The Home They Built Page 6

  Seeing the words Blackberry Bay on Tess Weaver’s application had taken her breath away. Literally. She’d frozen, unable to breathe for a few seconds, with the paper trembling in her hand. In that moment, she’d realized she did care. She wanted to at least know who the woman was, and this was clearly a sign that it was time. The opportunity presented itself and she took it, even though it meant juggling a lot of secrets.

  The deep rumble of a Harley-Davidson engine broke into her thoughts and she turned in time to see a black motorcycle cruise past at a low speed. Even though the rider was wearing a helmet, she recognized Finn, and since he didn’t see her, she allowed herself to drink in the sight of him as he made his way down the main street.

  Once he was out of sight, she sighed and hit the screen to wake up her phone. Even though she felt ridiculous doing it, she opened her Facebook app and punched his name into the search box. There were definitely fewer Finn Weavers than Christine Smiths and it didn’t take her long to find him. Unfortunately, he appeared to be one of those people who not only grasped privacy settings but made use of them, and she couldn’t see anything but his name and profile picture, but the Harley in the photo looked like his.

  After clearing her search history, she put the phone back to sleep and resumed staring at the water. Another mystery, she thought. Who was Finn Weaver when he wasn’t pretending to be his grandmother’s handyman?

  He had money, she thought. That motorcycle wasn’t cheap. And she recognized the brand of his boots and his jeans. Maybe not enough money to throw around—or remodel the Bayview Inn—but he did okay for himself.

  What did he really do for a living? Where did he live? And, most important, was there a significant other in his life?

  So many questions, she thought. She only hoped she could get answers to some of them soon, so the risks she was taking—maybe even the loss of her job, her crew’s jobs and her professional reputation—by being here under Tess’s false pretenses were worth it.

  * * *

  Finn quite literally breathed a sigh of relief when he passed the Thank You for Visiting Blackberry Bay sign on his way out of town on Sunday afternoon.

  He needed a break. A break from the wacky pretend world his grandmother had them all living in. A break from the bickering sparked by Gram and his mom temporarily living under the same roof. And a break from the constant struggle to ignore the raging desire he felt for Anna Beckett every time he laid eyes on her.

  Hell, he didn’t even have to see her. All he had to do was hear her name—or think it—and his body was all yup, she’s the one. Between the effort it took to hide his reactions to her, the work hours he was putting in on the computer after a long day pretending to be a handyman, and the sleep he was losing while imagining all the different ways he’d like to touch and be touched by Anna, he was mentally and physically exhausted.

  A night in his own apartment would do wonders for him. He hoped. At the very least, if he lay awake thinking about Anna, he’d be doing it on his very firm king-size mattress and not in the old double bed of his youth. Or, thanks to Gram, his present. Sleeping on it once in a while during visits to his parents was one thing. Sleeping on it every night after a day of labor at his grandmother’s fake inn was entirely another, especially with the amount of Anna-induced tossing and turning he was doing.

  The ride did a lot to clear his head, though. It always did, especially when he got close to Portsmouth and had to really pay attention in the traffic. By the time he parked his bike and grabbed what he needed out of the saddlebags, he felt almost himself again.

  He closed the door of his apartment and then leaned against it with a relieved sigh. Silence. He rarely appreciated his quiet neighborhood more than he did the first few minutes he was home after a visit to his family.

  Finn’s phone rang, startling him out of his melancholy, and he sighed when he saw the number for his parents’ landline on his screen. They each used their cell phones to call him, which meant it was probably Gram.

  “Where are you?” she demanded as soon as he answered.

  “I told you I have meetings tomorrow that I can’t miss. Tom lined everything up so we can do it in one day, but I do have a business to run, Gram.”

  “You didn’t tell Anna or anybody from the crew you were going, did you?”

  He chuckled. “Did I tell Anna that your handyman had to leave for Portsmouth because he’s meeting some very rich executives from Boston for lunch? No, I didn’t.”

  “I’ll have to come up with some reason why you’re not there for when she asks me where you are.”

  “I doubt she’s going to care. She probably won’t even realize I’m gone.”

  Gram’s laugh made him pull the phone away from his ear for a second. “I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. She’ll wonder where you are.”

  Her words both horrified and thrilled him. It was nice to know he wasn’t alone in feeling the chemistry between him and Anna. But on the flip side, knowing she might be as interested in exploring that chemistry as he was just made it suck all the more that he couldn’t act on it.

  “You’re imagining things, Gram,” he said firmly, even though she probably wasn’t. The last thing he needed was for her to get it into her head to play matchmaker and really mess everything up. “I’ll be there Tuesday morning, ready to play handyman.”

  “You’re a good boy, Finn.”

  Her voice was thick with not only affection, but a little bit of apology, and it made him smile. “I love you, Gram.”

  “I love you, too. Your mom just started yelling about something, so I should probably go.”

  “Yelling about something?”

  “I was nice and rearranged all her kitchen drawers for her. Honestly, I don’t know how she could find anything the way they were.”

  “Gram.”

