Page 20 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)

FIFTEEN

BECKETT

My arms fucking ached from moving around sheets of drywall for the past two days.

I was fortunate enough to have both Luke and Connor’s help this afternoon.

Both of them seemed to enjoy hanging drywall.

Both also hated taping and mudding, so I knew what the next few days held in store for me.

One day, I might have a team of my own assembled.

For now, I was grateful for some help over no help.

“Last one?” Luke asked, nodding at the board leaned against the living room wall.

“Last full sheet.”

He looked at the drywall board, then at the staircase it needed to go up, then back at the board. “Let’s just fucking get it done.”

I looked forward to the nice hot shower in my future tonight, almost as much as I looked forward to having the least favorite part of this flip done.

When I first moved to Bluebell Springs, I focused on buying homes that needed minimal work.

They were quicker to convert into rental properties, and all but one I purchased was a quick flip.

This house, a short three-minute drive from downtown, was a complete gut job.

But the location in this tourist town couldn’t be beaten.

It was close to the restaurants and shops, as well as an easy distance to Glimmerstone Lake.

I hadn’t decided if I’d rent it to a long-term tenant, or make it a vacation rental.

Madeline would quickly volunteer herself as tribute if she got to decorate a vacation rental. My sister had many talents. Which reminded me, I needed to give her a call. She’d gone eerily quiet today. Madeline quiet was much more concerning than Madeline blowing up my phone.

Luke and I lined up the last full sheet of drywall in the main bedroom, holding it still while Connor knelt to screw it into the studs.

“Owen show you that house on Blue Spruce Lane?” Connor asked.

“Going to see it early next week. They’re not quite ready to show yet.”

It was convenient having a buddy who was a realtor in town. I often got the scoop on new listings before they hit the market.

“You’re going to buy up the whole fucking town before the year’s over,” Luke said, shaking his head in amusement.

I’d only purchased three houses, one condo, and the commercial building that was recently converted into Pizza Patty’s.

Though Bluebell Springs barely boasted a thousand residents, there were hundreds of houses.

Some in town, some on the outskirts, and some around the lakes.

That didn’t include the dozens of commercial buildings.

Until Nana insisted I was overlooking a stellar opportunity, I didn’t consider adding commercial rentals to my portfolio. She was the reason I might be adding the corner bookstore building to my list of current projects. Though I wasn’t sure it’d remain a bookstore for long.

For Kira’s sake, I hoped it did.

I couldn’t help but wonder how she’d feel about it being sold.

It was entirely possible Connie or her dad warned her I was a possible buyer.

Either way, she deserved to hear it from me.

Tonight , I promised myself. I’d tell her tonight.

If I had an ounce of energy left when I crawled into the house anyway.

“You going to buy Karl’s cabin too?” Connor asked.

“Considering it,” I admitted, though I was still holding out for that rent-to-own option. I left him a voicemail yesterday but hadn’t heard back.

“I hate to break it to you, but Dad’s not going to sell that cabin.”

All three of us turned at the male voice in the doorway. Thoren Hayes held up a stack of pizza boxes in one hand, and a small cooler in the other. “Boys ready to take a break?”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Luke asked, crossing the room and relieving Thoren of the pizzas. He slapped him on the back of his shoulder hard enough that he dropped the cooler to the floor with a loud thunk .

“Surprise, assholes!” Thoren wore the signature shit-eating grin he sported so well.

“How long you back for?” Connor asked, helping himself to a Gatorade from the cooler.

Whether he didn’t feel like a beer or was skipping out of respect for me, was anyone’s guess.

I told them all I didn’t care if they drank around me.

My disdain for alcohol had nothing to do with any of them.

Even drunk, they were good fucking people who’d never dream of harming a fly.

“Just for the weekend.” Thoren swiped a large slice of meat lover’s pizza and took a big bite. “This shit is good .”

“It’s Beckett’s place,” Luke said.

“I’m just the landlord,” I explained. “I can’t take any credit for the food.”

“Shit, if I’d known that, I would’ve name dropped you. Might’ve gotten free pizzas.”

After washing my hands in the connecting en-suite—I hadn’t ripped out the pedestal sink yet—I pulled up an empty five-gallon bucket and flipped it over to sit on.

“You want your Dad’s cabin?” I asked.

Luke shot me a look that said your funeral as he stripped off his gloves and served himself a slice of cheeseburger pizza.

