“Talk to me,” he said, giving her a gentle smile so she knew he wanted to hear her thoughts.
“They spend a lot of time in here in the evenings,” she said. “Grampy loves to read, and Gram is always knitting. I was hoping you could maybe put in a little more lighting over the sofa and the big chair, to make it easier for them to see. On a dimmer, if you think that’s a good idea?”
Her words hit him unexpectedly and he sucked in a breath before trying to answer. Jillian may have been gone for a long time, but she still knew her grandparents well. She was prioritizing their needs in front of her own. And she was asking for his input on the matter, which made him feel like she really valued his opinion.
“That’s a good idea,” he managed.
“They’re getting older,” she said, a sad, fond smile on her face. “But I want them to be able to do all the things they love for as long as possible.”
“It’s good to have you home,” Tripp heard himself say.
“We’re really lucky to be here,” Jillian replied, tilting her head up slightly to look him right in the eyes.
As her green eyes gazed into his soul, he felt his heart squeeze, like she was holding it in the palm of her hand.
He just hoped she would be gentle with it this time.
8
JILLIAN
Jillian climbed up the attic stairs with Tripp’s heavy footsteps echoing behind her.
They had already gone over the whole first and second floors, with Jillian worrying more and more along the way that what she had in her savings wouldn’t be enough to even fix up the house, let alone to finish the attic.
It turned out that the hall bath would have to be fully gutted and redone, and there were signs of leaks around the windows in the main bedroom, along with some plumbing concerns in that bath as well, and Tripp had mentioned some of the wiring not being safe. All that was in addition to repairing and repainting walls and replacing carpets in the other rooms.
Over the course of the last half hour, Jillian had gone from excited to despairing, and they hadn’t even reached the attic yet.
But for whatever reason, Tripp Lawrence didn’t seem the least bit worried.
And the man really did know his stuff. She loved hearing his deep voice calmly suggest solutions and the scratch of his pencil on the pages of the little notebook he carried.
Tripp’s easy confidence was grounding, and she felt more drawn to him than ever.
Which wasn’t a good thing. She needed to keep ahold of herself.
“Oh, wow,” she said, completely caught off guard as they emerged from the staircase into the attic.
The ceiling height at the center of the attic was plenty high, and the space was enormous. She could see the fresh wood sheathing of the new roof, and there were three large windows letting in light, while the fourth wall had an enormous fan.
“That’s a whole house fan,” Tripp pointed out. “When the attic is finished, you’ll want to remove it, but it’s great that you’ve already got two windows up here.”
“I actually think we might be able to get two bedrooms up here,” she said, looking around. “You were right. It’s cozy, but it really is spacious.”
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” Tripp said, striding to the far end of the big open space. “I would do your room right here, with a sitting room beside it, here.”
He gestured to the two imaginary rooms, showing her where a bed could be tucked into the eaves, and a television against the low wall of the sitting room, if they wanted one.
“Then Mari and Posey’s room could be here,” he said, walking along the right-hand wall. “With the bathroom between them, just above the second-floor hall bath. Andon the other side, I think there’s room for a nice hallway and plenty of storage in the eaves. We could even do built-in cupboards.”
“That’s incredible,” she said. “You really think there’s space for all that?”
“Definitely,” he told her with that easy confidence she’d been admiring the whole time.
As he walked her through it all, his hands dancing in the air, technical terms and design ideas practically flying out of him with real passion, she found herself smiling.
When he talked, she couldseeit. She could see all of it. And it was perfect.
