He’d done a fantastic job on Hamilton House. She’d get Carrie’s son and some other young men from the congregation to move the items out of her dad’s garage back to the downstairs suites. Then she would decorate the rooms and would move forward as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

As if Bodie had been just another repairman.

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

“Man, I appreciate this more than you know.”

Bodie took Lukas’s outstretched hand and they exchanged a bro hug. He hadn’t expected Lukas to be waiting at the hospital entrance for him. He’d called to tell his friend that he’d just pulled into the hospital parking garage and had gotten Kelly’s room number so he could meet his friend there.

“No problem.”

“You’re sure? I know you’d taken on that undercover job in Kentucky, but I needed someone I trust to take my place on this one.”

Bodie followed Lukas’s lead down the hospital hallway to an elevator bank. “I finished what I was hired to do in Kentucky, so your timing was perfect.”

“Not my timing. This baby’s.” Lukas combed his fingers through his hair. “Didn’t she know she had another month before she was due—and that I had a really important job that was supposed to be my last out-of-country trip until after she arrived? Doctor said she’s doing great, though, and is a strong little thing.”

“Takes after her mother, then?”

Stepping into the elevator, Lukas grinned. “I caught that, but yeah, you’re right. Looks just like Kelly.”

“Physically, you’re good?”

Bodie shot his friend a look of challenge. “You want to try me and find out?”

Lukas laughed. “After the night I’ve had? I don’t think so. You might take me, and I’d never hear the end of it.”

“I’d take you after your best night.”

“Maybe in your dreams.”

Bodie snorted, but let it drop. “You going to watch after my dog while I’m out of the country?”

“My dog, and you’d better hope he doesn’t decide he’s missed home. What’ll you do if he chooses to stay when you get back?”

“I’m not worried, but if Harry wanted to stay with you, I wouldn’t force him to leave.”

His friend, and boss, stared at him. “There’s something different about you.”

Bodie glanced toward Lukas and shrugged. “Same old me.”

“Actually, that’s it. You are more like the old you. Much more so than when you left here.”

In some ways, Bodie felt more like his old self. In others, he felt nothing like the man he’d been in the past. His time in Pine Hill had changed him.

“What happened in Kentucky?”

Bodie shook his head. “Not much. Just worked in a small town no different from hundreds of others.”