Page 6 of Her Hometown Man
“I’m sorry, Mom.” Gwen decided it was best to lead with that. “I didn’t mean for that to sound as harsh as it did. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this and it’s a lot.”
“I know it is, honey. But it really was a solid plan right up until he went and died on us.” Ellen sniffed and took a second to compose herself before giving Gwen a smile. “We’re all still grieving, which we’ll do in different ways, and now we have all of this to deal with, so I think the most important thing we can do is be quick with forgiveness. We need each other now and we’re going to get through it together.”
Gwen nodded, thankful for the sentiment, even though it didn’t erase the fact she’d hurt her mother’s feelings. But Ellen had raised three daughters and gotten out of the habit of taking things too personally a long time ago, so they’d move on. Gwen just needed to be more careful choosing her words in the future.
“Who’s the contractor?” she asked, ready to get back to the business at hand. It was pretty clear from the scope of the work being done that they’d needed a professional.
Ellen sighed. “Mostly your father.”
Before Gwen could let loose the curse word that was floating in her mind, Case reentered the conversation. “I’m pretty handy. So is Lane. I think we can handle a lot of the basic stuff.”
Ellen shook her head. “I have a few things I was hoping you could help with so we wouldn’t have to pay a contractor, but they’re little things and I don’t want to take up more time than that because you boys have your own business to run.”
“So we’ll multitask for a while. We’ve got a good crew, so we can sneak some time away when we need to. And there are evenings and weekends, since neither of us have significant others at the moment.”
Case was single. Gwen hadn’t realized her subconscious had been mulling over that very question until the answer flooded her with a rush of pleasure at knowing that little fact. Having a crush she couldn’t shake on her sister’s first real boyfriend was bad enough. She didnotwant to have a crush on another woman’s man.
Of course, in an ideal world, she wouldn’t be attracted to Case at all. But currently, nothing about her life was ideal.
“I hate asking that much of you,” Ellen said, but Gwen could see the relief on her mom’s face. Maybe, more than anything, Ellen just needed to know she wasn’t alone. Considering Gwen’s skill set, that was aboutallshe could do, so she made up her mind to stop thinking about Case, stop resenting having to be back in Stonefield—for a little while, at least—and be as helpful to her mother as she could.
Then Case bent over to pick up a stray nail, pulling his jeans tight across an exceptionally nice ass, and Gwen revised her brand-new resolution. She would only think about Casesometimes, and preferably only when she was alone in her room at night. And definitely not when her overly observant mother was nearby, because Ellen had seen her checking out Case’s butt and gifted her with an arched eyebrow that made Gwen’s face feel even warmer.
She kept her mouth shut as she followed along behind Ellen and Case as her mom asked him questions about some of the decisions David had made and asked his opinion on some of the decisionsyetto be made.
“I didn’t even think to bring a notebook out with me,” Ellen said after a while. “I should go get one and write this all down.”
They all left the carriage house together, but when her mom went into the house to dig up something to write on, Gwen sat down in one of the porch rocking chairs with a sigh. Boomer looked up at her, but didn’t bother getting up to lie at her feet, maybe deciding she wasn’t a good bet for head scratches or belly rubs. Gwen was a little put out by his lack of faith in her.
But then Case sat in one of the other chairs, close enough to touch—not that she was going to—and the dog didn’t bother to move for him, either, which made her feel better. Rocking back in the chair, she breathed in the fresh air and sighed. “I do miss this porch sometimes.”
“It’s a beautiful spot, for sure,” Case responded, and Gwen winced because she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “You don’t livethatfar away. How come we don’t see you more often?”
“I like where I live.” That wasn’t much of an answer, so she wasn’t surprised when Case just waited—letting the silence go on until it was awkward, and she sighed. “You might have heard about a book calledA Quaking of Aspens?”
“Don’t tell me you avoid this town because of that?” He snorted. “People get riled up over the dumbest things. You shouldn’t let people’s thoughts on your book keep you from your family.”
“I talk to my family all the time.”
“It’s not the same as seeing them.”
Gwen was quiet as the sharp pang of guilt over missing last Christmas with her dad hit again before slowly fading back to its usual dull ache. “No, it’s not. But you have no idea how annoying it is that people in this town think the book is aboutthem.Like it’s the Stonefield version ofPeyton Place, or something. And it finally started to die down and then they made the movie. And then the movie started getting nominated for awards, and I literally couldn’t go to the market without hearing about it. That’s when I decided it was time to find a new town to live in.”
“Most people think you felt like you were too big a deal to live here anymore.”
She snorted. “I just wanted to put gas in my car without Bob complaining to me that his gas station isnotrun-down and has more than one gas pump, no matter how many times I told him it was a fictional gas station and not actually his.”
“Come to think of it, Ihaveheard people insinuate the guy who swept the protagonist off her feet was meant to be Tony Bickford.” She snorted again, which made him grin. “Tony always wears a Red Sox hat. The guy in the book always wears a Red Sox hat.”
“We live in New England, Case. You can’t swing a bat without hitting a guy wearing a Red Sox hat.”
“So not Tony, then?”
“No.” She didn’t want to talk about this anymore. “Of course Mrs. Bickford didn’t believe that and refused to speak to me after the book released.”
“You did kill off her son in a horribly tragic accident.”
She might have been annoyed if not for the impish gleam in his eye. “He shouldn’t have hit me in the face playing dodgeball in fourth grade gym class.”
