Needs A Little TLC (Spinning Hills Romance 2) (5 page)

She was happy to see that although it was faded, her grandmother’s favorite quote was still stenciled onto the space between the sliding doors and the ceiling.

Cassie leaned her forehead against the quarter-sewn oak frame and breathed in. The house had always smelled of oak. Despite its condition, it still felt like home. But she felt sorry for the house. While she’d been out getting it together, the house had been falling apart.

“Cassie?” Sam’s soft voice stole her breath and a few beats of her heart.

What was he doing here? This was the last place she wanted to meet him. She straightened and turned around, feeling stiff and unnatural. It was different seeing him here. Alone.

They stared at each other for a long moment, without a word. She schooled her features into what she hoped was indifference. The more she looked, the more his presence filled the space between them. It was impossible to look away. He had the arms, shoulders, and build of a man who hefted, heaved, and hammered for a living.

She swallowed hard and looked past him. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“This is my grandmother’s old house. I’d think it’s obvious why I’m here.”

“Why I’m here should also be obvious. I own thirty-four properties.”

 

Sam waited. Two beats later, Cassie’s eyes widened. “This is one of your properties?” Her voice came out like a high-pitched squeal. The sound and the flash in her eyes would’ve been enough to make a sane man head for the door.

Sam simply nodded.

Cassie threaded both hands in her hair and began to pace. “Look at the state it’s in. You’ve had it for months and you haven’t even cleaned it out. How could you?” She stopped pacing and abruptly turned to him, baby blue eyes blazing. “You’re fired!”

Sam couldn’t help it, the corner of his mouth went up, even though he knew it would make her even more furious. He waited for her brain to catch up to her mouth.

She shook her head. “You know what I mean. Look at it, Sam. It’s in tatters. It’s obvious you don’t care about it.”

His smile disappeared. He’d bought this house because he’d loved Cassie’s grandmother like she was his own. After a brutal winter, his business was teetering on the edge. Everything was riding on the prompt sale of the twelve properties he and his brothers had worked hard to ready. He’d dislocated a shoulder, herniated a disc, and lost more nights of sleep than he could count, working tirelessly on each and every property.

She kept asking him to trust it all to her, yet she didn’t trust
him
. He took a step forward. “You could’ve bought this house from your family long before it deteriorated into this. You didn’t. That’s how much
you
cared.”

She stared at him for a long, loaded moment. “Coming here was a bad idea,” she said before sidestepping him and rushing out the front door.

He caught up to her, grabbed her arm, and made her face him. Her eyes were wet and her cheeks were streaked with tears. He was torn between hugging her to him and walking away forever. And why not just walk away? Not one day had passed and already she was out the door. “See how easily you give up?” he asked, his eyes not leaving hers.

Her eyes narrowed and she wriggled her arm free. “I meant coming to this house. Where do you find the nerve to accuse me of giving up, you self-centered jerk? I’m the one who caught you with your tongue down someone else’s throat, and
you
don’t trust
me
?”

Her words made him see he would never get through to her. If working together brought them fresh pain, it was best they went their separate ways. “Whatever you decide, see that the contract is on my desk tomorrow morning by nine. Any later and all the properties will go to the others.” He walked away from her without looking back.

 

Cassie tried to rush back down to the park, but her heels kept sinking in the mud. Scrubbing her face dry of tears and taking deep breaths as she walked, she considered proving Sam right and forgetting about it all.

But by the time she opened the café door, she’d scrubbed her face and calmed herself down enough to fake an okay smile. The smile became genuine when she noticed an old friend, Marty, inside.

“Next time, I’ll tell you what it is you’re temporarily craving. There’s a new method I’ve been experimenting with, and it should lead you in the right direction,” Ruby was saying to Jessica. She looked back at Cassie. “It should lead you in the right direction, too.”

“Hey, freckles, Johnny told me you were back.” Marty engulfed Cassie in a huge, warm hug that had her tears threatening to fall once again. She was such a sap. “When are you going to stop by for a visit?” he asked when he set her down.

“Your house or the tavern?” Cassie asked. Rosa, his grandmother, had proudly told her about how Marty had bought Huffy’s Tavern and turned it into one of the hottest pubs in the area. Marty was younger than her by two years and he was Johnny’s best friend. He’d been an integral part of the “gang” and Cassie was so proud of his success she could burst.

“Same thing. I practically live at the tavern. And before I forget, here.” Marty handed her a key. “Dan told me to give this to you. It’s for one of the offices Mr. Montgomery is renting. He thought it might suit your purposes and so he copied this key for you. It’s on West Maple, right next to the perfume shop where Dan got whipped. He said you can leave the key in the mailbox when you leave.”

