Page 6 of His Build
While Toby checked her in, she scanned the room once more. “It’s beautiful here.”
“Emerald Lake is the jewel of Jewel Lakes County,” he said as he pecked at the computer keyboard.
“I meant the lobby.”
The boy blushed, looking up. Clearly this was his handiwork. “Thank you.”
She wondered how many people who came through here noticed the care he’d put into the space.
A half hour later Lucy was drying off from a truly rejuvenating shower when her phone trilled in the other room. Tucking her towel around herself, she went to answer it, grinning when she saw the caller ID. “Hey Sadie.”
“I’m never leaving,” her sister said. Even from several hundred miles away it warmed Lucy to hear the happiness in her sister’s voice. Despite the general chaos in Sadie’s life, her mood generally skewed to upbeat. The situation with her roommate had clearly been getting her down even more than her deadbeat boyfriend du jour.
Lucy laughed. “Don’t get too used to it. I’m only gone for six weeks, remember?”
“Unless you fall in love with small town life,” Sadie said. “Or with a small town guy.”
Lucy snorted, which made Sadie snort too, and soon the sisters were laughing so hard—as their mutual snorting made them do—they couldn’t complete a sentence.
Finally, they calmed down enough for Sadie to ask Lucy about her first impressions.
“Well, I just barely arrived and I already got into an accident.”
“What?” Sadie exclaimed. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just a fender bender. But that’s not the worst part.”
Lucy had considered excluding the gory details. But she couldn’t hide anything from her sister. It was easier to fess up first before Sadie found out later and made a huge deal about it.
She ran through the whole story—the Adonis wrestling giant beams of lumber in the back of the truck; his sweaty brow; the lifted shirt. The jerk in front of her with the balls on his hitch. When she stopped talking her sister was silent for a moment.
“Lucy, I—”
“Don’t worry; I’m careful. I don’t get into accidents, not like—”
“Me?”
Lucy squirmed. “Well—”
“It’s okay. We both know if one of the Fulham sisters is going to get into a mess, it’s me. But I sure as hell would’ve liked to see you hit a dude because you were drooling at some topless country stud.”
“Sadie!” Lucy sputtered.
Sadie laughed. “It’s great! Like I said when you called me freaking out the other day about accepting Alfred’s offer, I’m seriously loving the new you! I don’t know what happened to my perfectly organized and everything-tied-in-a-bow sister, but please stick around!”
Lucy couldn’t help it, she laughed. “Sadie—I have no idea what’s gotten into me.”
“Well, I for one think it’s great. And maybe that small town guy thing isn’t that far off. Did you get the guy’s number?”
Lucy gaped. “Are you serious? I couldn’t get out of there quick enough.”
“Shame,” Sadie sighed.
Lucy wished her sister was next to her so she could shove her.
“Do you remember a few years ago when you and Mom had that huge fight about how you could never do anything spontaneous like me?” Sadie asked after a moment.
Sadie was definitely the more impulsive of the two sisters. Last year, to deal with another breakup (Lucy couldn’t even remember who the guy was that time), Sadie had quit her job and bought a one-way plane ticket to Amsterdam. She’d ended up spending three months backpacking across Europe, calling Lucy at the end of it to beg for money when she couldn’t afford the flight home.
