“They tried. There is a long wait for those cases. We do pro bono. I grabbed it. I’m sure Rob told you I’m the pro bono attorney in the firm. I grab a lot of them.”

  “He alluded to it. There’s nothing wrong with that. Someone has to do it.”

  “They do. It’s my job to help those being bullied. To help those in need. I don’t need a big paycheck for it like so many others want. It’s not my driving force.”

  “What is your driving force?”

  “Justice. Standing up for the little guy. No one should be pushed around. Not by their bosses, their landlords, law enforcement.”

  He lifted an eyebrow at her. “I don’t push anyone around.”

  “No, you don’t. If someone breaks the law, you hold them to it. I do the same thing,” she said.

  “I guess we have more in common than I thought.”

  “Why do you seem so shocked?” she asked.

  He started to walk up the stairs knowing she was following. “I’m not shocked. Not even as surprised as I thought I’d be. And I’m wondering if that is why you are...interested.”

  “I think maybe that is part of it,” she said.

  When he was done showing her around the rest of the house, they walked back down to the garage and outside. “It’s going to be a lot of work for you. Do you really think you will be able to live in here in thirty days?”

  “I just need to get one bathroom and a bedroom done. I can live without a kitchen if I’ve got a microwave and a small fridge for a period of time.”

  “Just like living in a dorm,” she said.

  “Pretty much.”

  “So you’re doing the master first?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Once that’s done, I’ll start on the kitchen. Actually, I’m doing the floors first downstairs and then down the hall and into the master.”

  “Well, good luck with it,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s done.”

  “Maybe you’d like to see it again before then?”

  She smiled and he almost felt his own lips wanting to follow. “I think I might.”

  He walked over to a toolbox and pulled open a drawer, grabbed a pencil and pad and handed it over. “Your number. Or do we want to rely on another chance meeting like the four we’ve had in the past three weeks?”

  She took it from him, wrote her number down and started to hand it back, then pulled it back to rip a piece off. “How about yours?”

  This time he did smile. “By all means.”

  He wrote it down and handed it over. “So how long should I wait until I get to see something?”

  Oh, he knew there had to be a double meaning there. “Hopefully not as long as we both might think.”

  He watched her walk back to her SUV admiring her lean legs in her jean shorts and flip-flops. Her hair was in a ponytail, her T-shirt fitted and tucked into the waist of her shorts. He found he liked this side of her more than the professional-looking lawyer he’d run into three other times.

  7

  Being A Fool

  “You’re late,” her sister Hannah said to her when she walked into Blair’s house. “I shouldn’t be surprised since you always are, but this is later than normal. Did you forget?”

  “Of course I didn’t forget,” she said. “I never forget anything.”

  “Just running late because she had other interests this morning?” Blair said to her when she walked into the kitchen. There were muffins and a quiche on the counter. Blair always was the quintessential homemaker.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t think you want to know,” Blair said back.

  “Did you have a dream about Brina?” Hannah asked. “You know she always shivers when you do. Not me. You just never dream about me.”

  “I did,” Blair said. “But Brina doesn’t like when I talk about it, do you?”

  “Where do you think I was?”

  “Maybe with the guy that had big hands and feet again. How many times have you run into him since the last time we’ve talked?”

  “Are you dating someone?” Hannah asked. “Why don’t you ever tell me these things?”

  Her younger sister, Hannah, always wanted to know everything. It came from working as a hairdresser and being around women all the time talking, gossiping, and sharing details of their lives.

  “There’s nothing to say. I got pulled over a few weeks ago because my brake light was out. You know that.”

  “But what your sister didn’t tell you was that I had a dream she’d come in contact with someone with big hands and feet. They’d meet several times and be snarky. My question is...has that happened?”

  She wouldn’t lie. “Maybe.”

  “What’s his name?” Hannah asked. “I’m hungry, can we eat now that Brina is here?”

  Blair started to cut the quiche. “We can. So fill us in, Brina.”

  “What did you dream last night or recently?” she asked, wanting to know first.

  “Not much. Just that you were late today, but then again you always are so nothing new there. But you were with this faceless man with big feet and hands so I’ve got to ask if you’ve been getting it on with someone and keeping us in the dark.”

  “If she is,” Hannah said, “it’s nothing serious or romantic. We know Brina doesn’t have it in her.”

  “It’s not that I don’t have it in me, it’s just I’ve got no interest in rainbows, unicorns, hearts, and flowers. I leave that to the two of you.”

  She’d had those things and they didn’t last. They backfired. They fizzled. They blew up in her face. Whatever words you wanted to put to her being a fool, it would be applicable.

  “I haven’t had any of those things in years either,” Hannah said. “I’m drier than the Sahara. Or I should say my dating life is. My skin isn’t, thanks to Blair’s lotions.”

  “Cute,” Blair said. “But you are looking for the wrong guys, Hannah. Your time will come, don’t worry. Now for Brina...details.”

  “We are supposed to be working on things for your wedding that is only a few months away.”

  “Plenty of time for that,” Blair said. “Your sister and I want a name and why you were late.”

