“I can’t take over,” she said. “This is Emma’s baby. I want her to own it.”
“Good call.”
“I’ll talk to her tonight.” She gave him a steady look. “You know I wouldn’t trust anybody but you to handle something as important as renovating the bookstore, right?”
She liked and admired all four of her project managers and considered each a valuable part of the company but there was something about Bryce that was different from the others. He went the extra mile on every single project, offering smart suggestions to improve the plans and coming up with creative solutions whenever problems arose. He was the hardest working employee she had and she respected him for not only his work ethic but the strong relationships he fostered with subs and crew alike.
When the time was right for her to walk away from Lucas Construction, she knew Bryce would be an excellent successor.
“I’m pretty busy right now with the work we’re doing at Stormhaven, the Pine Beach house and the new East Ridge subdivision development.”
She made a face at the reminder. “Right. You’re maxed out. I can’t ask you to take on more than you’re already doing.”
“You know,” he said slowly, “I could probably find room in my schedule if you reassigned the Stormhaven project. Or you could take it over yourself.”
She stiffened. Stormhaven. The house had once been her and Gary’s dream house. Imagining what they would do with it had once brought her so much joy... and also so much pain, after he died.
After the accident, she couldn’t summon any enthusiasm for fixing up that big place for only her and Emma to live.
But what was more important to her? Keeping her daughter here in Wood Briar, or confronting her own ghosts? Easy. Emma would win every single time. She owed her daughter every chance at success.
Rosie had been a mess after Gary died. No doubt about it. She had loved him since she was seventeen years old, and losing him at thirty-five had seemed the cruelest trick of fate. In the midst of her deep pain, she had withdrawn into her grief, shutting out family, friends and especially her daughter.
Emma had pulled away as well, relying more on her friends than her mother, and then eventually turning to anything she could find to block out the pain. And Rosie had been completely oblivious to how badly her child had been hurting, all the self-destructive ways Emma had found to escape.
Rosie hated that she hadn’t stepped up to be the mother her daughter had needed during that time of grief and sorrow. She was ashamed of herself for giving in to her self-pity until it was far too late to do anything to help Emma.
She could help her now. Fixing up the bookstore, making it as productive and as profitable as possible, would not only increase the profit margin, but it could be exactly what Emma needed to stay in Wood Briar and to give Rosie this chance to make things right.
Freeing up Bryce by taking over the Stormhaven renovation was a small sacrifice on Rosie’s part.
Rosie hadn’t managed a construction project since handing more and more responsibilities over to Bryce and the other project managers a few years earlier. The challenge of fixing up the old house would be exciting, even if it meant working with Andrew Morgan, who affected her far more than she wanted to admit.
“I can do that, I suppose,” she said.
Before he could answer, his phone rang. He ignored it for two rings, then looked at the caller ID and grimaced.
“It’s Vista del Mar.”
The nursing home where his mother lived, she knew.
“Answer it,” she said. “That’s your priority.”
“I’ll take it out in the hall.”
“Hello. This is Bryce,” she heard him say as he walked out.
After he left, Rosie turned to her credenza, pulled out a drawer and withdrew the folder she hadn’t looked at in years. She should have thrown it away a long time ago, especially after she sold Stormhaven, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it.
This file held all her and Gary’s hopes and dreams for the crumbling old mansion.
Before she could do more than page through the top few papers, Bryce came back into her office, his features pale beneath his tan.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is your mom okay?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “No. She fell in the bathroom, apparently. They’re not quite sure how it happened since she was alone in there, but she somehow broke her hip. She’s in the hospital and is going to need surgery.”
She rose instantly and went to him, giving him a quick hug. “Oh, Bryce. I’m so sorry.”
