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“My number. Let me know if you need any help.”
“I don’t need your help, Con. I’ve got this.”
He shrugged in a careless way that never failed to drive her crazy and pressed the card into her hand.
“I’ll get going, then.” He opened the door, slung the backpack strap over a bare shoulder, and held up the surfboard. “See you around, Abby.”
Then he was gone, and she was alone with an empty space in both her store and her heart.
Chapter Three
Connor returned to his apartment, showered, and had started the Keurig when the front door opened, and Jason entered, carrying a white pastry box.
With the morning’s chaos, Connor had forgotten to get donuts. During his walk home, he couldn’t get his mind off Abby with her sad brown eyes, standing amidst a renovation disaster.
“Mornin’, bro,” Jason called out.
“Hey. You were reading my mind,” Connor said, and popped in a second coffee pod.
“Can’t have a meeting without sugar to go with our caffeine.”
“You know it.”
They’d closed on the Pelican Bay location of Maguire Brothers Renovations a week ago. Since then, he and Jace had worked tirelessly on the renovations. The advantage of buying older buildings was you could get them for dirt cheap. The downside was many of them had the original of everything, and required a full overhaul.
Jace and he had a system that started with a morning meeting over breakfast, where they touched base on projects and discussed each of their plans for the day. After, they’d spend a couple hours working on their place, before moving to other work.
Going into business with his brother had been the best thing he’d done. Connor’s life had been in a serious tailspin when his mom moved him and Jace to Tampa after Hurricane Samantha nearly destroyed Pelican Bay almost ten years ago. The two-bedroom bungalow his family had rented at the south end of the town was only a block from the beach and had sustained too much water damage to be livable. With no savings, his father MIA, and nowhere to live, his mom reached out to her brother, Tom, who offered to put them up while they figured out their next step.
The first year in the Sunshine State had resulted in Connor spending two stints in rehab for a substance abuse disorder that had started in high school. The forced rehab had given him nothing but time to evaluate his life and figure out what he wanted. After he got through the worst part, he’d realized there was more to life than partying and his next fix. He’d been clean ever since.
Once released after the second round of rehab, he focused on working with Jason at a construction company. Sure, sometimes the temptation for a quick fix crept in, but Connor learned to recognize the signs and would fit in a meeting or call his sponsor. He also communicated to his brother when he was feeling edgy. Jace was a tremendous support and would listen if Connor wanted to unload his worries or join him in a yoga class.
When they’d saved enough, they’d started their own business flipping houses. A few years later, they’d gotten noticed by a TV network and received an offer to host a home improvement show called Beach House Flippers.
Their reputation at flipping houses, along with a desire to help their hometown, was what brought them back to Pelican Bay a few months ago. Thanks to the resources from Beach House Flippers, they’d filmed a season of the show around renovating Erickson Fun Pier, which had sustained serious damage in the storm.
Damage including loss of the Sun Jet roller coaster, which had fallen into the Atlantic when the boardwalk gave way to the storm. Connor remembered the intensity of the storm and the shock when he learned about the coaster’s demise, including that his brother and friends had been on the pier when it happened. Tyler Erickson and Maddy Kinkaid had been on the coaster when it fell and would likely have died if it hadn’t been for Mr. Erickson, who saved them, even though it cost him his life.
The amusement pier renovation was a key step in rebuilding in order to entice tourists to the barrier island. Once a prime vacation spot for families, the thirty-block town of Pelican Bay had suffered major damage and not recovered. The hype from having Beach House Flippers film on the island had brought awareness to the town and awakened a new interest in not only Pelican Bay but also other small towns along the Jersey coast.
With the pier complete, the brothers turned their attention to other much-needed renovations. Now, Connor and Jason were full-fledged Pelican Bay business owners, having set down roots in their hometown. They’d bought this house to set up as HQ for their business, plus a couple of other properties, including the development where their old house was, and the mini-golf place that had once been the hot spot for kids and families.
“Jenna can’t make our morning meeting. Her boxes are arriving from Florida, and she needs to let the movers into her apartment,” Jason said, reading a text from his phone.
Jenna was one of Uncle Tom’s kids and several years younger than Connor and Jace. Both she and her brother, Kyle, worked at the Maguire Brothers’ Tampa office. Jenna had offered to move to Pelican Bay to get their new location up and running. She was a godsend, handling everything, including speaking with prospective customers, helping manage their schedules and project timelines, getting permits, and assessing potential properties. Whatever they needed, Jenna handled, which allowed Connor and Jason to focus on the actual renovation work.
Connor carried two cups of coffee into the partially complete conference room, which served as their war room. Their first order of business after they bought the space had been to replace the flooring. Now the wide, dark gray planks gave the place a modern look. Framing of the offices and conference rooms was complete, and installation of the drywall was in progress. Thankfully, they were used to working despite the construction zone. Another few days to finish the drywall and they could start painting.
Which reminded Connor of Abby and the painting mess at her place.
Jason removed an apple cider donut from the box. “You surf this morning?”
“Yeah. Conditions were decent.” Connor followed suit and bit into the warm, sweet deliciousness of the most perfect donut ever. Over the years, he’d replaced drugs with sweets, which meant he had to work his ass off to stay fit. Thankfully, his job helped in that area.
“Let me know next time you’re going.”
Connor raised an eyebrow. “You’ll leave your love nest with Emma to surf?”
