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“We’re painting.” Hazel held a look on her friend that Bennett was familiar with. It was the none-too-happy look.
Janie’s brows pulled together. “Can we help?”
“Not sure how many will fit. Hunter and Gemma.” Hazel crossed her arms and let an intentional pause drop. “Bennett, Nathan, and me. That’s already a roomful.”
“Oh . . . oh.” Janie bit her lip.
“Miss Janie! Isn’t this the craziest place? I mean, so bright in here, right?” Gemma skipped down the steps. Ignorant of the chill in the room, she danced to Janie’s side, linked her arm around hers, and tugged. “Come see my room! That way you can appreciate the before and after. I’m thinking of having a reveal party. Wouldn’t that be so fun?”
Janie glanced at Hazel, and Hazel sighed.
That was that. Gemma had Janie halfway up the stairs, and Hazel followed. Bennett waited for Grady to pass in front of them, and then he brought up the caboose.
There was no stopping this train wreck.
They were adults. All of them. Right?
Hunter’s back was turned to the group by the time Bennett came through the door. His shoulders rippled as he scrubbed the walls with an intensity that might just send him into another breathing fit.
Gemma chattered away, pointing out the view out her dormered window, where she’d put her bed, saying that Bennett wouldn’t agree to new bedding, but she wasn’t giving up on that . . . She worked her way around the room and came to the paintbrushes.
“Problem.” Hands on hips, Gemma spun to Bennett. “You only got five brushes.” She counted each person in the room. “There are six of us. Seven, if Nathan ever decides to be useful.”
“It’s not a problem.” Hunter kept his attention only on Gemma, scratching his hair behind his right ear, and managed what was clearly a forced grin. “I’ve got to go, Princess Gemma. But your walls are clean and ready to become wise.”
“Really? But—”
Hunter didn’t wait to entertain Gemma’s protest. He moved his attention to Bennett, carefully avoiding Janie. “You can get my sister back to the cabin, right?”
“Of course.”
A single nod and one more dark look sent Hunter out of the door, down the stairs, and out of the house.
Collision averted. Even so, Bennett felt the fracture of impact. He couldn’t imagine that every other adult in the room had missed it.
The world just kept being a mess.
Sixteen
Hazelhadneverpainteda whole room. Or even half of one. The soreness in her back and shoulders hit her with surprise. One would think that a lifetime of hauling and chopping firewood would have given her a pass.
It hadn’t. She rubbed her left arm as she stepped up the two front steps to the cabin.
“Sore?” Bennett’s hand covered the spot she’d been massaging.
“Yes. But you can’t laugh.”
He chuckled. “I recall a dunk in the frigid lake helps with sore muscles.”
She shot him a warning look—only half-serious—while Gemma leaned against the railing on the deck at the cabin.
“Look at that!” Real wonder painted the girl’s voice.
Hazel turned to see what Gemma was in awe of. The rich tangerine and velvet purple pinks of the western sky reflected off the glass of Elk Lake.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Bennett wrapped both arms around Hazel’s shoulders, tucking her back against him.
“This is why you moved from Chicago.”
