Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
Brighton
I met up with Beckham and Brewer for breakfast the next morning.
I tried to get up with my brothers as often as possible, and mornings were always a good time to make that happen.
Brewer was always, always going to be at Good Ashes before the sun came up.
And Beckham almost always had an early morning tour group to take up into Cascada Noir National Park.
“What you got going on this morning?” Beckham asked as he devoured his steak, eggs, and breakfast potatoes.
I took one last sip of my pre-workout smoothie. “Signed up for the 5k yesterday. Me and Bailey. I’mma head over to her spot, grab her, and we’re gonna do a few miles or whatever on the track over at the high school.”
“Bailey does marathons?”
I shrugged. “She says she used to run cross country in high school and loved it. When she got up with her clown ass husband he wasn’t into running, so she stopped.”
“That motherfucker.” Beckham shook his head.
Brewer eyed me. Of the four Strong brothers, he was the most introverted and the most intense. He was also the least talkative, so I was kinda surprised when he spoke. “You out here playing Mr. Steal-ya-girl on the fuck boy’s wife?”
“What?” I chuckled. “Nah. I’m out here trying to be friendly.”
Brewer waved me off with a laugh. “Whatever, young gun. You’ve got eyes. It’s obvious that she’s pretty.”
He wasn’t lying. Ever since hanging out with her the day before, I couldn’t get her off my mind.
Those full lips did it for me every time.
I wanted to kiss them and find out for myself what the hell that mouth did.
I kept those thoughts to myself. As the youngest of the clan, I was the one my brothers liked to mess with the most. All they needed was a little bit of ammunition and they could tease me for weeks.
I wasn’t giving it to them. “None of the Kingsley women are hard to look at.”
“Facts.” Beckham emptied his glass of orange juice in one swallow.
“But this one is mean and closed off. She ain’t looking for nothing and I’m not looking for nothing. All we’re doing is running a race together.” I quickly shut up. I knew that the more you talked, the more guilty you looked.
“Yeah,” Beckham said. “I’m sure she’s still dealing with the loss of the baby . . . and the loss of her marriage.”
We all agreed that the hand she’d been dealt lately sucked.
“I’m up.” I stood from the bar where we’d gathered. “Later.”
The fact that Bailey was dressed and ready to go when I got to the house surprised me.
I drove us over to Jackson-Chinook High School.
After leading us through a few stretches, I set an easy pace for us to make our way around the track.
We did four laps, each lap being a mile.
We alternated between walking and running.
I was pleasantly surprised by the way Bailey kept up with me.
“Your stamina’s good,” I told her as the two of us waited in line at Jackson Falls Juice Company to get juice shots.
“Thanks. I surprised myself.” A proud smile lit up her face. “I haven’t run in a really long time. I thought I would be passed out on the track somewhere.”
I chuckled as I handed her the red shot that had tart cherries, strawberries, cucumber, lime, and celery. Then I grabbed my own green juice shot. The celery, green apple, and kale combo went down easily.
“Oh, that’s good.” She looked at her empty cup.
“Yeah, I come here all the time.”
“Okay.” She nodded her head. “I’ve never had a juice shot before. I never even thought about getting a juice shot before.”
“I’m sure they have places like this in Chicago. You’ll just have to seek them out.”
“Yeah,” she said half-heartedly.
I tossed our empty cups into the trash can then turned to her. “Let me get you home. I need to shower and head over to one of my projects.”
She seemed to snap back from a daydream or something. “Yeah. You can’t spend every day playing around with me.”
If only.
After a few hours on site, I was hungry as hell. I knew it was because of the morning run. I headed into town and picked up lunch at Butterscotch Café. While I was ordering, I made the split-second decision to get something for Bailey.
When I dropped her off at home after the juice shots, she said her plan for the day was to spend it at the bed and breakfast. I knew that Bayliss hired a cleaning crew after we gave him feedback on what we’d seen over there the day before.
She was supposed to supervise the cleaning crew and make some decisions about paint colors and stuff.
Since she was technically visiting Jackson Falls, she’d left her vehicle in Chicago.
That meant that she couldn’t get around on her own.
She probably couldn’t get lunch for herself.
Things like Uber Eats and Grub Hub weren’t available in Jackson Falls.
Maybe over in Red Leaf, but not in Jackson Falls.
I rang the bell and she opened the door for me with a smile. “Hey. What’re you doing here?”
I held up the bag. “I brought lunch.”
Bailey clapped her hands enthusiastically. “Yay! Thank you. I’m starving.”
“There’s no furniture in there. Come out to my truck.” At my truck, I let the tailgate down and spread out the food. “I got us both a turkey burger and fries.”
“At this point, I probably wouldn’t have cared what you brought. Like I said, I’m starving.”
I handed her a straw for her soft drink. “You get a lot done?”
“The cleaning crew your brother hired—”
I cut her off with a chuckle. “You mean your step-dad?”
