Changing Dreams (Bear Lake Dreamers Book 1) Read online

  Alyssa shook her head, laughing. “I keep telling you guys, I don’t have a problem. I just like to run, and if I keep up my running schedule, Junior Mints will never be a problem.” She turned and saw that Nick had returned. “You’re hired. Amanda’s ordering what you’ll need, and she and Lauren will drive down tomorrow to pick it up. We will still need to be able to cook in here some, so try not to destroy the entire kitchen.”

  “There’ll be a few days where cooking is out of the question if you want it done that quickly,” Nick warned her.

  “I guess we’ll eat out those days. We’ll figure something out. What can we do to help you get started?”

  He grinned. “Just stay out of the kitchen for now. I’ll go get my crowbar and get to work.” He was halfway out of the kitchen when he stopped short. “I really appreciate the opportunity to work on this house. It was kind of a beacon for all of us who grew up in the area, and it feels special.”

  “Make sure you keep our trust,” Alyssa said. “Hannah has complete faith in you, or you wouldn’t be given the chance.” She reached for a few more Junior Mints as he nodded and left the house.

  “That was a little harsh,” Lauren said. “Why be rude?”

  “I wasn’t being rude. I was setting realistic expectations. If he wants to complete the renovation of the entire house, he needs to do a good job on the kitchen. Plain and simple.”

  “Felt harsh.” Lauren headed for the stairs. “I’m going to go and read a cookbook or two. I want to make orange muffins for breakfast in the morning. That way I’m earning my keep.”

  “You’re family. You don’t need to earn your keep!” Taylor called after her.

  “Sure, I do. Everyone else has a job to do every day. My turn!” Lauren disappeared up the stairs, leaving the other three sisters standing there together.

  “Now, about themes for our guest rooms . . .” Amanda said. “I don’t want just boring guest rooms. Themes are important to me.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Taylor asked.

  Nick came back in then, and the three of them headed into the living room.

  “Let’s finish this in here, so we’re not in the way,” Alyssa said. “What ideas do you have? I want it to be something that’s unique and not overdone.”

  “Well, I thought Broadway musicals could be fun. Each room with a different theme. Or we could do famous fictional lovers. Like Rhett and Scarlett or Anne and Gilbert or Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy or even Ross and Rachel.” Amanda shrugged. “I would love those ideas, but would everyone?”

  “We could do Disney movies or famous actors and actresses, too,” Taylor suggested.

  “All of that would work. Taylor, what do you think would keep people coming back? You’re the expert on all that stuff,” Alyssa said.

  Taylor thought for a moment. “Maybe we could do famous books,” she suggested. “Then we could do famous couples, but also have some whimsy thrown in. Do a Gone with the Wind room and a Harry Potter room. You know kids would go nuts for the Harry Potter room if they were coming with their parents.”

  “Oh, I like that!” Amanda said. “I have goosebumps.” She held her arm out to show her sisters.

  “Me too!” Alyssa said. “A Sherlock Holmes room and a Carrie room with blood trickling down the walls.”

  Taylor shook her head. “No way are we doing Carrie, you psychopath.”

  “I’m not a psychopath. I’m using my creative energy here. Sorry you don’t like a perfectly legitimate idea.” Alyssa stuck her tongue out at her sister, realizing they could reduce her to childish behavior faster than anyone else on the planet.

  All three of them laughed. “Could be fun,” Amanda said. “I’m going to get started, and I’ll make a list. When the list is completed, we’ll do a Facetime call with Kayla, and we’ll each get to vote for seven room themes.”

  “Perfect. That was easy,” Alyssa said with a grin.

  “Easy for you to say,” Amanda said, shaking her head. “I’ve been wrestling with this for weeks.”

  “No more wrestling. Write down ideas, and we’ll make it happen.” Taylor grinned. “I can’t believe we’re going to have our very own bed and breakfast.”

  “We’ll have to throw out names for it on that call as well,” Alyssa said. “We can’t just call it the bed and breakfast forever.”

  “Good idea. I’ll make a note of that.” Taylor pulled a notebook she’d taken to carrying everywhere with her from her pocket. “We’ll talk about this on the call. Let’s plan for Saturday. I’ll contact Kayla and check her schedule.”

  “Perfect. We’re going to totally rock the bed and breakfast market.” Amanda got to her feet. “And now I’m going to go and make my order. Then they’ll have it ready when we get there tomorrow.”

  The excitement in Amanda’s eyes was reflected in Taylor’s as well. Alyssa had to wonder if her eyes held the same excitement, but she thought they probably did. This was the first thing she’d been truly excited about doing in a very long time.

  Sixteen

  Nick grinned to himself as he knelt on the floor in the kitchen of the Romriell house. He loved listening to the sisters talk about their plans and goals for the place. He could feel the excitement in the air surrounding them. This was the type of project he’d wanted to do for a very long time, but he’d never really had the chance.

  The sisters intrigued him. All of them . . . but to him the most intriguing was Alyssa. She was the oldest, but the others seemed to be protecting her from something. It was strange.

