our house on Sunday Miss Cortez. Kelley will pick you up.’
‘Oh I…’ her brow folded into a frown.
‘And welcome to the island,’ he patted her shoulder as he walked past.
‘But I…’
‘Don’t bother Ava,’ Killian shook his head, ‘it’s easier just to go along with it. Mom makes the best pot roast, and Grandma’s peach cobbler is awesome, but don’t tell Hope I said that. She’s been trying to perfect her cobbler for the last five years and it always manages to look like it’s been run over by a truck.’
‘I feel like I’ve just been run over by a truck,’ Ava frowned.
‘It gets easier,’ he laughed. ‘Welcome to island life, where your business is everyone’s business.’
‘Kelley said the exact same thing,’ she grumbled.
‘Well in this case he’s right,’ Killian grabbed the frying pan she was still holding on to and began to tow her back toward the house. ‘Speaking of business, I’ve got a friend of mine coming in on the afternoon ferry. He’s an architect and trust me when I say you’re going to need one. Once we get inside and shore up the structure, it’s going to need some serious remodeling, but for now we’ll get the fencing down and the scaffolding up. We need to get a good look at the roof. Once we’re sure the house is more or less safe, we’ll start ripping out the guts. We’ll save anything that can be saved but from our preliminary look the other day I can’t say I’m hopeful.’
‘It’s okay,’ she shook her head, ‘I’m not sentimental, and I’m also not sure I’m even keeping the house, so do what you need to do.’
He stopped and turned to stare at her.
‘You not planning on staying on island then?’ he asked thoughtfully.
‘I don’t know,’ she shrugged glancing round at her cliff top. The portable restrooms were being backed into the clearing strapped to the flat bed of a beeping truck, while several big burly guys were making short work of disassembling the protective metal fences surrounding the property, stacking them up at the edge of the woods.
Her gaze trailed up the huge, gray, sooty looking building in front of her and her heart gave another dull thud. Once again, she felt that weird little tug, like someone was squeezing her solar plexus.
‘It’s a lot of house for just one person,’ she murmured, ‘what would I do with it?’
‘I don’t know,’ Killian answered as if she’d been speaking to him, instead of musing out loud. ‘Share it?’
She turned to look at him dryly, her brows rising slowly.
‘Just saying,’ he held up his hands, ‘although, you wouldn’t get Kelley through the door. He’s terrified of the ghost of Luella Lynch.’
Ava rolled her eyes and shook her head.
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ she asked staring back at the guys unloading planks and metal poles for the scaffolding.
‘Not at the moment,’ Killian raised his hand in acknowledgement, nodding as one of the men signaled for him.
‘I’ll come and find you later,’ he told her, ‘until then…’
‘Stay out of the way?’ she replied.
‘More or less,’ he grinned. ‘I don’t think my brother would forgive me if I let you get hurt.’
She rolled her eyes again.
‘Go,’ she shooed him away.
‘Okay,’ he backed up a few paces, ‘but the same goes for your dog. Keep her out of the way for the moment; I don’t want her getting injured either.’
‘Got it,’ she nodded as he turned and jogged toward the others.
She wandered back toward the fire pit and whistled for Bailey. She passed her time building up the fire, keeping it fairly small. The sun was high in the sky and it was roasting already. The last thing she needed was a blazing inferno, however she did want some breakfast. She set the tin kettle to warm on the edge of the fire for coffee and grabbed her oldest most battered pan.
Ten minutes later she was settled on a log seat with Bailey dozing at her feet, eating scrambled eggs and toast, watching the bustling activity around her. The old fencing quickly disappeared from the site and she watched as the metal structure was erected level by level around her building.
After the first hour of just sitting there watching, she was well and truly bored. The initial excitement had worn off and she was itching for something to do.
She set the huge metal urn she’d bought on the edge of the fire, resting it on several grapefruit sized rocks she’d collected from along