The Next Always Read online

  Avery drank, shook her head. “I beg to differ, most strongly. But do go on.”

  “It was just . . . There was all this stuff in there, and I bumped into something, tripped a little, and he reached out to steady me.”

  “By which part?”

  Clare tipped her head back, stared at the ceiling. “Why am I talking to you?”

  “Who else? But really, which part? Did he take your hand, your arm, your ass?”

  “My waist. He put an arm around my waist, and I . . . I don’t know, exactly, but then we were there, and his mouth was there, and that funny light, and honeysuckle.”

  “Honeysuckle?” Avery’s face lit up. “You saw the ghost.”

  “I did not, first because there are no ghosts.”

  “You’re the one who smelled honeysuckle.”

  “I only thought I did. I just got caught up. Romantic room—or it will be, the way he described it, the light, and I felt . . . I felt what I haven’t felt in a long, long time. I didn’t think, I just leaned in.”

  “You said almost.”

  “Because just before contact, he looked at me like I’d kicked him in the balls. Just stunned.” Even now, with Avery, mortification and that sneaky wave of lust flooded her. “And I stopped, and we both made excuses. After, he kept his distance, like I was radioactive. I embarrassed him, and myself.”

  “I’ll tell you what I think. I think if you’d followed through, neither of you would’ve been embarrassed, and instead of running over here looking as if you’d mugged an old lady, you’d have danced over singing.”

  Really, really, why was she talking to Avery about this?

  “First, Beckett’s a friend, just a—No, first, I don’t have room for dancing and singing. My priorities are my boys and my business.”

  “Which is as it should be, and which—as I’ve said before—in no way precludes what we’ll now call dancing and singing.” The teasing smile gone, Avery rubbed a hand on Clare’s arm. “Jesus, Clare, that part of your life’s not over. You’ve got a right to sing and dance, especially with someone you like and trust. You felt something, and that’s significant.”

  “Maybe. But now that I’m thinking again, I really think it was just that false romance. The room in my head, the light, the imaginary scent, and being touched. It’ll be all right,” she decided. “Beckett’s not the sort to take it too seriously. It was all so quick, he’s probably already forgotten it.”

  Avery started to speak, then decided to keep her opinion to herself. For now.

  “Anyway, the rooms are going to be fabulous, and he’s lending me the binder with cut sheets and pictures. I’ll be able to pump it up to Hope when she comes up. Honestly, Avery, she’d have to be crazy not to jump at the chance to work there.”

  “I bet,” Avery said, and thought she had a couple of crazy friends.

  BECKETT DECIDED TO give Clare a little time, a little space, so she wouldn’t think he thought anything about what he supposed he’d call The Moment. He sent his copy of the project binder over to the bookstore with one of the crew and the message he’d pick it up there in a couple of days—no hurry.

  He skipped his traditional stop-in for coffee for a few mornings, and split his workdays between the inn and another project in nearby Sharpsburg. By the time he made it back to Boonsboro, the crew had knocked off for the day, and his brothers were locking up.

  “Just in time.” Ryder strolled over with D.A. at his heels. “We’re heading across the street for a meeting over beer and pizza.”

  “My favorite kind of meeting. You talked to Avery’s friend?” he asked Owen.

  “Yeah. If you want the details, you can buy the beer.”

  “I bought the beer the last time.”

  “I bought the beer the last time,” Ryder corrected.

  “He bought the beer the last time.” Owen jerked a thumb at Ryder.

  “Maybe.” Beckett tried to think back as they made their way down the sidewalk under the scaffolding. “When’s the last time you bought the beer?”

  Owen gave him a satisfied smile, tipped down his sunglasses. “I’m excused for six turns since I scored the man lift. I’ve got two more left.”

  He remembered the agreement struck when Owen had negotiated an excellent deal on a used lift. The machine saved them the time and sweat to warrant it. He started to question, then let it go. If Owen said he had two more rounds clear, Owen had two more rounds.

