A Gift for All Seasons Read Online Free PDF

again. “Although it will be nice to make a halfway decent profit margin on a job, for once. Especially since Christmas is coming. Bonuses for our workers,” he said when she frowned. “They were pretty lame last year, although they all said they understood. At least we didn’t have to lay off anyone, but it was touch-and-go there for a while—”
    What the hell? Talking about the business, especially with a client...he never did that. Ever.
    Her expression softening, she shouldered her giant purse and pulled on her gloves. Good leather, he was guessing. As were the boots. And the purse. Maybe she hadn’t been born into wealth, but she wore it well all the same.
    “Something tells me it’s going to be real nice working with you all,” she said, then looked around. Although God knew what she thought she was seeing. Then her gaze touched his again. “I know this is really pushing it, but...do you think it’ll be done by Thanksgiving? I’d love to have my parents come stay. My mother hasn’t been back to the house for nearly thirty years.”
    His phone rang. But since it wasn’t his mother’s ring, or his sister Frannie’s, he ignored it, figuring it wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait five minutes. “The planting will have to be done in stages, some specimens don’t take kindly to establishing over the winter. But all the brickwork, the walks and walls...those, we can do. I promise, we’ll have it looking pretty good by then.”
    She grinned. “No more mud?”
    “No more mud,” Patrick said, nearly overcome, as he watched her walk away, with something that felt an awful lot like envy, that some other dude had it better than him. An indulgence he hadn’t allowed since he woke up in the VA hospital. And one damned if he was going to allow now.
    Then he remembered to check his voice mail, only to feel his gut turn inside out when he heard Natalie’s voice, saying she wanted to see Lilianna that weekend, was it okay?
    Okay? No. Since every time his ex blew into town and disrupted their daughter’s routine, it took a solid week to get Lili back on track. Four-year-olds weren’t good with change. Or understanding why Mama kept disappearing. But it wasn’t like he could deny either of them some time together. And, if nothing else, dealing with that would take his mind off pretty, married, out-of-his-league clients.
    Although he had a good idea it would take a lot more than his ex’s shenanigans, or even his daughter’s inevitable bad mood as a result, to expunge April Ross from his thoughts.
    * * *
    “Yes, you need to leave,” Blythe had said. “And not return until I’ve finished your suite. Because you hover, that’s why. And I’ve already called Aunt Tilda, told her you’re coming. She’s thrilled.”
    Hence, three days later, April found herself staring out of her parents’ Richmond condo at the bleak November sky hanging over a dozen condos that looked exactly like this one. Not that she had any right to turn up her nose, since she’d helped them pick it out. Only she’d never planned on spending any real time here herself.
    And, as her mother bustled about in the open kitchen behind her, listening to talk radio at full volume as she made lunch, she remembered why.
    She loved her parents, don’t get her wrong. Enough to freak out when her father became seriously ill, to worry when her mother had to quit her job to take care of him, enough to make sacrifices on their behalf she doubted few women her age would have dreamed of making. Even if, at the end, she’d didn’t feel she’d sacrificed all that much. But she’d forgotten how stubborn her mother could be. A propensity inherited from Mama’s own mother, most likely, since nobody could hold on to things—newspapers, margarine tubs, grudges—like Nana.
    “It’s a simple invitation,” April said, swallowing down the irritation, the hurt. Fine, so maybe she’d led her mother to believe they were renovating Nana’s house to sell