Page 38 of On the Line

Jules’s cheeks turn pink, and she glances at Audrey who gives her a small nod. “When we took over this project, right after Jameson fired Woody, the upstairs looked just like the downstairs—completely gutted.”

“What—” I look from one of them to the other. “What do you mean, gutted?”

“I mean it had new windows, plumbing, and electrical, like the rest of the house, but no other work had been done up there.”

“But ...” I stare at them, my eyes wide. “Does that mean you two designed and completed the upstairs before I moved in?”

“Something like that,” Audrey says.

“What happened,exactly?”

I’m part-confused and part-furious. For the past few weeks since I’ve been living here, I’ve been torn between gratitude to Josh for making this possible and guilt that I’d doubted him and his feelings for me while he was making a home here for us. And now they’re telling me the part I thought Josh had specifically designed with me in mind was not from him at all?

It feels like such a ridiculous hope to have clung to, but I believed that Josh designing that space proved that he knew me, and loved me, and was making things right.

“Design isn’t really my forte,” Jules says. “So Audrey worked with Jameson on redesigning the upstairs.”

My mouth opens but no words come out, and Jules, Audrey, and Morgan all stare at me with looks of concern. “With ... Jameson?”

“It was sort of,” Audrey says hesitantly, “his idea.”

“Define ‘his idea.’” I can’t even quantify the confusing emotions that are circling in my brain right now, but my body has decided to respond by flooding my system with adrenaline, and I’m pretty sure I’ve broken out in a full-body sweat while also feeling frozen in shock.

“He wanted to make sure that the upstairs was livable before you and the girls moved in.”

“So the design?” I ask. “The bedroom and bathroom ...?”

The sisters share another look. “It was mostly him,” Audrey says. “I drew up the plans, but he was the one who knew you, so he picked out what he thought you’d like.”

The bedroom’s vaulted ceiling with the wooden beams, the custom walk-in closet, the bathroom of my dreams ... it wasn’t my husband’s doing after all?

When Jules said “He knew you’d love it,” she was talking about Jameson?

“You look ...” Morgan says, “angry?”

“I’m”—I sink to the ground, relieved that the girls have made their way back to the living room and are chasing each other around the nearly empty room—“so fucking confused.”

“I don’t know why he didn’t want you to know,” Jules says as she sits down next to me. “He didn’t originally say we weren’t going to tell you, but then that first day when you saw it and you mentioned Josh, he just went with that.”

Audrey adds, “But we also hated feeling like we were lying to you, so Jules and I agreed that if it ever came up again, we’d tell you the truth.”

“I ...” I stammer. “I appreciate that. But also, why wouldhelie about that?”

Audrey and Morgan sit on the ground too, so we’ve essentially formed a circle. I can’t wait to have actual furniture in here like a grown-up, but right now the floor seems like the safest place for me to be since it’s as if the ground has crumbled beneath me.

“I can’t say that I understand the inner workings of Jameson’s mind—” Jules says.

“No one can,” Audrey adds.

“—but I think he’s worried about overstepping,” Jules continues. “While also, obviously, wanting to make sure your house is everything you want it to be so you can get off to a good start here.”

Why does he care?The question bangs around in my mind at the same time as I start adding things up: helping me sort out the financial mess Josh left me in, remodeling my house, arranging to have my driveway plowed when it snows and getting me a new garage door, telling me about the job with the Rebels, having Audrey connect me to Tammy, sending me and the girls breakfast every day this week.

“Does he ...?” I groan, unable to get the words out because it sounds so impossible, especially after all this time. I’m biting down on my lower lip so hard I’m worried I’m going to draw blood, so I relax my jaw, take a deep breath, and look away. I glance around the first floor of this house that I’m starting to love, and I realize that it’s all happening because of him.

They look at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish my sentence, but I can’t. My emotions are all over the place. I’m not ready to even entertain the idea that he might have feelings for me. And what does that even mean for a confirmed bachelor like him?

Jules just gives me a shrug and a small smile, and says, “Have feelings for you?”

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