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His brother was offering him a lifeline, and he would be stupid not to take it. “I am not happy and neither is Hale, and I don’t know where to start fixing things.”
Jake reached out and patted his shoulder. “The good news is, I do. Come back to Dallas with me for a couple of months and then we’ll figure out where you want to go next. I have a couple of ideas.”
Something settled inside him. Jake was in charge, and that was a good thing.
For a little while.
Chapter One
Bliss, CO
Eight months later
Hale Galloway tapped on the door to the Movie Motel’s room number seven and hoped it was his lucky number and whatever was behind that door would be super easy to fix so he could still make it to Alamosa. The faucets he’d ordered had come in and he was eager to get to work on the bathroom. Not his, of course. His client’s. Any bathroom he actually owned would be shared with his best friend, who would have zero interest in claw-foot tubs and antique brass handles. He loved the guy, but Van had the taste of a kid who’d grown up in a glorified camper. Which—in his defense—he had.
And it wasn’t like Hale was really interested in how luxurious that bathroom was going to be when he was done with it. The client being happy with how it turned out and the fact that he might make enough to put a down payment on a cabin of his own was all that mattered.
Their own.
At least he thought maybe they would get a cabin up here. Sometimes Van mentioned going back to Dallas but when Hale tried to talk to him about it, he changed the subject. It was typical Van behavior. Something got serious and he turned his attention back to whatever TV show/pop culture thing he was currently interested in.
Van was starting to get that look in his eyes, the one that let Hale know he was getting restless. When Van got restless, he inevitably ended up finding some new cool place for them to go visit.
Hale kind of thought Bliss might be the be-all, end-all of cool.
He could think here. He could be here in a way he hadn’t when they’d been living in Dallas all those months.
Was he going to have to choose between the only family he had and staying in the only place that had ever brought him any peace?
“I’ll be right there,” a feminine voice said. It was on the deeper side, a little throaty and sexy.
Not that the sexy part mattered. He was here to work and fix this lady’s shower, and that was all. The last thing she needed was the handyman hitting on her. Also, what the hell was up with his libido that he was contemplating how sexy this woman would be from her voice? He wasn’t that guy. He didn’t view women as sex objects. So why was he so damn interested in whoever was going to answer that door? Especially since she was a tourist, which meant she was likely here with a husband and kids or a boyfriend she was taking to the Winter Festival.
Still, he found himself straightening his coat as the door opened.
Damn that voice matched the magnificent Amazon of a woman who stood there in nothing but a thin robe, her short hair plastered to her face. She wore no makeup, but there was a glow about her. He stood there for a moment, staring. Like a dumbass.
A brow rose over her eyes. “Are you here to fix my shower or to serially murder me? I’ll give you a moment to decide.”
And she was sarcastic. He loved the funny ones. He held up his tool kit. “Shower.”
She nodded. “A man of few words. I like it. Well, come on in. I suspect you can find the shower in my palatial estate.” She stepped back and allowed him to enter the room. Her teeth chattered slightly as she closed the door behind him. “I’m not sure what happened. The showerhead came apart and water went everywhere. I turned it off as fast as I could. I’ve still got shampoo in my hair. Not that there’s a lot of it. The sink’s too small to rinse it out in. I only called this in a couple of minutes ago. Do you live on site?”
He moved toward the bathroom because she needed him to work quickly. “Nah, this is kind of a side gig. Gene used to do this work himself but since he found out I can pretty much fix anything, he calls me in when he can. I happened to be dropping something off at the front desk when you called. It’s how I got here so fast.”
And hopefully he would fix the shower and leave just as fast. Get to Alamosa so he could spend the evening installing fixtures.