  Beckett glanced down toward Turn The Page as they crossed the street, half listening to his brothers discuss water heaters. He should probably give it one more day, he considered. Stay clear, give her time to go through the binder, keep it all easy, friendly.

  As if The Moment hadn’t happened.

  But it had. It damn well had.

  “Have you got a problem with that setup?” Ryder demanded.

  “What? No.”

  “Then stop looking pissed off.” Ryder secured the dog beside the front porch of the restaurant. “I’ll bring you dinner,” he said, then pulled open the door.

  They stepped into Vesta at the early-dinner hour. Families and small packs of teenagers crowded in the booths, a few couples scattered at two-tops twirling pasta or studying the menu while two regulars sat on stools at the counter for an after-work beer.

  Along with his brothers, Beckett exchanged hails and waves.

  “Order me a Heineken,” Owen said, then peeled off toward the closed kitchen.

  “Let’s sit in the back,” Ryder suggested. “If we sit out here, we’ll end up talking to everybody.”

  “Fine.” Beckett hooked a waitress, ordered the beer, then walked down the hallway to the back dining room. A couple of high school boys competed on the video games with the requisite insults.

  “The tile’s shipped,” Ryder said when Beckett joined him at a table. “Or most of it. A couple of the patterns are still on back order. We’re scheduling the delivery in two weeks. Owen contacted them about the install. They can start the end of the next week if the job they’re on stays on schedule. Early the following if not.”

  “That’s good for us.”

  “I want to schedule the install of the rest of the flooring right behind it. This heat’s bound to break. We can put the crew back on the pickets, get the exterior painting started.”

  Owen slipped in beside them right as the beer arrived.

  “You all ready to order?” the waitress asked.

  “Warrior’s pizza,” Ryder declared.

  “I’m not eating that much meat.” Owen shook his head, sipped his beer.

  “Wimp.”

  “You go for the super-artery-clogger,” Beckett suggested, then looked at Owen. “Split a large pepperoni and jalapeno?”

  “Deal. And some crab balls.”

  “Gotcha. How are things going at the inn?”

  “We’re moving along,” Owen told her.

  She pointed her pencil at him. “Are you going to take that tarp down soon?”

  “Sooner or later.”

  “It’s a big tease.” She rolled her eyes and went off to put their order in.

  “You know that tarp’s building a lot of expectation we may not meet.”

  Ryder shrugged at Beckett. “It’s also keeping debris off the street, and the crew out of the worst of the heat. Tell him about the Urban Princess.”

  “Hope Beaumont,” Owen began. “She’s smart, savvy. She asked all the right questions, including a lot I hadn’t thought of, or we haven’t gotten around to dealing with. She’s got a sexy voice, one of those dark velvet jobs. Nice.”

  “Sexy voice. She’s hired.” Ryder sat back with his beer.

  “You’re just jacked because we may have to go outside for the job.”

  “It’d be nice to keep it all local,” Beckett mused. “But we need somebody who fits the bill. Besides, if she takes the job and moves here, she’ll be local in ten or twenty years.”

  “We’ll know more after Saturday. We’re meeting with her Saturday morn
ing,” Owen continued. “Taking her through the place. I looked her up online.” He took files out of his briefcase, passed one to each brother. “Some D.C. society stuff—her out and about with the guy who dumped her. A solid article in the Washingtonian about the hotel, with some stuff about her, some quotes. Ry’s dubbed her Urban Princess because she’s from Philadelphia originally and won a couple of beauty pageant deals back there.”

  Beckett started to open the file, take a look, when the sound of running feet boomed down the hall. Clare’s three boys burst in like convicts on the lam. Breathless, wild-eyed, they chattered about the Mega-Touch before Harry spotted the brothers.

  “Hi! Hi! We all got a dollar.”

  “How about a loan?”

  Liam cracked up at Beckett’s question. “We get to have pizza and play games.”

  Murphy walked up to the table, studied the three men. “You can play if you’ve got a dollar. Or I can ask my mom to give you one.”

  Because the kid slayed him, Beckett hoisted Murphy onto his lap. “I bet Owen’s got a dollar. Why don’t we . . .” He stumbled to a halt when Clare came in.

