Black Creek Burning (The Black Creek Series, Book 1) (25 page)

"For someone who
never
kisses and tells, you're nosy." Amanda smiled when Brie lifted a brow. "Let's just
say he can walk and chew gum at the same time."

Brie stopped what she was doing. "I meant are you happy to be dating him."

"Oh. This is embarrassing." Amanda stood for a minute. "So happy that I'm afraid whether
or not he'll still be here when I get back from an assignment."

"Have you talked to him about it?"

"I think it's too early for that."

"He's planning a trip with you and Rose to Disney World, and you think it's too early
to talk about it?"

Amanda sighed. "I'm tired of leaving, of having no place to call home. It was great
when I was younger, but Rose is putting down roots here. She's making friends at school,
loves Duncan and Andy. I told him I'm going to get a place. I'm looking for a steady
job, then Rose and I are getting a place of our own. Scary, huh?" She clasped her
hands on top of her head. "What?"

"You've changed. I guess we both have."

Nathan walked in and looked back and forth between the two of them. "I hope I'm not
interrupting anything too important, but he wants
Mooncake
and he wants you to read it," he said to Brie.

"Which means Rose is still up there," Amanda said. "That's one of her favorites."

Nathan nodded. "Duncan is just glad he didn't have to share his bed with two little
kids. He's sound asleep."

When she walked into Andy's room, he and Rose were sleeping, too. The book was stuck
between them and their mouths were hanging open.

She laughed to herself and put the book on Andy's desk. Picking up Rose, her miniature
body snuggled into Brie's shoulder.

"No story?" Dave asked as he took Rose from her at the bottom of the stairs.

"They didn't make it. Sleeping like a rock," she said.

Waving as the content trio pulled down the drive, Brie leaned against the jamb of
the front door, then turned to Nathan. "I need to get going, too, if I'm going to
make it here bright and early. I want to take the dogs for a short walk before I get
started, before we get started."

He shut the door and wrapped his arms around her. "I like the sound of that."

Chapter 21

"Hmm?" Nathan was completely confused by the stranger in his doorway.

"I said I'm here to grade your yard." The man pulled out an order invoice. It had
Brie's name on it.

"Oh, right. Sure. What is it you're going to do?"

"I'm going to make a really big mess," the man said as he headed to his white box
truck and lowered a ramp out the end. He backed out what looked like a combination
of an end-loader and a small tank. Another man with tripods circled the yard and house,
shining lasers at the ground.

He barely had time to comprehend before Brie pulled up in her truck. He noticed her
look at the men, then wince. She jerked her head up once to the crew as she lowered
her tailgate and pushed up her wheelbarrow, the dogs running at her side, toward the
porch.

Site boss hat.

When she was close, she smiled at him like she'd discovered something secret. "You
have puffy sleep eyes. Very cute."

Girlfriend hat.

Speaking louder, she offered introductions, then explained. "These guys are here to
survey and grade the yard. They make sure the water travels away from your house,
even during a hundred-year rain. Depending on the lasers, the tiller there will grind
up and move the soil around to prepare for the sod." She kissed him on the mouth.
"And all at a wholesale price. Pull out your checkbook, Reed. They'll be done in a
few hours."

Whistling for the dogs, she walked past him toward the house. "First, I'm going to
make you some puffy, sleep eyes coffee."

The girlfriend hat was definitely his favorite.

* * *

Nathan worked on sanding down the floors, preparing them for stain. Most of the floors
still had the original wood. Even through his custom-fitted dust mask, he recognized
the rich, clean smell from the boards that had to be from at least the 1950s. Hardwood
floors hadn't been made with fine old growth wood for decades. Some boards needed
to be replaced, but Nathan was pleased there weren't many. The previous owners had
laid carpet in most of the rooms, and it served as handy protection.

He wanted to get the house to a basic, finished state. Then, he could start work on
the projects he really enjoyed, like wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookcases in the
would-be library and wainscoting under the stairs.

He would check on his landscaper at break time.

* * *

Brie had the sod delivered early the next day. It was warm already that morning. Odd
for early April. She stood next to the scattered pallets in her favorite rubber boots
that reached her knees, a pair of denim shorts and a tattered NYU sweatshirt. Her
hair was tied in a tail and stuck through the clasp of her worn Giants' cap. She felt
rested and where she belonged.

Using spools of thick orange yarn, she created a pattern where the line of brick edgers
would frame the landscaping plots. She placed the yarn in a curved, flowing pattern,
walked back to look at it, moved it and looked at it again. Sitting on the ground
with legs crossed, her bare thighs rested on the sun-warmed soil.

While Brie contemplated the northwest corner of the house, Nathan came out carrying
two steaming mugs.

He handed her the one with the cover.

"Is that coffee? You are the man of my dreams."

"And you are sitting in dirt." He stood with his free hand in his front pocket. "The
dogs don't like being stuck inside."

"They'll have to live for now. I'd invite you down, but it's dirty." She stood instead,
brushing the dirt from the backs of her legs.

Nathan's gaze dropped to her bare thighs.

