The announcement was followed by an invitation for volunteers to meet at the local high school Saturday afternoon. Today.
“Here’s something I can do,” he said to his brother, spinning the sign toward Hudson.
Hudson laughed. “You? Help with the harvest festival? Have you ever even attended a festival?”
“Doesn’t matter. All I have to do is pitch in with...whatever they do to put together one of these things. People will see I care about the town. Problem solved.”
Hudson sat back and gave his brother a dubious look. “You honestly think it’s going to be as easy as that? This is real life, big brother. It’s not some report you analyze or an interview you do with some overly enthusiastic CPA.”
“And it’s not rocket science, either.” Walker dropped some bills on the table, leaving a generous tip for the waitress. “You stay in town for a while this time. Get to work at the day care and make sure the place is so clean and neat, no kid would get sick if he licked the floor. When they call you into court—and I’m sure they will, since you are the landlord—you can honestly say you saw that the place was in order. I’ll stop in later, after I check out this festival thing.” He picked up the flyer and tucked it in his pocket. “This might just be step one in my campaign to not only beat Lindsay Dalton but build the Just Us Kids chain.”
And that would get him out of this town, back to work and away from women who lingered in his thoughts for all the wrong reasons.
* * *
Travis had been right. Getting hands-on was a nice change, Lindsay thought as she stacked wood in a pile to start building the vendor booths for the harvest festival. There weren’t that many volunteers here today, probably because a lot of people were at the craft fair at the church. The handful of people in the gymnasium had divvied up the various jobs as best they could, but even Lindsay could see they were going to be shorthanded. She didn’t mind, really. She’d been spending so much time in the office, working on the court case, that it felt good to do something constructive. Something that didn’t also raise her blood pressure because it went with thinking about Walker Jones. Yes, a little construction project today would be a good distraction, on all levels.
Lani came by, with Russ at her side. The two of them looked so blissfully happy that Lindsay felt a flicker of envy. What would it be like to have someone look at her like that? To take her hand, just because, then smile at her like she was the most precious thing on earth?
“Hey, sis, we’re heading out with the landscaping volunteers to do some work in the park. There’s a tree that needs to come down and some shrubbery that needs to be pruned.” Lani gestured toward the wood. “Are you going to work on that by yourself?”
“I think I can handle a few simple booths.” Lindsay flexed a biceps. “I have skills.”
Russ laughed. “You sure you don’t want one of us to stay and help you?”
“No, no, I’ve got it. The outdoor work is important. If that doesn’t get done, there won’t be any place to put the booths.” Lindsay picked up the cordless drill and pressed the button. It whirred and spun. There, that should make her look confident. The booths, after all, were pretty much just oversize squares. “I can do this with my eyes closed.”
“Okay. We should be back in a couple hours. If you need anything, holler.” Lani gave Lindsay a quick hug, then the two of them headed out the door.
Lindsay propped her hands on her hips and looked at the pile of wood. She had a rudimentary sketch, given to her by Sam Traven, co-owner of the Ace in the Hole, of what the booths should look like. A box base, with a long flat piece of plywood to serve as a table, then a frame above it to hang signage from. Like a child’s lemonade stand, only bigger.
She had a cordless drill, wood screws and precut wood. What she didn’t have was a clue of how to put this together. Okay, so maybe she’d been a little too optimistic when she told Lani and Russ she could handle this.
Lindsay picked up a two-by-four, then one of the shorter pieces. It seemed like this shorter piece should create the sides, then connect to another shorter piece, then another longer one... Okay, one piece at a time. It was just a big box, right?
She put the longest piece on the floor, then got out a wood screw and let the magnetic end of the drill bit connect to it. She knelt beside the two pieces, then tried to hold the shorter one in place while she drilled the screw into it and connected them.
Or tried to. Turned out that holding a piece of wood with her left hand while trying to operate the cordless drill with her right hand was a whole lot harder than they made it look on Fix or Flip. The screw whined, twirled into the wood, but refused to go straight, leaving the whole connection askew. Lindsay brushed her bangs off her forehead, then flipped the switch on the drill and tried to back the screw out. It whined and spun but didn’t pull back.
“It works a lot better if you use a little pressure,” said a deep voice behind her.
Lindsay sighed and rocked back on her heels. “Thanks. Do you mind help—” She cut off her words when she realized who belonged to the voice.
Walker Jones III.
Great. The last person she wanted to see. He was like a mangy dog, turning up in the least likely places, at the worst possible times. “What are you doing here?”
He nodded toward the wood pile. “Same as you. Helping with the harvest festival.”
She scoffed. “Right. And why the heck would you do that?”
“To build goodwill.” He shrugged. “I want people in this town to like me. So sue me. Oh, wait, you already are.”
At least he was honest about why he was here. But that didn’t make her like the idea any more. She wanted Walker Jones gone from Rust Creek Falls, gone from her peripheral vision...just gone. Even if he did looked damned good in jeans and a white button-down shirt with the cuffs rolled up. “You just want to win the lawsuit. Buying a round of beers and helping set up for a harvest festival won’t do that.”
“Walker Jones?” Rosey Traven, Sam’s wife and the other co-owner of the Ace in the Hole, came striding over. She reached out and took his hand, giving him a hearty shake. “I heard you were in my bar last night, buying beers for everyone. That was a really nice thing to do.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said, shaking Rosey’s hand as he spoke. “I figured since I was new in town, I should say thank you for the warm welcome I received.”
Warm welcome? Lindsay rolled her eyes.
“Well, there’s no better way to say thank you than with a couple of drinks.” Rosey smiled, then turned to Lindsay. “Hi, Lindsay. Nice to see you here today. We sure appreciate your help with the booths.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad to help.” She pointed at the convoluted boards. “Once I figure out how, that is.”
“You’ve got some handsome help here. I’m sure he can figure out how to get that together right quick.” Rosey smiled at Walker. “I best be going. Sam and I are bringing sandwiches to all the volunteers in the park. You two have fun!”
Which left Lindsay alone with Walker. Again. “Listen, we are on two different sides of a lawsuit,” she said, trying to work the drill again and back out the screw. It whined and groaned in place. “Damn it!”
“You’re going to strip the screw. Let me help you.” Walker’s hand covered hers.
She didn’t want to like his touch. Didn’t want to react. But her body didn’t listen to her head. The second his hand connected with hers, his larger fingers encompassing her smaller ones, a little flutter ran through her veins. In that instant, she was acutely aware of how close he was. How good he smelled. How the veins in his hands extended up his muscular forearms.
And how much she wanted to kiss him.
“I’ve