Black Creek Burning (The Black Creek Series, Book 1) (27 page)

"What are you doing?" Nathan asked.

Brie didn't stop or look up, but he could see her smile as she slid her shovel under
the green, loosening it from the soil. "Patio."

"Really? It's so big."

She pulled up heavy squares of wet sod and tossed them in her wheelbarrow. "Round
will accent the radius of the edging, but it's not too late to change if you would
rather have a different shape. I know you've worked mostly with straight lines inside."
They looked mutually at the red brick that curved the entire length around the house
before Brie finished filling the wheelbarrow with clumps of grass.

"No. Don't change it. Your thing, remember?"

* * *

Nathan moved his weights and the mattress he'd been using for the past several months
into Andy's room. The boys' rooms were the only two that wouldn't need stain and finish
the following day. He stopped to look out his window and check on them.

Brie had them walking on the patches of exposed Black Creek soil with their sneakers.
She would point, turn over a submerged rock and then pick up what looked to him to
be a wiggling crawfish. Explaining animatedly, she then put it down and Duncan grabbed
at it. He held on and cheered as he held it out at arm's length.

Nathan leaned against the window frame as Andy took a turn. Brie pointed. Andy turned
over a dirty rock. It took him several tries of reaching in, pulling his hand back
and reaching in again before he gathered enough courage to grab at the pinching creature.
Brie and Duncan applauded as Andy held up his prize for a split second before tossing
it back in the water.

* * *

"I brought you something for your trip." Brie sat at the desk chair in Duncan's room
as Andy brushed his teeth for the night. She pulled out a compact, collapsible tripod.

"Uh. Thanks." He scrunched his brows. "What is it?"

"It's an easel that folds up and will fit in your case. I thought you might want to
start a sketching of the falls this weekend."

"Cool," he said. "Thanks." After trying it out, Duncan lifted his drawing case, opened
it and slid the easel easily along the side next to his colored pencils. "Will you
be here in the morning?"

"Sure." She sat next to him and covered him up. "Andy tells me lunch is way gross.
I'll bring you something."

"Dad says no one can walk on the floors for a while and it will smell bad, too," Andy
interjected as he walked in the room. "He says you guys are going away. Are you dad's
girlfriend?"

Duncan rolled his eyes and as soon as Andy climbed in, pushed on the side of his little
brother's head.

Brie took a deep breath. "Yes. I suppose I am. Go to sleep." She covered them up and
kissed the tops of their heads. "I packed an instant camera in your bag, Andy. Your
job is to use all of the pictures. I'll be back in the morning and see you off before
you catch the bus."

She found Nathan folding up the card table and hauling it and the chairs to the garage.
He stopped when he saw her, grabbed his half-empty bottle of beer and walked with
her to her pickup.

Before opening her door, she paused and turned, noticing him watching her. "You're
staring at me."

Self-consciously, she reached up to tuck a few stray hairs out of her face. He stepped
closer, causing her to lean back against her door. He placed the fingers from one
of his calloused hands on the side of her neck, then brushed his thumb across her
lips.

"You're stunning." His other hand trailed up her arm to just above her elbow. "I should
tell you I'm going to take advantage of you this weekend." He ran his thumb along
the line of her jaw.

The corners of her mouth turned and she rested a hand on the center of his chest.
She thought of how he so often managed to blanket her with calm.

He pressed his forehead to hers. "I should also tell you I'm in love with you."

In a knee-jerk reaction, she used the hand on his chest to push him. "Oh, boy," she
said out loud and started pacing back and forth in a small line in front of him. "Let
me think, let me think." The palms of her hands pressed absently on her temples.

Nathan turned and leaned against the side of her truck, sticking his legs out and
casually placing a thumb in one of his pockets. She could see his brow lift as she
paced.

"You see." She moved her hands to the backs of her hips but kept pacing. "I really
like you—"

"This isn't high school, Brie," he said. "I don't need the same."

"But everything is so good
now
. You'll jinx it. We'll be going along just fine and then you'll think I'm too detached,
and—"

He grabbed an arm and pulled her up against him, using his other hand to place a finger
on her lips. He inclined her weight along the length of his. "Let go, Brianna."

She laid one side of her head on his chest and listened to the slow, steady beat of
his heart. It made her want to lean on him.

* * *

Brie lay in the dark, trying not to worry about what Nathan had confessed to her.
How could she help it considering her terrible track record with men? Pulling the
covers close around her neck, she realized she'd never stressed about a man before.
It was also the first time she could remember ever having these feelings about a man.

The phone rang and she rolled over, appreciating the interruption from her anxiety.
She had enough to worry about without the man, and much to look forward to, like a
big-budget landscaping project complete with a circular patio.

"Hello?"

The phone was silent. Again. She could tell there was a connection. "Hello?" She hung
up hoping it was wrong number.

Chapter 23

Most of the next morning was spent digging the hole for the patio. The sky was completely
clear and a striking blue. It reminded Brie of the color of Nathan's eyes. Good grief.
She was acting like she was in high school. It was actually nice and exciting. She
filled the spaces between the tiers of rocks below Nathan's window with the displaced
soil from the patio hole. The extra was wheeled down to fill tiers around the pond
corner. A leveled layer of road gravel, followed by a thin layer of sand and she would
be ready to set the patio bricks.

