“Mine.” I liked the sound of that. Could this crazy idea actually amount to something? “But you — what do you get out of it? I can pay you something out of the theoretical fundraiser, if it makes any money, but —”
“You don’t need to pay me. It’ll look great on my resume,” he said. “The restoration of Milkweed Mansion? That’s a marquee project. In fact, I’m pretty sure I can call in some favors in terms of work and materials if you’re open to having a plaque with sponsors’ names on it.”
“I don’t see why not. The plaque might help hold up the walls.”
He laughed. “If you’re ready to do this thing—”
“The renovation? I — yes. I think so. I don’t really have another choice, do I? Whether I want to keep it or sell it. In its current condition, it’s a tear-down. Somebody will put a high-rise condo there, and that will be that.”
“A depressing thought. My next question is, what’s the fundraiser?”
“That’sthequestion. What can we do for seed money? Preferably something that won’t require massive work starting out. We can’t afford to overhaul the whole house right away.”
“Plus we might have to hire ghostbusters.”
I giggled. Then I sat up straight. “That’s it.”
“What?”
I was really excited for the first time in a long time. “Halloween is almost here…”
We locked eyes and said it at the same time. “A haunted house!”
“That’s ideal,” I added. “So we only need to make the mansion safe, not perfect.”
“The worse it looks, the better,” Landon agreed.
“But it’s still going to be a shit-ton of work. And I need to pay you something,” I insisted.
Now it was his turn tohmmm.“What if — no strings attached — you agree to go out with me? A token payment.”
“What?” First I was shocked, then pissed. I took an angry suck of the shake, and he blanched. “After what I told you about my last experience? I’m not going to be used like that ever again.”
“Kayla.” He lowered his voice. “I’m not asking you to fuck me. I would never use you. And you’ll be the boss — it’s your house. Just go out with me. For fun. ”
“Do you do everything for fun?”A date with Landon?He was planting ideas in my head that made me warm in spite of the milkshake.
“I try. I’ll have fun helping you renovate an amazing historic building. You agree to have a fun night out with me. It’s all very innocent.”
“Ha. Innocent.” I eyed him, my thoughts anything but innocent. To tell the truth, his gaze wasn’t so innocent either.
“We’ll pick the day in advance. Of course, that’ll be the day you fall in love with me,” he said matter-of-factly, though I detected a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
Laughter bubbled up from my belly and rang in the air so loudly, people turned to look.
“You laugh now.” Landon sipped his shake, looking perfectly serious, but humor glimmered just under the surface as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started tapping. “Let’s schedule it for a holiday so we won’t forget. Halloween is out, since we’ll be busy scaring people.”
“You’re scaring me.”
He ignored me. “Aw, Sweetest Day?”
“You are kidding me, right?”
“Fine. Not that one. Too sappy. National New Friends Day? Ooooh, no, that’s a guaranteed Friend Zone holiday.”
I laughed again.“What?”
“OK, I’ve got one. October twenty-first. International Day of the Nacho.”
