fallen for it. “Talk to me about the ladder against the wall.”
Penny looked at Gray.
“Told you he was smarter than he looked,” Gray said, stuffing his face.
“Your mom emailed us about the mural,” Penny said as Hud picked up the muffin. “All of us. She said she thought of it as a family endeavor, a family picture, and you know what? I realized we don’t have a single one of all of us. How sad is that? So she’s right. We’re taking a vote.”
Well, hell. Hud put the muffin down. “I’m sorry,” he said. “She shouldn’t have asked this of you. I know I should take away her phone but—”
“I like the idea of a mural,” Gray said.
Hud stared at him. “What?”
“Yeah,” Gray said. “Actually, we all like the idea.”
Of course, because they were insane, each more than the next. “No,” he said. “We don’t all like the idea.” He said this even though a small part of him was remembering his mom’s joy at the thought of the mural. And her claim that Bailey was special, that she’d been through a hard time.
For all Hud knew, his mom had recycled a story she’d heard or seen on TV. Or hell, maybe Bailey had actually given her a sob story. He didn’t know and didn’t care. She wasn’t his business.
The resort was his business. “We’re not doing a mural simply because you all feel sorry for my mom.”
“Well of course not,” Gray said, stuffing his face with thick French toast. “That would be stupid. Hey, are you going to eat that food or what?”
Hud shoved his brother’s hand away from his breakfast and pulled the plate in closer to protect it—necessary with this bunch. “A mural is impractical,” he went on. “If you want a damn pic, we’ll go to the mall and take one. But we’re all busting our asses, and spending money on a mural would be a frivolous, stupid thing to do.”
“Actually, no it wouldn’t,” Gray said. “You know the rumors going around town that the resort is in trouble. We put up a huge-ass mural like this and it shows folks we’re staying right here. No matter what.”
Aidan toasted Gray with his orange juice. Kenna, Penny, and Lily did the same.
Hud just stared at them. “No,” he said again. Why wasn’t anyone listening?
“And your exact objection is what again?” Aidan asked, snaking Lily’s muffin.
In response, Lily scooted into Aidan’s lap and nibbled on his ear.
Aidan’s eyes closed and…
Lily snagged her muffin back and reclaimed her seat with a smug smile.
Aidan’s look promised retribution. Lily just grinned at him.
“We’re not doing the mural,” Hud said out loud—again—to the crazy people. “For lots of reasons. One, our balloon payment on this place is barreling down on us, and last I checked, it was threatening to put us all out on our asses. Two, if we’re going to spend money stupidly, then let’s get Gray and Penny a damn room—”
Gray and Penny—who had been kissing—pulled apart, neither looking particularly sorry. “And three,” Hud said, “the artist my mom hired to do the mural is already gone.”
“No, she’s not,” Penny said, and waved at someone behind Hud.
Hud turned and… shit. There she was, along with her bright red ski cap. He stood up as she came to the table.
“Hey,” Bailey said brightly.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Rude,” Kenna said, elbowing him in the gut. “Even for you, Hud.” And since Hud had stood up, Kenna was able to kick his chair out and give it to the woman. “Sit,” she said. “Hud was just holding the spot for you.”
Hud gave her a long look, which she of course ignored.
Still avoiding Hud’s gaze, Bailey sat. And then, unbelievably, she beamed down at his plate and picked up the blueberry muffin, slowly peeling back the paper and taking a bite like she was starving. “Thanks for the offer of breakfast and the ideas you all emailed me,” she said around a bite. “Carrie had some wonderful ideas as well. She’s incredibly artistic. I’ve got a sketch to show you.”
Temper warred with something else within Hud, something he didn’t want to acknowledge. He’d heard this woman talking to his mom before she’d known he was listening. She’d been patient with her. Patient, kind, and… sweet.
Dammit.
She was different if not special, and he felt an odd tug of affection for her, one he absolutely did not want to feel. “I’m sorry,” he said to her. “But as I already told you, we’re not commissioning a mural.”
“I know,” she said. “And as I told you, I’m doing it for free.”
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” she said. “It’s on my list.” She fanned a hand in front of her face. “Whew. It’s super hot in here, isn’t it? I think it’s the altitude. I’m not in sync with it yet.” She reached up to shove off the hood on her jacket and her cap came off with it. While she twisted around to get the misbehaving cap out of the hood and slip it back on her head, Hud felt his heart hit his toes.
