Chapter 24 #2
“Nadine,” Kell said patiently, but Luke felt the undercurrent of annoyance. “Rachel loves this town. She moved here.”
“She’s only been here for nine months, Kell.”
“And in those nine months, she’s accomplished so much.”
“Like those stupid parking machines?” Nadine snapped back. While the adults were distracted, Harriet took the opportunity to sneak a lemon bar. Because he had no desire to have a sugared-up kid all night, he took the lid to the container and closed the lemon bars up tight.
Also? He wanted some for later in the day for himself.
“Parking meters?” Kylie asked innocently, eliciting groans from all the staff sitting at the desks around them.
“Sore spot,” he hissed, loud enough for Nadine to hear.
“Not everyone has a smartphone!” Nadine shouted. “She had all the parking meters replaced with those machines!”
Kell cut her off. “The town has a parking problem. Rachel set up parking apps for the areas furthest from the center of town, so you can pay with your phone.”
“Sure,” Kylie said. “They’re all over New York and Boston.”
Nadine’s sniff made it clear Kylie wasn’t earning herself any points with that comment.
“After listening to the public,” Kell said pointedly, “she made sure the meters downtown offer both options. Coin and parking app. And revenue has shot up.”
“The meters near my daughter’s hair salon are app only!” Nadine complained.
“Annabeth’s clientele figured it out just fine,” Luke said. Kylie’s eyes flared when he said Annabeth’s name.
There it was again, a strange sense that something was off.
“What’re you here for, again?” Luke challenged Kell. Rusty covered his mouth to hide a grin. Was he being that obvious?
“Tree,” Kell said simply. “Blocking Old Core Road. Got most of it out of the way, but you told me to have an officer check the road when I finished, so here I am.”
“You couldn’t have called?”
Kell winked at Kylie, popped the lid off the container, and stole another lemon bar. “Then I’d have missed out on all the sweet stuff.”
“Come on.” Luke grabbed his keys and hat. “I’ll go check out the mess you made and finish clearing it.”
“Grumpy McGrumperson,” Nadine said under her breath, but not quietly enough.
Ruffling Harriet’s curls, he gave Kylie a polite smile, put on his hat, grabbed his coat, and walked out to his car, Kell on his heels.
His brother let out a low whistle.
“That bad?” he said to Luke.
“Huh?”
“Haven’t seen you this mad about me talking to someone you like since, well,” Kell paused. “Never.”
“Shut up.”
“We aren’t kids. You can’t make me.” Kell’s hearty laugh was a reminder of their size difference now.
Luke’s little brother was anything but.
“I have handcuffs and I know how to use them.”
“That’ll come in handy with Kylie.”
Kell’s words were teasing and light, but they triggered something primal in Luke, who got in Kell’s face, hand tight on his elbow.
“Don’t.”
“Whoa, bro. I've got Rachel. You know that. Just having fun. Kylie didn't seem to mind. Geez, Luke. Man. It’s cool. I’m–I’m not after her. I wouldn't do that.”
“Good.” Tension poured out of him as he let go of Kell’s rock-hard arm. It was like trying to dig your fingers into a brick.
“You realize plenty of other guys will be soon. Rusty was giving her the eye.”
“If he likes his eyeballs, he’d better stop.”
“Listen to you! You turn into a damn caveman around her. I never saw you like this around…”
Kell stopped before he said Amber’s name.
Words jumbled inside him, none of them quite right, so Luke stomped to his cruiser, slammed the door shut, turned on the engine, shoved it into reverse–and realized he had no idea where on Old Core Road Kell was going.
One punch of his steering wheel and Kell magically pulled in front of him, his big six-wheel work truck emblazoned with the logo for Luview Tree Service.
Old Core Road was close to a big logging area. The curves were dangerous in winter, so Luke drove with caution. Kell took him just past the turn for the country road that went to the camp they were buying. A tug of desire–the other kind, not the kind attached to Kylie–surged in him.
His camp. His land. His compound.
Their dream.
Amber had floated the idea first, when rumors spread that Camp Wannacanhopa was being sold. He’d just come home from work after a motorcycle rally outside Luview, his brain tired from too many tricked-out bikes without mufflers, the sound turning into a buzz in his head.
“Luke!” she’d gushed. “The camp’s for sale!”
“The what?”
“The camp!” Amber’s eyes had been shining like distant stars, bright and beautiful. “Trish at work told me. The Louis family is finally selling.”
“Hmm.”
His answer made her shoot him a sad grin. “I wish we could buy it.”