Days were longer now and the spring flowers were in full bloom. She could see the
red tulips and purple hyacinths around her deck all the way from Nathan's yard. She
worried how the lack of rain might affect finishing this project.

Nathan wore his lacquer mask as he spread the finish on the stained floors. He started
from the back of the upstairs rooms toward the front, then down and around to the
back again, careful not to paint himself into a corner. He'd already packed his truck
for the long weekend with Brie. He figured he would finish long before she would,
and he was right.

He watched out the window in the back of the garage as he made a phone call to the
movers to see if he could get them to bring the rest of his things earlier than next
Thursday. He noticed Brie covered in dirt again and that she was completely in her
element when she was like that. He worked on spraying the kitchen's upper cabinets
while she finished. When he came out of his spray room, she was sitting on his workbench,
again, with her legs crisscrossed and, again, in shorts and a tank.

"I'm at a good stopping point. How about you?"

He wrapped a spray hose around his forearm. "Yes, and I'm stuck out of my house now.
You hungry?"

"Starved. How do you feel about a giant Mikey's tenderloin?" She slid down and picked
up the spray can, placing it on the shelf where it belonged. "Liz asked if we'd like
to get a drink with her and Tim, and we kind of owe them for keeping the dogs while
we're gone."

"I'll follow you to your place, and we can take my truck from there."

The dogs rode in the back of Brie's pickup, running circles and lifting their snouts
high in the air.

He let the dogs out for her as Brie parked in the garage and opened the house. He
thought it was a long shot, but did as Brie suggested, speaking with authority, yet
not frightening.

"Macey, Goldie come." Goldie hesitated. Traitor. But Macey trotted over to him and
sat. Goldie wasn't far behind. "Well, I'll be damned," he muttered. He rubbed their
heads. "Good dogs. Good frigging dogs."

He found her inside, facing her unused fireplace in her family room, holding her unopened
mail at her side. She looked up toward the photos of her parents and family arranged
over the mantle.

"I'm going to buy a couch," she said like she'd had an epiphany.

He smiled with one side of his mouth.

"A couch
and
a loveseat. Will you come with me?"

"Mmm hmm."

Brie picked up the phone. "I need to call Liz and see what time she wants to meet.
I only have the one shower. Do you want to go ahead and go first?"

"I'd rather wait for you."

Looking up at him, she put the phone back down. "I can call later."

He scooped her up and headed for the stairs. "Not that I'm not glad, but I still can't
believe you didn't put in another shower."

They stood in the bathroom together. Nathan dressed slowly, feeling weak and spent.
Clean, definitely, but weak and spent. Slipping on his worn black jeans, he left the
top button undone and stood at the mirror, shaving with bare feet and a bare chest.

Brie was next to him, dragging something hot through her hair.

Their eyes met in the mirror. "We still have an hour," he said, wiping left-over shaving
cream from his face with her hand towel.

"Jeez, Nathan." She grinned. "I'm not a machine."

Lifting one side of his mouth, he said, "I meant for couch shopping."

* * *

They pulled up to Mikey's with the bed of his pickup filled with a sable green couch
and matching loveseat packed into Nathan's eight-foot bed.

"I can't believe how much money I just spent. I feel sick."

"You're just hungry."

He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as he pulled up to park across the street
where they would be able to keep an eye on his truck from the windows. It was busy
for a Thursday night. People were coming out of their burrows in the traditional reaction
to spring and warmer weather. The beer garden was open and a band made up of two people
sang off-key about margaritas.

Liz and Tim were already in a bar booth with oblong plates full of wings and nachos.
He and Brie took a bite as they said their hellos.

Liz took a long time catching Brie up on the latest from their work. "Apparently,
Mrs. Whittier wasn't in as tight with Dr. Tyman as she was with Sandy Finley," she
said.

The fifth-graders were anxious to graduate and, in his opinion, sounded like healthy
fifth-graders should be acting. Nothing was said about next week's board meeting,
at least not around Brie.

He played with a piece of her hair as he and Tim kept to easier topics such as the
Yankees' early stats.

He turned his eyes to Brie when he sensed her chin lift and her shoulders stiffen.
He followed her gaze to the other side of the room. GI Joe and baldy leaned against
the bar, facing their booth. Buzz cut held a glass of what looked like whiskey on
the rocks. Cue ball had a draft.

Liz must have caught on, too. "They've been here a while. Some of their buddies were
in the beer garden but left. What's his deal?"

"My yard's one very large, complicated mess." Nathan changed the subject. "No one's
been able to touch it for over a week now. Brie's making me a waterfall under my bedroom
window with lavender around it so I can hear and smell while I sleep."

"You were listening."

Diversion successful. "Of course I was listening. I'm a guy," he said sarcastically.
"You've planned blue chip junipers for in front of my porch because they only grow
eighteen inches and won't cover up the railings I'll be making there. You said you
would add some purple salvia and blue palace for color. A third grader could finish
my yard from the detail you have mapped out in that binder of yours."