Page 19 of Written with Love

“What color cabinets are you putting in here?” She suddenly turned towards him.

“I… haven’t decided.”

She turned back and squinted at the kitchen.

“This room is difficult. If you plan on moving the cabinets…” She pulled a pad and pen out of her purse and quickly sketched a drawing.

“Oh!” He snapped his fingers. “Palmer worked up something.” He picked up his iPad and flipped to the designs that Palmer had emailed him. “Here, this is what he came up with for cabinet locations..”

She held the iPad and nodded. “Just what I thought.” She motioned to her drawing. “It’s really the best design. So, if you go with cream colored cabinets, a darker color for the island would be good.” She tilted her head as she looked at the sketches. “Something in natural wood colors. This would go nicely.” She tapped the color wheel on a light honey color.

“Okay.” He nodded.

She turned to look at him. “Okay?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “What next?”

She shook her head slightly. “Just okay?”

He chuckled. “Something tells me I’m not as particular about wall colors as your mother.”

She rolled her eyes and wrote the color code in her notepad. They moved into the dining room. After scanning the designs Palmer had sent him, they chose colors for each room on the main floor, then went upstairs to the bedrooms and did the same.

Shortly after Juliette left to go home for the night, he stepped out of the shower, kicking himself mentally for not kissing her. He should have made his move.

He’d never moved fast when it came to attraction. Hell, he’d pussy-footed around in New York with Sophia and had only ever kissed her once. Well, twice if he counted the quick peck he’d given her the night she’d told him she was in love with Palmer.

This time, he had no intention of letting Juliette lose interest and fall for someone else. He knew that the attraction was there. The way she looked at him assured him of her interest.

Since he wasn’t tired, he sat on the sofa and worked on the project that he’d started the first night he’d moved into the place.

At some point, he must have drifted off, and he woke in the dark with his head at an odd angle. His laptop still sitting opened on his lap, but now the screensaver was the only light in the room. It flashed the time and he saw it was almost half past three in the morning.

He closed the lid and froze in place when he heard a floorboard creak somewhere in the house. He knew that old places settled. Hell, he’d been living in the building for a few months now and had almost memorized all its groans and settling noises. This was nothing like those. This was caused by someone walking on the old floorboards, most likely the ones on the stairs or in the hallway.

“Darling, is that you?” A soft voice fluttered into the room with a chill. “Darling?” The voice echoed again.

Max’s eyes were glued to the dark empty doorway. His entire body was rigid, and he held his breath.

“Darling?” The word echoed in the icy night air.

A loud bang woke Max from the dream, and he spilled his laptop from his lap onto the floor.

“Sorry.” Juliette winced as she stepped into the room balancing a large bakery box and a tray of coffee cups. “The door got away from me.” She set the items down on the coffee table.

He ran his hands over his face and tried to shake the dream. He’d been researching the couple who had lived here and was pretty sure the dream was a manifestation of his research. Still, it took a few minutes for his heart rate to slow.

The coffee and sugary donuts did not help. Juliette’s company did.

By the time the construction crew arrived and started the repairs on the foundation on the outer walls of the basement, he was back to normal.

That day, he and Juliette were working in the kitchen, tearing out all the old cupboards and cabinets. They would haul all of the rubble out and into the large dumpster that had been placed just outside his front door.

Palmer hadn’t been joking when he said that the place would get worse before it got better. It looked like a war zone.

Due to Juliette’s work, however, they currently had more than a million followers on the YouTube channel alone. She’d filmed Palmer and Parker explaining the intricacies of the electric and plumbing work and planned several more videos like that as the project went on.

By far, the most watched video was the one where she climbed the stairs of the lighthouse and explained the history of the building as she went. The video ended with a panoramic view from the very top on a bright and sunny spring morning.