Kacie studied his face with a sweet smile. More than likely, she was confused by my father. He was the most southern northerner you’d ever meet. Living the simple life was all that really ever mattered to him. He never got caught up in the famous part of my life. Mom jumped at the chance to walk a red carpet with me or go to a benefit where she might rub elbows with other celebrities. Dad would rather go through a back entrance and avoid the limelight altogether. As a kid, he wasn’t the kind of dad that was jumping up and down in the stands screaming at me or the refs or the coaches. The games he was able to come to, he just sat and cheered me on quietly. I definitely got my loud, playful spirit from my mom.
“Hey, you guys wanna take a quick walk? I brought bread; we could feed the ducks.”
“We wanna stay here,” Piper whined.
Kacie shook her head. “No, no. Come on. We can come back later.”
“It’s fine by me if they want to stay,” Dad mumbled with a pencil clenched in between his teeth, trying to measure a two-by-four.
“You sure, Dad?”
“Sure, they’re no bother. Besides, I like having someone else in here with me.”
“You okay with that?” I glanced at Kacie who didn’t look convinced.
She crossed her arms and cocked her hip to the side, her eyes darting back and forth between Lucy and Piper. “Are you two going to behave?”
They both nodded excitedly and went right back to working.
“Thanks, Mr. Mur—” She pushed her lips into a tiny smile. “Bob.” Dad looked flushed. He nodded once and went right back to his project.
I reached down and took Kacie’s hand in mine, gently pulling her toward the door. “C’mon. We only have a little while before lunch.”
Grinning up at me, she squeezed my hand and happily followed my lead. I took my glasses off and dropped them in the bucket near the door. When she reached up for hers, I gently grabbed her hand, stopping her. “You should leave those on.” I growled, winking at her.
She punched me in the arm playfully after she tossed them in the bucket.
We left my dad’s workshop and turned left, following a dirt path down toward the small lake. Our lake wasn’t nearly as big as the lake at Kacie’s house, but my parents owned this one. The whole thing. Their property wrapped all the way around to the other side and they were the only ones allowed to use it. Every couple years, my dad stocked it with fish. Even though you couldn’t put a boat on it, he liked to sit on a rocker and fish off the pier or the shore.
“Your parents own all this?” Kacie held her hand up to her forehead to block the sun, trying to see across the lake.
“Yep. It’s all part of their farm.”
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “This whole place… it’s unreal.”
“Want one?”
She whipped her head up and tried to look at me, but she was blinded by the sun. “Do I want what?”
“This.” I shrugged. “A farm. A place for the girls to play and grow. I own a lot more property than my parents are actually using. Like hundreds of acres. I could build one for us.”
“Oh, Brody. No way. Don’t you dare. I was just saying it’s—” She stopped suddenly. I turned to face her and followed her gaze to the old, rundown barn way to the left of the lake. “Oh my God. Is that barn yours? Theirs? Whatever.”
“Yeah,” I answered, completely confused.
“Can we go see it?” She bit her lip and begged me with her eyes.
“Sure. Whatever you want.”
The words were barely out of my mouth before she was pulling me through the tall grass and weeds toward the neglected building.
What the hell?
“Kacie, slow down.” I laughed.
She turned her head to the side and grinned at me, but didn’t respond or walk any slower.
We got to the barn and she stopped so suddenly, I almost ran into her back.
“Wow,” she whispered, gazing in awe up at the broken-down wooden structure. “Look at how beautiful it is.”
I massaged her shoulders gently, squatting so I was just behind her ear. “It’s just a barn, Kacie.”
“You see just a barn. Let me see if I can show you what I see.” She grabbed my hand again and pulled me forward.
The dry wood popped and snapped as she cautiously slid the barn doors open. The smell of wood, dust, and old hay rushed into my nose and down my throat, making me cough.
“Look at that. How beautiful is that?” She pointed toward dozens of laser beams of sunshine that escaped through the cracks in the wood, highlighting millions of little dust particles floating through the air. “How amazing is that?”