“You’re welcome to stay here,” she says, looking towards the stairs. “One guest room is Adam’s office now, but we have three. I can move my crafting supplies to the one closest to our room so you’re not right next door…” The cutest blush burns on her cheeks, and I fight the laugh bubbling in my chest.
“Don’t worry, I won’t be staying here. I’m going to go look for a hotel.” Wren’s nose scrunches up, and Adam’s lips roll inwards. “Or maybe not…?”
“The hotel here is small, not something you’d really want to stay in full time. There’s no kitchen or anything, so if you’re planning to stay longer than a week, it wouldn’t really make much sense.” There goes that plan. I bite my lip, trying not to look as thrown off as I feel.
“Well, then maybe I’ll look for some kind of long-term rental?” Now it’s Adam’s turn to look unsure.
“Rentals are far and few between here in Holly Ridge. It’s why my place got booked so quickly. It doesn’t really exist.”
“And Colton already filled his place,” Wren says low, a finger moving to her lips, though I have no idea who Colton is. Her lips purse, as if she’s thinking, and from what Adam has shared withme, it makes sense. Apparently, Wren can’t stand the thought of not helping and needs to find a solution. Desperate not to further inconvenience her, I start to speak.
“I promise I can figure it out, there’s no need—” But suddenly, her face lights up an idea hitting her. A red-tipped, blunt finger taps at her chin, and she grins.
“You know, I might have a place for you,” she says.
“Really?” Relief washes through me, and it leaks into my words.
“Yeah. It’s small, but no one’s living there right now. And it’s furnished! No one will be staying there, so if you want to spend the whole three months here, you totally could.” Her own excitement is brushing off, and I sit up straighter, my smile widening as understanding appears to strike Adam.
He seems to contemplate her words before speaking. “Hallie’s old place at Three Kings?”
Wren nods, and he turns to me with a wide grin on his face.
“You said you wanted the true Holly Ridge experience, right?”
SEVEN
LEO
If you had told me two months ago that I’d be standing on my property in the woods in the small town of Holly Ridge, watching two grown men—brothers, no less—argue about the best way to carry a plank of wood, I’d tell you that you needed to be checked out.
But here I am.
“I can’t help that you’re a fucking idiot, Madden,” Jesse says, a stack of five long planks of wood in his hands, his brother holding the other side as they unload the extra wood that we didn’t end up needing to my garage, which is currently holding all of my projects and tools.
“Me? You’re the one who thought Hallie and I were into each other for a year,” Madden says, a smile on his lips. Jesse’s phone lets out abing, and he lets go of the large piece of wood, letting it drop to the ground and making Madden’s body lurch as he takes on the bulk of the weight. “What the fuck, man?”
“Sorry,” he says, the smile on his lips conveying the exact opposite. “Could be an emergency.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Madden groans, rubbing at his shoulder dramatically. I continue running the pieces of half-rotted woodthrough the table saw to cut it into smaller chunks for easier disposal.
It’s been like this all day. Even though the family dynamic is incredibly strange, and the constant bickering is almost alarming, I feel oddly at home here. Being around Atlas Oaks for so many years and watching four grown men act like bickering siblings all day long, it’s almost like I’m used to this back-and-forth.
I had almost forgotten about Hallie’s little intervention until a truck rolled up to my house at eight a.m. on Thursday morning, and Jesse and Madden King hopped out with wide, nearly identical smiles on their faces. Even though I told them they didn’t really need to be doing this, they shook their heads and asked what other projects I might need supplies for. With a reluctant sigh, I moved around my property, showing them the back deck and the boards that needed replacing. I’d managed to take out the weak and rotting ones while salvaging most of the structure on my own, but without a truck, I couldn’t get the boards needed to replace them.
Soon after, we made our way into town, bought boards, bags of leveling sand, and pavers to start replacing the broken slabs out front. Then we spent the morning and afternoon replacing the boards and staining it. In less than a day, I have a fully functional back porch, and even though it’s a small project compared to all the work needed here, it’s nice to have something completed. Quietly, I’m looking forward to coming out here tomorrow morning with my coffee and relaxing in my own yard.
Though that relaxation won’t last long, not with Madden and Jesse planning to come back here on Friday to help me out with the front walkway. As much as I insisted that I don’t need their help, they won’t take no for an answer, and I know that on Friday morning, I’ll see Jesse’s truck in my front drive early. I planto take my car into town tomorrow to buy a propane grill and barbecue stuff. If they’re going to be helping here, I might as well feed them.
This is what I’m thinking about, lost in my own thoughts, when Jesse groans loudly, drawing my attention. As I look over at him, his eyes leave his phone screen, and his head tips toward the sky, irritation written all over his face, lips moving as if praying for a solution. After a moment, his head tips back down, and he shoots me an apologetic look.
“I gotta go. Hallie just asked me if I have a dolly somewhere and if she can use it to move a bed.”
“A bed? She’s trying to move a bed?” Madden asks with disbelief in his voice, but his face has a knowing smirk on it. I don’t understand these two in the least, but Jesse seems to. “And how does she expect to load an entire bed onto a dolly?”
Jesse shrugs, then slides his phone into his pocket.
“It’s more of a threat than an actual question,” he says, moving to his things and sliding items back into his toolbox.
