Page 2 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)

TWO

BECKETT

“What do you think?” Luke Mason asked, stepping inside the lakeside cabin and flipping on a couple of lights. I threw one more glance toward the general direction of the lake, but it still wasn’t visible. I followed him inside.

It was like walking into a time capsule.

Wood panel walls, olive green carpet, and a burnt orange floral-print couch jumped right out at me.

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was back on the East Coast, in Nana’s old basement.

The cabin felt cramped and compact with its closed-off rooms, but open concept wasn’t trending when it was built.

“I know it’s a little dated,” Luke added, thumbs anchored in his gun belt as I moved around. The police chief was working today, but he agreed to meet me and show me the place before his shift officially started. “But it has good bones.”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I admitted. The cabin appeared to be well maintained, even if it was a time- traveling experience into the seventies.

It was also furnished, which was a plus since these days, I didn’t have much in the way of material possessions.

Just what little I’d packed into a storage unit.

I was in no hurry to pull any of it out.

I walked through the rooms, counting seven with the bathroom.

Eight, if you added in the covered outdoor space with picnic tables, just off the kitchen.

I wasn’t surprised to find a green toilet and wall-mounted sink that matched the living room carpet in the tight bathroom.

Hell, the gas range in the kitchen matched it, too.

“Lots of green,” I remarked.

“Grandma Pebble,” Luke said. I pieced together that she was the grandma on his dad’s side, as I’d been living with his other grandparents for the couple of months I’d been in town.

“She refused to let Karl and Wendy change a thing when they bought it from her. No one had the balls to touch a thing after she passed. If there was ever a woman who’d haunt your ass, it’s Grandma Pebble. ”

“I’m not enacting some kind of curse if I rip out the carpet, am I?” I asked on a laugh.

Luke clapped me on the shoulder. “I’m afraid that’s a risk you’ll have to take.”

I didn’t believe in ghosts, so I wasn’t worried about some woman I’d never met haunting me.

“The family won’t mind?”

“Hell, I think they’d throw a party.”

My gaze snagged on a framed family photograph hanging just above the hideous couch; it was taken in front of the cabin.

I instantly recognized my friends, among the gaggle of kids piled in front of nearly a dozen adults.

A short, stout woman with gray hair tied up in a red bandana and a lopsided smile that promised trouble stood in the middle of the chaos—Grandma Pebble, I presumed.

What would it be like to have a family that size? To have family gatherings out at the lake with siblings and cousins? To spend holidays with laughter and banter instead of hyperawareness and disappointment? Hell, I’d even take the bickering.

“That was the summer I turned fourteen,” Luke said, nodding at the photo. “Same summer Dad refused to teach me how to drive, so I taught myself and drove his truck right into a stream.”

“Bet he was pissed.”

“Only reason he let me come on that camping trip was because no one wanted to stay behind and babysit my ass. But I was grounded until Christmas.”

I’d heard a few stories about their family camping adventures at Ghost Lake.

How Luke pranked his little sister by putting a snake in her tent one summer.

How she got even by putting it in his sleeping bag.

Connor, ever the peacekeeping middle brother, got caught in the crossfire when the two started throwing the snake at each other.

Their cousin Thoren sat back and watched the whole thing he’d instigated unfold, laughing himself stupid.

“Thoren doesn’t want this place?” I asked, staring at the picture and wondering if the girl with blonde pigtails was Luke’s sister.

I’d never actually met her, despite following Luke to Bluebell Springs on a couple of our joint leaves.

Bad timing I guess, because I always wondered what kind of woman a snake-throwing girl grew into.

“I’m not sure you could convince him to move back here unless you hogtied him and tossed him in the back of your truck. He and his dad don’t exactly see eye-to-eye. He’d sooner bear crawl buck-ass naked on broken glass than ask Karl for shit. Including this cabin.”

“Guess he’s a lifer, then?” Thoren was the only one of us four still active duty.

“Lookin’ that way.” Luke checked his phone, then dropped it back into his uniform pocket. “Uncle Karl said he’s open on rent-to-own options if you’re not ready to buy something.”

“That could work.” I had money tied up in several investment properties, including my first commercial building. It was a big step for Campbell Enterprises. Renting sounded more my speed while I focused on establishing this new side of my business.

“I have to warn you, though. Karl might change his mind. He’s done that before.”

“He’s not sure about getting rid of it, then?”

“If it were up to my aunt, the place would’ve been sold ten years ago.

But Karl . . .” Luke let his sentence trail off with a shrug.

“And look, if he does change his mind, my grandparents are happy to have you as long as you need a place to stay. Hell, you’re the favorite grandkid at this point.

If you wait it out long enough, they might just leave their house to you in the will. ”

He meant it as a joke, but my laughter was forced. I didn’t want to overstay my welcome with the Westons.

I parted the dusty curtains on the opposite wall of the couch, wondering whether they’d always been ivory, or if they just needed a good wash.

Dirty curtains or not, the view sold me.

“That’s Ghost Lake,” Luke said .

