The House on Sunshine Corner

by Phoebe Mills

  Savannah made a frustrated sound in her throat. “And a lot of the times, the ones who are doing it are fellow women! Completely uncool.”

  “Yep,” Jenn said. “That’s why those forums can be toxic cesspools. They have opinions on everything from the brand of laundry detergent you should use to when you should start solid foods for the first time. If you have a question, come to us. Hilde and I can answer your pregnancy questions, and all of us can help with the new baby questions.”

  Abby wrapped an arm around her friend. “We’re all here for you. I’m not a mom yet, but I play one in my day job. I’ll help however I can.”

  Gia’s shoulders slumped as she leaned into Abby’s side. “I just don’t want to screw up.”

  Hilde walked over and took one of Gia’s hands between both of hers. “As long as your baby is happy and healthy, everything else is just the details. You remember that.”

  “But the details are my favorite part.”

  They all shared a laugh just as a baby wailed from the quiet room reserved for nap time.

  Jenn stood, shooting Gia a look. “Your new favorite part is going to be sleep.”

  Abby squeezed Gia into her side. “You’ll be fine. And Marco will help, right?”

  “Definitely. He’s so calm and collected. He’s been my rock this whole time.”

  Abby tamped down the envy that bubbled in her gut as Gia continued on about Marco’s late-night runs to the grocery store to contend with her every craving and how he massaged her feet every night, even when she told him they weren’t sore. This unwanted jealousy had no place in Abby’s life and certainly not in her friendships—she only wanted the best for Gia. But she couldn’t deny how much she ached for the very thing her friend was facing.

  Gia had had a five-year plan, but so had Abby. The problem was, she was four years into that five-year plan of starting a family of her own, and she was no closer to managing Step 1—finding a boyfriend—than she’d been when she’d gone out with the guy who knew about his mom’s reoccurring UTIs…or the twelve duds before him. And now that all her spare time was spent on the renovation to ensure the preschool would be ready by the fall, she wasn’t sure when that would actually happen.

  Especially when the person she was spending all that time with was the one person who was completely off-limits.

  * * *

  Shuffling the plans in his hands, Carter opened the front door to Alvarez Architecture. He’d called earlier in the day to see if he could borrow their scanner again, and Marco had told him to just go straight back if Dotty wasn’t out front. A quick glance around showed he was alone, so he stepped through the archway and headed toward the offices.

  As soon as he stepped foot in his friend’s office, he froze. Books were spread across every available surface, and not books on renovations or architecture or anything of the like. Nope, it looked like the parenting section of the library had thrown up in there. It was a far cry from the neat and tidy space Carter had seen the last time he’d stopped by.

  “Holy shit,” Carter said, his eyes darting to the half-dozen open books strewn across the room. “What the hell happened in here?”

  Marco collapsed back in his chair, his hands fisted in his hair. “I don’t know what I’m doing, and Gia’s freaking out. She’s normally the levelheaded one between us. She always has all the lists and knows exactly what needs to happen and when it needs to happen, but she is freaking out.”

  “Okay…,” Carter said, a little warily.

  “No, not okay! If she’s freaking out, that means I need to calm her. I need to be the one who knows all this stuff, so when she turns to me, laughing one minute and then tears in her eyes the next, asking about some random baby crap, I can tell her, ‘Don’t worry, babe. I’ve got this handled.’”

  “That seems…reasonable?” Carter could hear the question in his voice, even though he’d intended it to come out as a statement.

  “You’d think! Except apparently there’s a lot to learn about being a parent.” Marco gestured to the open books littered across his desk. “Obviously.”

  Carter sat in the chair across the desk from Marco and blew out a sigh. “I had no idea you were freaking out so bad. At the bonfire, you seemed excited.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I am. I mean, we’ve always wanted kids. We just didn’t think they’d come quite so soon. But nothing can stop my swimmers, I guess.” He flashed a grin. “I’ve got superhero sperm.”

  Carter grimaced. He could’ve gone his whole life without hearing his friend utter those two words.

  “But because it’s happening so soon, we don’t know what the hell we’re doing. Gia’s an only child. My brother’s only two years younger than me, so I never really helped with him. We’re both completely out of our element.”

  Carter couldn’t help him there. Becca was also only two years younger than him. And though he knew enough now that he could take care of Sofia, she was three but getting more and more self-sufficient. Things had to be completely different for a brand-new baby who was one hundred percent reliant on your every last move. Who wanted that kind of pressure and responsibility?

  “Doesn’t Gia work at the Sunshine Corner with Abby? Wouldn’t she have picked up some tips there?”

  Marco blew out a heavy sigh and propped his forearms on his desk. “Nope. She’s the art teacher. She works with the toddlers and that’s it, so she’s never spent time with the babies. She knows as much about them as I do. And I know jack shit.”

  Marco’s phone rang, the sound echoing down the hall from the reception area. Dotty must’ve been at lunch again. Instead of answering it like he’d done the last time Carter had stopped by, Marco pressed a button on his phone to send the call straight to voice mail.

