Special Delivery. Judi Lynn

nodded. “Most of the paint’s gone anyway. If we had a full crew, it wouldn’t take long if we had two men per side. Would Axel let us scrape it?”

      “Knock yourselves out!”

      “How in the hell do you hear everything we say back there?” Keagan called.

      Axel chuckled. “I know when to turn the TV down.”

      “I’m game,” Keagan said. “Are you going to set this one up, Harley?”

      “I’ll put my old man on it. He’ll offer everyone a free bottle of wine for a full day of work.”

      Karli blinked, surprised. “You guys are serious about this house.”

      “We have to strike while the old man’s in a good mood.” Tyne stood. “But right now, I have to get back to the porch, or I’ll have to leave you guys to it without me.”

      Keagan finished the last bite on his plate, and he and Brad rose, too. “Let’s do it,” he said.

      While the men went back to work, Karli cleaned up after their meal. Only two steaks remained, enough for a quick lunch someday, then she returned upstairs. She was finishing the fourth bedroom when the doorbell rang. She ran down to greet the visiting nurse. “Thanks so much for coming. Axel’s in the three-season room at the back of the house. He doesn’t want to see you, but he needs some kind of in-home care.”

      The woman, in her late fifties, smiled. “No one wants to admit they can’t care for themselves, but once he hears the benefits we can offer, he’ll change his mind.”

      Karli wasn’t so sure but guided the woman back to him.

      Axel’s expression went sour. “Go away. I don’t want another damn nurse bothering me.”

      The woman gave a pleasant smile. “I didn’t come to bother you, Mr. Crupe. I’m an RN. If you need medicine or equipment, I can help you with that.” She took out her stethoscope. “Let’s listen to your heart for starters, okay?”

      He pinched her. Hard.

      She jerked back. “Now, now, we can’t have that. I’m only here to help you.”

      He turned his back on her.

      “There’s no reason for that.”

      He turned to glare at her and raised his middle finger. “This is my house. I don’t want you here. Go away.”

      Her expression hard, she gathered up her things and started to leave. “I can’t help him.”

      “Wait!” Karli jumped up to follow her. “He needs in-home assistance.”

      “He needs to learn manners. I don’t have to deal with him.” The nurse stomped from the house.

      Karli crossed her arms over her breasts and returned to Axel. “You think you’re pretty damned clever, don’t you? Well, you just blew that.”

      He crossed his arms, too. “You’re bad enough, but I told you. No more people. I don’t want any little Nurse Nancy traipsing in and out of my house.”

      “Fine! What are you going to do when I leave?”

      “Throw myself a party.”

      She wanted to throttle him. That would look bad on her nursing record, though, so she stalked out of the room instead. She worked upstairs until she finished the last bedroom, then came down to start a batch of ham sandwiches, the kind her dad made for football Sundays, on Hawaiian buns with Swiss cheese, ham, and a seasoned butter coating.

      She took two sandwiches in for Axel and plopped them on his TV tray. “Enjoy real food before you’re scraping applesauce out of plastic containers again.”

      “Wait till my kids get here. They’ll compete to make me happy, hoping I’ll leave everything to them.”

      She snorted. “Good luck with that. When I talked to Mom, they didn’t sound like the type.”

      She left him to carry the food out to the men on the almost-finished porch. Tyne and Harley had already left, but Keagan and Brad climbed down their ladders to join her.

      “The porch is about done,” Keagan said. “It should last another fifty years.” He sounded awfully happy with himself.

      Brad dipped right into the sandwiches. “Damn, these are good.”

      Keagan ate half of his in one bite and gave her a nod of approval.

      She smiled. “My dad makes them for football Sundays when buddies drop in.”

      Brad gave her a look. “I bet I’d like your dad.”

      “I bet you would, too. He’s pretty damned likeable.” She tossed a glance at Keagan. “You’d like him, too.”

      Keagan blinked, surprised. The idea obviously hadn’t crossed his mind. He frowned. “Is your family thinking of coming to Mill Pond to see Axel?”

      “Hell, no.” The words spilled out before she could edit them.

      Keagan laughed. “I don’t blame them. Axel’s a pill.”

      “That’s putting it nicely. How do you put up with him? He just chased the visiting nurse away.”

      “That’s not good. Who does he think will take care of him when you leave?”

      “His kids who come home to rescue him and inherit all of his money.”

      “Like that’s going to happen. I guess I feel a little sorry for him. It sucks to get old and have to depend on people when you’ve never had to.”

      Brad shook his head, nodding toward Keagan. “This guy’s too much of a softy. He can be had with a sad story.”

      “And that’s a bad thing?” Karli had gotten the impression people could only push Keagan so far.

      Brad thought about his answer. “Sometimes, he should put himself first. He’s happy staying in the background.”

      Keagan chuckled. “I don’t have a choice when I’m with you. When we’re around women, I might as well be invisible.”

      Brad reached for another sandwich. “Well, I wasn’t talking about the ladies, but really, you don’t even try. They come to our table because I flirt with them. You don’t make an effort.”

      Keagan shrugged, unconcerned. “I want to get my studio up and going first. I’m not ready for women.”

      Not what she wanted to hear. Karli raised an eyebrow. He’d better get ready, because she had him in her crosshairs, but it was going to take more work than she’d expected. She gathered their empty plates—his plates, the ones he’d made. She motioned to them. “I love these. I wanted to use them for lunch, but there are only four of them. How many patterns do you make?”

      “I try to do something new for each season, painted any way the customer wants. You should come to the studio on my parents’ farm. I can show you my lines.”

      Just herself and Keagan? “I’d love that.”

      Keagan finished his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “We’d better finish up. We’re almost done. Once the sun gets a little lower, it gets damn chilly. Thanks for the food.”

      They climbed back up their ladders and half an hour later came to say goodbye to her. She walked out to see the finished work and smiled. She’d expected bare wood, but the men had painted it and all of the other columns so they matched. “The house looks sturdy again—neglected but solid.”

      “It’s a good house.” Keagan’s voice sounded wistful. “I always think it’s sad to see a good house left to die.”

      “Die?” Brad laughed at him, but Karli nodded agreement.

      “A house is more than wood and