The Sweetness of Honey (A Hope Springs Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

farm that’s now IJK Gardens? And that I did it all without your permission? Or even your input?”
    “I’m not saying you need my permission,” Tennessee finally said, glancing at Kaylie, then back. “Or my input. And actually, no. I didn’t know any of that. At least not at the time. I didn’t stay in touch, remember?”
    “I’d ask whose fault that is”—because it was just as much hers for not touching base to tell him—“but I’m pretty sure the hard heads in the family went to the boys.” Indiana smiled as Tennessee snorted and Kaylie chuckled, then added, “But you did know where to find me. So that’s something, I guess. You keeping me on your radar.”
    Tennessee laid down his fork, rested both wrists against the table’s edge, and leaned forward. His eyes were bright with emotion both solemn and intense. “You were never off it. Not for a minute. I need you to know that.” Unlike their brother, whom they’d both lost track of, though that was on Dakota. He obviously didn’t want to be found, giving Tennessee the leg up in that argument.
    “And here I thought out of sight, out of mind meant just that.”
    “Indy—”
    “It’s okay.” She hadn’t wanted this evening to turn maudlin. “I didn’t have to wait for you to call. It’s not like I didn’t know where you were, too.”
    He huffed at that, and went back to his food. “That’s different. I made it clear when I left home that I needed the distance.”
    He had, and she’d done her best to honor his eighteen-year-old self’s desire to be a solitary man. But he’d been on her radar as well, which made them two of the stubbornest people she knew. “And now? Are you still needing the distance?”
    He looked up, but instead of meeting her gaze, his attention was all for Kaylie. If Indiana hadn’t been aware of the connection the two shared, she might’ve felt dismissed. As it was, what she felt was envy. To share what Kaylie and Tennessee shared . . . To be so sure, so much a part of another person, so comfortable with publicly displaying that level of emotional intensity . . .
    She thought of Will Bowman. Then she thought of Oliver Gatlin. Then she thought of the mess she’d made of both her brothers’ lives, and her mood deflated. How could she ever trust herself not to ruin things with those she let close, when that was exactly what she’d done to two of the most important men in her life?
    “No,” her brother finally said, his gaze seeking out hers. “But that doesn’t mean you need to take on whatever this new gardening project of yours is just to stay close. I’m not going anywhere.”
    Arrogant man, thinking her greenhouse annex had anything to do with him. Even if it did, that was her business, her prerogative. Her albatross to deal with.
    “This new project of mine,” she said, mimicking his words, “is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and the timing was finally right. I’ve got the money. I’ve got a business plan. The property has tons of potential, and was exactly what I was hoping to find. The fact that it’s in Hope Springs, and close to you and Kaylie, is an added bonus. As are the bees.”
    “And what about the cottage?” he asked, getting back to his meat, glasses and silverware clinking around them, soft conversations and softer laughter and lights almost too soft to see by setting a deceptively tranquil mood.
    Inside, she was an emotionally agitated mess. “What about it?” She forked up a bite of her potatoes, then dragged it through her gravy. “I’ve been living in a rental for a long time. It’s not exactly the best use of my money.”
    “And making Hiram’s place livable is?”
    “I have to side with Ten on this one, Indy,” Kaylie said. “From what I’ve seen, and the talk I’ve heard, Hiram really let the cottage go after Dorie died.”
    “Will said the structure is sound.” Though what he’d said was that he’d have to dig deeper to know whether that