  “Nathan Randal. He’s the state trooper that pulled me over. And as Blair has pointed out in regards to her dream, we ran into each other at my office where he was meeting with someone else, then the courthouse, and finally I passed him a street over.”

  “He lives here?” Blair asked. “I’ve never heard of him and I know most people within a few blocks.”

  Blair was the most outgoing of the three girls in the family. She’d always been that way. Sometimes too outgoing and talkative and people gossiped about her and her upbringing.

  Blair’s mother had been killed when Blair was a baby and her mother’s best friend, Tyler McKay, became her guardian, legally adopting her as his daughter. Tyler was gay and now married to Jake. If people weren’t commenting on Blair’s family upbringing, then they were about the dreams she always had that she had no problem sharing, or the fact that she was conceived in a petri dish.

  No one in their family thought of Blair as anything other than a blood relation. The fact she wasn’t biologically her Uncle Tyler’s daughter meant nothing.

  “He just bought the house. He was in the office because Rob is his attorney and we ran into each other in the hall. He’s a flipper on the side. When I was driving by on my way here, I noticed him taking his helmet off in the driveway.”

  “Helmet,” Hannah said, dropping her fork and reaching for Brina’s hand and gripping it. “He rides a motorcycle? Oh man.”

  “Yes, he does. I didn’t know either.”

  “You like guys like that,” Blair said. “You always said you preferred guys that were polished, but we know the truth.”

  “It’s not like I’ve had any luck with the polished men in my life.”

  Everyone she dated didn’t last. Maybe it was because she wasn’t polished herself regardless of being an attorney. How many times had she heard she was like the pink elephant in the room? Not just the elephant in the room, but a pink one to make her stand out even more.

  “Which is why you need to stop being drawn to them and go for guys on bikes,” Hannah said.

  “I’m not going for anyone,” she said.

  “So you are late because you saw him this morning. Did you stop and talk, I’m guessing?” Blair said.

  “Yes. He offered to show me the house so I couldn’t turn him down. We know I’m kind of nosy that way.”

  “I would have jumped all over it,” Blair said. “How does it look inside?”

  “A disaster. I think everything is original and it’s a mess. It’s a gut job. He has guys coming over today to demo it.”

  “Maybe you wouldn’t mind stopping over when we’re done,” Hannah said. “And introducing your sister.”

  “Not happening,” she said.

  “So, are you going to go on a date or something?” Blair asked.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think so. We did exchange numbers.”

  “And?” Hannah asked. “Are you going to call him or wait for him to call you?”

  “I haven’t decided yet,” she said. “It just happened a few minutes ago. And can we get back to wedding planning and all that happy ever after fluff?”

  Blair laughed. “Cynical. Always so cynical. I wonder if your trooper knows that about you.”

  “No clue,” she said. “A date isn’t a romance. You know how I feel about it.”

  “You’d feel just fine if it was with the right guy,” Hannah said. “Not everyone is like Ben.”

  She rolled her eyes. “No one is quite like Ben.”

  “And if I ever see him,” Blair said, “I’m going to make sure I spill the smelliest scented oils I’ve got in my purse on him.”

  “That’s the meanest thing you’d ever do,” Brina said. Blair didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

  “Come on, Brina,” Blair said. “You don’t do anything mean either. You should have kicked Ben in the balls and then stuck a fork in his butt for what he pulled with you. For what he said. But instead you just walked away.”

  “It wasn’t worth it,” she said. Sometimes you just have to know when to fight and when to flee. She’d never thought she was someone who fled, but she’d been worn out by the time she found out what Ben was really like.

  “I understand,” Blair said, looking at Hannah. “We all do and we’ve all been there at times. Maybe this will be different.”

  “I’m not looking for anything to be different. If Nathan calls me, or I call him, it’s going to be more about fun than anything, if that. He works a lot and so do I. As we know, that makes it hard to date anyone.”

  “And you are too young to be that way,” Hannah said.

  “You’re younger than me. You work a lot too,” Brina argued.

  “I want to open my own shop. I need to work now to get the money for it. I’m almost ready to take that leap, but I’m nervous. You know that,” Hannah said.

  Their parents paid for Brina’s first four years of college after her scholarship. Hannah’s schooling didn’t cost as much so her parents gave her the same amount to start her own business. It still wasn’t enough for Hannah to make the leap. Hannah needed security and owning her own business might not give it to her.

  Brina understood to a point, but she had to keep pushing her.

  “Hannah,” Blair said. “I know how scary it is. But you can do it. You work hard and you want it too much to let it fail.”

  “I know,” Hannah said. “But I need a location, a good one, I need to bring my clients with me. It’s so hard when I think it through.”

  They heard the back door open and saw Livi, Philip’s daughter and Blair’s soon to be stepdaughter, come rushing in. “Hi, Blair, Brina, and Hannah. Can I help? Daddy said I needed to ask and not assume, but I’m bored at home.”

  Brina laughed and pulled a stool out at the island. “Come right up here next to me. What do you want to see at your dad’s wedding?”

