What Might Have Been: Daniels Brother #4 (Daniels Brothers) by Sherri Hayes Read Free Book Online Page A

heading inside, he turned toward his van. Marty opened the door and reached inside. He reemerged with a thermos in one hand and a Styrofoam cup in the other. He held them both out for her to take.
    She hesitated before taking the offering. “Thanks.”
    “You’re welcome,” he said, seeming overly pleased with himself. “I’m going to run inside and check on some things. You gonna be okay for a few minutes?”
    Abby resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Sure. You go ahead.”
    He walked away and she was grateful for the few minutes alone. She was anxious about seeing Trent again and she needed to get her head on straight. There was no reason why she couldn’t work with him. Not really.
    If she was being honest with herself, she’d missed him. Leaving Trent behind had been one of the hardest parts about moving to New York. She’d sent him a few letters the first two years . . . up until she went to Fort Lauderdale for spring break. After that, she hadn’t been able to write to him anymore. She’d been too afraid of what she might say, or of what Chris might have told him. It had been easier to close the door on that part of her life.
    The thermos remained in her hand, untouched, as did the cup. What would he think of her if he knew the truth? What would they all think of her?
    Her thoughts were cut short when she saw Trent’s pickup truck pull into the parking lot. He was here and she had a job to do.
    ***
    Trent had been surprised to hear from Abby so soon. He’d planned to check in with her at the end of the week, but he hadn’t considered the possibility that she’d reach out to him first.
    As soon as he turned into the parking lot at Wedgewood, he understood why she’d called him. There were at least ten sprinklers set up at strategic locations around the building. All of them were on and looked like they’d been that way for a while. There were puddles of water pooling near the sidewalks.
    He parked his truck next to Abby’s vehicle and hopped out. She was about twenty feet away, leaning against a white van. Her hair was pulled back in some sort of twist. He had the urge to remove the clip and run his fingers through it.
    Trent was so focused on her, he almost missed the man who was striding toward her. He chuckled to himself. No woman had ever been able to distract him like Abby had. Maybe that was why he’d never settled down and gotten married. No one had ever called to him like she had.
    She glanced in his direction and smiled. There was a nervous edge to it. “Hi.”
    “Hi.” He kept his eyes on her and ignored the other man. Something was bothering her and he didn’t like not knowing what it was.
    Abby straightened her shoulders. “Thank you for coming so fast.”
    “Not a problem.” No, coming to her rescue wasn’t a problem for Trent.
    She swallowed hard and motioned to the building. “As you can see, we’re having a bit of a problem with the sprinklers.”
    Trent glanced over his shoulder at the fountains of water, looking for a control panel. “Where’s the shutoff?”
    That was when the man he didn’t know spoke up. “There isn’t one. Not that I can find, anyway. The only shutoff is the main one inside and we can’t leave the whole building without water.”
    Who installed a sprinkler system without a shutoff?
    “Trent, this is Marty, the property manager,” Abby said, gesturing to the grumpy-looking man to her left.
    “Is there a control panel at least?” Trent directed his question to Marty.
    “Yeah.” Marty frowned and started walking around the side of the building.
    Trent turned to Abby before following the guy. “I’ll be back.”
    He was able to dodge the streams of water until they got close to the control panel. There was no way to tell for sure what he was dealing with unless he got a closer look. That meant he was going to have to get wet.
    The cold water felt like little knives poking at his skin. It was a good thing it was the middle of summer.
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