She punched me lightly. “Shut up. The cleaning crew that Bayliss hired was top notch. They have the whole place smelling like laundry fresh off the line. It smells so clean and fresh in there. I’ve been walking from room to room taking it all in.
I’m supposed to be thinking of paint colors.
I had Perkins drive me to the home improvement store and to the paint store before she dropped me off here.
I have about a thousand paint chip color samples. Plus I’ve been on Pinterest all day.”
“What colors are you thinking about?”
“I have no idea. I think I’m overwhelmed.” She chewed a fry thoughtfully. “How do you usually choose?”
“Normally the client chooses. But if I have to choose, I think about the feelings that the client is trying to invoke in the room. What’s the vibe you want in the rooms? Do you want a cohesive theme, or do you want every room to have its own vibe?”
“Definitely not that,” she said with a snicker.
We talked through her vision as we ate. I didn’t know what was going on with her soon-to-be ex-husband, but he had to be a damn fool to let a woman like her go so easily.
I wouldn’t admit it to my brothers or anything like that, but I definitely had a little extra pep in my step as I walked up the front steps to pick up Bailey the next morning. She came right out dressed in workout gear.
She must’ve noticed me staring because she said, “I ordered some stuff from . I can’t really afford it, but I couldn’t keep practicing with you in my around the house lounge shorts and my doing laundry top.”
“Why can’t you afford workout clothes?”
She shrugged defensively. “I had to take a non-paid leave of absence from work to come here. Well, not to come here. Basically because I wasn’t ready to face the daily task of work.
I needed more time off from the rigors of my job.
Since I wasn’t going to be tied down to work, Perkins suggested I come here. I’m glad she did, though.”
“Me too. Jackson Falls is healing for the soul,” I added quickly.
She shot me a grin. “You’re right, it is. Must be all the fresh air and the views. Between the mountains, the trees, and all the various bodies of water, I’ve never seen any place so beautiful.”
We made it to the high school, did our four miles on the track, then headed to get juice shots.
“What are you working on right now, Bright?”
“Right now I’m working on two projects. I have a small remodel outside of the downtown area.
An older coupe is relocating from Atlanta, I believe.
They bought a small three bedroom over on Chestnut Drive.
It needs modernization. We’re doing some updates and adding stuff like a ramp and curb-less showers.
They want this to be their forever home and they wanna be able to age in place. We’re making that happen.
“We’re simultaneously working on a vacation villa for a millionaire real estate investor and his wife.
A huge ass 5500 square foot, seven bedroom, seven bath home.
It’s gonna be a playground in the ‘wild west’ for them and their closest friends.
And I just put in a bid to work on an estate for some AI genius that lives in California.
It’ll be over ten thousand square feet with an eight-car garage, seven bedroom, eight bathroom, a chef’s kitchen, two pools, a hot tub, a small putting green, and a carriage house. ”
Her eyes ballooned. “Wow, that sounds intense.”
“It is. But if we get it, it’ll carry the company through next winter. Winters are usually pretty slow for my company. I’m always happy to get a project like that one. It keeps me in the black.”
“Will you take me to see the 5500 square foot vacation villa?”
I considered his request. “Yeah, but you’ll have to wait until it’s closer to completion. Taking you there now would probably be an OSHA violation or something.”
“Okay. So, when I ask again in a month or two, just remember you already promised.”
I smiled at her. “I will. Tell me what you would be doing right now if you were in Chicago.”
“Uh . . .” She threw back her tart cherry juice shot and grimaced a little.
“I work for the public transportation company, just like my mom . . . and Xander. I work in customer service. I would probably be at my desk, fielding phone calls from angry customers. After work, I go home and cook dinner. Xander drives the bus. He’s low on the seniority totem pole, so his hours were always trash.
“He would get home about nine at night. Most nights I would already be in bed by the time he got home. And even though he knew I cooked every night, a lot of times he would grab take-out. I would end up taking the food I cooked to work with me for lunch.”
“So what I’m hearing is that you like to cook.” She probably thought I was about to comment on her husband’s behavior. But fuck that dude. As far as I was concerned, he didn’t exist.
“I love to cook. I like to experiment. I would watch YouTube videos or reels and try to recreate meals. Most of them turned out pretty good. Xander wouldn’t even try them.
He wasn’t an adventurous eater, which is why he preferred take-out.
His palette is limited. He doesn’t eat lamb chops or any fish that isn’t catfish or salmon. ”
I nodded but didn’t comment.
“I don’t mean to paint it like he was a bad husband.
It wasn’t all bad. He was a good provider financially.
We lived a very comfortable life. I mean, with both of us working for Transit Works and not having any kids, we made over a hundred and sixty thousand a year together.
If you add in overtime, we were almost at two hundred thousand.
I just can’t imagine being able to match that income in a town as small as Jackson Falls. ”
“You considering making your move to Jackson Falls permanent?”
“Who knows?” Her shoulders bounced up and down in a quick shrug.
I didn’t press her, but the fact that she was even thinking about relocating made my heart do some weird shit in my chest.