  Carter’s brows lifted. “Don’t you need to get that?”

  “Nah, man. Haven’t you been listening? This first. Dotty can listen to the voice mails when she gets back, but if I don’t figure out what the experts say about banking the baby’s cord blood before I get home tonight, I’m going to have a crying pregnant woman on my hands. Again.”

  Carter had absolutely no idea what that meant, and he could only blink in astonishment at his friend. He barely recognized him. The Marco from today versus the Marco from when Carter had first arrived in town were like night and day. Marco had always been like him—career focused, determined, and unwilling to let anything stand in his way. He’d always put his work first. But seeing him now, so distracted and willing to put everything else aside to look up some stuff in baby books left Carter unsettled.

  “You know they have this thing called the internet now, right?” Carter said on a laugh. “I don’t think you need to read a library’s worth of nonfiction to get the answers that you want. I’m sure you can find everything you could possibly be wondering about with a simple Google search.”

  Marco shook his head. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But then you don’t get just facts. You get everybody’s opinions on whatever it is you’re searching for. You got Mommy A telling Mommy B why her way is horse shit, and then Daddy C comes strolling in and tells them they’re both wrong.”

  “And no one likes a mansplainer.”

  That didn’t even pull a smile from Marco, so Carter blew out a breath and leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. “Look, I’m no expert, but isn’t like ninety-nine percent of parenting just opinion? And don’t you guys have a while to figure all this out? I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  Except when the phone rang again and Marco silenced it once more, Carter wasn’t so sure that everything would be fine after all. He’d never seen his friend so panicked and distracted, and Carter had no idea how that would affect his business or his clients.

  What he did know was that he was just relieved and damn glad it wasn’t him in Marco’s shoes.

  Chapter Ten

  The first few times Carter had been by after hours to help Abby with the renovation, Hilde had answered the door, giving him the s
tink eye and the third degree. Letting him know in no uncertain terms that she had her eye on him. He wasn’t sure which she was more worried about—Abby’s heart or her virtue, the latter of which was laughable since he’d already divested her of that more than a decade ago.

  She had a good right to be concerned, though, considering how close he’d come to slipping up at the bonfire. Abby had been so loose and relaxed and beautiful, the memories of their past—not to mention that kiss—fresh in his mind.

  Hilde must have been busy tonight, though, because Abby answered the door in her place. She wore ripped, faded jeans and a battered T-shirt that had seen better days, a hole along the hem showcasing the creamy smooth skin of her stomach. Her long hair was on top of her head in a messy bun, held in place with a pencil, and it didn’t matter that she was a little bit unkempt. In fact, the sight of her in clothes that proved she was ready and willing to get dirty did nothing to tamp down the desire he felt toward her.

  He swallowed, attempting to impart some moisture into his too-dry mouth, but it was no use. His throat was still full of gravel as he said, “Hey.”

  She smiled at him, leaning against the opened door. “Hey, yourself. Come on in. Everything’s already set up.” She shut the door behind him, then led them into the house and up the stairs. “Thank God we don’t need to paint the cubbies yet. I think I’ll probably spend at least a week picking out the color.”

  “Sounds like the senior float all over again.”

  She’d been so determined for their group of friends to win the contest, she’d micromanaged every detail of their float—including the paint color. From anyone else, it would have been aggravating, but with Abby, it was just…her.

  With a laugh, she glanced at him over her shoulder. “Hey, there’s a reason we won, you know.”

  “I know, I know.”

  And the joy on her face when they’d announced it had made all the work worthwhile.

  “I’ll try to keep things under control,” she promised. “The last thing I need to do is spend a week buried under paint samples, but I just want everything to be perfect.”

  He hummed in acknowledgment. No matter what Abby did, she put her whole heart into it.

  All the more reason he needed to stay grounded in the present.

  Despite Marco’s suggestion to go wild and try for a quick fling with Abby while he was here, she wasn’t the kind of person who could stay casual about anything. And Carter wasn’t the kind of man who could be causal about her.

  They’d had an amazing time together in high school, but they were adults now. Adults who wanted completely different things from life. He couldn’t afford to lose sight of that, for both his sake and hers.

  Once upstairs, she walked to where she had a tarp laid down on top of the paper they’d covered the original hardwood floors with in order to protect them before refinishing. She turned to him, hands settled on her hips. “So, where do we start?”

  Christ, she was cute, all determined and focused, pride shining in her eyes as she stood in the space that would soon be the Sunshine Corner’s preschool. That was one thing that had always attracted him to her—her tenacity and grit. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her, all smiles and sunshine, but she was built of tough stuff.

  Grinning, he set down his tools, pulled out a tape measure, and held it up. “Measure twice, cut once. Once we know the measurements, we can head to the garage and start cutting.”

  “Ooh,” she said, a teasing flirtiness to her tone. “Talk to me more about your plans to be careful and precise.”

  He rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t stop the warmth inside his chest. Of course Ms. Bullet Journal Life Plan Girl would be on board with his approach.

  Pulling out the end of the tape measure and then letting it snap back, he lowered his voice to the same mock-sultry timbre. “I can do better than that. I can show you.”

