Chapter Thirteen

KENDALL STRUGGLED to keep her voice even and the topics of conversation light for the next hour, even though the quiver in her stomach made it near impossible. She hadn’t meant to share her history with Gabe, but after he’d told her about his father, she’d thought he might be the only non-foster child she’d ever met who could understand what it felt like to be robbed of your own destiny. It wasn’t fair that he’d been raised with a father only lurking in the shadows when it had been within “Uncle Bob’s” power to step up and be a proper parent. Just like it wasn’t fair that Connie Green knew Kendall was out there somewhere and hadn’t found her. It seemed like they both understood that kind of unfairness followed you into adulthood, no matter how hard you tried to overcome it.

And the resulting connection she felt with him was altogether unsettling. It wasn’t sexual, not exactly, even though she couldn’t deny that she found him attractive. It was just the undeniable urge to scoot in next to him and curl into his warmth. To just . . . be close to someone for a change.

But she’d found that was pretty much impossible with men, who took any kind of physical contact to mean she wanted to sleep with them. When she tried to disabuse them of that notion, they either dumped her or tried to force the issue. It was better to settle on this tentative understanding than to risk a short-lived romance. Right now she needed his help. And his friendship.

Other than Sophie, she didn’t have any friends.

When it finally grew so cold that her butt was going numb on the metal hood of the truck and her fingers were starting to pale, he gathered up their trash and offered her a hand down. The touch of his fingers sent a little tingle up her arm, but he didn’t seem to feel anything of the sort. He just opened the truck door, waited for her to climb in, and then shut it securely behind her. On the way down the mountain, he didn’t talk much, so she sat back and watched the headlights cut through the darkness, illuminating the bright silver of the aspen trunks against the dark background of evergreens.

Still, when he stopped in front of the B and B, she half expected him to lean over the console for a kiss. Instead, he sat there with one hand draped loosely over the steering wheel, his blue eyes earnest. “I can go over to the house with you about ten tomorrow. Just tell me if you want to meet there or if I should pick you up somewhere.”

She sat there, slightly discomfited by his behavior. “How will I get ahold of you?”

“Oh.” He pulled out his cell phone. “What’s your number?”

She recited it, and he plugged it into his phone. A moment later, her own phone chirped. “I just texted you. Just let me know in the morning.”

“Okay. I will.” After an awkward hesitation, she climbed out of the truck. “Thanks again. That was nice.”

“It’s my pleasure.” He smiled at her, his eyes never leaving her face, and she shut the door. When she reached the top of the steps, she looked back, and there he was, still watching her. He gave a little wave, and she realized he was waiting for her to get inside.

Well, that was unexpectedly nice. Or maybe, given her experiences with Gabriel Brandt, it shouldn’t be unexpected at all.

It wasn’t that late, but the inside of the house was quiet, so she tiptoed up the stairs to her room, which she unlocked with the same key she’d used for the front door. She was just peeling off her coat when her phone rang. For a second, she thought it might be Gabe, checking on her again, but a quick look at the screen showed Sophie’s face. Her heart lifted as she answered the video call.

“Soph!”

“Kendall, I’m so sorry. What a crazy day!” From the background, she could see that Sophie was in their office, dressed in a suit and silk blouse. “The Thomases have turned out to be incredibly demanding, but they’re willing to spend a fortune on this remodel, so I can’t complain. Guess who’s going to be their beck-and-call girl for the next several months?”

Kendall laughed at the reference to one of their favorite movies. “Some clients are like that, but if they’re happy, I’d say you’re doing the right thing. What else is going on?”

“Well, we have another potential client.” Sophie reached off camera for something and then held up an image on her tablet. “Do you recognize this?”

Kendall gasped. “That’s not . . .”

“The Woolridge House? It is.”

She pressed a hand over her mouth. The Woolridge House was one of the premier examples of Craftsman style in Pasadena, built by an industrialist and privately owned for over a hundred years. Other than the occasional spread in an architectural or historical magazine, the home’s interior had rarely been seen. Considering that only a few of the rooms had ever been photographed, Kendall had long suspected that the inside was due for a full remodel or restoration.

“How did they contact you?” she asked when she finally found her voice.