Clueless to his reaction, she picked up a fork and started in on his eggs.
The rest of them sat in startled silence for a beat before purposefully all turning back to their food as well.
Not only did he not have his food, Hud couldn’t move. He considered himself an unflappable, stoic, pragmatic sort of guy, not easily rattled.
But beneath her ski cap, she’d nothing but short blond peach fuzz. Not the kind of short you got from a new, cool style, but the kind of short you got from being sick.
Really sick.
Chapter 5
Like the others, Hud did his best not to react to the sight of Bailey’s bare skull, but he was having a hard time with that. His heart felt lodged in his throat as things suddenly started to make some sense.
Why she’d felt so frail to him.
The list she’d referred to a couple of times. Jesus, he really hoped it wasn’t a bucket list…
Beneath the table Gray kicked Hud—hard, dammit—and gave him a look that said, Do something.
And if Hud had known what, he would have.
“She’s right,” Penny said smoothly. “It’s most definitely warm in here. And by the way,” she said to Hud’s breakfast thief, “we insist on paying for supplies.” Her expression and tone were perfectly normal.
How the hell did she do that? How could she not want to cup Bailey’s face and make her assure them that she was okay?
“That’d be great,” Bailey said. “I do need scaffolding. Carrie thought maybe you had some here somewhere. Does anyone know if that’s true?”
Penny turned to Gray, who nodded. “It’s in the storage container,” he said.
Wasn’t anyone paying any attention? Hud wondered wildly. Bailey was still fighting with her sweater, which she couldn’t get unzipped because it’d gotten caught. He actually reached out to help but she swiveled and sent him a don’t-even-think-about-it glance, so he shoved his hands in his pockets to keep them off her. Message received. She was fine and completely capable and wanted to ignore what she’d clearly been through, and he was to pretend to see no vulnerability. Got it. “You can’t do this for free,” he said.
She blinked those baby blues, leveling him, and he realized the problem. She thought he pitied her, which was actually the opposite of the truth. He admired her.
But he still didn’t want a mural.
“Why can’t I do this for free?” she asked.
Yeah, genius, why not? “Because…” Again he turned to Gray.
But Gray was very busy licking some butter off Penny’s finger, the asshole.
“Because,” Hud finally said, “it’s not only crazy, it’s not—” He broke off when his phone buzzed. “Excuse me,” he said, and pulled out his phone, staring stupidly down at a text from… Gray. Lifting his head, he sent his brother a look across the table.
Gray jerked his chin to the phone.
Hud blew a sigh and accessed the text.
>
What the fuck, man? She’s got a LIST. You can’t call a dying woman crazy!
Hud quickly thumbed a response.
We don’t know anything about her.
It was Gray’s turn to work his thumbs, and a moment later his response came through.
Penny wants this, so don’t fuck it up or I won’t get sex for a month.
They already had sex more than bunnies. And the problem wasn’t so much that Hud walked in on them doing it. It was that he kept walking in on them. Just last week he’d gone out to their building’s private hot tub and there they’d been, steaming up the already steamy air, gasping and clinging to each other.
Hud had executed a one-eighty so fast a drill sergeant would’ve been impressed. But then two nights later he’d gone down to the kitchen for something to eat and found Penny sitting on the kitchen island with her hand down Gray’s pants and her teeth on his throat. So Hud didn’t give two shits about their sex life and he glared at Gray before responding with:
Jack off for all I care, we’re not doing this.
Kenna raised a brow. “You boys going to share with the class?”
“No,” Hud said, and poured her and Penny more orange juice. They both smiled at him but weren’t distracted in the least, dammit.
Penny snatched her husband’s phone.
“I’m in the middle of a game,” Gray protested.
“Or texting Hudson like a three-year-old.” She accessed the texts, read them, and rolled her eyes again. “Seriously?” she said to Hud.
“Hey,” he said. “Your husband started it.”
“I’m the youngest,” Kenna told Bailey. “But as you can see, I’m most definitely the smartest.”
Hud pinched the bridge of his nose, counted to five, and then looked at Bailey. She’d finished his entire plate. Either the food or the rest had put color back into her cheeks. Her eyes were shiny, bright with intelligence and warmth. She looked… happy.
Shit. “I thought you’d left Cedar Ridge,” he said.
