That was what she would remember when she caught a glimpse of Jamal’s gold-speckled eyes and charming smile. Kevin had nice eyes and a sexy smile, too.
“There are three bedrooms and another small room in the rear that the Realtor said was used as a sitting room, but I’m going to turn it into an additional bedroom. The biggest problem is that there’s only one bathroom up here, which means if the B&B is at full capacity, I’ll have eight adults sharing one bathroom.”
“That could pose a problem,” Phil said. “I can only imagine what it would be like if you have a bunch of women staying here for a girls’ weekend.”
“World War Three.” Jamal chuckled.
Dammit, even his laugh was sexy. Accepting this job wassucha bad idea.
“After growing up in a house with my mother and younger sister, I know what it’s like to fight over the bathroom,” he continued.
Phil twisted around to look at him. “You had to fight for bathroom time in the house you grew up in? I thought your family owned half of Phoenix?”
“My family doesn’t own half of Phoenix,” he said, then his smile took on a chastised quality. “Okay, so the fights for the bathroom happened at the beach house in Malibu.”
Malibu? Is he for real?
Phil managed to resist a well-deserved eye roll, but she couldn’t tamp down the bitter resentment that climbed up her throat. Jamal Johnson would never know how it felt to sweat over making next month’s mortgage payment.
He gestured with his head for her to follow him. “C’mon. We’ll discuss some of the ideas I have in mind for the house.”
As they made their way back down the stairs, Phil ran her fingers along the silk wall coverings.
Jamal glanced over his shoulder. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Everything in this house is great. I’m lucky it was still on the market.”
“Yeah,” Phil said, hoping the emotion that instantly filled her throat didn’t come through her voice. “I’m surprised Belle Maison stayed on the market for as long as it did.” And heartbroken that it hadn’t remained there just a little while longer.
“The house was in pretty good shape. I have a work crew coming in to give it a new paint job, both inside and out, and to take care of a couple of other details, but they can’t start for another four weeks. In the meantime, I’ve been working on a few things that needed to be addressed right way, like the cracks in the dining room wall.”
“The walls were cracked in the dining room?” Phil asked, unable to conceal the astonishment in her voice. When had that happened? She’d checked on this house at least once a month.
But then she remembered that her last few check-ins had consisted of a quick drive-by and cursory look from her truck’s driver’s-side window. Too much work to do, and all that. The excuses had flowed like a waterfall, sounding good enough to her ears.
But as she took in the musty smell from the house being closed up for so long and noticed the dust that had accumulated on the walls and baseboards, the picture became clearer. And the shame it caused nearly suffocated her.
From the moment she’d moved her mom into Mossy Oaks, Phil had started to neglect this house, seeing it more as a burden than a part of her history. It took losing it to appreciate what she’d had.
She followed Jamal into the formal dining room. And stopped cold.
“Drywall?” she said. “You’re putting updrywall?”
“Only one section of the wall was cracked, but I figured I’d just redo the entire room.”
“Withdrywall?”
He measured her with a curious stare. “What do you have against drywall?”
“You mean besides the fact that it has no business in an 1870s Victorian? It also greatly reduces the resale value of the house.”
He waved off her concern. “I’m not concerned about resale value right now.”
This is no longer my house,she reminded herself. Jamal owned it; he could do whatever he wanted with it.
Even if it meant putting up freakingdrywall.
“Just…show me the rest,” she said.
“Here’s one of the things I’m putting into your capable hands,” he said, pointing to the pocket doors that recessed into the walls between the dining room and kitchen. “They’re pretty banged up, but if at all possible, I want to keep them.”
