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

was enough to make it worth saving.
    “So you’ve got a good shell. What about the wiring? The plumbing? You’ll have to paint,” Tennessee said. “Replace the kitchen cabinets and probably the entire bathroom. You’ll need a new roof.” He reached for his beer. “I don’t get why you’d want to live in Hope Springs anyway when your primary business is in Buda.”
    The cottage wasn’t big enough that a new roof would break her. And she’d known the place was going to need a lot of work. But she didn’t like having her choices criticized. Or feeling ganged up on, because that was exactly what seemed to be happening here. “It’s not that far, Tennessee. And I do have a car. You don’t do all your work where you live.”
    “Apples to oranges. Being a contractor means going where the job is.”
    The man defined aggravation. “And how many professionals living on the east side of Hope Springs commute to Austin?” She glanced toward her brother’s fiancée. “Help me out here, Kaylie.”
    “Well, it is at least a thirty-minute drive, meaning an hour’s bite out of your day. But,” she added, turning to Ten, “she is right about Hope Springs being a bedroom community.”
    Tennessee huffed and dug back into his food. Indiana did the same, minus the huff, plus a hidden roll of her eyes. Her life. Her business. What about that did her brother have such a hard time with? Then again, she wasn’t the best example of having let go of the past. And Tennessee was obviously still thinking of her as that fifteen-year-old girl he’d found cowering in the kitchen following Robby’s attack.
    Yet here she was, a grown woman, looking for the brother who’d dropped out of her life—who’d made no attempt at communication, who most likely didn’t want to be found—while moving nearer to the one she was finally back in touch with, no matter the inconvenience of having her business split between two locations, and her home, once she moved into the cottage, a fair distance from one.
    He was right that making the cottage livable was a ridiculous idea when there were so many places better suited, both in Buda and in Hope Springs. But she couldn’t let the cottage go, and hanging on to it made no sense. It had been Hiram’s home, not hers, and any emotional attachment his.
    She didn’t know why she found herself drawn to the tiny little house, considering its value, or lack thereof, and the cost of renovations. It would work for one person. And obviously the Glasses had made it work with two for a very long time. They’d even raised their son there, so were she to ever start a family . . .
    She laid her fork on the side of her plate, thrown by the sudden shift in her train of thought. Her farm was her baby. Her employees her family. Tennessee and Kaylie, obviously, and Dakota. The occasional postcard her parents sent letting her know they hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth reminded her they were family, too.
    But a husband? A child? Children? Why was she even thinking such a thing when the debt she owed her brothers for the rift she’d caused had to be paid before she could think of a future for herself? And if she couldn’t find Dakota . . .
    “Excuse me for a minute,” she said, gesturing in the direction of the ladies’ room, then leaving the table before either of her dinner companions could say another word.
    This was just crazy, she mused, pushing open the door, then closing herself in a stall. Reuniting with Tennessee, seeing him standing there as she’d rounded the side of Kaylie’s big blue Victorian, his smile broad, his arms welcoming, his voice croaking with the same emotion tangled up in her throat . . .
    It had been one of the best days she could remember living. Yet here she now was, feeling at times as if she and her brother were still estranged, and wondering if finding Dakota would make any difference in any of their lives. Or as if she were wishing on a star that didn’t even