She-
“Looks like my ten o’clock is here,” he drawled, finishing off the cookie while she was forced to bite back a sigh as she closed her laptop and placed it under her arm.
“I have to take the dog for a walk anyway,” Kristen said, taking a bite of her candy bar as she stood up and gestured for the dog in question to join her only to have him roll onto his back with a groan.
Shaking her head in disgust, Kristen muttered, “Traitor,” as she made her way to the double doors while Garrett showed his client inside. With a politely murmured, “Excuse me,” Kristen stepped out of the way only to sigh when the candy bar was smoothly plucked out of her hand. With a wink, Garrett took a bite of her candy bar as he closed his office door, leaving her standing in the foyer, grumbling to herself.
For a moment, she stood there, glaring at the door until she realized what she was doing, shook her head in disgust, and moved to head to the door, deciding that she should probably take this opportunity to run a few errands only to find herself hesitating by the front door, wondering if any of the stories he’d told her over the years were true…
There was only one way to find out.
After one last glance at the closed office doors, Kristen decided to find out even as she told herself that he’d lied to her. There weren’t any hidden rooms, passageways, or secret doors because the asshole, who’d spent the last six years making her life a living hell, was just screwing with her head.
She wouldn’t put it past him, Kristen thought as she stood in the middle of the foyer and slowly turned around, taking in everything from what was left of the ceiling to the exposed boards surrounding her. When she didn’t find anything thatlooked promising, she shifted her focus to the staircase, noting the large crack that ran down one handrail and the chunks of wood missing from the other one before she took in the missing balusters, the warped and cracked steps and wondered if the historical designation was the reason why it was taking Garrett so long to renovate the house.
When she first started looking at houses, she’d asked her realtor to look for houses built in the mid-nineteenth century by Garrett’s great-grandfather Noah, mostly because she knew that it would piss him off if he ever found out. The men in his family were obsessed with getting their hands on the houses that Noah designed and built and after everything her realtor showed her, she could understand why.
Even the houses that had been neglected over the years were incredibly beautiful. Not that there were many since most families kept them in pristine condition over the years and refused to part with them. It had taken her realtor a few months before she found this one. It was the second house that Noah Bradford had officially built, the first house being the one next-door that Garrett’s cousin Reed owned.
As soon as she saw pictures of this house, she fell in love with it, but unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. From what her realtor managed to find out, the house needed to be completely gutted, starting with the roof. The plumbing needed to be ripped out, the electric needed to be replaced, along with the water heater, boiler, and heating system. The windows needed to be replaced, the horsehair plaster needed to be torn out and everything needed to be torn down to the frame.
Basically, she was told that it was going to be very expensive, made even more so by the fact that the previous owner decided to get a historical designation on the house. Not that it mattered since she was told the owner wasn’t interested in selling, but thankfully, the house across the street was for sale. It wasn’tthe same, but it was available at a fair price, had everything she wanted in a house and was far, far away from the asshole.
But now, he was living across the street from her, finding new ways to piss her off, and was the key to everything. One thing was clear, Kristen decided as she made her way into what she suspected was the living room, she needed to figure out why. She’d never had problems writing before, but for some reason, she couldn’t seem to put two words together unless Garrett was in the room.
It wasn’t exactly a comfortable position to be at the mercy of the man she hated, but for now, she really didn’t have a choice. She needed to get a book out before her readers decided that they’d had enough and finally moved on, Kristen thought, only to immediately focus back on the task at hand when her stomach began turning at the thought of never being able to write again.
If she was going to hide a secret room, where would she hide it? Kristen wondered as she took in the exposed frame, the closet that she hid in the other day and when she didn’t find anything promising, she made her way to the door on the other side of the room only to find herself stepping into an incredibly beautiful dining room.
As she made her way across the room, she took in the freshly polished wood floor, the dark wainscotting lining the walls, the medieval style dining room table that she immediately fell in love with and the matching sideboard against the wall, and the cast iron light fixtures tying it all together and knew without a doubt that Garrett designed it.
When they were little, he used to leave sketches tucked away in her notebooks, bringing her favorite scenes to life, but it was the houses that he drew that always blew her away. He always made sure to bring every little detail to life, from the scuff marks on the door to the cracks in a tile. She used to write stories abouthaunted mansions and pirate ships just to see what he came up with.
She always thought he would end up working for his Uncle Jared designing houses, but every time she suggested it, he would shrug it off and change the subject. So, she stopped bringing it up, but now, she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d missed his calling.
Granted, from everything that she’d heard over the years, he’d actually found it as a lawyer. He was smart, organized, detail-oriented, and determined, Kristen thought, running her fingertips along the dining room table as she made her way to the next door. She pushed the door open only to suddenly go still before she slowly turned around and found herself swallowing hard as she took in the oversized fireplace.
She took in the cast iron lamps secured on either side of the mantel, the small ovens built on the right side and the large cast iron pot hanging in the middle before her gaze was drawn back to the cast iron lamp on the right. Telling herself that it was just a coincidence, Kristen made her way across the large dining room.
She ran her eyes over the cast iron lamp, taking in its intricate design, the metal cage wrapped around the glass before she reached up and ran her fingertips over the intricate design before she wrapped her hand around the base, and after releasing a shaky breath, turned the lamp to the right.
A small click followed as she dropped her hand away and watched as a hidden door slowly swung open, revealing a room and realized that she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do now.
CHAPTER 14
At least now he knew how she kept breaking into his house, Garrett thought as he watched the small woman who disappeared this morning lodge what appeared to be a flathead screwdriver beneath the window and pried it open just far enough so that she could slide her fingertips beneath it.
From there, she shoved the window open with an adorable grunt, grabbed what appeared to be a thick stick and propped it beneath the window before tossing a small backpack inside. That was followed by grumbling to herself as she pulled herself inside and-
“My face.”
-had his lips twitching as he sat on the couch, absently petting the dog that refused to leave his side.
For a moment, Garrett considered asking her what happened earlier, but…
He wanted to see how this played out.
He watched as Kristen slapped her small hand on top of his desk with a groan before pulling herself to her feet, grumbling to herself as she reached down and snatched her bag off the floor, threw it over her shoulder, slowly exhaled, and promptly leveled a glare in his direction. That was followed by shifting that glareto the dog that refused to go home with her this morning during what he could only describe as a nervous breakdown with all that muttering and everything.
