He hiked another quarter mile, judging the distance by the subtle change in the river’s current. Castle Falls was just up ahead, an appropriate name for the steep sandstone wall that towered above the water.
“Lily?” Brendan pitched his voice a notch above the rushing water. In the fading light, he spotted the trunk of a dead aspen near the base of the falls. The jagged stub of a branch had caught on one of the rocks, holding the tree in place as it bobbed gently in the foam.
Like a suspension bridge.
Brendan’s breath snagged in his lungs even as he tried to rein in his overactive imagination. The challenge of crossing the river on a stick might prove irresistible to his two younger brothers, but a grown woman would be too level-headed to attempt it….
“Hi!”
He twisted toward the lilting voice and saw Lily waving to him from the opposite side of the riverbank.
Apparently not.
Stubborn. Perky. Now Brendan could add reckless to the list he’d started.
“It’s so beautiful here!” Lily skipped across the fallen tree with the nimbleness of a professional tightrope walker.
Halfway across, the log shifted, and Brendan heard her gasp.
Without thinking, he splashed into the shallow water, shoes and all, and reached for her.
“Thanks.” Lily latched on to his hand, and the warmth of her touch shot up his arm like a current of electricity.
Brendan sucked in a breath and let her go the moment their feet touched dry land. “What—” he tossed the word down like a gauntlet “—did you think you were doing?”
Lily smiled up at him, eyes shining in spite of the fact she’d almost fallen into the river. “Exploring, of course.”
Of course.
Brendan shook his head. “Look, the sun is setting—”
“I know! I watched it from up there.” She pointed to one of the granite turrets that bracketed the water spilling over the top of the falls. “The best seat in the house.”
The best seat… Brendan tried to shut down the image what could have happened if Lily had lost her footing and slipped. Or somehow stumbled upon the cave located behind the falls.
Brendan battled the temptation to share the discovery he’d made years ago. To watch her face light up with wonder.
Now who’s the reckless one?
“You probably spend a lot of time here.” Lily clapped her hands and Missy trundled out of the brush, sporting a brand-new collar that could have only been purchased in the pet food aisle of the grocery store.
“No.” Spotty cell phone reception and no internet equaled no customers. “Not really.”
“You should.” Lily cast one more longing look at the falls before she fell into step beside him.
Brendan didn’t answer.
There were a lot of things he knew he should do.
Spending time with Lily Michaels definitely wasn’t one of them.
Chapter Four
Lily’s gaze bounced from the gleaming, freshly primed wall to her laptop, where a perky woman wearing a pristine white smock was demonstrating a cutting-edge technique in the world of faux finishes. She made it look so easy. But then again, that painter didn’t have to contend with a neighbor who didn’t want her to listen to the radio. Or sing along with it. At one point, when Lily had started a pleasant, albeit one-sided conversation with Missy, the heels of Brendan’s chair scraping against the floor on the other side of the living room wall let her know that he didn’t want to hear anything at all.
Absolute silence might have been Brendan Kane’s idea of a perfect work environment, but it was driving Lily bonkers. Listening to music while she worked helped her stay on task. And she could use a little focus—especially when the only thing she could hear was the husky—and rather appealing—rumble of a masculine voice on the opposite side of the wall every time the telephone rang.
And it rang a lot.
“You’ll want to work quickly before the base coat dries,” Perky Painter was saying. “Then, wait thirty minutes! Plenty of time to grab a fresh cup of coffee or take a little walk and stretch your legs.”
Missy, who’d been napping in the corner, lifted her head at the word walk.
“Later,” Lily promised. Because, while she’d been tuned into Brendan’s rich-as-dark-chocolate tenor on the other side of the wall, the base coat had started to dry.
She tapped the rewind button on the DVD player and followed the directions, ignoring the pull and protest of unused muscles while she worked. Who would have guessed that painting could take the place of a daily workout? No wonder Shelby didn’t bother with a gym membership.
A red-winged blackbird landed on a low branch just outside the open window and trilled a greeting. Lily responded with a series of whistles that sounded, in her opinion, like a fairly decent imitation of the bird’s cheerful dialogue.
A floorboard creaked. The door at the end of the hall snapped shut. Was Brendan taking an unscheduled coffee break? Or had he added whistling to his own personal neighborhood-watch list?
The steady tread of footsteps drew closer.
Watch list.
“I’ll distract him while you make a break for it,” Lily told the bird. She felt a pinch of envy when it took wing and disappeared into a hedge of golden spirea. The only cover available for her was the drop cloth that now doubled as a dog bed.
While Lily contemplated how long it would take to displace the basset hound and dive underneath it, Brendan appeared in the doorway.
He looked frazzled. And grim. Two things that should have canceled out the “and handsome” part of the equation. But—Lily tried not to sigh—they didn’t.
When Brendan had shown up at the falls the evening before, she’d been ridiculously glad to see him. Not because the sun had retreated, allowing shadows to fill the spaces between the trees while she’d been exploring, but because the man had finally ventured out of his office.
Apparently the only thing that separated Brendan from his routine was something that disrupted it.
And that something would be you, Lily.
As someone who’d had to rewind the video tutorial—twice—since she’d started working, she decided they were even.
“The delivery truck has a flat tire a few miles from town so I’m going to round up a spare and drive it over,” Brendan said. “I’m expecting an important call, so I’ll be back in half an hour or so.”
“All right.”
Lily tried to sound casual, but the sudden glint in Brendan’s eyes meant he’d seen the hopeful glance she’d sneaked at Sonia’s radio, a charming relic from the 1970s that resembled a toaster and boasted real dials instead of a touch pad.
“You’ll have plenty of time to bang a few pots and pans together.” Brendan’s dry statement could only be a reference to Lily’s brief foray into the kitchen, when she’d whipped up a veggie omelet for breakfast. “Sing. Tap dance. Make all the noise you want.”
Cheering, Lily thought. That would be the noise she’d be making.
Brendan’s lips twitched. That he’d read her mind was as unnerving as the possibility a real live heart beat underneath the pocket of his black polo.
Lily was relieved when Missy rolled to her feet, spotted her reluctant host and released a joyful howl.