Someday Beach by Jill Sanders

as well. And now that it was clear that his brother was going to Africa alone, he wasn’t looking forward to the mood Cole was going to be in during the short drive either.

Chapter Eight
     
     
    M arcus usually loved his work, but he just couldn’t concentrate on it for the next few days. He kept thinking about Shelly’s project and itched to get his hands on her apartment. The store was going to be a challenge for him as well, but there was just something about turning a big open space into a place she would live in and enjoy.
    He’d called Susan Robinson—the best Realtor around—and asked her to keep an eye out for a place for him. She was an old high school flame, but now she had a house full of kids and a lawyer husband.
    Susan had quickly printed him out a list of places that matched his requirements.
    He didn’t tell his brother about the listings. He went through the list on his own, one house at a time.
    He found a few that he put on his “maybe” list, but so far, nothing had jumped out at him.
    When the weekend came along, he knocked out every house on the list. He thought he’d found the one. He tried like crazy to stay away from Shelly since he knew she wanted to take their relationship slowly. He really didn’t mind. He thought of women like he thought of a really good remodeling project—when a project was worth working on, it didn’t matter to him how long it took to complete. What he enjoyed was building it up, working on each little project, and finally getting the rewards at the end.
    He’d had a few relationships that had been worth the effort over the years. None of them had lasted long, but all of them had been worth the wait. He knew Shelly would be worth it and actually enjoyed taking his time with her.
    From the hints he’d gotten from her, she wasn’t too keen on her family. He knew what it was like to have an unstable family life. Hell, he’d lived it for years with his real mother.
    He couldn’t imagine what life would have been like without the Graytons. Not everyone was lucky enough to have as much love as they’d gotten in that old house.
    It was early Sunday morning and he had a list of open houses Susan wanted him to go to. Even though he’d driven by most of the homes on her list already, he’d yet to see the inside of a few of them and she thought it would make a difference.
    For some reason, he found himself heading down to Shelly’s place beforehand. He stood at the bottom of her steps for ten minutes, trying to figure out what he was doing there.
    When he felt a light tap on his shoulder, he spun around to see her standing there, laughing at him.
    “Well, were you just going to stand here all day, frowning at your feet?” She smiled up at him.
    “Hmmm?” He shook his head a few times. “What?”
    She laughed again. “You’ve been standing here for a while. I noticed you when I came out of the Lunch Box,” She motioned down the walkway to where the diner sat. “I thought maybe you were going to go up, but you just kept looking at your feet.”
    He frowned. Had he been? Why hadn’t he gone up the stairs yet? He knew the reason, but didn’t want to tell her. His cheeks must have turned a little red, because her smile faltered.
    “Is something wrong?”
    When he shook his head no, she continued to look at him.
    “I…” He blinked a few times. “I’m heading out to look at some places. You know, to remodel. I was wondering…” He dropped off, feeling like a fool.
    “Oh, you’re going to buy a home and rebuild it?” The look on her face helped ease his mind a little. He had worried she would find it dull and boring, which would have put him off a little in their relationship.
    He felt like a fool for not telling her the house was for him, not to fix up and make a profit from.
    “I’d love to go with you, if you’re asking.” She smiled again and he almost forgot to breathe. The sunlight was catching the highlights in her hair, making it glow. He