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“That’s fair enough.” She sighed. “We’ll find the one.”
“Thanks for looking, Tans.”
“You won’t be back for a while, will you?” she asked.
I stared up at the house. The empty windows. The faded red door. The green grass that had filled in around it. The cherry tree just to the right of the west wing and covered in thick white blossoms.
“Not sure,” I said. “I’ll let you know.”
“Okay. Well, we’ll miss you. You need to get back to work, I’m sure.”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah. Have a couple of phone calls to make before they get back here.”
“Love you, brother.”
“Love you too.”
I didn’t get to my phone calls, though, because a large silver truck hauling a matching trailer pulled up in front of the house.
On the side of each one was a square logo, a loopingWcentered in the middle.
I wasn’t sure what I expected from William. Charlotte and I had never really talked details after she interviewed him. But the guy who stepped out of the truck was young. Younger than I had imagined, at least.
He was easily as tall as me, lanky and long limbed. He glanced up at the house with a small smile on his face, then looked around as he stretched his arms.
I got out of my truck, and William turned at the sound. “You must be William.”
He nodded, his handshake firm and his smile friendly. “You must be Burke Barrett. Pleasure to meet you.”
His face was tanned, unlined by age, and I couldn’t stop the words as they rolled out of my mouth. “You’re younger than I expected.”
William wasn’t fazed; he simply grinned, sliding his ball cap off his head and running a hand through his messy hair. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
“Charlotte isn’t back yet. We just unloaded the last of the furniture out of the house.”
“Great. My crew is getting settled at my cousin’s lake house. It’s about ten minutes from here, so we’ll be close.”
“That’s a nice cousin to have.”
He laughed good-naturedly. “Indeed. She’s going to Europe this summer, so she said we could use it.”
“So you can really do this for us?” I asked him. “Even with our last-minute changes?”
William looked back at the house. The look in his eyes was far, far different from my own when I’d first arrived.
His expression was one of excitement. Reverence. And passion.
“Yeah, I can.”
He looked at the Campbell House like Charlotte did.
I nodded. “Good. Now, uh, can I ask you for a favor in the carriage house? We need something fixed in there.”
Chapter Fourteen
CHARLOTTE
The trucks in the driveway were empty, no men—neither the building kind nor the grumpy, overreacting-roommate kind—anywhere to be seen.
