“Yeah,” she said half-heartedly.
I tossed our empty cups into the trash can then turned to her. “Let me get you home. I need to shower and head over to one of my projects.”
She seemed to snap back from a daydream or something. “Yeah. You can’t spend every day playing around with me.”
If only.
After a few hours on site,I was hungry as hell. I knew it was because of the morning run. I headed into town and picked up lunch at Butterscotch Café. While I was ordering, I made the split-second decision to get something for Bailey.
When I dropped her off at home after the juice shots, she said her plan for the day was to spend it at the bed and breakfast. I knew that Bayliss hired a cleaning crew after we gave him feedback on what we’d seen over there the day before. She was supposed to supervise the cleaning crew and make some decisions about paint colors and stuff. Since she was technically visiting Jackson Falls, she’d left her vehicle in Chicago. That meant that she couldn’t get around on her own. She probably couldn’t get lunch for herself. Things like Uber Eats and Grub Hub weren’t available in Jackson Falls. Maybe over in Red Leaf, but not in Jackson Falls.
I rang the bell and she opened the door for me with a smile. “Hey. What’re you doing here?”
I held up the bag. “I brought lunch.”
Bailey clapped her hands enthusiastically. “Yay! Thank you. I’m starving.”
“There’s no furniture in there. Come out to my truck.” At my truck, I let the tailgate down and spread out the food. “I got us both a turkey burger and fries.”
“At this point, I probably wouldn’t have cared what you brought. Like I said, I’m starving.”
I handed her a straw for her soft drink. “You get a lot done?”
“The cleaning crew your brother hired?—”
I cut her off with a chuckle. “You mean your step-dad?”
She punched me lightly. “Shut up. The cleaning crew that Bayliss hired was top notch. They have the whole place smelling like laundry fresh off the line. It smells so clean and fresh in there. I’ve been walking from room to room taking it all in. I’m supposed to be thinking of paint colors. I had Perkins drive me to the home improvement store and to the paint store before she dropped me off here. I have about a thousand paint chip color samples. Plus I’ve been on Pinterest all day.”
“What colors are you thinking about?”
“I have no idea. I think I’m overwhelmed.” She chewed a fry thoughtfully. “How do you usually choose?”
“Normally the client chooses. But if I have to choose, I think about the feelings that the client is trying to invoke in the room. What’s the vibe you want in the rooms? Do you want a cohesive theme, or do you want every room to have its own vibe?”
“Definitely not that,” she said with a snicker.
We talked through her vision as we ate. I didn’t know what was going on with her soon-to-be ex-husband, but he had to be a damn fool to let a woman like her go so easily.
I wouldn’t admitit to my brothers or anything like that, but I definitely had a little extra pep in my step as I walked up the front steps to pick up Bailey the next morning. She came right out dressed in workout gear.
She must’ve noticed me staring because she said, “I ordered some stuff from Amazon. I can’t really afford it, but I couldn’t keep practicing with you in myaround the houselounge shorts and mydoing laundrytop.”
“Why can’t you afford workout clothes?”
She shrugged defensively. “I had to take a non-paid leave of absence from work to come here. Well, not to come here. Basically because I wasn’t ready to face the daily task of work. I needed more time off from the rigors of my job. Since I wasn’t going to be tied down to work, Perkins suggested I come here. I’m glad she did, though.”
“Me too. Jackson Falls is healing for the soul,” I added quickly.
She shot me a grin. “You’re right, it is. Must be all the fresh air and the views. Between the mountains, the trees, and all the various bodies of water, I’ve never seen any place so beautiful.”
We made it to the high school, did our four miles on the track, then headed to get juice shots.
“What are you working on right now, Bright?”
“Right now I’m working on two projects. I have a small remodel outside of the downtown area. An older coupe is relocating from Atlanta, I believe. They bought a small three bedroom over on Chestnut Drive. It needs modernization. We’re doing some updates and adding stuff like a ramp and curb-less showers. They want this to be their forever home and they wanna be able to age in place. We’re making that happen.
“We’re simultaneously working on a vacation villa for a millionaire real estate investor and his wife. A huge ass 5500 square foot, seven bedroom, seven bath home. It’s gonna be a playground in the ‘wild west’ for them and their closest friends. And I just put in a bid to work on an estate for some AI genius that lives in California. It’ll be over ten thousand square feet with an eight-car garage, seven bedroom, eight bathroom, a chef’s kitchen, two pools, a hot tub, a small putting green, and a carriage house.”
