Free Build Me Up by Lili Grouse Page A

that’s the day that Frank Sinatra or Charlie Chaplin – or Humphrey Bogart, for that matter – is going to get me.”
    “Huh?”
    “I’m pretty sure those cats are plotting to kill me in my sleep. They’re just waiting for the right time – until they’ve lulled me into a false sense of security. I’ll accidently leave the door open one night, and they’ll sneak in and pounce on me.”
    “That’s… disturbing.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    “How’s it working out with Mrs. Breezer otherwise?”
    “Well, I don’t see much of her. I think she has a bunch of rooms where she spends her days, and only come out when I’m gone. Maybe Humphrey Bogart’s in there with her.”
    “Are you looking to move out?”
    “I’ve been asking around, but people seem to be fed up with tourists and want their private time. No-one’s renting out rooms or cottages.”
    “Yeah, I guess a lot of people that leave Greenport during the summer and rent out their places have returned now. I can ask around, too, if you like.”
    “Yeah, that’d be great, actually. Thank you.”
    They walked in silence the rest of the short way to the Breeze Inn .
    “Thanks for walking me,” Kristen said and reached for the zipper on the leather jacket.
    “Keep it. I mean, until you get a proper coat or something. It’s only going to get colder from here on out.”
    “I’ll go shopping tomorrow morning,” she said and unzipped the jacket, sliding it off and handing it over. “It’s way too big. But thanks.”
    “Okay, then. Have a good night, Kristen.”
    “You too, Ford.”
    She watched him walk away, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets and the leather jacket tucked under one arm. All in all, this had been a good day.
     
    Ford had a lot of thinking time as he walked all the way back to his house. Finding out that Kristen’s parents were divorced, and how that had affected her relationship with them – well, he couldn’t help but grill her about it, could he? Not when he had the chance to get an insight into his future relationship with Annabelle.
    He tried to keep his thoughts strictly on his daughter, but his mind kept nudging him elsewhere. More specifically, to Kristen Barnes. From the second she’d showed up at his door, it had felt like he was on a rollercoaster ride. He couldn’t figure her out.
    She was feisty and stubborn, but there was a vulnerability to her, as well. He could see the hurt in her eyes when he suggested she didn’t get the job for Bankhead on merits alone. If her relationship with her father was strained, he could imagine she’d be touchy about his influence on her career advancement.
    As for her troubles of finding a new place to stay, he could imagine why. The people around town that had spare rooms to let out were all couples who either didn’t have children yet or whose children had grown up and gone off to find a place of their own. No woman in her right mind would let someone who looked like Kristen within ten feet of her husband.
    There was, of course, the nagging voice that reminded him that he had a spare room – Annabelle’s. But there was no way he could offer it to Kristen. Just spending a few hours with her when they weren’t arguing was a trial by fire. There was no denying she was a very attractive woman, and like he’d told her – he didn’t meet many like her.
    But none of that was supposed to matter. They would inevitably have to work together, and the only thing he should be thinking of was how to make their business relationship run as smoothly as possible.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    SIX
     
     
     
     
    Kristen looked up from under her bright yellow hardhat. It was threatening to swallow her whole, but Ford had insisted she wear it on the construction site. Well, his exact words had been ‘wear it at all times or you’re out of here’.
    Over the past couple of months, they’d made a lot of progress. The old lighthouse keeper’s cottage remained untouched for now, but