“Look at this place,” I muttered. “You would have loved it, though, wouldn’t you? You would have seen it as an adventure. A way to bring back a slice of our family legacy. I just see a structural nightmare with too many restoration rules to contend with.” Dropping to a crouch, I eased my way under another fallen timber to get a better look at the pilings. “I’m going to have to replace almost all of these. Let’s just add it to the list, shall we? Fight for Dad, fight the town, figure out what I’m going to do with my life… You would have taken it all in stride with a grin, wouldn’t you?”

“Hey,” Willow said from behind me.

I stood and smacked my head on the very timber I’d been trying to avoid. “Shit,” I cursed and rubbed the top of my head as I ducked and came out.

“Sorry. I was trying not to startle you.” She bit her lip and winced from under a green winter hat that brought out the same color in her eyes.

“You failed.” Damn, my head hurt. “That’s a lie. I should have heard you. I must have been lost in all the amazing restoration we’re going to do.”

She gave me a small, soft smile. “It’s okay. I talk to him, too.”

“Who?” I swallowed, hoping she’d say anything other than the truth.

“Sullivan.” She walked farther into the building, eyeing the structure with appraisal.

I could almost see the gears turning in her head, and it was fascinating. Her eyes lit with a fire I hadn’t seen in years, darting over the walls, the windows, and even the fallen beams. She pulled a tablet from her bag and started to write on it with a stylus. Great, now I was watching the graceful way she moved her hands, even with gloves on.

“He wouldn’t have taken it in stride, you know,” she said, breaking my stream of thoughts.

“Sullivan?” His laugh came to mind, filling my chest with a bittersweet pressure that I’d become well acquainted with over the last six years. “Yeah, he would have. He would have jumped in with both feet and a grin and made it all look easy.”

She snorted. Actually freaking snorted. And what was worse was that I thought it was cute.

Cute like a little sister, I reminded myself.

Yeah, okay, I fired back.

“Sure, he would have jumped in with both feet and a grin and no common sense.” She paused, looking over her shoulder at me. “Sully made everything look easy because it was easy for him. It was easy because the town loved him and you loved him. You and Xander tackled anything that was remotely a challenge for him.”