Free Home for the Summer by Mariah Stewart

long.”
    “Let’s make an executive decision right now not to take on any event for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, 2012, unless Ava or Corrine—or whoever we end up hiring—is the consultant.”
    “Wow. That’s a revolutionary concept.”
    “I know. Let’s do it. Agreed?”
    “Agreed.” Lucy paused, then said, “I’d like to take a few extra days off next week while I’m home. I feel guilty about not being there with my mom, especially with my brother Ford being away for so long.”
    “Go ’head and take the time.”
    “There’s a twenty-fifth anniversary party that weekend, Bon.”
    “I booked it, I’ll handle it. Besides, it’s a small affair,” Bonnie assured her. “We owe your mother bigtime for the weddings she’s steered our way. When you come back, maybe I’ll take a few days off myself, fly up the coast to see my ex.”
    “Seriously? Are you talking about Bob?”
    “He’s the only ex I have. But yeah, we’ve been talking on the phone for a month or so now, and we’re both wondering … well, we’re just wondering if we did the right thing when we split up.”
    “Take a week,” Lucy told her. “Take two.”
    “A few days, maybe. Anyway, I’ll see you in the morning. Get some sleep. That’s what I’m going to do.”
    The first thing Lucy did after she hung up the phone was to call her mother and tell her she’d be staying on for a few days after her meeting with Robert Magellan. The second thing was to send an email to Clay.
Meeting potential client at the inn on Thursday morning, staying through the weekend. Thank-you dinner at your convenience.
Lucy.
    Within minutes came his reply.
Thursday night. Will pick you up at seven. Your mother wants you to bring home a coat this time. Baby, it’s cold outside.
Clay
    Lucy hit reply.
You told my mother we were going to have dinner?
    A quick tap to send, and she stared at the screen awaiting his response.
Don’t shoot the messenger. Saw her at Cuppachino yesterday & she mentioned you were coming home soon & she hoped you’d remember to bring a coat with you.
    Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she wanted was for her mother to get ideas about her and Clay. More than she already had, that is. She figured she wouldn’t mention it at all until she got home, lest her mother read more into this dinner than was there.
    After all, she reasoned, it was only a friendly dinner with an old classmate, right?

Chapter 6
    H IS coffee mug refilled and half a fat croissant on its plate nearby, Clay took a folder from his briefcase and spread it open on the table. At ten o’clock on a January morning, Cuppachino was much more subdued than it had been at eight. His table was one of only three that were inhabited.
    “This,” he said as he removed a piece of graph paper, “is what we need to be thinking about.”
    Wade MacGregor, Clay’s partner in MadMac Brews, stared at the hand-drawn structure. “It looks like one of those old-fashioned hop barns.”
    “That’s exactly what it is. And it’s what we’re going to be working on once we get the hops in the ground.”
    Wade picked up the sketch and studied it. “What do you mean ‘we’?”
    “I mean you and me.” Clay leaned back in his seat and took a sip of coffee. “We can’t afford to hire someone to build it, so we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”
    “I have no carpentry skills,” Wade said bluntly.
    “Fortunately, I do,” Clay assured him. “And since you seem like a reasonably intelligent guy, I’m betting you can learn.”
    “Maybe we can get Cameron O’Connor to give us a hand.”
    “And we’ll pay him … how?”
    “We’ll pay him in beer.” Wade grinned. “We both know that Cam really likes a good beer.”
    “Which we won’t have in any real quantity for about, oh, three years if we’re lucky. If the Eastern comma larvae don’t eat our hops and we don’t get hit with powdery mildew.”
    “Someone’s been studying up,” Wade