“All Roy.” It gave Darby pride to say so. “He sanded, stained, sealed. It doesn’t look showroom new—we didn’t want that. But it looks fresh.”

“Get some pictures, will you, Zane? I’m just going to…”

As she wandered off, Darby took a step after her. Zane laid a hand on Darby’s arm.

“She needs a little alone.”

“Okay.”

“She loves this place, all of it. We all do, but for Emily it’s always been home, and legacy and pride and responsibility. You added to that. It looks great. More, it looks right, and—this is a compliment—as if it’s always looked like this.”

Darby felt a little misty herself. “That’s a perfect compliment.”

He pulled out his phone, then took off his sunglasses to frame in a shot.

Her heart knocked once. Silly, but there it was. “You have her eyes.”

“Sorry?”

“Emily. You have Emily’s eyes.”

“Walker green.”

“Brody has his mom’s eyes in his dad’s face, Gabe his dad’s eyes in his mom’s face.”

Zane took a couple of shots, lowered the phone. “I never thought about it exactly that way, but you’re right.”

“The whole family’s happy you’re moving back.”

“It seemed like time. And you’re moving here. Bigger change for you.”

“It seemed like time.”

She liked his smile. It started slow, ended a little crooked. Like his nose, she thought. He’d broken it along the way—she knew how that felt.

Emily came back, heaved a big sigh. “Okay. Zane, I have to ask you for a big favor.”

“Sure.”

“I need you to go back to the house, get a bottle of wine.”

“I have wine.”

Emily angled her head at Darby. “Enough for the three of us to sit and have a conversation?”

“Conversational wine.” Darby nodded. “I can handle that.”

“Great. Zane, give her a hand. I’m going to sit here and bask while you do.”

“I love that she’s basking,” Darby said as they went inside. “I like clients to kind of check things as we go, but she just wouldn’t.”

She got the wine, and didn’t have to tell him where to find the glasses, the corkscrew. “You’ve put in some time in the bungalows.”

“You don’t live with Emily and not work the bungalows. Family business,” he added as he pulled the cork.

Family business she understood. But the “live with Emily” came as new information.

What about his parents? And now that she thought of it, she’d heard not a word about any sibling of Emily’s along her chatty journeys.

They took the wine and glasses outside where Emily sat with a dreamy smile at the picnic table.

“I’m coming back tomorrow—unless I’ll be in your way—and taking some pictures for the website.”

“You won’t be in my way.” After pouring the wine, Darby sat. “Plus, I’ll have the potting soil swept up by then.”

Emily took a sip of wine, studied the glass. “I know a little about wine, and this is nice. I know nothing about flowers that don’t come in a vase. I know a little about trees and can recognize an azalea.”

She took another sip. “I know business, customer service, raising kids. Adding business to what my eyes tell me, I know once I put photos on the website, add them to the brochures, I’m likely, very, to see an increase in interest and rentals for this bungalow. Considering that, and everything else, I’m not going to let you bear the expense for all of this.”

Darby’s shoulders went from relaxed to stiff. Zane saw the change from across the table.

“We had a deal.”

“I’m changing the deal,” Emily said easily. “And I have my lawyer right here. If you’re as good a businesswoman as you are a landscaper, and I suspect you are, you have all your receipts and a good accounting of the materials, the time and labor that went into this project.”

“We had a deal,” Darby said again.

“Apparently,” Zane tossed back, “we’re renegotiating.”

“We are. And here are the terms. I’ll reimburse you for the materi als. I expect you, being a licensed contractor, got them at a discount. I’ll take the discount.”

Those shoulders relaxed, just a little.

“Now, you’ll also have an accounting of the cost of labor.”

“No.” Darby picked up her wine.

“Yes, you do. I’m willing to negotiate the bottom line on that.”

“Roy’s the first employee of High Country Landscaping. I pay him.”

Zane held up a hand. “You hired Roy? Officially?”

“He’s going to fill out the W-4 tomorrow.”

“She performs miracles,” Zane commented.

“We’ll negotiate the cost of labor,” Emily continued. “And if we come to terms, I’m going to contract you to do the rest of the bungalows.”

