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“Are your brother and Erin getting ready for the wedding next month?” I ask him, not quite ready for him to go.
“They’re excited,” he confirms. “They wanted to have that barn completely renovated and ready to go, but that’s pretty ambitious for just a couple months of work. They’ll make do, though, because my brother isn’t willing to wait another year to marry her. Hell, he doesn’t want to wait another day.”
“Something tells me it’s going to be a bit more involved than making it work,” I reply.
“Sure, that’s simplifying it down a bit,” Chase agrees with a nod. “It’s going to be a lot of work. We’re all spending pretty much every extra minute out there helping out, but like I said, my brother won’t wait. He’s impatient when it comes to Erin.”
“That’s so romantic,” Sharla says with a dreamy sigh. “They’re great together. I love seeing them when they come to town.”
“I won’t disagree with you there. They are pretty great,” Brady says. “And we don’t mind helping.”
“Summer, if you need anything or have questions, don’t hesitate to call me.” Chase drops his business card onto the counter and offers me a smile. “That’s my cell number. And I’ll be back later.”
“Thanks. I really do appreciate both of your help.”
“See you later,” Brady says with a wave, and then they’re off again, and Lily makes her way back to her little bed to settle in for another nap.
“Well, then,” Ida says, her lips pursed as she watches me.
“What?”
“Oh, please,” Sharla says with a laugh. “It’s written all over your face that you have a crush on that sexy policeman. And who can blame you? He’s one fine specimen of a man.”
“What? I do not.” I focus on fussing with the booms in my hands. “You two are a couple of busybodies.”
“Uh-huh,” Sharla says, her tongue in her cheek. “Sure. Well, I sure hope you find a reason to use that phone number. It would be a shame to let a man like that go to waste.”
“If you’re not going to use it, I will,” Ida adds with a sassy wink.
“You could be his mother.”
“But I’m not his mother, honey,” Ida retorts. “Not even a little bit.”
I smirk and carry the finished bouquet of lilacs to the cooler.
I have no plans to use that phone number. But, I can admit to myself, I’m not sorry that he’s coming back later to work on the security here at the shop.
CHAPTER TWO
CHASE
Iset up a makeshift shop on the family ranch the day after Erin, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, asked me to make her an arbor for her wedding. She wants it made out of some of the recycled wood from the old barn on the property that she’s going to have rebuilt and converted into an event space to rent out for weddings and parties, so the arbor would be a piece that the business offers guests to use for their events.
The whole family agrees that the new business venture is a great idea, and I especially love that she wants to reuse as much of the old wood as possible. The barn collapsed in on itself long before I was born, and it’s just sat there, in the middle of a grazing field for cattle. There are several other smaller buildings, also no longer in use, around it. We never considered using any of it for anything. In fact, when we were kids, Dad thought about tearing it all down but never did.
Erin saw it this past spring and had the great idea of turning it into a business. With the gorgeous views of the mountains as the backdrop, I have a feeling that the space will be booked solid year-round.
My brother, Remington, mentioned to his fiancée during one of our family dinners that I like to build things in my spare time, and Erin batted her green eyes at me and talked me into building her pretty much whatever she wanted for the wedding. She’s been amazing for my brother and his kids, and I adore her. She knows that she has me wrapped around her tiny little finger.
No, the event space definitely won’t be ready in time for next month’s nuptials, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t make it work with a tent, and we can bring in whatever Erin wants to make it pretty for her.
Right now, I have to build this arbor, which is a fun project. Or would be, if I had the right shop to do it in.
I have a small woodworking space in the two-car garage at the house I rent in town, but it’s nowhere near big enough for this project. Plus, the wood I’ll use is on the property. It doesn’t make sense to move all of it into town and then move it back out here again.
So, I took over my brother’s garage.
Remington and Erin, along with his two kids, live in the big farmhouse on the ranch. The same one that our parents owned and raised all five of us kids in. Remington took over the ranch from our dad a few years ago, and when our parents built a smaller, more manageable house for themselves on the property, Remington moved his family into the farmhouse.
