A Kiss to Build a Dream On Read Online Free PDF Page A

cards right and emphasized everything that needed to be done (and the subsequent costs), he’d have her begging him to take the place off her hands.
    Burk clenched his jaw, wondering how he was going to feel, working on his house with Willa directing the overhaul. He tried not to picture her full lips and shining eyes, the color of summer leaves. He pushed away the thought, wondering if having her around could be a blessing in disguise. Not because there was any attraction there, but because he could get the first stages of the rehab over with and she’d have to pay for them.
    He and his crew would get paid for the big stuff that needed to get done regardless, then she’d be gone. He’d get her out of there before she did anything too crazy. Like knocking down walls and messing with the plumbing.
    If by some chance she managed to do something he hated in the short time she was here, he could always change it back when she left.
    Because she would leave. She always did.
    And this time, he’d be ushering her out the door, instead of mourning her absence. Burk knew how to push her buttons, after all. He’d had experience getting her riled up, the same way she’d have him straining against his own skin, wanting her so badly his whole body ached. Oh man, they sure could get each other to do things back in the day. He tried not to think about how good some of those things had felt when they were together years ago. He closed his eyes against the warmth that suddenly spread through him.
    For so long that warmth had been followed by pain, and he wasn’t about to let himself forget that Willa Masterson had torn him apart.
    More than he’d like to admit most days.
    She’d let a crumbling home life drive her from White Pine, refusing to allow Burk to help her think things through or work things out. She’d rejected the idea that Burk, the poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks, had anything to offer her, and she’d fled to the East Coast.
    He and the house—they’d both been abandoned. Together.
    He’d worked hard to forget her. He’d filled his life with enough women to create a library of pleasurable memories that didn’t involve her. He wasn’t about to let the curve ball of her reappearance throw him off balance.
    He was focused on his goal instead: the house on Oak Street. This was his dream. It was his opportunity to prove that the things that other people thought were no good were actually incredibly worthwhile.
    To reach it, he would send Willa packing. It was a favor, really. To her. To the town. And most of all, to himself.
    He wasn’t that lanky, hard-up kid anymore, and she wasn’t the magnetic, unreachable girl who called the shots.
    The house required months of work, but he’d have her gone in two weeks. He could all but guarantee it.

C HAPTER THREE
    Wednesday, September 19, 3:36 p.m.
    L ater that afternoon, Willa inhaled the scent of wood smoke from a distant bonfire as she strode across the high school practice field, quickening her step so she wouldn’t be late. In New York, she’d never cared much for punctuality, but she knew she needed to start off on the right foot here. Burk had upset her whole morning, but she wasn’t about to let that keep her from meeting an old high school friend who had messaged her on Facebook. She’d encouraged Willa to “stop by and say hi” today.
    It was a casual request, but Willa could still feel a damp sweat starting on the back of her neck. She knew all too well that an invite to anything—even a casual drop-in—was more than she deserved. She hadn’t exactly been Miss Congeniality in high school. And now she worried whether her past might be an obstacle as she tried to start her B and B. Would locals refuse to patronize her establishment because she’d been a ruthless snob more than a decade ago?
    It would serve her right, she supposed, for the way she’d had her nose in the air all these years. Karma would make sure she’d show up today wearing