  She pursed her lips and beckoned him forward. “Right this way.”

  As they kept up their banter, it struck him that he’d almost forgotten how much fun they used to have together. It didn’t matter if they were studying at her grandmother’s kitchen table or hanging out after a football game or—yes—even doing some sort of DIY build together. Abby’s presence made everything better.

  He followed her to the future location of the cubbies, sure to maintain a careful distance between them as he did. Right up until she stopped short a few feet from the wall and he almost walked into her. He reached out to steady himself, his hands landing on her lush hips, heat emanating from the sliver of skin above her waistband as a barrage of other memories slammed into him.

  He jerked his hands away, but it was too late. Their eyes met as electricity crackled between them. “Sorry,” he said, his voice too rough and low for what the situation called for.

  She rolled her lips between her teeth and blinked away the haziness in her eyes before nodding. They got back to work, but there was no way not to be in each other’s spaces, especially when she insisted on him teaching her how to do all the steps herself.

  He couldn’t even take a breath without inhaling her sweet scent, without a piece of her hair being caught up in his scruff. Couldn’t walk more than a foot without brushing up against her. And that was all child’s play compared to when he had to show her how to work the table saw Marco had dropped off earlier in the day for them to borrow. Standing right behind her, their hips practically aligned, mere inches between them, had his blood heating and his skin feeling too tight.

  “Like this?” she asked over her shoulder, her hands exactly where he’d told her to place them.

  He swallowed hard and nodded, willing away the images his brain was all too happy to supply of her in that same position, saying those very words.

  She grinned at him, doing an excited little wiggle of her hips, and he barely stifled his groan. This whole night was one big willpower challenge, and it was dead set on seeing to it that he failed.

  * * *

  Once they’d gotten all the wood cut to the proper dimensions, they hauled the pieces upstairs. Because of the size of the unit, their best bet would be to assemble it inside the space. While Carter had assumed he’d be doing most of the work on this, Abby had proven him wrong, stepping in, asking questions, and completing each step herself—that tenacity on full display. Much like him, she hadn’t had anything handed to her, and that only made him admire her all the more for what she’d managed to accomplish already. He couldn’t deny how hot it was to see her like this, determination written on her face as she wielded a nail gun, her brows pinched in concentration.

  She blew a strand of loose hair out of her eyes and, with a smile, met his gaze. “I’m not half bad. Maybe I should start a side job.”

  He laughed as he held two boards together for her. “With all your spare time, huh?”

  Pressing the nail gun against the wood, she smiled but didn’t lift her eyes from her task. “Well, you’ve got me there.”

  They’d already spent countless hours working on the renovation—not to mention all she’d done before he’d come along to help—and he knew she still had a laundry list of items she wanted to complete.

  “This is an awful lot of work you’re doing for this preschool. You sure you want to do all this?”

  “Absolutely. It’ll all be worth it.” She said the words with such conviction, he couldn’t help but hear the truth in them.

  “You told me how you’re designing the place, but you haven’t told me what’s going to make the Sunshine Corner preschool special. So…?”

  A smile swept across her mouth, and her eyes lit up. “Well, in the beginning, we’ll just have two classrooms—one each for the three- and four-year-olds. We’ll be teaching the typical reading, writing, counting, that kind of thing. But we’re also going to have some unique offerings, like cooking classes with my grandma. We’ll have science labs once a week. And we’ll continue the art classes with Gia, of course. I’m also considering hiring a second language t
eacher, because children pick up foreign language faster than adults do, so it’s the perfect time for them to start. I just need to figure out if it’s in the budget.”

  “How long do you think it’ll take before you’ve got a full roster?”

  “Oh, I’ve already got a full roster. Parents started putting their kids’ names in as soon as I mentioned I was planning to expand our offerings.” She blew out a deep breath. “Which is why I need to make sure this gets done on time—I’ve got so many families counting on this.”

  After hearing how much Sofia loved coming here—and the horror stories Becca had told him of her friends who weren’t so lucky to get their kids into the Sunshine Corner—he had no doubt they were. And he had no doubt Abby would do everything in her power to make sure to deliver.

  “It sounds like an awesome place, Abby. You should be really proud of what you’re doing.”

  “Thanks.” She glanced down and nodded. “I am.”

  “Did you end up getting your degree in early childhood education?” he asked, remembering what her plans had been when they’d gone off to college.

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “What made you decide to open the Sunshine Corner instead of becoming an elementary teacher?”

  She shrugged. “It wasn’t just one thing, you know? Once the preschool is complete, I’ll still be able to teach. But I wanted something more. I wanted something that was mine. Plus, not every kid has a loving parent to go home to or a place to build childhood memories. I want the Sunshine Corner to be that for those who need it.”

  The way she said it so reverently made his chest ache. It was clear how much Abby loved not just the business, but each and every child who attended the Sunshine Corner. And Carter knew enough—hell, he and Abby both knew more than most—just how important that comfort was in a child’s life. They knew, too, just how damaging the lack thereof could be.