hesitated. She wanted to be with him, even if it was only for a few hours.

  Eventually they arrived in another town, though she’d missed the name, and he pulled into the parking lot of a plain-looking motel. “I’ll be right back.”

  By the time he came back with a key and parked in the assigned parking space, she couldn’t hold back the laughter anymore.

  “Now I know why you wouldn’t tell me where we were going,” she explained.

  “Okay, I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s better than a blanket out in the woods. The mosquitoes are rough this time of year.”

  “I’m just trying to imagine what the desk attendant thinks of me after you said you only need the room for a few hours.”

  “Confession time. I worked here for a while when I was in high school and I’ve always kept in touch with the owner. This is a favor for me and I might not have mentioned you. I might have mentioned renovation and Gram and just needing a few hours to get a report finished.”

  She grabbed her bag and they went up the exterior stairs. She managed to be quiet until he’d closed the door behind them, but then she was laughing again. “A report?”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have told you that.”

  Anna grabbed the front of his T-shirt and yanked him toward her. “Actually, I find the lengths you’re willing to go to in order to be alone with me very sexy.”

  “Do you?” He grinned. “I tried to rent an apartment that Reyna owns, but I was a few days too late.”

  “You didn’t.” When he nodded, she laughed again. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so desired in all my life.”

  “I don’t think it’s possible for a woman to be desired more than I desire you, Anna. Not without some kind of spontaneous combustion happening.” He looked around the room and then back at her. “This isn’t a room service kind of place, but I think there’s a vending machine if you want anything.”

  Finn was nervous, she thought. He was worried about making sure everything was okay, when all she wanted was him. She slid her hand over his shoulder and then buried her fingers in his hair. “I’m not here for the snacks.”

  He kissed her then as if she was the snack he’d been craving—devouring her with his mouth until she was panting with need for him. Her body arched against his, yearning for more.

  Finally, Finn pulled away just enough to lift her shirt up and over her head and then slid his hands up to cup her breasts. “I’ve imagined touching you like this every night since I met you.”

  “And I’ve imagined being touched by you like this every night.”

  “It makes it hard to sleep, to be honest.”

  She laughed. “Worth it, though.”

  When he pushed down her bra and ran his thumbs over her nipples, she stopped laughing and sucked in a breath. She definitely liked the reality of being touched by him.

  She liked it even more when he bent his mouth first to one breast, then the other. Sliding her fingers into his hair, she held him there, wanting more, before deciding to be more proactive.

  She managed to get her bra off and her jeans unfastened, but he grabbed her wrist with one hand to stop her from shoving them down. The other hand, he slid over her stomach and under the waistband of her underwear.

  He stroked her while she kissed him, until she whimpered and backed away. She appreciated that he wanted to take his time, but she’d been waiting too long for this. “I want you to be naked now.”

  “We do t
hink alike,” he said, grinning. “Because some time in the very near future, I want to take my time getting you out of your clothes. Right now, I just want you to be naked, too.”

  It was less than a minute before their clothes were in a heap on the floor and, after tossing a wrapped condom on the bedside table, he covered her body with his so he could kiss her some more.

  As he kissed her—so deeply and thoroughly she felt it in her soul—they explored each other’s bodies with their hands. Touching. Gliding. Grasping. His skin was hot under her fingertips, and she lost herself in the sensations of his hands on her breasts and her stomach and between her thighs until she couldn’t take it anymore.

  “I want you now,” she whispered.

  He made a sound against her taut nipple that sounded like agreement, but when he only sucked harder, she gasped. Then she reached out and snagged the wrapped condom.

  He chuckled when she slapped it against his chest, but after a short, hard kiss, he took the hint and rolled the condom on. As he settled himself between her thighs, he smiled down at her.

  “Have I told you how incredibly beautiful you are?” He ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “Especially your smile. And not your pretty television smile for the cameras. When something makes you happy or you’re trying not to laugh, your smile’s a little crooked and your eyes crinkle and it lights up your whole face.”

  “Do not make me cry during sex, Finn Weaver,” she warned, her voice thick with emotion.

  “How about making you cry out? Like my name. Can I do that?”

  She grinned and scraped her fingernails down his biceps. “You can try.”

  With a devilish grin that promised his best effort, Finn reached between their bodies and guided himself into her. Her fingertips bit into his back as he slowly pushed and then pulled back until he filled her completely.

  She trailed her fingernails over his back, and they bit into his skin as he started thrusting deeply. His gaze locked with hers and she could see what he was feeling in his eyes. Not only heat and pleasure, but happiness. And she felt the same as she buried her fingers in his hair and dragged him down for a hot, messy kiss.