Restorations (Book One Oregon In Love) (20 page)

Brian swiveled around at the sound and
quickly ended his call. Although he smiled, his expression seemed
guarded as he approached her.

“Can you believe it’s almost over?”

Sara blinked. “No,” she whispered.

Brian gave her a quizzical look and reached
out as if to put an arm around her shoulders. He dropped his hand
to his side. “Everything’s ready,” he said with his gaze averted.
“Except for the hall closet. I overlooked it when painting the rest
of the first floor. I’ll get it done this afternoon.”

“There’s no rush.”

“Actually, there is. After tomorrow, I’m out
of work and I need to get some other jobs going.”

Sara could only manage a little “Oh.” She
looked away, aware of his gaze resting on her for a moment before
he returned to the house.

***

Brian began to doubt Sara possessed any real
feelings for him. He’d hardly seen her the last few days, which he
understood considering they had a deadline to meet. But her
expression always seemed wary when he met her eyes, and he wondered
if he came on too strong despite the fact that he’d used noble and
excruciating restraint. Even so, he had the engagement ring and
planned to propose during the festival. If she said no, that was
that. Brian scowled at the notion, swinging around suddenly when he
heard a sound behind him.

Sara, coming through the front door, took
one look at him and let out a squeak of alarm. She gave him wide
berth before disappearing into her room.

Real smooth,
Romeo
. But if sweetness and light didn’t
convince her to marry him, perhaps a little intimidation
might.
Marry me or else
had a nice ring to it, especially as he couldn’t bear the
thought of life without her. Brian shook his head and wondered if
the paint fumes had affected his brain.

***

It’s now or
never
, Sara told her reflection in the
mirror. Brian was painting the hall closet, the crew was working
outside, tomorrow would be chaos with the open house, and the day
after that, Brian might be gone. She nervously tucked a lock of
hair behind her ear and took a deep breath, steeling her mind
against thoughts of failure.

Aside from Robert and Hattie, only in
romance novels did the man kneel and lay his heart at a woman’s
feet. This was the twenty-first century and a different approach
was clearly needed. She planned to march into the hall and lay it
out on the line like a good soldier. Too bad she felt like she was
going to face a firing squad.

Where were all the melting feelings and
soulful sighs to at least put her in the heart-declaration mood?
Terror dominated her emotions at the moment. Nevertheless, she’d
never forgive herself if she chickened out now. Sara opened her
bedroom door and peered out into the hall.

The house sat in stillness, except for the
sound of Brian painting in the closet a few feet away. Throwing
caution to the wind, she walked to the closet and stood resolutely
in the doorway. Brian had his back to her as he used a brush to cut
in paint on an inside wall.

She stepped inside the closet, ignoring the
fact that her foot landed squarely in a full paint tray. Brian
turned at the clatter and his gaze dropped to her feet. Before he
said a word, Sara held up her hand for silence.

“Brian, I need to tell you that I love you
and that I want a second chance with you.” She took a deep breath.
“If that's okay with you.”

Brian, usually proud of treating his
professional grade paint brushes as if they were infants, let the
brush drop from his hand into an opened can of paint below, causing
a splash of ecru to land on the recently refinished wooden floor of
the closet.

He reached out to Sara and dragged her
unceremoniously against him, ignoring all his intentions about
treating her like glass. “Marry me, Sara,” he said huskily.

She blinked. “Whoa. Just like that?”

“Yeah.”

Sara only had time for a
nod before he began kissing her with all the repressed longing he’d
held at bay for weeks, no,
years
. As her arms tightened around
him, Brian managed one last coherent thought before succumbing to a
wave of sweet passion.

He’d have to repaint the closet sometime
before tomorrow.

Todd had learned his lesson well in the past
months. He no longer walked into rooms without letting his presence
be known. He never knew what his boss was up to from one day to the
next with the pretty homeowner. In fact, he and his fellow
workmates had something of a wager going as to whether the two
ended up together by the end of the project. They were divided on
whether the sparks flying between the two were merely idle
flirtation or the real thing.

