wondered sometimes if Verona is lonely. She’s never married, and I’ve never seen her out with anyone.”
“Still doesn’t give her the right to push people together.”
“I think it’s more like gentle nudges.”
Adam snorted. “I’d hate to receive one of those nudges if I was anywhere near a cliff.”
When they reached the ranch, he changed back into work clothes so he could help his brothers replace some rotting timbers on the side of the barn. As he rounded the corner of the barn, he spotted Neil first. His eldest brother was standing back and watching as Ben nailed a board in place.
“Playing supervisor again?” Adam asked.
Neil smiled. “Perk of being the oldest.”
“Yeah, you’re going to feel old soon when that baby gets here,” Ben said. “I speak from experience. There were days in those early months after Cassie was born that I almost had to tape my eyes open to get any work done.”
Suddenly, Adam felt more separate from his brothers than he ever had before. Their lives had moved into a different stage, which included marriage and children. They could share experiences, along with their sister, Sloane, to which he had nothing to add. Even Angel had a child, though no husband. In that moment, Adam felt more like an outsider than he had since arriving on this ranch as a child.
“How’d the meeting go?” Neil asked, drawing Adam’s attention back to something they did have in common—the ranch and its long-term viability.
“Pretty good. Will be a while before anything can come from it, though.”
“Just make sure you kick Wainwright’s butt this time,” Ben said.
Adam decided not to reveal that Wainwright had beaten him to Lauren’s door. He had to believe that one of these days the Rocking Horse operation was going to triumph over Carrington. And he admitted to himself that there was another reason he hoped he would win the contract with Lauren. It would be no hardship to see her on a regular basis. Or would it? He was attracted to her, but he respected that the feeling wasn’t mutual. It would have to be enough if they had a business relationship, maybe even became friends.
But as he helped Ben and Neil finish making the repairs to the barn, he couldn’t manage to push Lauren from his thoughts. He considered how Neil, Ben and Sloane had all found their other halves when they were least expecting it. And tried not to think about how he sure hadn’t expected his reaction to Lauren Shayne.
* * *
LAUREN WALKED OUTSIDE the restaurant with two cold bottles of water in hand to find Ella Bryant and her husband, Austin, loading the last of the tables onto a trailer hooked up to their pickup.
“You two look thirsty,” Lauren said as she extended the bottles toward them.
“I feel as if I could drink the lake,” Austin said as he hopped down from the trailer.
“Eww,” Ella said.
Lauren laughed. “Pretty does not equal potable.”
Austin did manage to drink half the contents of his bottle before coming up for air, however.
“I really appreciate all this,” Ella said.
“Thank Adam Hartley. He’s the one who suggested I call you.”
“I’ll do that. He’s a good guy. All the Hartleys are good people.”
“That’s reassuring to hear about someone I might do business with in the future.”
“I haven’t had their beef,” Austin said, “but that family is as honest as anyone you’d ever hope to meet.”
Now that was more welcome to hear than they could possibly know. Honesty was pretty much at the top of her list of desirable traits these days.
Lauren pointed toward the load of discarded furniture. “I have to admit I’m curious to see what you do with all that.”
“I have more ideas and materials now than I have time to implement. But I guess that’s a good problem to have.”
“It is indeed.”
Ella nodded toward the building. “Do you know what style you’re going to put in its place?”
“Honestly, it’s going to be like picking the building—I’ll know it when I see it. But I want it to be Texas-themed. Part of the building is going to be a store filled with items with that theme, as well.”
“You should check out the antiques stores in Poppy. They’ve always got neat stuff, lots of big items that could be turned into unique tables, large metal Texas stars. And there are a lot of craftsmen and artists in the area who I’m sure would be interested in putting their items in your store if that’s the way you want to go with it. We have a local arts-and-crafts trail, so you could surreptitiously check them out in advance if you wanted to.”
Now that did sound promising. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll do that whenever I get the chance.”
“Well, we’ll let you get back to work,” Austin said. “We look forward to your opening.”
“Thanks.” She waved goodbye to them, then went back inside to tackle washing all the windows. She’d been putting it off for three days because she hated the task so much. It probably made sense to just wait until all the interior work was done, but she wanted a better idea of how the place would look at different points of the day through actual clean windows. How the sun hit would likely influence how she organized the dining room and the shop.
But the moment she stepped inside, the enormity of the job—not to mention the time she’d have to spend on the ladder Adam had warned her about—hit her, and she just couldn’t face the task today. In truth, she didn’t feel as if she could face much more than a hot shower, dinner and a face-plant into her bed at the Wildflower Inn.
But mommy duties awaited, and the thought of seeing her smiling babies gave her a boost of energy. At least two wonderful things had come from her relationship with Phil.
She promised herself she’d tackle the windows tomorrow, then grabbed her keys to lock up. As she drove the short distance to the inn, her thoughts wandered through the names and faces she’d met since her arrival in Blue Falls. Everyone seemed nice and she could see why Papa Ed had fond memories of the place. Though she’d been hesitant initially about placing her flagship restaurant here, now she could see that it would fit in perfectly with the community’s other offerings.
Thankfully, no one else had mentioned Phil or the trial, so they either didn’t know about it or had decided not to bring up the topic. She’d prefer the former but would take either. What she wanted more than anything was to forget Phil even existed and that she’d ever been so blind that she hadn’t seen through to his real motive for wanting to marry her. She would never make that kind of mistake again.
For some reason, she wondered if Adam Hartley now knew all the details. After meeting him and Tim Wainwright, she’d done an internet search on both their companies. So it would stand to reason they’d done the same for her.