"I'm thinking of adding tiered plots at this corner and under your bedroom window."
She waved her hand in front of his face. "My eyes are up here, Reed."

"Yeah, but your legs are down there."

She tried her best wise-ass smile. "You keep telling me to decide what to do back
here. I need you to tell me what
you
want."

"That's like you telling me what color to stain the dining table. Not your thing.
I trust you."

"There's no small something you'd like for your own yard?"

"A pond." He tucked a lose piece of hair behind her ear.

"A pond? That's not a small something."

"A pond with those jumbo goldfish and a waterfall I can hear from my bedroom window."

"That won't work."

"See? Not my thing. Why not?"

"Great Blue Herons."

He lifted an eyebrow. "Not following you."

"We have Great Blue Herons that would think of your pond as a food dish. If they didn't
get to your goldfish, there is plenty of wildlife around the creek that would. Fox,
raccoon, muskrat."

"I would notice a heron. I've only seen a million Canadian geese and a few dozen mallard
ducks."

"They'll be migrating back here any time now. You won't miss them. How about a small
pond with floating plants and a waterfall up here under your window so it's close
enough to hear at night?"

"See? Your thing."

"It will attract frogs," she warned. "They're noisy."

"I like noisy frogs. I'm a camper."

Interesting. "Me, too."

"There's a lot I don't know about you." He reached down and kissed her under her ear.

In her head, Brie had a small argument with herself about work first, then play, before
she came to her senses. "The first thing is I'm on a roll, and I need to go to my
house and pick up extra sprinklers from my garage."

"I'll get them." His face was set.

She shook her head. "Okay, I need the timers for them that are on the shelves next
to the back door."

She watched him meander toward the creek sipping his coffee and wondered how he ever
got anything done moving at that pace all the time.

* * *

After Nathan finished spraying the last of the base cabinets, he found Brie sitting
on his workbench, her legs crisscrossed, waiting for him.

"I thought you'd never come out of there. Where are your boys?"

"Why do you always ask me that?" Before she could answer, he told her. "At my folks
for the night making homemade pizza."

"The last set of pallets will be here first thing in the morning. I'll have to use
seed that will tolerate the shade under your trees and along your drive."

He thought she looked amazing sitting there covered in dirt on his workbench. "There's
Italian in the fridge, and I've got a bottle of Chardonnay. Microwave and a card table?"

"I have a better idea. Give me fifteen minutes. I've got a change of clothes in the
car. I just need to clean up."

They brought the dogs and a paper bag full of food his mother had left and they had
warmed. They sat in Brie's Adirondack chairs on her brick patio. The fire pit blazed
in front of them. Nathan added treated pinecones that caused shoots of flames in brilliant
greens and blues. The air was chilly, but the wind was calm and the night was clear.
Smells of spring mixed with the smoke. Ducks and geese made an occasional noise from
the lake and from Black Creek. They ate and talked of growing up in Northridge.

"Birthday?"

"July."

"Mmm. Older woman. I'm September. What day in July?"

"The fifth."

"My brother's was the fourteenth. We still celebrate. My folks decided not to commemorate
their deaths, but their birthdates."

She rotated her head against the tall back of the chair and faced him. "That's smart.
I've never known how to ask about how they died."

Nathan watched her face flicker in the light of the flames. "Just ask. You know it
was a plane crash. There was no foul play." Their feet rested together on the only
wooden foot stool. "Andy acted out for a while without completely understanding why.
Duncan didn't understand at all for a long time. We sat on our couch one evening,
and Duncan asked for the thousandth time when his parents were coming home. I tried
to be gentle. I don't know if I did it right, but I explained for the thousandth time
they weren't coming home. Out of the blue that night on the couch it hit him. He screamed
and tossed the room around until he fell asleep in my arms from exhaustion."

A single tear spilled down Brie's face. Nathan assumed the story must have felt familiar.

He brushed the side of his boot against her sneaker. They traded happier stories about
family before he decided to change the subject altogether. "You must have run track."

"I was tired of being the fat kid no one wanted to date."

He left his eyes closed but lifted the corners of his mouth. "There was enough of
a variety in your anonymous pictures."

"I told you the photos might not sit well with you." She pulled on her ear. "You must
have been one of the jocks."

"Nope. My brother and I worked for my dad. It was all about the money back then. The
jocks impressed the girls, but I had the funds to take them out. And the chick magnet
car, of course."

"And now you drive a pickup."

"Mmm hmm. I have a car in storage with the rest of my furniture."

"A chick magnet car?"

"Saab 9000 Turbo. Black. Leather interior. I miss her."

* * *

The next morning, Brie lost herself in rolls of sod, while dodging sprinklers. Pallets
of brick edgers were coming, and she wanted to finish with the sod before they arrived.
She cut each piece carefully to fit next to the orange lines she had sprayed in the
smooth soil, marking where the edgers would be placed.

She fit the rolls on pre-dampened soil tightly next to each other, making sure the
seams buckled slightly to give room for shrinkage. A myriad of hoses, hose splitters,
sprinklers and timers made Nathan's yard look like a well-organized road map. The
sprinklers were set to soak the new grass in regular intervals without neglecting
any corners.