“What?” Vanni asked. “But how could he do that without you knowing?”
“I was gone on a couple of trips for a little over a week. He only needed a few days to recover completely. I never suspected.” She sniffed into the phone. “Craig was afraid I’d stop taking my birth control pills and try to sneak a baby out of him. He said he was sorry, but he didn’t want a family and was tired of fighting about it.”
Vanni sank into the chair by the phone. “This is just…unbelievable.”
“He said that if what we have isn’t good enough—just like it is—then it would probably be better for both of us if I just made good on my threat. Vanni,” she said with a whimper. “When did he become that kind of man?”
Vanni grimaced. It was tempting to say he’d always been like that—selfish, insensitive, an egotistical bore who took a lot more than he gave. But Nikki’s heart was breaking so all she said was, “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. The creep.”
“My dad helped me move out—all my things are in my parents’ garage. I’m staying with them while I look for something to rent. I’m calling from the car. I don’t have to work for a few days. Can I come up?”
“Of course,” Vanni said. Nikki and Vanni had been best friends since they both started at the airline. They’d gotten each other through a dozen rotten boyfriends, but nothing like this. Nikki had been with Craig for five years.
Nikki had been Vanni’s maid of honor when she married Matt. Vanni would have been lost without Nikki to talk to, to lean on when Matt was deployed to Iraq. When he was killed, she spent hours on the phone with her best friend. Of course she would try to comfort Nikki now.
“I feel so stupid,” Nikki said. “Why’d I let myself fall in love with him?”
“Can we really help who we love?” Vanni asked with a sigh. “Just get up here. We’ll eat fattening food, play with the baby, tease Tom, ride the horses and stick pins in a Craig doll. Nikki, you know it’s time to move on—he wasn’t good enough for you. And what he did—that was so deceptive, you could never count on him again.”
“Vanni, what’s wrong with us?” Nikki asked. “Why are we stuck loving men who don’t love us?”
With a shock of clarity, Vanni gulped. Why indeed, she asked herself. And then we feel so stupid, like such failures. It was wrong, all wrong. “We’re going to work on that, my friend. Both of us.”
Joe Benson got a call from his old friend, Preacher, explaining that he and Paige had done a lot of talking about their growing family. Right now they were housed in Jack’s old apartment behind the bar—a small L-shaped bedroom/living room built for a single man—while Paige’s son, four-year-old Chris, was sleeping in the bedroom above the kitchen that had once been Preacher’s. With a baby coming and maybe more in their future, they had to do something. They thought about buying a larger house, but in point of fact, Paige and Preacher loved living right where they worked. As far as either of them could foresee, Preacher would always be the cook and manager at Jack’s bar with Paige as his right hand.
Preacher had talked to Jack about allowing him to enlarge their quarters. Jack thought it was a fine idea; it would at least double the value of the property. He made Preacher a deal—if Preacher would build on, Jack would get together a contract to make him a full partner and half-owner. If the bar and grill and attached home was ever sold, the proceeds would be split.
Before any further discussion could occur, an architect would have to be consulted to see if building on was feasible. There was room; the property on which the bar sat was comfortably large. Preacher wanted to find a plan that would give them plenty of space and wouldn’t disrupt business too much during renovation.
That’s where Joe came in. If Joe thought it was a good idea and could draw up some plans, Preacher could begin to look for a builder.
Joe loved an excuse to spend a day or two with Jack and Preacher. And it made him feel good when his buddies asked him for help; he always gave them a deal on the designs. So Joe said, “I’ll have to see the space and the structure, do some measuring. It’s not raw land, Preach. An add-on is a little complicated—the basic structure has to support additional square footage. Tell you what. I’ll drive down tomorrow, stay overnight…”
“Tomorrow?! Oh, man, that’s great of you!”
“For you and Paige, Preach? It’s an honor.”
And that’s what he had done. When you’re an architect with your own small firm, you make your own hours, design at three in the morning sometimes, if that’s when the inspiration hits. So he made it to the bar before noon on Thursday, had a nice long lunch with Mel and Jack, Preacher and Paige and they talked about the expansion. To Joe’s surprise, Preacher was the one with the most elaborate ideas—he wanted a large great room and dining room, a play area for the kids, a small office for himself, plus a total of four bedrooms. And, he wanted the family connected, not separated the way it was—right now they had to go through the kitchen and up the back stairs to get to Christopher’s room. Preacher wanted it to become a house like any other house—with a clear path to all the rooms. And maybe a fireplace. The only thing he didn’t need was a kitchen.
Joe got busy right after lunch, sketching, measuring, tromping through their quarters and around the yard behind the house. There were some beautiful big trees back there he’d rather not disturb and a huge brick barbecue he’d prefer not to move. He could see the potential for a nice, spacious house connected to the bar by one door through the kitchen, and with two separate entrances independent of the bar. The downstairs could be enlarged enough to hold a great room, master bedroom and bath, dining room and serving station with storage for their personal dishes and dining accessories, with a breakfast bar separating the serving station from the dining room. He could install a food-warming tray, dishwasher, trash compactor and sink in their serving station for convenience. He left the laundry room right where it was, just inside the door to the bar. The addition of a small office would square out the first floor and support additional bedrooms and a loft on the second floor. They could entertain friends and have family meals there. The stairs to the second floor could be removed to enlarge their ground space and they could put an open staircase to the second floor in the great room.
There was room upstairs for two additional bedrooms and an open loft. The bedrooms would be large enough for more than one child, with walk-in closets. Their total living space now was twelve hundred square feet and he could turn it into three thousand without even breathing hard.
The only inconvenience would be that Preacher and his family would have to move out for most of the construction. Joe knew they had some options—one of which was Jack and Mel’s cabin. Small, but serviceable for four to six months.
It was almost five by the time Joe was ready to discuss these possibilities with Preacher, Jack and Paige. Since Jack was busy serving, and Preacher and Paige were busy cooking and clearing, he would enjoy a beer while waiting out the dinner crowd. He had a large sketch pad and notebook full of measurements that he flipped closed for the time being.
That’s when he saw her, the profile of a small brunette with long, silky dark hair that went halfway down her back. Right beside her, leaning toward her and talking in her ear, was Vanni. For a moment Joe was struck dumb. Then, gathering his wits, he said, “Vanni?”
Vanni looked up, past the back of her friend’s head and said, “Joe?”
“Yeah,” he laughed.
She immediately left her beer and her friend and came over to him. Of course they’d met more than once, the last time being at her husband’s funeral. Joe knew Matt; he’d met him in Grants Pass when he’d been home on leave. They’d been introduced by Paul.
“What