  She looked a little flushed, a little frazzled.

  “Sorry. They’re slippery as soap. You’re talking business,” she said, noting the files. “Why don’t I just move them out until—”

  “Mom!” Harry’s response was absolute and horrified betrayal.

  “When you sit back here, you expect some noise,” Ryder pointed out. “They’re fine. Have a seat.”

  “I was just telling Beck that your friend is meeting with us on Saturday,” Owen began.

  “Avery just told me, which is why in that two-second window, the trio escaped.”

  “How’s the copy coming?”

  “I’ve got some ideas.”

  “She’s got great ideas,” Avery confirmed as she came in. “She’s run some by me.”

  “Just bits and pieces. I’d like to see a little more, get the feel.”

  “You should go over now. Beckett, you should take her over now.”

  “Avery,” Clare muttered, trying to disguise the shock.

  “No, really. It’s empty. It’s got to be easier and more productive to look at it without the banging.” She smiled, winsomely. “Don’t you think?”

  “Sure.” Murphy deserted Beckett to join his brothers in a three-player game. And now he didn’t know what to do with his hands. “Yeah, sure.”

  “I’m interrupting, and I have the boys.”

  “We’ll watch them. I’ll get their pizza ordered.” Avery made a shooing motion. “This way we can run your ideas by Hope when she drives up tomorrow. Let me have your seat, Beck, and no charge for the beer. I’ll finish it.” She picked it up, took a sip, smiled. “I’m not working tonight.”

  Out of choices, Beckett got to his feet. “Okay?”

  “Apparently.” Clare shot Avery a cool look before she turned. “I’m going with Beckett for a few minutes,” she told her sons. “Avery, Ryder, and Owen are in charge. Behave.”

  “Okay, Mom, okay.” Harry’s face was fierce as he focused on the screen.

  She and Beckett walked through and out of the restaurant together. The wind streamed through her hair as she looked up at the clouds rolling in.

  “Storm’s coming,” she said.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CAREFUL TO KEEP A FOOT OF SPACE BETWEEN THEM AND his hands in his pockets, Beckett led her around the back of the inn to unlock the door.

  The late summer evening had gone gloomy, so he switched on bare bulbs and work lights as they went. Glare and shadows, he thought, bare walls and concrete floors. Not exactly a seduction pit. She should feel safe.

  “Do you want to finish up the main floor?” he asked her.

  “I’d like to see some more guest rooms. Maybe we could go through the second level. I don’t want to stick Avery and your brothers with the kids for too long.”

  “You didn’t stick. Avery volunteered.”

  “Yes, she did, didn’t she?”

  Beckett raised his eyebrows at the dark tone. “Is everything okay?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Okay then.” He headed toward the stairs. “We did T&O and E&D,” he began. “I guess we’ll move on to N&N—Nick and Nora.”

  “The Thin Man.” She ordered her thoughts, aimed them toward the binder he’d loaned her. “I like the lamps you’ve got for there, and the bed and dresser are beautiful—and very Deco.”

  “A little sleek, a little glamorous.” He made the turn down the hall of the second floor. “So, The Library’ll be down there, and—”

  “Oh, The Library. I really want to see that space.”

  “Sure.” He turned left down another short hallway, flicked a switch for the work light.

  “Pretty dim right now. It’s only got the one front-facing window. We’ll put a desk there. Built-ins—the bookcases—in those recesses, fireplace with surround between, brown leather sofa facing.”

  She wandered through. She’d seen his sketch of the bookcases, she remembered, and lusted for them.

  Don’t think about lust!

  “Ah, you and your brothers are building the bookcases.”

  “Yeah, and the fireplace surround. A few other things.”

  “It must be satisfying to be able to build something.”

  “You should know. You built a family,” he said when she glanced back at him.

  “That’s a nice thing to say.” She studied him as he stood in the doorway and she in the center of the room. This, she decided, this space between them was too weird, too uncomfortable.

  Time to fix it, she told herself.

