She glanced at the aging hippie doll with longing, then shook her head. “They belong together. I’m not sure we should split up the collection.”
After a long pause, Anna’s expression turned serious. “Why don’t you take them all upstairs with you, then?”
She had a feeling the offer had not been an easy one for Anna to make. It touched her somewhere deep inside. The lump in her throat swelled and she felt even more guilty for the dog-treat trick.
“We don’t have to decide anything like that today. For now, we can leave them where they are, as long as you don’t mind.”
Before Anna could voice the arguments Sage could see brewing in her dark eyes, Will joined them. “You want the good news or the bad?”
“Good news,” Anna said instantly. Sage would have saved the best for last. Good news after bad always made the worst seem a little more palatable.
“None of the walls you want to take out are weight-bearing, so we should be okay that way.”
“What’s the bad?” Anna asked.
“We’re going to have to reroute some plumbing. It’s going to cost you.”
He gave a figure that staggered Sage, though Anna didn’t seem at all surprised.
“Well, there’s no rush on this floor. What about the work upstairs?”
Those figures were no less stunning. “That’s more than reasonable,” Anna said. “Are you positive that will cover your entire overhead? I don’t want you skimping your profit.”
“It’s fair.”
Anna gave him a careful look, then smiled. “It will be fair when we tack back on the twenty percent you cut off the labor costs.”
“I give my friends a deal.”
“Not these friends. We’ll pay your going rate or we’ll find somebody else to do the work.”
Anna’s insistence surprised Sage as much as the numbers. She would have expected the other woman to pinch pennies wherever she could and she had to admit she was impressed that she refused to take advantage of Will’s generosity.
“You’ll take a discount and that’s final,” he said firmly. “You’ll never find another contractor who will treat Brambleberry House with the same loving care.”
“You guys can hash this out better without me,” Sage announced. She wasn’t sure she could spend any more time in Abigail’s apartment without breaking into tears. “I’m tired and I’m hungry. Right now all I want to do is fix some dinner and take a long, hot soak in the tub with a glass of wine. You can give me the details tomorrow.”
“I’ll walk Conan tonight. It’s my turn,” Anna said.
She nodded her agreement and headed up the stairs to her veggie burger and silence.
Chapter 4
This was the reason he wanted The Sea Urchin so desperately.
Eben leaned his elbows on the deck railing off the back of their beach house watching dawn spread out across the Pacific the next morning, fingers of pink and lavender and orange slicing through the wisps of fog left from the rains of the night before.
The air smelled of the sea, salty and sharp; gulls wheeled and dived looking for breakfast.
He was the only human in sight—a rare occurrence for him. He wasn’t used to solitude and quiet, not with chattering Chloe around all the time. He wasn’t completely sure he liked it—but he knew that if he could package this kind of morning for all his properties, Spencer Hotels would never have a vacancy again.
Normal people—people very much unlike uptight Californian businessmen—would eat this whole relaxation thing up. The Sea Urchin would be busy year-round, with people booking their suites months, even years, in advance.
He sipped his coffee and tried to force the tension from his shoulders. Another few days of this and he would be a certifiable beach bum, ready to chuck the stress of life in San Francisco for a quiet stretch of shoreline and a good cup of coffee.
Or maybe not.
He had never been one to sit still for long, not with so much to do. He’d been up since four taking a conference call with Tokyo in preparation for a series of meetings there next week and in two hours he would have to drive the ninety minutes to Portland to meet with his attorneys.
Despite the calm and beauty of the morning, his mind raced with his lengthy to-do list.
In the distance he saw a jogger running up the beach toward town and envy poked him. He would give his coffee and a whole lot more to be the one running along the hard-packed sand close to the surf, working off these restless edges.
Others found calm and peace in the soothing sound of the sea. For Eben, a good, hard run usually did the trick. But with Chloe asleep inside, that was impossible. He couldn’t leave her alone in a strange place, even if he left a note and took his cell phone so she could reach him.
The jogger drew closer and recognition clicked in at exactly the same moment he heard a bark of greeting. A moment later, Sage Benedetto’s big gangly red dog loped into view.
The dog barked again, changed directions and headed straight toward him. After an odd hesitation, the big dog’s owner waved briefly and followed her animal.
Though he knew it was foolish, anticipation curled through him like those tendrils of fog on the water.
She was still some distance away when the dog nuzzled his head under Eben’s hand, looking for attention. He had never had a pet and wasn’t very used to animals, but he scratched the dog’s chin and was rewarded by the dog nudging his hand for more.
When Sage approached, he saw she was wearing bike shorts and a hooded sweatshirt with an emblem that read Portland Saturday Market across the front.
She looked soft and sensual in the early morning light, like some kind of lush fertility goddess. Her exotic features were flushed and her hair was in a wild ponytail.
She looked as if she had just climbed out of bed after making love all night long.
His insides burned with sudden hunger but he hid his reaction behind a casual smile. “Great morning for a run.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You think?”
“I was just now pondering how much I’d love to be out there doing the same thing if only Chloe weren’t asleep inside.”
She gave a sudden delighted smile that made him feel as if the sun had just climbed directly above his beach house. Before he could catch his breath, she grabbed the coffee mug straight out of his hand and sipped it, pressing her mouth exactly where his own lips had been.
“Problem solved. I’ll stay here in case Chloe wakes up and you can take Conan.”
She made a shooing gesture with the hand not holding his coffee. “You two boys go on and run to your little hearts’ content and I’ll go back to sleep for a few moments.”
She slid into one of the wide, plump rockers on the deck and closed her eyes, his mug still cradled in her hands.
She was completely serious, Eben realized, not quite sure whether to be amused or annoyed. But with a sudden anticipation zinging through him, he couldn’t help but smile. “At least come inside where it’s warm while I throw on some jogging shoes.”
She opened her eyes and her gaze flashed down to his bare toes then back at him with an inscrutable expression on her features. “I’m fine out here, but if you would feel better having me inside in case Chloe wakes up, I have no problem with that, either.”
She