Page 72 of Making New Plans

I didn’t even question how he’d surmised what I was going through. Hell, I didn’t even know to what extent they realized how much I’d hated this place. They’d just shown up, no questions asked, and had started destroying my old house with me.

The corners of my mouth crept up as the strangest feeling of my peace eddied into my soul. “Better,” I agreed.

They bobbed their heads. Eventually, we picked ourselves up and went into the lodge for some lunch.

I’d already let Sal know I wouldn’t be making it for lunch time at Monty’s, and she’d been happy to hear why. I had to admit I looked forward to lunch with her. Sal had a razor-sharp wit and interesting stories. Stories about Tangled River and the people who lived here. About herself in days past. Even a few about me from when I was young. Nothing too serious, and they rarely featured my parents, but I didn’t mind.

Maybe destroying the old house was the first step to making my peace with them. And maybe one day, I’d be in a better place to hear more stories about them and who they were before I knew them. Then I’d have someone like Sal to tell them to me. Maybe that was part of the reason why people liked having family around. It could be nice having someone who knew you before you knew yourself and knew the family genes that swam in your gene pool.

But in the meantime, tearing down the bad memories was good enough for me.

We were wolfing down sandwiches and gallons of water outside around the big firepit when Chloe came out.

A chunk of my turkey and Swiss lodged in my throat, and Carter had to whack me on the back before the coughing subsided. My cheeks burned while I gulped water and my two supposed friends laughed hard at my expense.

Chloe grinned. “How’s it going?”

“Good,” I said quickly before the other two could answer. “We’ve destroyed a few areas of the house already, but we’ll have to call someone soon to bring a dumpster around for the rubble.”

Chloe nodded. “I’ll call Sal and see if her mystery man does that sort of thing.” She rocked back and forth on her heels and fidgeted with the long sleeves of her sweater. “Thought I’d check out your progress.”

“Sure.” I stood quickly, brushing crumbs from my jeans. “We were just about to head back in there.”

Carter stood as well. “Yeah, Chloe, maybe you could take a swing or two. Just don’t tell Sarah, or she’ll be pissed we didn’t invite her.”

Chloe nodded eagerly. “I definitely want to! Just tell me how.”

Carter sent me a sly grin. “Or Hunter can show you. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to.”

I rolled my eyes so hard at him I saw stars. Subtle, dude. Real subtle.

We cleaned up our lunches and trooped back to the house. I lent Chloe my gear, surreptitiously wiping as much sweat and grime off them as I could. She looked adorable in the oversized goggles and gloves that went halfway up her arms.

She tipped the hard hat up at me, giving me a cocky smirk. “How do I look?”

“Like a safety hazard to my concentration,” I growled in her ear.

I had the satisfaction of seeing her shoulders shiver before she straightened away from me, cheeks pink. I handed her the sledgehammer and pointed her at a wall.

“This wall should crumble pretty easily. Just aim and follow through. Make sure to swing in an arc, too, so you don’t hit your head.”

She nodded and directed her laser-like focus at the wall as if it’d cheated on her best friend. Grunting slightly, she gave the hammer a few test lifts then swung it in a graceful arc. It smashed through the wall, leaving a gaping hole and a cloud of dust in its wake.

She cheered, pumping her fist in the air, then turned to me. “How was that?”

Sexy as hell. “Scary,” I teased her. “Remind me to never get on your bad side. Especially when you have access to tools of destruction.”

She laughed, and Carter and Owen joined in on the teasing. As she created hole after hole in the wall, I had the strangest thought. Here she was helping me destroy my past to help clear the way for the future. And she could be part of that future. If I stuck around. If I did what I said and made her—possibly our—vision of Pine Grove come true. But now, each hole she created in the wall felt like a hole punched through my original plans.

Questions, like gale-force winds, were threatening to knock me off my tightrope. Like how was I really going to make this work? I had a job back in Boston. I hadn’t even run the idea of me splitting my time between here and there by my boss. The words had come out of my mouth, and I’d believed them. But what about my dream of running my own architecture firm? Working on big plans for prestigious clients? City life for small-town life? I hated living out of a suitcase. I was supposed to do that full-time?

By the time Chloe was done swinging, I’d worked myself into a considerable panic. When she looked up at me again, her bright smile dimmed.

She pulled her goggles down around her neck. “Are you okay?” she asked over the sound of Carter and Owen beating another wall to a pulp.

“Fine,” I said gruffly, holding my hand out for my gear. “You should probably head back, right?”

She bit her lip. “Yeah. Probably.”

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