  “I can’t figure it out.”

  “Figure what?”

  “If you’re annoyed with me, avoiding me, or if I’m imagining one or both.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You haven’t been in the bookstore since . . . I was here last. And like right now, you’re standing as far away as you can manage and be in the same room. Look, Beckett, I’m sorry about what happened, even though it didn’t happen.”

  “You’re sorry about what didn’t happen,” he said slowly.

  “Well, for God’s sake, I just got caught up in the room and the light, and . . . whatever. It was only a moment, so—”

  “The.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. You’re apologizing to me for what happened?”

  “And I don’t know why I should when it didn’t.” Temper surged in, only highlighting embarrassment. “I don’t know why two adults can’t handle something that didn’t happen without acting like it did. And even if it had, so what? Oh, never mind,” she snapped when he simply stared at her. “Just show me the next room.” She stalked toward the doorway. “I need to get back.”

  “Wait a minute.” He took her arm, effectively wedging them both in the open doorway. “Are you sorry it didn’t happen?”

  “I don’t like embarrassing myself.”

  “I embarrassed you?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Now you’re confusing me.”

  Maybe. But she was clearing things up for him. “Why don’t we start over?”

  Lightning flashed, a bold burst of blue through the tarped window. She jolted in his hold as thunder boomed its cannon fire.

  “It’s only thunder.”

  “It just startled me,” she said, her eyes on his. “I’m not afraid of storms.”

  “Let’s see.”

  Still, he moved slowly, taking his time as much to prolong this new moment as to gauge her reaction. He laid his hands on her hips as the rain beat and splashed, sliding them up her body, smooth and easy as he lowered his head, paused—one long breath—then fit his mouth to hers.

  This, he thought as he took her face in his hands. Just this, so worth the wait. Soft, sweet, a yielding tremor, and her arms came up to wrap around his waist, to draw him into her.

  The next flash of lightning didn’t make her jo
lt. She rolled with the thunder, sinking into that lovely flood of pleasure.

  Being held, being touched. Tasted and tasting. Nerve endings coated dull by circumstance, by obligation, snapped hot and sharp to life.

  She fisted her hands in the back of his shirt and took what he gave her. No, she’d never been afraid of storms.

  Even when he eased back she felt buffeted, wonderfully, by the whirlwind.

  “I’ve been waiting to do that since you were sixteen,” he murmured.

  She smiled, gave a half laugh. “Come on.”

  “Okay, since you were fifteen, but that seemed pathetic.”

  Her eyebrows drew together. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Why don’t I give you more time to think about it?”

  He kissed her again, stealing her breath, shooting bolts of heat and ice along those newly awakened nerves.

  Think? Impossible.

  “Beckett.” She nudged him back, just a little. “I’m out of practice. I probably do need to think—should think—but it’s hard right here and now.”

  “How about anywhere and anytime?”

  She laughed again, not so steadily. “Maybe if—” She broke off, frowning as she leaned in to sniff his shoulder. “It’s not you.”

  “What?”

  “I could swear I smell honeysuckle.”

  “She likes honeysuckle.” He smoothed a hand down her ponytail, something else he’d wanted to do for years. It ran against his skin like sunny silk.

  “Who does?”

  “Elizabeth. I call her Elizabeth because the first time I was sure she was here, I was in E&D—Elizabeth and Darcy.”

  “You’re seriously talking about a ghost.”

  “This building—or parts of it—has been here for two and a half centuries. It would strike me odder if there wasn’t a ghost. Not everything, everyone, leaves.”

  That cut straight to her heart, but she only shook her head. “Everything about this strikes me as odd. My kids are over playing video games, and I’m here, with you. I should get back. At this rate it’s going to take me a year to see the whole building.”

  “All the time you want. Come out with me tomorrow night.”

  “I . . . I can’t. I’m having Avery and Hope over for dinner. And before you ask, because I hope you were going to, Saturday I promised the kids a movie marathon. They start school on Monday, and Murphy’s starting kindergarten. It’s a big deal.”