“No. Well, yes,” she said. “I left for the week, but I’m back.”
“But we discussed this,” he said. “You said you weren’t coming back.”
“No, you said that, not me.” She laughed, a soft, musical sound. “It takes more than some cranky-pants guy to get rid of me.”
The kids in the playground were greatly amused at this. All except Hud because what the hell did that mean? He wasn’t a… cranky pants. He simply worked hard to keep his life free of new complications because his entire life was one big complication. She was killing him here, just killing him because now he was torn between feeling handled—which he hated—and being distracted by needing to hear her say that she was okay.
He didn’t like this, any of it. Because the truth was, he also felt outsmarted, which he liked even less than being handled. “You can’t just start painting,” he said.
“Well, of course not,” she said demurely. “You all have to approve the draft.” She pulled out an iPad and showed them what she’d done.
Hud glanced at his family. Penny, Lily, and Kenna had scooted in close, looking at the screen raptly, “oohing” and “aahing” over what they saw.
In contrast, Gray was looking at Hud with a big, fat smirk. Ditto for Aidan. The assholes.
“It’s a family tree,” Bailey said, “since you guys are a family-run business. And I thought I’d do it as if it were an actual tapestry hung on the wall, the backdrop being the mountains, maybe the lake… highlighting the cameos of each of you on the family tree. I hear the Kincaid siblings are something of a legend, so I thought your visitors would love the little peek into your world.”
No. Hell no, Hud thought.
“Yes,” Penny and Kenna and Lily said in unison.
And given the looks on Aidan’s and Gray’s faces, neither of them were all that inclined to disagree with their better halves or their baby sister.
“Of course to draw each of you in your element, I’d need to interview you one-on-one. Just a few minutes of your time today, if that works.”
Hud opened his mouth to say it didn’t work at all, that none of it worked, nor did he have a few spare minutes today.
Or any day.
And that wouldn’t be just bullshit, either, because he really didn’t have a spare second, ever. His job took more hours than he had available in a day, and added to that were all the additional things that came with being one of the owners of the resort itself. Which didn’t even begin to count his other responsibilities, like making sure his mother was taken care of, finding Jacob, and keeping Kenna on the straight and narrow—a full-time job in itself.
But before he could say any of that, his siblings all were nodding like bobbleheads. Even his brothers, who were clearly not thinking with their heads, at least not their big heads.
Their would-be artist beamed at them. “Great,” she said.
“Not great,” Hud said.
Everyone looked at him.
“Interviews?” he repeated. “We don’t need to be interviewed for this. We’re all too busy right now.”
“You’ll have to excuse him,” Kenna said to Bailey. “He’s got one of those busy-guy brains. You know, the kind that means they’re not really listening when you talk.”
“I listen,” Hud said. “I just don’t always agree.”
“It’s only going to take a few minutes of your time,” Penny said. “I’m off today, so I’ll cover for you if I need to. Anything to get our Harry Potter–like family tree up!” She was clearly thrilled. Which meant Gray looked thrilled too.
Bailey nodded, those slay-me eyes bright and excited. “Yes,” she said. “It’ll be very much like the Black family tree in Harry Potter. Except the heads aren’t going to talk.”
Everyone laughed.
Hud didn’t see the funny, and Kenna looked his way and snorted. “He hasn’t seen the movies if you can believe it,” she told Bailey.
“Everyone should see the Harry Potter movies,” Penny said. She looked at her husband. “You loved them when we watched them, right?”
“Right,” Gray said with a perfectly straight face and then when Penny turned away, he shook his head at Hud. He’d either slept through the movies or had been trying to have sex with Penny instead of watching them.
“No worries, we’ll make time for the interviews,” Penny assured Bailey. “Even my curmudgeonly brother-in-law.”
“And if he doesn’t,” Kenna said, “you can just portray him any way that strikes you.” She laughed the evil-baby-sister laugh.
Oh yeah, Hud thought. This just got better and better.
Chapter 6
Bailey spent the day individually interviewing the Kincaid family for the mural. Well, interviewing everyone but Hud, whom she’d saved until last.
Or more accurately, put off until last. She wasn’t sure exactly what the problem was between them, but there was most definitely a problem. At least he had one.
She didn’t. Well, other than being rendered stupid by his voice, his smile, and the way his ass looked in pants…