  “Rainbows,” she said. “I like bright colors. I want lots and lots of bright colors and balloons. And candy with the cake. Can we have candy?”

  Blair was trying not to cringe over the rainbows, but said, “I think the colors will be a little more toned down than rainbows but I think a candy and sweets bar would be fun.”

  “What’s a candy and sweets bar?” Livi asked.

  “Instead of people going to a bar to get a drink, they get to fill a bag with lots of candy. And I think it’d be fun to let you pick out all the candy for it.”

  “Yay,” Livi said. “I think I’m going to like that bar.”

  Brina turned and winked at Blair who always had the magic touch to include everyone in everything and make the room happy but still get her way too.

  If only Brina could find her own way to be as happy as her cousin.

  8

  Worth It

  “The crew is here,” Josh said when he walked into the front door with Mick and two other men from the office. “And we are ready to smash things.”

  “I’m ready to get to work,” Nathan said. The minute Brina left he’d walked around the house with a can of spray paint and put an X on everything that was going. That was the whole kitchen and a few walls to start. “The floors are first.”

  “Do you want us to all work down here or divide and conquer?” Josh asked.

  “Why don’t two of you go upstairs and start ripping up the carpets. I took the screen out of the window in the bedroom over the garage. You can try to toss the carpet out the window toward the dumpster and it saves us from bringing it down the stairs.”

  “Sweet,” Mick said. “I’m up with Josh. I’m all for ripping up and tossing shit out the windows.”

  Nathan shook his head while those two went up the stairs. “We need to get these appliances out of here too. I’m moving them in the garage. When I buy the new ones, they will take the old ones away.”

  “Do these work?” Steve, another trooper, asked.

  “Yeah. They are pretty old, but they do work. I’ll probably keep the fridge in the garage for beer and drinks. And it’s filled up right now for us too.”

  “Even better,” Steve said. “My daughter lives in an apartment and her stove isn’t working. Rather than having to buy a new one, if you don’t mind, I could see if she wants this.”

  “Take it,” Nathan said. “Anything you guys see or want, take it. I’m putting all new in.”

  It’d be less stuff he’d have to worry about at another time. “I’ll just call my daughter now and see if she wants to come over with her boyfriend.”

  “If they do, we’ll help load it up for them,” Nathan said.

  “Great. Now let’s get to work so I can smash some shit. It’s been one of those weeks.”

  A few hours later, the carpets were out of the bedrooms, the toilets removed from the master and hall bath. The half bath was staying for now so they had one they could use.

  He heard a loud crash and stopped to run up the stairs. “What’s going on?”

  “Sorry,” Mick said. “I couldn’t help it. I tossed the sink into the dumpster. It made more noise than I thought it would. Hope your neighbors aren’t going to get upset.”

  “No worries. I just wanted to make sure no one was getting hurt on my watch.”

  He went back downstairs to get to work.

  After six hours they were sitting on overturned buckets, and stools, everyone had a drink in their hand and the front door opened again. “I’ve got pizza,” he heard.

  “You’re a lifesaver,” Nathan said to Ruby. She’d done this before when they were working on Josh’s house.

  “Well, you did ask if I wouldn’t mind doing it,” she said.

  “You’re such a cute delivery girl,” Josh said, walking forward and taking the three boxes out of her hand. “This is a lot of pizza for five guys.”

  “Nathan said the order was placed and paid for. I just had to grab it on my way back. This is what was there.”

  “I could eat four slices myself,” Mick said. “I’m starving. This is the most physical labor I’ve done since Josh’s house.”

  “You went through a whole bag of chips too,” Nathan said, laughing. He’d had some snacks out for the guys.

  “Allison never has food in the house for me anymore,” Mick said.

  He didn’t want to hear about Mick’s girlfriend. “Maybe you should stop and buy some,” Ruby suggested.

  “I could but then when I do she doesn’t like what I get. I just gave up. She always finds something to complain about.”

  Nathan shook his head. There were times like this he was fine being single. But when Ruby walked over and gave Josh a kiss, he wondered what he was missing too.

  By the time everyone but Dean left for the day, the house was pretty much gutted the way he wanted. Dean was young, mid-twenties, been on the force for a few years. He was a good kid for the most part.

  Nathan was beat and in desperate need of a shower. “Thanks for the lift,” he said to Dean when he locked the house up.

  “Not a problem. It’s on my way. This place is going to bring you a pretty penny when it’s all done.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “It should. It’s going to be a lot of work but should be worth it in the end.”

  “If you ever need help, just give me a call. I’m not much more than grunt labor, but I’d like to learn if you don’t mind showing me some things.”

  “If we’ve got shifts off together and you want to come over at some point, I’ll show you a thing or two.”

  “How did you learn to do all of this?” Dean asked when they climbed into his SUV.

  “My grandfather worked construction. He taught us all. In our household you didn’t hire anyone to do anything that you could do yourself.”

  “I’d like to be able to do that more. I try, but then it takes forever or looks like a kindergarten project when I finally get frustrated enough to just get it finished.”