Page 5 of A Brambleberry Summer

Dealing with the renovations was a tedious job, filled with paperwork, phone calls and aggravation, but Wyatt could definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“What do you think?” Carrie looked apprehensive but excited. “Don’t you think it’s a fabulous idea? Brambleberry House is so close, you can easily drop off Logan when you need me to watch him.”

Location definitely was a plus. Carrie’s house and Rosa’s were only a few blocks apart. Brambleberry House was also positioned about halfway between his house and his sister’s, which would be convenient when he was overseeing the repairs.

Wyatt knew there were many advantages to moving into an apartment at Brambleberry House. Wouldn’t it be good to have their own space again? Somewhere he could walk around in his underwear once in a while if he needed to grab a pair of jeans out of the dryer, without having to worry about his sister or his niece walking in on him?

“It could work,” he said, not quite willing to jump a hundred percent behind the idea. “Are you sure Rosa is okay with it?”

“Totally great.” Carrie gave a bright smile that somehow had a tinge of falseness to it. What wasn’t she telling him? Did Rosa Galvez really want to rent the apartment or had Carrie somehow manipulated her into doing it?

He wouldn’t put it past his sister. She had a way of persuading people to her way of thinking.

Wyatt’s cop instincts told him there was more to Rosa Galvez than one could see on the surface. She had secrets, but then most people did.

The bottom line was, he was not interested in digging into her secrets. She could keep them.

As long as she obeyed the law, he was not going to pry into her business. Rosa could have all the secrets she wanted. It was nothing to him.

So why, then, was he so apprehensive about moving into Brambleberry House?

He did not have a rational reason to say no. It really did make sense to have their own place. It would be better for Logan, which was the only thing that mattered, really.

It was only a month, maybe two at the most. Wyatt would survive his unease around her.

“Are you sure the apartment is affordable?”

“Absolutely. She told me how much she’s charging and you won’t find anything else nearly as nice in that price range. It’s well within your budget. And I forgot to mention, the apartment already has a dog door for Hank and a fenced area in the yard.”

That would be another plus. Logan’s beagle mix was gregarious, energetic and usually adorable, but Carrie’s two ragdoll cats were not fans of the dog. They would be more than glad to have Hank out of their territory.

“It sounds ideal,” he said, finally surrendering to the inevitable. “Thanks for looking into it for us.”

“As I said, the apartment is ready immediately. You can stay there tonight, if you want.”

He blinked. How had things progressed so quickly from him merely mentioning the night before that he was thinking about moving out to his sister handling all the details and basically shoving him out the door today?

He could think of no good reason to wait and forced a smile. “Great. I’ll start packing everything up and we can head over as soon as Logan gets home from day camp.”

Carrie’s face lit up. “You can at least wait for dinner. I imagine Rosa is probably working until six or seven, anyway.”

“Right.”

“I think you’re going to love it. Rosa is so nice and she has a new tenant, Jen Ryan, who has a little girl who is a bit younger than Logan. Rosa has a wonderful dog, Fiona, who is more human than dog, if you ask me. I’m sure Hank will love her.”

At the sound of his name, Wyatt’s beagle mix jumped up from the floor, grabbed a ball and plopped it at Wyatt’s feet. He picked it up and tossed it down the hall. Hank scrambled after it, much to the disdain of one of the ragdolls, who was sprawled out in a patch of sunlight.

He had seen Rosa on the beach, walking a gorgeous Irish setter. They were hard to miss, the lovely woman and her elegant dog.

Rosa was hard to miss anywhere. She was the sort of woman who drew attention, only in part because of her beautiful features and warm dark eyes.

She exuded warmth and friendliness, at least with everyone else in town. With Wyatt, she seemed watchful and reserved.

That didn’t matter, he supposed. She was kind enough to let him live in her apartment for the next month. He didn’t need her to be his best friend.

Chapter Two

Now that the deed was done, Rosa was having second, third and fourth thoughts about Wyatt Townsend moving in downstairs.

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