“By phone. I asked them to send over some photos of the project first so you could see them. I’ve uploaded them already, and I’ll text you the link when we get off the phone.” Sophie’s expression gleamed with excitement. “Check this out.” She began to swipe through the tablet, and Kendall’s eyes widened with each successive photo. The first few looked to have been taken straight out of a magazine spread, but the others . . . Well, she’d been right. Varying shades of decades-old remodels had covered the bedrooms and hallways and back living spaces in terrible garish colors, the unique molding painted in some places and water damaged in others. There was no doubt that this was a huge project.

“What did you tell them?”

“I said that our schedule was fully booked, but I knew that you had a special interest in this house, so I would see if there was any way you could fit it in sometime in the next year.” Sophie’s expression turned uncertain. “That was okay, wasn’t it? I didn’t want to seem too eager. I figured they’d be suspicious if we dropped everything for them.”

“No, no, you did the right thing.” Having an air of exclusivity only added to the cachet of their reputation. And Sophie had also been smart enough to buy her time. “Did they say anything about budget?”

“Sky’s the limit, it seems. They’re after the historical landmark designation.”

Kendall’s heart leapt with excitement. This was the big project they’d been needing. Something as high-profile as the Woolridge House would land them mentions in every historical and architectural magazine there was, not to mention give them amazing fodder for social media while they were doing the remodel, something she couldn’t discount when casting the net for new clients. “Send over the photos. I might need you to do the initial walk-through. Tell them I’m on a special sourcing trip and I happen to have come across some things that will be perfect for that space.”

“I take it the process is going well?” Sophie asked, excitement still lingering in her voice.

“Very well.” Kendall didn’t make the conscious decision to lie, but in the face of Sophie’s news, she didn’t want to spill how difficult today had been for her. Besides, Gabe was going to help, and she was sure his presence would make a difference in how quickly she could move through the house. He would at least be a welcome distraction. “I didn’t get much done today because I had to go buy a heater halfway through, but I think tomorrow will be much better.”

“Excellent.” Sophie’s expression turned mischievous. “I don’t suppose there’s any good . . . scenery . . . up there?”

Kendall smiled. “It’s beautiful. Lots of trees. The sunsets are amazing.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “Not that kind of scenery.”

“There’s some eye candy for sure. The mayor is kind of hot, and so is the town welcome dude. But they’re just typical bros.” She kept her voice light so Sophie wouldn’t guess what she really thought.

Predictably, her friend’s expression fell. “Man, if you can’t find a good guy in the wilds of Colorado, where can you find one?”

“Don’t know, Soph. Maybe they’re all gone.” She didn’t disabuse her of her perception of Jasper Lake, especially when she didn’t want her to dig any further about Gabe and Luke. “I did, however, meet a very handsome guy today. He’s just a little hairy.” She went on to tell her about Gabe’s Irish mastiff, knowing her dog-loving friend would get fully distracted from the topic at hand.

It worked. After extracting a promise to get a photo of Fitz tomorrow, Sophie said, “I really need to go and get changed. Sean is picking me up in an hour.”

“Have fun, then. Tell Sean I said hi.” Sophie’s boyfriend was a nice guy, but they’d been dating so long at this point, Kendall was beginning to doubt that he’d ever pop the question. And why should he? They were both so busy that they got together for dinner a night or two a week and Sophie slept at his place when she didn’t have an early meeting. It was an arrangement that had to seem perfectly fine to him . . . There wasn’t really any motivation to move to the next step.

“Keep me updated. I’ll talk to you later.” Sophie blew a kiss at the camera and then shut down the video chat, leaving Kendall alone in her quiet rented room.

“Later,” she said softly, then tossed the phone down on her bed. Just when she felt the first tendril of loneliness creep in, her phone beeped with an email message. The photos from Sophie.

She pulled out her laptop, connected to the B and B’s surprisingly strong Wi-Fi, and began to look through the photos Sophie had uploaded to the cloud. The interiors of the Woolridge House were worse than she’d thought, many of the original features removed during questionable updates. It was her favorite kind of project, one that required meticulous research and layers of detail, not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars, a percentage of which she would claim as her fee. Maybe they didn’t need the money from her houses here after all. If she could land this project, they could potentially get a loan for the purchase of the house, using the commission as a down payment.

Her heart lifted. If she didn’t need to sell, then it simplified things for both her and Gabe.

Which was beginning to matter a lot more to her than she’d expected.