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Cross that bridge when—if—it happens.Until then work your butt off to see that it doesn’t.
Work.Getting a job would be the “easy” way, but at her age, she found herself intimidated at the thought of interviewing and putting her empty resume out there to be mocked by people who cared nothing for the fact she’d thought being a stay-at-home mom and wife was the thing to do.Something that had nothing to do with being Kyle’s wife but everything to do with loving her family and wanting to be there for them when they needed her.
She forced her thoughts away and focused on the task at hand.All she could do was try, give it her all and see what happened.The creative outlet appealed to her.That and the fact she had quite a bit of inventory in Nan’s over-furnished house to get her started before she’d ever have to invest in purchasing pieces to work on.
In short order, she had emptied the shed of trash that would be picked up tomorrow.The building was piled full of beach chairs that had rusted to the point of being unusable and old umbrellas stained beyond repair.Bins of Christmas decorations smelling of mold and mice were quickly shut and carried out as well.
Once all of that was gone, she had plenty of floor space to work.She found a ladder and hammer and nails and pondered the best way of establishing a curtain to protect the few items she’d decided to keep.
She spread the plastic and tacked up a corner, moving slowly across the floor toward the opposite wall.She was halfway there when Hershey came barreling into the shed.The dog saw her and immediately began jumping up and down, bumping Hadley’s feet and the ladder hard enough to send her scrambling for balance when the ladder tilted sideways.
Hadley shrieked and grabbed the beam she’d been tacking the plastic to, holding on for dear life as the ladder crashed against the items stacked on the other side of the plastic.
“Hang on, I got you,” Bryson said as he wrapped his arms around her legs above her knees.
Hadley was so glad he couldn’t see her mortified face.“The ladder!”
“Let go.”
“What?No!”
“Put your hand on my shoulder,” he said, his tone sounding amused.“Come on, I won’t let you fall.Hadley, I’ve got you.”
Hadley kept a firm grip on the beam with one hand while searching blindly for his shoulder, smacking him in the head and feeling the rough rasp of his five-o’clock shadow on the tender skin of her inner wrist in the process.
A tingle shot up her arm, and she blamed the sensation on getting the feeling back into her nerves after her death grip on the beam.
“Sweetheart, let go.I won’t let you fall.”
Her hand found his shoulder, and he loosened his hold until she slid down because she didn’t have the upper body strength to swing by one hand, his arms catching beneath her rear.That was when her mind zeroed in on being calledsweetheartin that husky, gravelly voice of his and the way it made butterflies appear in her stomach seconds after the fact.
Bryson continued to let her slide down,slowly, and her heart raced from the scare of the near fall and the fact Bryson was…
Bryson.
Strong, hard, muscled, sexy Bryson.
Her toes touched the floor but Bryson didn’t release her.He stared down at her with such a look she could’ve sworn he wanted to kiss her and ached for him to hurry it up.
But when his gaze shifted from her mouth to her eyes, his jaw locked into a hard line.He inhaled and lowered his hands, took a step back, and she felt the loss all the way to the depths of her soul…
“You shouldn’t be on a ladder with the dog running around.”
She blinked at him and the angry tone he’d used, stared down at her hands, rubbing them together.
“Are you hurt?”
“N-no.No, I’m fine.”
“Let me see,” he said, taking her hands in his.
“I… I think I might have a few splinters is all.”
Bryson muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t make out and wasn’t sure she wanted to.
Bryson gently turned her and ushered her out of the building toward the house, Hershey following at a slower pace, head hanging as she stared up at Hadley with sorrowful eyes.“It’s okay, Hershey.You didn’t mean to.”
Inside the kitchen, Hershey crossed to her bed still on the floor, tail tucked, and settled down into a tight circle, obviously sensing the tension she’d caused and reacting to it.