  “Oh, she’s coming closer. I’ll see you Tuesday.” She hung up on his laughter, and he shook his head as he plugged the phone in to charge. It was too bad he was commuting on the Harley, or he could have invited his dad along with him. He had a comfortable couch, not that it would matter to Joel at this point. He’d probably happily sleep on Finn’s floor just to get away from the two women in his life at the moment.

  The next morning, Finn managed to get to the office before Tom, so he was able to brew the coffee and put out the fresh doughnuts he’d picked up on the way. Even though he knew his business partner was okay with him being out of the office for a while, Finn felt as if he needed to make it up to him somehow.

  “I smell coffee and doughnuts,” Tom said as soon as he walked through the door. “Please don’t tell me you feel guilty because you’re about to tell me you’re going into some kind of witness protection program to hide from your family and you can’t be my partner anymore.”

  “As appealing as that sounds right now, no. I’m not sure even the US Marshals Service could keep me hidden from Mom and Gram. And I’d have to leave Grizz, too. That would suck.” When Tom paused to arch an eyebrow at him over the rim of his coffee mug, Finn chuckled. “Also, I would never do that to you, of course.”

  “Dare I ask how things are going with Tess?”

  Finn slowly shook his head, blowing out a long breath. “I don’t even know how to explain what’s happening there. Or in her head. It’s a little unreal, actually.”

  “I think what’s unreal is anybody thinking you’d be even a halfway decent handyman.”

  Finn laughed. “I guess the fact I’m not is part of the story, since a halfway decent handyman probably would have kept the house in better shape. Excuse me, the inn.”

  He’d called Tom the first night in Blackberry Bay and filled him in on what was going on. He told him everything, not only because he needed his business partner to be okay with holding down the office alone, but because if there was even a hint of liability on Finn’s part with regard to deceiving t
he production company, it could be an issue. But Tom had only laughed. He’d laughed so long, actually, that Finn had told him about everything except Gram’s baby oil suggestion. Tom was a good enough friend to ensure that Finn would never live that down.

  Tom’s phone chimed and he glanced at it. “We’ve got to leave now if we want to be there to greet the clients at the restaurant. And remind me to confirm their golf reservations on the way. It was easier for me to set it up for them, since I play there with my father-in-law.”

  “Hey, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you being cool with this.”

  Tom shrugged. “You know as well as I do that most of our work is done on the computer, so you can do it anywhere. And you are. The meetings we can handle. It’s not like you have to schedule flights or anything.”

  “Still, I appreciate it.”

  “It’s no problem. Now let’s get these meetings out of the way so you can get back to being handy.”

  Finn grabbed a balled-up piece of paper out of the trash to throw at him, but Tom dodged it and just laughed harder.

  “Maybe we should add it to your business cards,” Tom said as he pulled open the door, and they were still laughing when they got into the car.

  As the day went on, though, Finn found himself wishing he was in Blackberry Bay. The homesickness always set in, despite the fact he technically was home. Even though they were a lot at times, he loved his parents and Gram fiercely and being only an hour away felt like too far most of the time.

  It was what they’d wanted for him, though. He was a smart kid with big dreams. He had a good work ethic and everybody rooted for him. Especially his teachers. There was no limit to what he’d be able to do if he put his mind to it.

  That was Finn in high school. Most likely to succeed. Mostly likely to get the hell out of Blackberry Bay. Most likely to make his parents proud by going off into the world and making a bunch of money so he didn’t have to work as hard as they did.

  But Finn now? He’d tried. He got his degree and thought about the big money to be made in New York City, but the city held no appeal for him. He’d settled in Boston for a while. Hated it. Then he met Tom, who also hated Boston, and together they landed in Portsmouth. A small city not only close enough to Boston to do business there, but a city that maintained a historical, almost small-town feel that appealed to both men. And it was only an hour from his hometown.

  He was thankful for that. And business was good, his family was healthy, and he’d managed to rent one of the few apartments in his neighborhood that had a small garage to park his bike out of the rain. Life was good, if a little lonely at times.

  But his heart was always in Blackberry Bay, and there were times he wanted to pack it up and go home, and to hell with everybody’s expectations.

  Chapter Six

  Four days later, Finn thought he must’ve been out of his mind to miss Blackberry Bay. He was this close to packing up his stuff, resigning his position of fake handyman, and heading out of town. And if he did, he wasn’t coming back until this Relic Rehab nonsense was done with.

  His family was going to be the death of him. They were all spending way too much time with each other, and the old joke about nothing ruining a marriage faster than a husband and wife remodeling a house together wasn’t all that funny anymore.

  Now it was two o’clock in the afternoon, he was exhausted and he’d gone straight past shiny and right to downright slimy before he got coated in plaster dust. It felt as if he’d been covered in batter and was slowly roasting in the hot oven that was the upstairs hall.

  Just in case that wasn’t fun enough, he’d heard Mike tell Cody to stay on Finn and Tess while he covered Joel and Alice, and the younger guy was going all in on his assignment. Finn was doing his best to ignore the camera, as Anna had told them to do, but it was like having somebody staring at him intently. Constantly. Without blinking.

  He heard footsteps coming up the stairs and he knew it would be Anna because that was how his luck ran these days.