So as he went in search of Brian, he let his
boots clomp loudly on the floor and noisily cleared his throat
several times before calling out to his boss. When only silence was
his reply, he remembered Brian said he planned to paint the hall
closet. Surely nothing to worry about there.

Todd walked down the hall and felt his eyes
bug when he saw a trickle of paint oozing out from under the closet
door. When he heard bumps, giggles and whispers coming from within
the closet, he broke out into a cold sweat. Filled with a morbid
curiosity, he silently edged open the closet door. His boss and the
homeowner sat in one corner, tangled in each other arms, bespeckled
with paint, and lip-locked for all they were worth.

Todd yanked his head back and went outside
to where Peter and Jeff drank sodas on break. He held out his hand
to them. “Looks like I win, boys. Pay up.”

Chapter Nineteen

Sara stood at the front door and smiled at
yet another influx of visitors coming to see Buell Creek’s newest
addition to the community—the Pine Ridge Bed and Breakfast. People
fanned out throughout the rooms, inspecting the bedrooms upstairs
and tasting samples from the new menu.

Hattie flitted about, answering questions
and guiding little tours of the house. Even Robert showed up to
help and made sure the trays of food were refilled from the stock
in the kitchen. In the hullabaloo, Sara remained cognizant only of
one thing— Brian loved her and wanted to marry her. She functioned
automatically through a dreamy haze of emotion and the memory of a
warm pair of lips.

She glanced across the room to where he
talked with some potential clients and wondered if he felt as tired
as she. They stayed up much of the night preparing for the open
house. He had to clean up the closet and do touch-ups around the
house and she spent hours in the kitchen preparing offerings from
the menu, including cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins, and crepes,
to be served with a selection of fruits, coffees, and teas.

Finished in the closet, Brian had tried to
help in the kitchen. Instead of getting covered in paint, they
ended up liberally smudged with flour without much extra baking
accomplished. Thankfully, Hattie prepared a lot of food at home and
brought it over in the morning, so between the two of them, there
should be plenty to go around.

While thrilled with the success of the open
house, Sara mentally wished everyone away so she could be alone
with Brian. As the afternoon waned, so did the stream of visitors.
Hattie proudly told Sara of two bookings for the following weekend,
the first customers. Sara smiled tiredly and collapsed onto the
sofa in the living room when they shut the front doors for the day.
The mica lamps bathed the room in a golden glow. After a moment,
Brian wandered into the living room and joined her on the
couch.

Robert and Hattie followed him in, and
Hattie’s brow arched at the sight of Brian’s arm casually stretched
around Sara’s shoulders.

“Do you two have anything to tell me?”

Sara looked shyly up at Brian, hoping he’d
be the one to make explanations.

“Well,” he said after a pause, “it seems
getting engaged is contagious because Sara has decided, against
better her judgment perhaps, to marry me.”

Hattie burst into tears. “Oh, how I’ve
prayed for you two these past years!” She rushed over and gave Sara
a fierce hug, murmuring over and over how thankful she was for
their reconciliation. Sara accepted the embrace with a profound
feeling of shock. Hattie had always seemed so quiet and serene.
Could this be her real aunt?

“Your grandfather would be so pleased,” she
said, releasing her. “He approved of Brian in every way.”

Brian looked down at Sara and shrugged
ruefully. To her mortification, Sara felt her own eyes blur with
tears. It did mean a lot knowing how her grandfather felt about
Brian.

“Congratulations,” Robert said, coming over
to shake Brian’s hand.

“Thank you.”

Feeling a little awkward at the fuss, she
inwardly sighed with relief when Hattie suggested the ‘young
couple’ go visit the carnival downtown.

“Robert and I will stay here in case anyone
else happens by for a visit,” she said.

Sara went into her bedroom to freshen up.
Her hand trembled as she brushed her hair, whether from emotional
overload or lack of food and sleep, she didn’t know. She thought of
her aunt’s response to her engagement. It blew her mind to find out
Hattie prayed for her and Brian all these years. Before leaving for
the festival, Sara hugged both her aunt and Robert, thanking them
for all their help.