A snort was the most he could muster. “Win the lottery and we’ll talk. Some developer will buy it and put ski condos on it.”
“Oh, I hope not! We have so many great memories there.”
That had softened him. Sliding his arm around her shoulders, he’d given her a kiss on the cheek. The memory was as fresh now, two and a half years later, as if it were yesterday.
“We do.”
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live there?”
“It’s a camp, Amber. You’re a bookkeeper and I’m a police officer. What would we do with a camp?”
“All that land! And the lake. The lodge. The outbuildings. Imagine raising Harriet there! And our other babies.”
“Other babies?” His hand had slid to her belly, her lips on his suddenly, the kiss a promise of a nice end to a long day.
Her laughter was infectious. “A girl can dream, right?”
A girl can dream.
Soon, Amber’s dream would be a reality.
Because Luke was buying the camp, after all. The Louis family hadn't put it on the market back when Amber was still alive, though. They'd changed their minds, and Amber had let the idea go.
Not that they had the money then. No winning lottery tickets.
And now? He hadn’t won the lottery. The thought turned his stomach, less than it used to, but it still pulled.
Although Amber worked at the small local hospital, it was part of a large network, and she was always the type to maximize her benefits.
She had paid a little extra out of every paycheck for the maximum death benefit.
Her dad’s autoimmune illness and decline had been part of it, Amber insisting they look at long-term care insurance as well.
They were young, she reasoned, so the premiums were low.
Luke, like Amber, maxxed out his life insurance.
When she’d insisted, he’d told her he’d go along with it to make her happy, but knew they’d never need it.
How wrong he’d been.
Amber’s life insurance money had come in not long before the Louis family finally listed the property, and when it came on the market, his mom had been the one to point out the life insurance payout. The owners agreed to sell it to him for less than a big corporate offer.
It was a deal he couldn’t refuse.
They’d all go in on it together. By the time his mom had finished calling Kell, Den, and Colleen, and talking to their dad, it felt inevitable. A family compound. Everyone would sell their homes or give up their leases, his parents and Kell would move the business, and they’d consolidate.
Coordinate.
Work together as a team to care for three generations.
When you’re part of a team, you don’t flirt with other team members’ love interests, he reminded himself as Kell slowed down before a scattering of sawdust in the road.
“What’s wrong with me?” he muttered as he pulled over, put the car in park, and got out to look. Kell was head over heels in love with Rachel. He hadn’t been flirting.
Booty Call Rusty, though–he needed to have a talk with him.
Jealousy was Luke's problem, and he was as green as poison ivy from it.
“Hey, Grumpy. You look like I squatted on the hood of your car and defiled it.”
“Don’t laugh. Rusty had that happen to him when he worked in Augusta.”
Kell made a face. “That’s why I’ll never live in a big city again.”
“Augusta’s not a big city,” Luke said, laughing as Kell kicked a large chunk of bark out of the road. “And besides, we know why you hate cities.”
Kell's eyes went troubled, then cleared fast, like a quick rain cloud. “Yeah. But now Rachel lives here and it's all good.”
Years ago, he'd gone off to D.C. fresh out of agriculture school, determined to help fight for forest management and eco-friendly systems.
He fell in love.
He fought the good fight.
And she broke his heart.
Rachel changed all that, fortunately.
Luke clapped him on the shoulder. “I'm glad you're so stuck on her.”
“Ha ha.” Kell and Rachel met again when she came to Love You, Maine, to secure a big multinational deal for the local chocolate company. Her car broke down and he tried to fix a hose with superglue. Rachel grabbed his hand at the wrong moment… and the rest was history.
They were stuck with each other now, in a different way.
Deeply in love.
“This looks good,” Luke told him, kicking another small branch out of the way.
“Thanks. You don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Look good. You’re rattled. Is it Kylie?”
No use in pretending.
“I–yes.”
“You love her?”
“What?”
“You sleep with her yet?”
“No.”
“You knew how to answer that question. Now answer the first one.”
“How can I be in love with someone who’s only been in my life again for three weeks?”
“That’s not an answer.”
Luke huffed.
“Or is it?” Kell shot back, eyebrows up.
An old pickup truck, loaded with a couple of cords of wood, rumbled on by. Pete Heller waved as he drove past, mercifully not stopping to chat. The wind whipped Luke’s hat brim up as Pete moved beyond them, Kell offering an arm up in greeting.
“Let’s go to the camp,” Kell called out as Luke held his hat on his head.
“Huh?”
“Camp!”