“I know, but I also know how much work you’re doing to wrap things up over there.”
She had enjoyed discussing the other jobs on his schedule while they were working together on the renovation here. Bryce was obviously passionate about his work and she loved hearing his enthusiasm when he described it.
Okay, she loved any moment she could spend with him.
She was developing a serious crush on Bryce Kendall and she didn’t know what she was going to do about it.
“I do have other projects with unavoidable deadlines but The Rainy Day Bookshop is still my priority. I want to help you get this done so we can open the café before the summer’s over.”
“Sowecan open the café?” she asked shortly.
“Soyoucan,” he amended. He gave her a careful look. “Is everything okay? You seem upset at something.”
She was tempted to tell him everything. She even opened her mouth, then closed it again. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t betray the secrets she had kept for all these years.
“It’s the rain,” she said instead. It wasn’t a lie, just not the entire truth. “I don’t like rainy days. I haven’t, since... well. Since I was a teenager.”
His features softened with compassion, and she knew he was also thinking of her father. He must know, after working with her mother for so long, that rain had played a factor in the accident that had taken Gary’s life.
He could not know the rest of it. No one did. Not even her mother.
Emma was the only one who knew that she and her father had been fighting, that she had been furious with Gary, so angry that she hadn’t paid attention when he warned her the roadway could be slick.
She hadn’t been speeding, but she also hadn’t been as careful as she should have been, too busy telling her father off. As the vehicle lost purchase, she had forgotten all the things she’d learned about steering into a skid.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s one of the reasons I moved to Vegas. Desert. Heat. Not much rain.”
“You couldn’t pick two more different climates.”
She had come to love the area around Las Vegas while she lived there. She had grown to appreciate the vastness of the desert, punctuated by spindly Joshua trees, and the fascinating red rock formations of the state parks outside of town.
Still, the coastal rainforests and remote beaches around Wood Briar would always be home.
Bryce eased out of his jacket. “I, for one, love the rain. I guess I have to, if I live on the Oregon coast.”
“Why?” she asked.
He paused, brow furrowed as he gave her single-word question serious thought. She admired that about him, how he never answered quickly or glibly.
“So many reasons. What’s better than watching the storm clouds come in over the water, that dramatic sense of anticipation as you wait for them to unleash?”
She had always loved that as well. She could remember when she was a girl sitting in her bedroom and watching the water turn dark and clouds gather. It was the perfect weather for curling up in the window seat of her bedroom and watching the storms while she immersed herself in her latest read.
She wanted to reclaim that cozy mood here in the bookstore. That was her goal, making the shop a warm, welcome haven against an outside world that could sometimes feel dark and lonely.
“What’s your plan for tonight?” she asked
“I need to keep working on pulling off the old lath and plaster to return the wall to its original brick. Another few days and I should be done.”
“I can help. Let me know what you need me to do.”
He looked surprised at her offer. “I’m fine by myself, if you need to get back to Olive.”
She shook her head. “It’s fine. She and I spent all day together, since I didn’t come in until a few hours ago. I had planned to work on organizing a few things but I can do that another day.”
“Is Olive with your mom tonight?”