Darby’s mouth fell open, shut as she pressed her lips together, closed her eyes. “Oh. Oh, that’s playing dirty.”

“I play to win.”

“You won’t beat her,” Zane commented. “Trust me.”

“I want that so much.” She pointed at Emily. “You know how much.”

“I do. And I’ve got better, dirtier. I’ve seen the way you look at my house. You finish the bungalows, it’s yours. I want you to do to my house what you’ve done here.”

“Goddamn it!” Shoving up from the table, Darby circled the patio. She dragged off her cap, raked hands through her hair. “It’s so beautiful, so perfect. So ridiculously naked. I’ve got a dozen different designs in my head already. This is so not fair.”

She dropped down again, huffed out a breath. “Half. Half the labor. Fifty-fifty.”

“I can agree to that.”

“And the paint for the chairs—and that labor. The pots, the plants and labor, the window box, the wind chime. Those are gifts. They’re gifts, and that’s that.”

“Done.”

Darby stared at the hand Emily held out. “Really?”

“Really.”

When they shook, Emily held on another minute. “You get me the accounting tomorrow. How soon can you start on the next bungalow?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Don’t you want a day off?”

“No. No, I really don’t. I’ve been working on designs in the evening. Optimism. Tomorrow.”

When Darby’s eyes filled, Zane sighed, looked skyward. “Not you, too.”

“This means everything to me.” Now she gripped Emily’s hand in both of hers. “I made a difference for you here, and I will with all the others. But this is my life, and you’ve just made a difference in my life.”

“Honey, you’re going to need more than Roy once people around here see what you can do.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m hoping to steal Gabe from you this summer.”

“Gabe?” A smile flickered around Emily’s lips even as surprise filled her eyes. “Really?”

“He’s got an eye, good hands, an interest—and a work ethic I imagine he got from you. We’ll talk about it. Meanwhile, I maybe need a lawyer, too.” Darby shifted to Zane. “Do you handle real estate?”

He’d spotted the tattoo, found it nearly as fascinating as her eyes. “Not so far. But things change. Why?”

“I’ve got my eye on a place up for sale. If it works out, don’t I need somebody to handle the property search thing, and the settlement, all that?”

“Wouldn’t hurt.”

“You’re hired. I was going to take one more look, but I’m going to go ahead and make an offer tonight. I feel like all this is a sign.”

“The Hubbard place, right? I heard you’ve been looking at it. You remember that place, Zane? This side of the lake, closer to town, and back down that steep lane.”

“Yeah, vaguely.”

“The house isn’t much, but I don’t need much there. What it has is five-point-eight acres, and I need that. Greenhouse, equipment shed, and so on. It’ll work. Anyway, the bungalows. They won’t look like this.”

Emily jerked back. “But I love this. I want this.”

“For this one. You don’t want your bungalows—those homes away from home—to all look the same, to be uniform, like a development. Each one should be unique to its topography, its view, its setting. You’ll have, we’ll say, a look, a flow, but not cookie-cutter. I’ve got some designs worked up on my laptop. Why don’t I get it, you can look? You could pick where you want me to start next.”

“She always zero to sixty?” Zane wondered.

“In my limited acquaintance, yeah.”

“Sorry, if you don’t have time now, I can bring them to you tomorrow morning.”

“I’ve got wine, got my boy. I’ve got time.”

“Great. Be right back.”

Zane frowned after her. “Does she ever wind down after hitting full speed?”

“Not that I’ve seen.” Emily tipped her head to his shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re home, Zane.”

He brushed his lips over her hair. “Me, too.”

* * *

Zane had the guest room in the rambling old house. His usual spot on visits. He knew Emily and Lee would be perfectly content to have him live there, open-ended. But he’d find a place. If he was back, he was back, and needed to reset his roots, so to speak.

Gardening terms, he thought as he tried to settle in for the night. Probably came from the landscaper.

He needed to start looking at houses. No condos like he’d had in Raleigh. Time for an actual house. Hell, he could hire the landscaper to do whatever with a yard if he ended up with one.