  Still, he was very excited to be part of this project, following what they were thinking about. Amanda had given him some rough sketches of what she was looking for in the way of cabinets, and then she’d provided him with pictures as well. If all of the sisters were as focused and clear about what they were looking for, he had a feeling they would get along just fine.

  When lunchtime rolled around, he went in search of one of the sisters—any of the sisters—so he could let them know he was leaving for lunch. He hadn’t realized he’d be starting a job that day, or he’d have brought his lunch with him.

  He found Alyssa in the living room with a laptop on her lap. “Alyssa?” he said.

  “Yeah.” She glanced up from her computer, giving him her complete attention.

  He liked knowing she was actually listening to him. Kami had spent all of her time looking at some screen and never really paying any attention to him. It made him crazy. “I’m going to head out to grab some lunch. I’ll be bringing my lunch from now on, but I didn’t know I’d be starting a project today.”

  Alyssa frowned. “Why don’t I run and get lunch for the both of us? That way you don’t need to stop working for quite as long, and I can learn my way around better.”

  “That would be great. I was thinking about just grabbing a burger. The Burger Hut is open. Down on Main.”

  She nodded. “What do you like on your burgers?”

  “Everything. Get me a double cheeseburger and a large onion ring. A Dr. Pepper to go with it.” He would have rather gone with her so they could chat as they ate, but he knew better. He needed to steer clear of women for a little while, and he was already comparing this one to Kami. That wasn’t a good sign.

  “All right. I’ll be back in a flash.”

  Nick watched as she headed out the door and returned to his project ripping up floors. He needed to limit his alone time with that sister. The others didn’t bother him like she did. The woman already held some kind of power over him, and he didn’t need to mess with her.

  She was back a short while later with four bags of food and a soft drink. She walked into the dining room with them, and he followed his nose. “Thank you for getting me lunch. How much was mine?”

  Alyssa shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I got lunch for my sisters and myself as well, and I have no idea how much one meal was.” She walked to an intercom button on the wall in the dining room. “Hey everyone. I’ve got lunch. Meet me in the
dining room.”

  She dug through the sacks and pulled out his double cheeseburger with onion rings, handing it to him. “The drink is yours as well.” She wandered out of the dining room and came back a moment later with a couple of two liters, one Coke and one Sprite. She had a pile of red Solo cups on top of the Coke bottle, and she immediately opened it and poured herself a glass.

  The sisters came in one after the other, each of them plopping down on a chair at the formal dining table.

  “Thanks for being willing to not eat in the kitchen for a little while,” he said, happy that they were respecting his need for keeping the kitchen off-limits while he tore things up.

  “No problem,” Alyssa said, dumping out fries and onion rings onto a couple of paper plates and liberally squirting from a bottle of fry sauce onto each of the plates. “None of us have any desire to eat dust anyway.”

  Obviously, the sisters all ate their burgers the same, because they each just grabbed one and used the paper as a plate. Then they shared the fries and onion rings, each of them seeming to eat from both plates. It was interesting to watch them eating together as if they’d done it a thousand times before, and he was sure they had. He didn’t have a sibling of his own, so he’d always been fascinated by large family dynamics.

  “How’s it coming?” Amanda asked him. “Find anything strange we should know about?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. It’s all going perfectly and as expected.” He took a swallow of his Dr. Pepper. “I should have the floors up by the end of the day, and I’ll start on the cabinets if there’s time. I guess I should tell you that I’m going to be around here a whole lot while we get the kitchen done. I’ll be here by seven every morning and working until seven or so. You’re all going to be sick of me soon.”

  Alyssa tilted her head to one side. “If you’re going to be working that many hours, we can at least provide snacks for you. Tell me what you’d like us to keep around, and we’ll do it.”

  Nick shook his head. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “Sure, we do. We’re insisting the work is done quickly, which is going to be making you work ridiculous hours. It’s the least we can do.”

  He’d never had anyone keep snacks around for him before, but it felt good that she’d offered. He listed a few things that would be easy to eat while he continued working, and she nodded. “I’ll make sure they’re here for you tomorrow.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it.” Nick finished the last bite of his burger. “I’m going to head back to work. Thanks for the lunch.”

  “No problem.” Alyssa said, tapping his snack requests into her phone.

  As he got back to work, Nick realized that the job he was doing for these women was going to keep him busy for a long time. They’d already said that if they kept him on for the bedrooms, they didn’t all have to be done by June first. No, those could be finished one room at a time, and that suited him just fine. There was enough to do without having them all done on time.

  As he worked, he wondered which books the sisters would choose to base their rooms on. He couldn’t wait to find out. Their excitement with the project was contagious, and he was right there with them.

  Seventeen

  The following week, the kitchen was closed to the sisters. The floor was torn up, the cabinets were out, and the entire room was being painted a mint green that set off the flecks of color in the tiles Amanda had chosen.

  Alyssa spent more time than she should have studying for her test, but she made sure she checked on Nick at least five or six times during the day. She didn’t know why she was so drawn to the man, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  There was no refrigerator, and the stove had been taken out. The kitchen had been completely gutted to make room for the changes they were making. It felt strange to see it that way, and she tried not to imagine her mom’s face if she saw her kitchen at that moment.

