Page 7 of Bear's Heart

Josie lifted a shoulder.“We didn’t get that far.”

Melissa frowned.“What does he want done?”

“He needs a bathroom and a kitchen that works for him.I think the kitchen can be modified fairly easily.The bathroom might require tearing down a wall and shifting plumbing.”

“How is he getting upstairs to his bedroom?”Neil leaned forward and drew a printed layout of the Anderson house toward him.“All bedrooms are upstairs.”

“He’s using the downstairs bedroom.”

“There is no downstairs bedroom.Just his office which was really a trophy room.”

“I didn’t see any trophies.”Josie approached the desk and leaned over the condensed blueprint of the house.She studied it a moment and then tapped the bedroom with the adjoining bath.“He’s sleeping here.”

“That was originally his office,” Melissa said, leaning over to get a better look at the blueprint, too.

“There wasn’t a desk or shelves or trophies,” Josie answered.“Just a bed and a nightstand.”

“No shelves or cabinets?”Neil persisted.

She shook her head, remembering the plain stark walls.“Nothing.”

Neil opened his laptop and typed away and then turned his computer around so Melissa and Josie could see the screen.“This is how that room used to look.It was his favorite room.”

Melissa’s lips pursed.“I don’t think it was his favorite room, but it was his mom’s favorite.Or he’d dedicated his wins and success to his mom.Something like that.She’d always been so proud of him, and so he put together the trophy case in her memory and framed some of the articles written about him.I was there one day when theRocky Mountain Design Magazinewas doing the feature on his property and the writer was asking Braden about the trophies.I distinctly recall Braden being embarrassed, saying he didn’t want to be photographed in that room.In fact, he preferred the room not being included in the magazine feature.”

“So, they didn’t include it?”Josie asked.

Neil grimaced.“Oh, they did, when the photographer returned to the house for a few shots that the editors still wanted.”

“The trophy room photo went into the magazine?”Josie guessed.

“Yes,” Neil and Melissa said simultaneously.

“Braden was livid.”Melissa glanced at Neil.“I think he’s been angry with us ever since then.”

“But you couldn’t control what the magazine did,” Josie protested.

“No.Well, maybe.”Neil hesitated.“The fact is, we didn’t ask the magazine not to include the trophy room.In hindsight, we probably could have ensured that they didn’t.But we didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

“No one thought Braden would be hurt,” Melissa added quickly, almost defensively.“And it was gorgeous.The most beautiful cabinetry you’ve ever seen.”

Josie just remembered the room as it looked now.Empty, terribly empty, no beautiful cabinetry, no art, nothing decorative anywhere.“I wonder what he did with his trophies and awards.”

Neil shrugged.“Maybe he had them moved to a room upstairs.”

“Or put in storage,” Melissa added.“I can’t imagine he would want to sleep in a room filled with reminders of the past.”

“True,” Josie agreed, before saying goodbye and leaving the office to walk the three short blocks to her studio apartment on the second floor of another old building downtown.Downstairs was a popular restaurant, which meant that it was often noisy, but the staff was friendly and the bartenders protective and kept an eye out for her, especially in the evenings and weekends.She waved at Josh, one of the afternoon waiters who was working the sidewalk tables.

He nodded and then one of the other waiters, Aiden, whistled to get her attention.“Come in, Josie.Have a drink.”

She shook her head and smiled.“I’ve got so much work to do.Maybe this weekend.”

“Or a date this weekend?”Aiden answered, lifting a brow, flashing white teeth and a deep dimple in his cheek.

He was good-looking and close to her age, a student at the university, and full of charm.The girls loved him.He knew it, too.

Josie laughed and shook her head.“Not looking to get my heart broken, Aiden, but thank you.”

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