“My old man would never sell me that cabin. Not if I paid him double what it’s worth.”

“Do you want it?” I asked again.

“Nah. What would I do with it anyway?”

Of the five of us—Owen was missing from our impromptu dinner—Thoren was the only one still active duty. We all got out before twenty years for one reason or another. But Thoren was a lifer.

“It’s been sitting empty since Aspen moved out,” Connor said, drying his wet hands on the inside of his T-shirt .

“Because my dad is one stubborn son of a bitch.”

“You have an issue if I buy it?” I asked him.

“Nope,” he said. “But Dad won’t sell. It’s like he thinks selling it would be selling what’s left of Aaron. Makes no fucking sense since he won’t step foot on the property. But good luck.”

“What’s the special occasion?” Connor asked, no doubt sensing the heightening tension, and trying to ease it.

“Mom’s birthday is Saturday. Aspen begged me to come back. Thought if I showed up, Mom would decide I was her surprise and not suspect they’re throwing her a big-ass party.”

Maybe that was why Kira was in town. From what I was told, she and Aspen were close. Not only because they were cousins, but because they were best friends. If she was here for the party, she’d probably leave, like Thoren, when it was over.

I only had to survive the next few days without doing something stupid. Like pressing her up against the wall and kissing her senseless. Fuck, I really needed Karl to call me back about that cabin. I’d find a way to convince him.

“Now it makes sense,” Luke said, shaking his head.

“What?” Connor asked.

“Why Kira’s back.”

I shot a look at him, wondering if he read my fucking mind. Hoping that if he did, he didn’t read the part where I imagined slipping my hand up Kira’s oversized pajama shirt in search of her supple breast that I strongly suspected would fit perfectly in the palm of my hand.

“Kira’s in town?” Thoren asked, sounding surprised .

“Yeah,” Luke said. “Been nothing but a pain in my ass. Did you know I found her sleeping in the goddamn bookstore apartment the night before last? On the fucking floor in that sleeping bag Connor gave her.”

“What?” Connor nearly choked on his pizza, and reached for his drink.

“Said she didn’t break in, but Dad changed the locks a month ago.”

“Maybe he mailed her a key?” Connor suggested.

“He didn’t,” Luke fired back.

“Has she been back since . . .” Thoren didn’t finish his sentence, but the brothers looked at one another, filling in a blank I wasn’t privy to.

“No,” Luke said.

“She apologized,” Connor said.

“And you let her off the hook, right?” Luke grumbled.

I shoved another bite of barbeque chicken pizza in my mouth to keep from asking the half dozen questions swirling around in my brain. Why did she need to apologize? What happened last summer? Why was she sleeping in the bookstore when she had family and friends all over town?

“C’mon, Luke,” Connor said. “You know why she lashed out.”

“Lashed out?” Thoren let out a loud laugh that drew everyone’s attention. “She stole the fucking microphone from the band.”

“To give a toast?” I tossed in a guess.

“It was at first,” Connor said, as though coming to her defense.

I understood why when Luke chimed in .

“Then she basically told everyone in this town to fuck off. That she was better than all of us.”

“That wasn’t quite what happened?—”

“The hell it wasn’t,” Luke said, cutting off his brother. “I was on call.”

Meaning he was sober and had a better memory than most. But Luke was also harder on people than they sometimes deserved. I wanted to believe this was one of those times. It seemed all too possible there was a side of Kira I hadn’t experienced, because I’d only known her a few days.

“She was lit that night,” Thoren said, his eyes sparkling, as though he was enjoying the conversation. He looked at me. “Drunk Kira is unhinged .”

“She was going through a hard time,” Connor again came to her defense.

“Yeah, yeah. Because of The Asswipe,” Luke mumbled, fixing himself another slice. “Still not a good excuse.”

“Who?” I asked, hoping my question wouldn’t get too much scrutiny. I certainly didn’t want anyone to mistake my curiosity for the interest it was. But something didn’t fucking add up here.

“She was dating this asshole for a while,” Connor explained. “She broke up with him the night of Aspen’s wedding. Did you know that?” he directed at Luke.

“Doesn’t give her the right to take it out on everyone else.” Luke shoveled in the rest of his pizza and stood, rubbing his hands together. “We going to cut up the smaller pieces of drywall tonight or what? Because if you girls want to keep on gossiping, I’m fucking out.”