One Week with her Rival:Eden Manor, Book One(15)

Kelly let them in, beaming in obvious good humor. "We're so excited  about the work so far. I can't get over how great it all looks." She  glanced down at their clasped hands and smiled in a different way. "I'm  glad to see you two worked things out."

Vanessa was self-conscious at the words, but she didn't pull her hand away. "What does Mr. Damon think about the work?"

"He loves the place and thinks you both have done great work." She  looked back and forth between Joe and Vanessa. "Are you...are you two  going to be working together now?"

"We're not sure how it's going to work," Joe replied with his typical  warm confidence. "But we're not going to be competing, anyway."

"We might become partners," Vanessa added, for the first time admitting  that it was something she really wanted. She'd never wanted sole  responsibility of a business like this, and Carl wouldn't want her to be  constantly stressed over making it work. "We'll be talking about it."

Joe looked surprised and very pleased by this news, but he didn't say  anything else as they walked inside. Peter and Harrison were in the  dining room, admiring the original tile she'd exposed on the fireplace.         

     



 

They stayed for a couple of hours, going around the house and reviewing  the plans for the rest of the work. Harrison Damon was obviously an  expert in restoration, and he had some good ideas that none of them  would have thought of otherwise.

They ended up outside, where Harrison eyed the bare yard and overgrown beds. "You've got a good landscaper?" he asked.

"Yes. I believe so. They're supposed to start next week." Peter glanced  over at Vanessa and Joe. "You'd vouch for them, wouldn't you?"

"Yes," Vanessa said, perking up. "My friend, Missy, works there  part-time. Her family owns the business. Her stepbrother does most of  the landscaping, but everything he does is really good."

"Zach's a good guy," Joe added. "I talked to him the other day, and he already has all the plans done."

"Missy is really excited about the walled garden," Vanessa said.

Harrison smiled. "I can't wait to see it fixed up. There's a walled  garden on my uncle's estate. He'd love to visit here some time to see  this one."

Harrison's uncle was Cyrus Damon, the eccentric billionaire founder of  Damon Enterprises. Vanessa's eyes widened at the thought of his visiting  their little town, seeing the work she'd done on Eden Manor.

"That would be amazing," Peter said. Then, after a small pause, he  added, "But maybe we can finish all the work up first. He's kind of  intimidating."

Harrison laughed. "Yeah. He doesn't travel much anymore, so it will be a while before he gets out here."

"Anyway, he can't be much more intimidating than my grandmother," Kelly  put in with a smile. "And she's planning to visit next weekend."

"What?" Peter asked, his eyes widening. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"She just told me this afternoon." Kelly looked half-guilty and  half-amused, which made Vanessa wonder exactly what her grandmother was  like.

As the others laughed and chatted, Joe reached over and put an arm  around Vanessa, and she leaned against his side. She suddenly realized  she was happy. Incredibly happy. And she felt freed from a weight she'd  been carrying around for so long.

It wasn't that she had to leave Carl behind. She just needed to open herself up enough to allow even more into her life.

Like Joe.

Like work she might actually love.

Like a future that might actually be good.

She stood on her tiptoes so she could kiss him beside the mouth, and he smiled as if he could read what she was thinking.

Just a week ago, she'd been clinging to the idea that she hated him, but now everything had change.

And now she could look forward to so many more weeks and months and years to come.

***

The next book in the Eden Manor series is One Week with her Stepbrother.  An excerpt from that book can be found on the following pages.

If you want to read more about Peter, Kelly, and their family, you can  check out the Beaufort Brides series: Hired Bride, Substitute Bride, and  Accidental Bride.

If you want to read more about the Damons, you can check out the Heirs  of Damon series, Seducing the Enemy (Harrison's book), Playing the  Playboy (Andrew's book), and Engaging the Boss (Jonathan's book), and  Stripping the Billionaire (Ben's book).

If you'd like to keep up with my new releases and sales, you can sign up for my low-volume newsletter.





Excerpt from One Week with her Stepbrother


At the moment, Missy was at the main desk in the garden shop, which was  made up of one large building and a couple of acres of property outside.  She was scowling at her computer screen because she'd gotten another  spammy email from someone trying to sell them some secret formula for  miracle fertilizer.

"What are you all pissy about?" a voice came from her right side.

She jerked in surprise and turned her head to see Zach standing in the  opened double-door entrance that led outside. He had reddish brown hair  and hazel eyes and a look of unselfconscious sexiness that girls really  liked. This morning, he was arching his eyebrows at her and wearing a  stained T-shirt and a pair of cargo pants that must have been eight  years old. "I'm not pissy," she said coolly. "When did you get here?"

"I've been here for more than an hour. I was unloading that truckload of  grasses while you've been sitting around glaring at anything in your  line of sight."

She tried to retain her dignity around Zach, since she knew he was  pleased when he got a reaction out of her, but he'd been driving her  crazy since she was thirteen, when her father had married his mother and  she'd been stuck with a mopey seventeen-year-old stepbrother. She  barely managed not to make a face at him now. She wasn't in a good mood,  and he was making it worse. "I haven't been glaring," she said coolly.         

     



 

"You have every time I've glanced in this morning."

She must have been really distracted, if she hadn't noticed he'd  arrived. She was usually weirdly attuned to his presence. Since she  couldn't think of a response that wouldn't let him see how annoyed she  was by him, she turned back to her computer without a word.

"If you don't want to work here, you don't have to," Zach said, coming  closer to her desk, just when she wanted him to go away. He was always  contrary that way. "Your dad and I could get by fine."

"Right." She took a sip of her coffee from the travel mug she filled up  in Grounded, the only coffee shop in the area, every morning. "Dad would  have a heart attack, and you'd lay down and cry if I didn't help out  and keep everything straight around here."

"We could hire someone." Zach had started working at the garden shop in  high school, and he'd never stopped. He handled all of the landscaping  jobs-using contract labor to help with the larger jobs-and her dad  focused on the shop.

"No one else would last a week, working for Dad. He'd yell at them once  and scare them out of their skin." She frowned up at Zach. "Why? Are you  trying to get rid of me?"

Zach rolled his eyes and reached to take Missy's mug without asking,  taking a huge swallow of her coffee. "I know you'd rather be a full-time  realtor, and I don't want you to be pissy at work all the time."

Missy had her real estate license, and she was trying to build her  business. But there wasn't a lot of buying and selling in this area, and  there was a lot of competition. She had to supplement her income by  working for her father, but she would have helped out anyway. She  certainly didn't want to leave her dad in a bad situation, without  anyone to handle the day-to-day administration of the business.

She grabbed her coffee back from Zach, who was now sitting on her desk.  "I'm not pissy all the time." She was a good-natured and agreeable  person. Almost everyone liked her. Zach was the only person she wanted  to strangle most of the time.

"Well, you are this morning. What's going on?" His hazel eyes were  mostly gray, but today they looked almost green. He was studying her  face closely, like he wanted to see beyond her frown.

For a moment, she thought he was genuinely concerned about her. Her  heart clenched in an odd little emotional response-affection,  appreciation, familiarity, knowledge.

He reached out and gave her cheek a gentle little tweak, and she  couldn't look away from him. It was like he knew her-saw her for who she  really was-and wanted to know even more. "What's going on, kiddo?" he  murmured.

She jerked away from his touch, suddenly feeling like an idiot for how  she'd been responding to him. "Would you stop calling me that? You're  only four years older than me, you know."

"I know." His expression went back to its normal laughing insolence.  "But it wasn't that long ago when we went to the movies and were asked  if you were under twelve and needed the kid's discount, so you can  hardly blame me."