One Summerhill Day (The Summerhill Series Book 1) by Keira Montclair Page A

don’t want to pay asking price if I can get it for less, but I don’t want to lose it to another buyer either. And I won’t need a mortgage. I’ll be paying cash.”

 
    Chapter Six
     
    Ryan grabbed a cup of coffee before he sat down at his desk. He loved his job. His family had tried to talk him into taking some time off after his injury, but he’d refused. He needed a reason to get up every day. Summerville PD had accepted him with his injury, though he knew that other departments would have rejected him. He suspected his status as an army vet, along with the fact that he’d grown up in Summerhill, had helped him get the job, but it was an instance of favoritism he was okay with accepting. Summerville PD only employed fifteen officers, and he got along with most of them. It was also mostly fun to work with his brother.
    As if picking up on his thoughts, Jake sauntered by. “Paperwork, brother?”
    “Yeah.” He sipped his coffee and turned on the computer.
    “I’m hitting my cruiser unless you need help.”
    “No. I’m fine.
    Jake smirked. “C’mon, what are you working on?”
    “Cait asked me to see if I can find out anything about her aunt in Buffalo.”
    “Sounds like personal business to me.”
    “She asked me at dinner before you all interfered. We weren’t involved at the time. She was asking for help from a police officer.” He typed on his keyboard, ignoring his brother.
    “Did she find a place to rent?”
    “No.”
    “Well, I know a realtor who could help her. I know Tracy showed you around, but she doesn’t always have the best rentals. She focuses more on sales.”
    “Cait is putting in an offer on a house—gray with white shutters on West Lake Road.”
    “She’s buying? How does she expect to get a mortgage without a job? Or is she moving here?”
    “Yes and yes.”
    “What the hell? Answer me, fool. Stop talking in riddles.”
    Ryan shoved away from his keyboard. “Yes, she’s buying the house. She’s paying cash, so she doesn’t need a mortgage, and yes, she’s moving here.”
    “No shit. She’s loaded? Hell, I knew I should have gotten there first.”
    Ryan smirked back at his brother, but then rolled his chair back up to his computer. “Go check on Summerhill. I’ll let you know if I need any help. It’s Monday morning. Sarge said I could work on this until noon since there isn’t much going on around here in the winter. Have fun.”
    Jake left and muttered all the way down the hallway to the exit. “He always comes first. Born first, finds the girls first. What the hell?”
    Ryan laughed at his brother’s ribbing and focused on his computer search.
    Though he’d pretended it was no big deal to torture Jake, he couldn’t have been more shocked when Cait offered cash for the house. After Cait had made her arrangements with Tracy, he had brought her to the inn to meet his father. The house would be inspected, but his dad had volunteered to take a look at it with Cait and give her his own impressions of any work that needed to be done. He trusted his dad to be more thorough than an outsider hired by the homeowners. They were probably at the place even now.
    After their trip to the inn, Ryan had taken her out to lunch at the Bistro at the end of the lake. There she’d explained…slightly. The only thing he had learned was that she had inherited quite a bit of money, which certainly put a different spin on her marriage. Perhaps Bruce Dalton was a jerk who had married her for her money. She was still quite secretive about her husband.
    But he couldn’t blame her, since he had secrets of his own. He just wasn’t ready to discuss what had happened to him in the war yet. He had the type of wound that could end a relationship. He knew, because it had already happened to him twice. The girl he’d been dating before his accident had dumped him two weeks after he returned home. One other girl he had started dating had run for the hills as soon as she found out. That’s