“Whipped?” Cassie repeated as she took the key, knowing she’d have no choice but to take a quick look at the office before they left.

“He means where Dan found true love,” Ruby clarified.

Ruby and Marty sparred about Dan’s current status while Cassie stared at the pink, rhinestone-studded key in her hand. The words
Daddy’s Little Princess
were written across the top in a curly purple script. The key reminded her of a pillow her father had gotten her years ago. The pillow’s colors and message had been so unlike her—she was hardly a princess—but what had mattered was that it had come from her dad and she’d carried it with her everywhere.

Cassie shook her head. Mr. Montgomery had always procured fun keys for his businesses, but this one only served to remind her she wasn’t sure what her next step would be. If proving something to her parents led her down a rabbit hole, then she hadn’t grown at all.

 

Sam went back into the house and looked out the window toward Star Springs Park for a long time after Cassie left. She’d teetered and sunk in her three-inch heels, but she’d made it down the ravine without falling.

New leaves were beginning to shade the park’s streams, glistening evergreens, bright red benches, and crisp white gazebo. He’d worked on both projects.

From an early age, Sam had known what he’d loved and what he wanted with a strength and purpose he’d later learned weren’t usual. Family and community were his anchors, appreciating and preserving true craftsmanship his calling.

So many of his memories were attached to the town. His eyes traveled up the oldest tree in the park, a majestic oak, and his mind’s eye saw ten-year-old Cassie sitting up there, scared and regretful. It was the first time Sam had ever been terrified that something bad could happen, and the panic of the moment had etched the memory into his brain. It had been during an especially hot summer. He could still smell the stagnant water, feel the waves of regret coming from Johnny, and hear the anxiety in Dan’s voice.

Ten years later, Sam had stopped running after her for good. No way he’d start again.

The weariness he kept fighting was pushing back harder than ever. Too many people were counting on him, too many worries were weighing him down, but he plowed on, for his son, for his ex-wife Heather, for his brothers, and for the town. There wasn’t much more he could take. His gut told him Cassie could deliver better than any of the other Realtors he’d met with, but he suddenly hoped she’d say no and walk out of his life forever.

 

Jessica silently ran numbers while Cassie stared at the giant oak outside her office, remembering the time the boys had rescued her from a tree. It wasn’t a bad memory, because they’d laughed about it for years, but it wasn’t a good memory, either. The fire department had been involved, after all. The tree was one of the reasons she’d chosen this office. It reminded her to be herself, but to think before she climbed.

After a while, Jessica looked up from her calculator and asked, “Did I ever tell you what Peter was most worried about the morning of his last surgery?”

Cassie shook her head no.

“His goatee,” Jessica said with a sad smile. “One of the risks was that he’d fall into a coma, and he made me promise I’d keep it looking good. At first, I was kind of upset, I mean, why wasn’t he worrying about the kids or me? But looking at him, it hit me . . . he wanted to live and thinking about what would happen if he were no longer there was too hard, so he was focusing on the mundane, everyday things. I told him I would make sure his goatee looked great if he promised me he’d make sure I was always wearing pink blush lipstick if our positions were reversed. He laughed so hard. Whenever I remember the sadness of that day, I try to focus on the fact that we shared a good laugh.”

Cassie swiped at her eyes and swallowed a few tears.

“I didn’t tell you this to make you cry!” Jessica exclaimed.

“But it’s so sad.”

Jessica shook her head. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m bad at making a point. What I’m trying to say is . . . I don’t know what happened at your grandmother’s house, but you came back looking deflated. I know being back must bring back bad memories, but try to focus on all the good memories, too.”

Cassie nodded and, wanting to change the subject and lighten the mood, said, “So. Pink blush lipstick. I’ll remember that.”

“Please do.” Jessica smiled. “What about you? Do you have any special requests?”

“If I’m ever in the hospital overnight, you better bring me a pair of tweezers.” She waved a hand over her eyebrows. “I look like a spawn of the devil if I don’t pluck every single day.”

Jessica laughed and Cassie managed a smile. She had a difficult decision to make and her friend was right. The good had to weigh in, too. The problem was, Cassie had never been good at weighing things. The only way she knew how to move forward was to jump. Even if she fell afterward, it was always easier to get back up if she’d fallen after taken a running leap.

“Have you heard from Billy?” she asked. Her kindred spirit had been on the back of her mind all day.

“Yes, he called just before soccer practice, all excited because everyone had noticed his hair.” Jessica shook her head.