  “Good news,” she said once she’d reached the top and Cody had adjusted to get her and Tess in the shot together. “Eryn just spoke to your electrician and he can come over as soon as he wraps up his current job. Probably an hour at the most.”

  Finn wasn’t thrilled about one of his best friends being sucked into his grandmother’s scheme, but it didn’t surprise him Gram had given them his name when they were lining up contractors. The way he understood it, when Relic Rehab did projects in places they worked a lot—along the coastline or in the greater Boston area—they had contractors they used all the time, probably for a discounted rate. But Blackberry Bay was far enough away so it was cheaper for them to hire local. Plus it fit into the whole do-it-almost-yourself vibe of the show.

  There were a couple of benefits for Finn, too. The first being that Brady Nash loved Gram almost like his own, so he’d be careful about what he said. But, more important, it would be nice to have somebody around who not only knew the entire truth of the situation Finn had been dragged into, but somebody he could confide in. Somebody who could help remind him of the many good reasons he had for not acting on the sexual tension simmering between him and Anna.

  As a rivulet of sweat tracked through the plaster dust treacherously close to his eye, Finn muttered a few choice curse words under his breath and yanked his T-shirt up so he could use the hem to mop the worst of it from his forehead and face. With the way the four Weavers were going home at the end of each day, Relic Rehab was going to have to add a new washer and dryer for his mother to their budget.

  After he dropped the T-shirt back into place, Finn’s gaze just happened to land on Anna’s face. They didn’t lock eyes, though, because hers were zeroed on his stomach. Specifically, the abs he’d just covered with the filthy shirt.

  Then she blinked and he noticed she looked everywhere but at his face, and she cleared her throat before speaking again. “There’s not much we can do up here until the electrician arrives and I don’t see any point in starting something else in the amount of time we have, so let’s take a break. Get a snack. And hydrate. Drink a lot of water.”

  Then she spun around and went back downstairs so fast he was afraid for a few seconds she’d fall. She didn’t, though, and Finn leaned against one of the exposed wall studs with a heavy sigh.

  He’d known this renovation would be more extensive than their usual projects—Anna had explained to them it would be their big makeover of the season, plus there was the horsehair lath and plaster to deal with—but seeing his grandmother’s house torn apart like this still made him uneasy. It was as though they’d reached a point of no return and no matter what happened—or how much he wanted to sneak off with Anna and kiss her until he got that out of his system—they all had to see this through.

  Even though they’d actually reached the point of no return when his grandmother signed her name on the bottom line, the deception seemed to weigh more heavily on him every day, and he’d be glad when it was all over and he could go back to his life.

  Unfortunately, he relaxed against the stripped wall too long and Cody was able to gather his equipment and get to the stairs before Finn made his escape. And, as he’d feared, as soon as they were alone, Gram gave him a smug look.

  “I told you,” she said, hands on her hips. “You two spend more time watching each other than the camera does watching us.”

  “That is an exaggeration and you know it,” he said, deliberately keeping his voice barely above a whisper in hopes she would, too.

  “Not by much.”

  “Gram, please don’t do this.” He shoved a hand through his hair, wincing when he hit a chunk of plaster. “This is hard enough without you making things awkward. More awkward, actually.”

  She sighed. “Fine. I’m not wrong, but I don’t want to make things harder for you.”

  “I would hug you, but I’m p
retty disgusting right now.” His grandmother, playing the part of frail elderly lady, was far less filthy than the rest of them, of course. But she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him anyway, so he squeezed her back. “I’d go spray myself with the garden hose, but I’m afraid this mess would harden into some kind of full-body cast.”

  “Let’s go get a drink,” Gram said. “Supervising you lot is thirsty work.”

  A short time later, Finn was sitting blessedly alone on the porch steps and staring down into his almost empty plastic cup of lemonade when he heard the sound of a cell phone camera shutter.

  He lifted his head and saw Brady standing in the driveway. His friend laughed at him for a few seconds before doing who-knew-what with the picture he’d just taken.

  “Who are you sending that to?”

  “Reyna.” Brady finished tapping at his screen and then slid the phone into his pocket. “And to you. If Tom gives you a hard time about being away, you can send him that so he knows you’re not really downing umbrella drinks on a tropical beach somewhere.”

  “The last place I want to be is someplace even more hot and humid than here. I probably wouldn’t turn down a drink right now, though, even if it comes with an umbrella.”

  “As wrung out as you look right now, it would only take one drink and you’d be singing bad karaoke duets with whoever got too close to you.”

  Finn knocked back the last gulp of lemonade and pushed himself to his feet, trying not to groan and give Brady more ammunition. “They were holding off on starting the next thing on their endless list until you got here, so they’re probably ready for us.”

  Brady went in first, and Finn was expecting the surprised noise his friend made. Between the family and the Relic Rehab crew—which included two laborers named Frankie and Jim, along with Mike and Cody, who filled in as needed when not filming—they’d gotten a lot down and the house was almost entirely studs at this point. They wanted Brady to run point on some electrical work and then they’d start hanging Sheetrock.