  She still went for her run every morning, but she wasn’t moving nearly enough throughout the rest of the day, and she knew it. She needed to fix it, but until she was finished studying for her real estate license, she wouldn’t be able to change things much. Studying had to be her first priority.

  Nick had started timing his coffee break with the time she returned from her run every morning. He would bring them each a mug of coffee and whatever sweet treat he found sitting on the dining room table. They always seemed to have cookies or donuts or muffins around.

  She’d just returned from her run for the day, and she was settling on the couch to reach for her laptop and start her daily studies when Nick walked into the room, a mug in each hand and a box of cookies stuck under one arm.

  “It’ll be nice when Hannah opens the bookstore. She’s planning on having someone there baking cookies and cakes all day. Then we can get fresh cookies,” he said, handing her a mug of coffee.

  “Or we can just wait for Lauren to start making cookies and muffins every day, which she certainly plans to do if you ever finish the kitchen.” She hid her grin with the coffee mug.

  “Sure, blame the contractor for the lack of fresh baked goods in the house.” He shook his head. “Why do I take coffee breaks with you again?”

  “Penchant for punishment?” she asked.

  “That must be it.” He set the cookies on the couch between them and rubbed the back of his neck. “You know, I love that you girls are painting things exciting colors and not just white or off-white. Those colors are fine, of course, but they’re not interesting. When I walk around wearing white paint, no one notices. Now people can see me coming.”

  “No one else around here paints using colors? Really?”

  “Some people do, I guess. Kami never let me, and I always found that really annoying.” Nick shook his head, reaching for one of the cookies.

  “Kami?” Alyssa asked. He wasn’t married, was he? How could that have escaped her notice?

  “Oh, I forget you’re not from around here. Kami was my fiancée until a couple of months ago.” He shook his head. “I had already decided she wasn’t the right woman for me, and I was just waiting for the right time to break things off. One day, I got home from work and found her . . . in a delicate position with another man.”

  “Oh! That’s terrible!”

  He shrugged. “It would have been a whole lot worse if I’d been in love with her, but I already knew it wasn’t a good idea to marry her. She wasn’t right for me, if that makes sense.”

  “Makes perfect sense. I think we all have people like that in our pasts.” Alyssa reached for a cookie, and their fingers collided as he was getting another. She drew her hand back as if it had been burned. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. All you have to do is tell me you want to hold hands, and I’m happy to oblige,” he told her with a wink. Eating one last cookie, he drained his mug and got to his feet. “Same time tomorrow?”

  She nodded, not quite meeting his eyes. “Sounds good to me. Coffee is what I always need right after that run.”

  “I’ll bring more!” He sauntered out of the room, and she took a deep breath. She was already counting down the hours until their next coffee break.

  Early the following afternoon, Alyssa took a break from her studying to go check out the work Nick was doing. Walking to the spot where the hallway met the kitchen, she looked in as Nick was stretching, his muscles showing well under his tight t-shirt. The shirt was obviously what he always painted in, because it was splattered with paint in an entire rainbow of colors, though it had once been royal blue with the words, “Bears” written across it for the Bear Lake Bears.

  “How’s it coming?” she asked softly from the edge of the room, afraid to walk in and disturb him too much. She had no desire to be as covered in paint as he was.

  He turned and smiled at her. “Going good, I think. I should have the painting done today, and I’ll start putting in the cabinets tomorrow. I’ve been building them at home, getting them ready. I’ve already got them stained.”

 
“I can’t wait to see them.”

  “I hope you ladies love them as much as I do. I made the kind that roll out so you have more storage space. It’s what Amanda told me she wanted.”

  “Sounds good to me. It’ll be fun to cook in here when it’s all nice and pretty and functional.” Alyssa didn’t have a clear picture of what the room would look like as her sister did, but she was sure she’d love the finished result. Amanda was amazing at what she did.

  She took a step into the room, walking past where the island had been, and didn’t watch where she was going as well as she should have. She tripped over a paint tray that was setting in the middle of the floor, her eyes only on him.

  She felt herself falling and let out a little squeal as she was caught in strong, masculine arms. Suddenly she was out of breath, and she knew it wasn’t her near fall. No, it was the strong arms that were wrapped around her. She couldn’t stay that close to him and still be able to breathe. It wasn’t physically possible.

  He helped steady her, keeping his arms around her for a moment longer than he should have. Her eyes met his, and she felt her heart skip a beat. She wanted to kick herself. This was the first man she’d spent any real time around since she’d broken things off with Tim, and she shouldn’t be falling for him. She giggled a little as she thought the words, realizing they had a double meaning.

  “Thank you for catching me.”

  He grinned, pulling her just a little closer. “Thank you for needing to be caught.”

  She blushed, stepping back. “I should get back to my studies.”

  “Is that what you’re doing in there on that computer? What are you studying for?” he asked.

  “I’m getting my real estate license for Idaho as well as Utah. I want to be able to buy and sell homes all over Bear Lake. I was a real estate agent in Salt Lake City for several years before we moved here.” She didn’t mention how successful she was at her career, because she didn’t want him to think she was bragging.