When she and Brian arrived downtown, Sara
felt suddenly shy about the newness of their relationship—despite
the fact that he was already talking about honeymooning in Scotland
seeing as how Robbie Burns had brought them together. Apparently
oblivious to her reticence, he tugged on her hand, pulling her into
the fray.

The sun dipped below the horizon and the
neon colors of the carnival rides glowed against a purplish orange
sky. Families jostled by them on the crowded sidewalks and Sara
sensed a hectic, strung-up feeling in the air—as if the sleepy town
of Buell Creek had saved up all its partying for this one
celebration before settling back into a respectable countryside
repose.

“I’m starved. How about you?” Brian asked as
they walked by several food booths. The aromas of Vietnamese spring
rolls, cinnamon sugared elephant ears, corn dogs, and curly fries
mingled in the air.

Sara’s stomach gave an unladylike rumble and
she agreed. Before they chose where to eat, a feminine scream rent
the night air.

“Brian Farris!”

Brian noticeably stiffened at the sound and
his arm tightened around Sara’s shoulders. A blonde woman detached
herself from a group of people huddled together on a street corner.
They seemed strangely out of place in the small town.

As the woman rushed up to Brian, Sara took
in the details of a tan female with an athlete’s body bared in a
skimpy outfit. Brian was forced to release Sara as she launched
into his arms.

“Oh my goodness, is it really you?” the
woman asked as she gazed avidly up into his face.

“Uh, hi, Romy.”

With a brittle smile, her wide blue eyes
slid to where Sara stood. “And who’s this?”

“Romy Peterson, meet Sara Andersen, my
fiancée.”

Sara released a nervous breath. She
half-wondered if Brian would conceal the nature of their
relationship.

“Fiancée?” Romy said, obviously shocked. Her
hard, assessing gaze flicked to Sara’s midriff as if wondering if
the engagement was precipitated by a pregnancy.

“So, when’s the blessed event, er, the happy
day?”

Sara stifled the urge to slap her, then
wondered at the intensity of feelings toward a woman she didn’t
even know.

“We haven’t yet set a date,” Brian said.

Romy appeared mollified by
this information. She curled her fingers around his arm. “What in
the world are you doing here in
this
backwater?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

“A bunch of us came to climb the cliffs
nearby over the weekend and when we jaunted into town for some
supplies, we happened on this charming little affair.” She leaned
across the front of Brian and looked at Sara. “Is this your
hometown, honey?”

“On and off,” Sara replied
noncommittally.

Romy tugged on Brian’s arm. “You know some
of the people with me. Come over and say hi.”

He glanced at Sara with a bemused expression
and allowed himself to be propelled along, grabbing her hand to
bring her with him.

They approached a group of people who stood
apart from the main throng. As they neared, Sara was forcibly
reminded of television ads where several ‘beautiful’ people hung
fashionably about in their sporting clothes, in this case
rock-climbing togs, sipping from beer bottles dripping with
condensation.

Brian obviously knew a couple of the guys,
and after introducing Sara all around, lapsed into catching up on
old times. After a moment, Romy drew Sara aside.

“So tell me how you and Brian met.”

She suppressed a scowl, deciding to be at
least civil to a friend of Brian’s. “We actually dated in college,
but we met again here in Buell Creek.”

“Does he live here now?”

Sara surveyed the disgustingly beautiful
female in front of her and was tempted to lie. “Yes.”

Romy digested this information, then lowered
her voice. “Does he ever talk about me? We were once an item, you
know.”

Knowing very well Romy wanted to bait her
didn’t calm her burgeoning temper one bit. “No.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “He’s had
so many girlfriends, he probably gets them all mixed up.”

Sara shrugged by way of reply and scanned
the crowd in a bored manner.

“Well, you’re lucky to have him. Hold onto
him while you can.” She leaned in close. “He’s got a roving eye,
but he’s worth it, if you know what I mean.”