“No thanks, I’m working over at Bradford Breads.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the bread store, where he was replacing some gutters. “I just saw you over here and thought I’d say hi.”
“Glad you did,” Maxi said then raised her brows at Andie as if prompting her to say something.
“Yeah. Good to see you,” Andie said.
“I wanted to talk to you about the Thompson house, anyway,” Shane said, not ready to leave Andie’s company quite yet. “After Damien shut down the auction, Emily seemed kind of upset.”
“Yeah, he’s a jerk. We came up with a solution, though.” Andie’s face lit with excitement, reminding Shane of how she used to love to help others during high school. Apparently that part of her hadn’t changed over the years. “Maxi suggested we try a historical preservation loan to get some immediate money, so I’m going to help Emily apply for that.”
“Oh great. So that would help with restoring the house, but what about the antiques she wanted to sell at the auction?”
“Frank Fowler is going to have one at his barn, but he’s booked for a few months. That will help bring in some money for the loan, and then…” Andie leaned forward and lowered her voice as if the next part was a secret. Shane felt flattered she was sharing with him. “She’s going to try to set up part of the house as a boutique Airbnb.”
“Really? Is the house set up for that?” Shane hadn’t been inside, but he figured if you were doing vacation rentals, you’d need separate kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms.
Andie grimaced. “Sadie had already separated part of the house, but I’m sure we’ll need to do a lot of work to make it suit our purposes. I’ll probably ask you and Sally for an estimate once we have the loan locked in, if you don’t mind.”
Mind? He’d love any excuse to work closely with her. “Sure, that would be fine. I’m kind of busy but can probably fit you in.”
Shane did a mental calculation on what a renovation like that might cost. Kitchens were expensive, even if Emily wanted to set up the units as efficiencies with smaller kitchens. Or maybe she’d set it up more like Tides and wouldn’t need kitchens. Either way, it was going to be a lot, and he knew Emily had debt she needed to pay. But maybe he didn’t need to be paid right away. He’d talk to Sally about letting Emily defer payment until she was on her feet.
“That would be great.” Andie’s smile was brilliant, and his heart stuttered again. Better to leave while he was ahead.
“Okay. Nice seeing you both.”
“You too,” Andie said.
He nodded to Maxi and Andie then turned and walked across the street, feeling awkwardly like they were watching him walk away.
Chapter Nineteen
Emily was sitting on the porch steps, looking pretty dejected, when Andie got back to the Thompson house. Suddenly Andie realized how important this was to Emily. Now she wondered if maybe she shouldn’t suggest going forward with the loan. What if the boutique Airbnb didn’t work out? Emily would be stuck with a loan she couldn’t repay unless she sold the house. If Andie couldn’t pull this off, she could cost Emily her future. But if Emily didn’t try, she was going to lose the house anyway. Failing at this venture was not an option.
“I brought the loan application for you to look over. Maxi thinks we have a good shot.” It wasn’t totally the truth, but Maxi hadn’t said they didn’t have a good shot, just that they might need something of historical importance. Andie would just have to find that thing.
Emily brightened. “Really?”
They sat side by side on the fresh new wood steps that Shane had repaired and went over the application together.
“They have certain paint colors you have to choose from?” Emily looked back at the house. “I think the house has always been white, but it might be pretty to pick a contrasting trim color.”
“It would make it stand out.”
Emily made a face. “But how much do you think we can get? If I have to bring the mortgage current and pay Mom’s bill at Tall Pines plus get the work done on the house, there might not be enough.”
“Maxi didn’t say how much, but she did say James would push it through. We can get Shane to give us an estimate, and Maxi said James can defer payments. Maybe we can do some of the work ourselves to save money?” Andie suggested. “I’m pretty good with a paint brush.”
Emily smiled. She put the paperwork in her lap and looked at Andie. “Thanks. You know, you’ve been a real friend throughout this. At first I thought you had an ulterior motive, but now I know you’re just a good person.”
Andie’s heart bloomed at the compliment. Emily had hit on something. Andie did love helping. It made her feel good. Maybe that was what had attracted her to antiques in the first place? The act of helping a family sort their loved ones’ items and get the most money for them?
Andie glanced back down at the paperwork in Emily’s lap. “Now we just need to come up with a historical angle for the application.”
“I might be able to help with that. I’ve been doing some research, and the Underground Railroad did have a stop in Lobster Bay.” Emily stood and motioned for Andie to follow onto the porch, where her laptop sat on a small table beside one of the rocking chairs.
“It doesn’t say which houses were part of the railroad, but now, thinking back, I do remember some hushed whispering.” Emily tapped the screen to life and swiveled it toward Andie so she could read the article. “It says that most people didn’t make it known because there was still a lot of resistance here. So it makes sense that maybe my ancestors never talked about it and it didn’t trickle down over the generations.”
Andie started getting excited. “There were only a few houses in town back then. This was one of them.”