The private lake hadn’t been visible on the mile-and-a-half drive up and down a rough dirt road.

But through the picture window, it was framed in perfection.

Deep blue water with hardly a boat floating on it and a backdrop of mountains.

Thick woods all around, like walls. A few houses nestled in them.

Luke wasn’t kidding when he said it was quiet.

Compared to the larger, touristy Glimmerstone Lake on the other side of Bluebell Springs that was already littered with boats, jet skis, and pontoons, this place was deserted.

“Only locals live out here?”

“For the most part, yeah. There won’t be any asshole kids out here throwing parties. Just families camping on occasion.”

That explained the orange tent off to the far left.

“Why is he looking to get rid of the place?”

“Karl doesn’t come out here anymore. Hasn’t for years.” Luke cleared his throat. “Not since Aaron.”

I never met his cousin, but having served in the Army with some of his family, I felt as though I knew him. He was the reason Luke, Connor, and Thoren enlisted together more than a decade ago. The reason I met any of them.

“You don’t want it?”

“I don’t need another place to keep up, and I can’t live here twenty-four seven. It takes too long to respond to calls from out here.”

“No one else in the family wants it?”

“Anyone here is set up. Everyone else has moved away and isn’t interested in coming back or being responsible for a property that’ll sit empty most of the year. ”

“Has it been empty long?”

“Aspen lived out here for a few years,” Luke said of Karl’s daughter. “But not since she got married.” By my calculations, the cabin had only been vacant a year. “She still comes out here to clean once a month. I check on it to make sure there’re no squatters.”

In other words, the house wasn’t neglected. It was looked after, and hopefully wouldn’t need major repairs. I didn’t mind a personal renovation project, but I didn’t anticipate having time for something extensive when I was just getting settled with my new commercial ventures.

“C’mon,” Luke said, nodding toward the back door off the kitchen. “You need to see the rest of it.”

I followed him through the enclosed outdoor space, noting an old charcoal grill in the corner. Though it needed a solid scrubbing and possibly a power wash, my stomach growled at the thought of a burger grilled over coals.

“The property goes all the way past the clearing,” Luke said, pointing toward a dirt area through the trees. The ground was hard-packed around what appeared to be a small wood-planked dock, but no boats or any water toys were tied to it. “The road dead-ends there. It’s also your best lake access.”

“It’s private?”

“Yeah. You might get someone turning around once in a while. Occasionally, a lone fisherman avoiding his honey-do list. But they’re harmless. They won’t bother you if you don’t bother them.”

The full acre on the quiet lake was exactly the kind of property I hoped to find. The cabin could be updated, and until then, it was perfectly livable. It didn’t have a garage or shop space, but it’d probably be easier to store my materials in town anyway. It was the perfect setup.

We walked down to the edge of the water, and serenity greeted me like an old friend.

Nana would approve, even if I wrote Karl a check for the whole thing today.

We had a long chat about me putting down roots in this town.

Yet the permanence of even a rent-to-own situation made my stomach tie in knots.

If I backed out of buying it down the road because I found something better, what kind of rift would that cause?

How would that affect my decision to make this town my own?

This wasn’t a property I could simply flip.

“See? Quiet.”

I stepped right up to the edge. The ground dropped off a few feet into the lake, a tangle of tree roots and boulders making it a less than ideal place to get into the water if I felt like taking a swim or getting in a kayak.

I could see the boat dock from here, though, down a dirt-packed trail.

And I had a pretty good view of the entire lake.

“Does anyone here use the lake?”

A kayaker paddled off in the distance, a fisherman was camped out on a dock directly across, and a gaggle of geese enjoyed the calm waters. But otherwise, the lake was empty.

“Oh, yeah.” Luke pulled a vibrating phone from his uniform pocket. “But it’s all locals out here.”

It was a random Tuesday afternoon. “They’re working.”

“Fuck me,” Luck groaned, staring at the phone cradled in his hand. “I have to go. Some tourist got into a fender bender with Dana Wilcox downtown. She’s all bent out of shape. I better go defuse the situation.”

I couldn’t place the name to a specific person. But I also didn’t grow up in the small town like Luke did. He knew everyone. Some he liked, many he tolerated, and a special few grated on his last nerve. Judging by his expression, Dana was one of those special pains in his side.

But he vowed to serve and protect, so that’s exactly what he did.

And while he might pretend it inconvenienced him to deal with the thorns, I knew better.

I served downrange with Luke Mason during two deployments.

He felt a personal duty to protect them all, as though the citizens of Bluebell Springs were an extension of his family.

“Mind if I hang out for a while?”

He handed me the keys, already on the way to his police SUV. “Lock up when you’re done?”

“Yep.”

“Hey, Beckett,” he said, pulling open the driver’s side door. “Stop by and talk to my dad soon.”

I stared at him, dumbfounded. “He’s going to sell it, then?”

“Yeah, he decided last night. He’s giving you first right of refusal. If you want the bookstore, it’s yours.”