Mrs. Del Rio tapped the thick wood of the door. "This door should be fixed up and refinished. That's what I want to do with all the doors, window frames and the built-ins. They put some good quality wood into this house. I don't want to swap it out for what passes for wood these days."
"I agree, as long as it's in good shape," Mitch told her. He wasn't one to make empty promises. "I'll salvage whatever I can."
Going inside, they were faced with a fairly narrow staircase and the first thing Mitch did was test the railing. It wobbled only a little. "I can tighten that," he said then walked up to test out each step.
As he went up, he noticed that some of the old steps creaked, but they didn't give. He was already thinking that this house was well worth fixing up. He then glanced down and saw Enrico looking up at him then turning away to stare at a random picture on the wall.
"Since you're going up, I guess we'll start with that," Mrs. Del Rio said and the rest of them came up too.
At the top of the stairs, Enrico went by him and Mitch held his breath. Even as he did so, he remembered that he had already noticed he smelled a little like food from working at the café, also like soap and underneath that... Hell, why was he dwelling on what he smelled like? But the word that popped into his head was "good." Enrico smelled good.
Mitch needed to remember that he wasn't here to sniff some guy. His aim was to check over the place and get his estimate ready, and also make sure the place was livable in case he and Mrs. Del Rio ended up making a deal.
There were only three bedrooms upstairs. The biggest bedroom had its own bathroom. The room was in decent shape, but the bathroom needed work.
Mitch went in there and then everyone else went into the bathroom too. They were all milling around in the small space.
As Mitch moved over to test the small window, he found himself a little too close to Enrico. The green flecks in his eyes stood out more now, as did his eyelashes and dark eyebrows. The stubble on his jaw and on his upper lip was drawing Mitch's eyes to his mouth.
Nothing needed fixed on him, so why the hell was Mitch staring at him?
As she looked around, Mrs. Del Rio was more focused on the real work. "The wallpaper needs to come down. All of it, from the whole house," she said as she stepped out into the bedroom again.
"Wallpaper is so old lady," Enrico said then he sidestepped some imagined attack from his grandmother, but all she did was raise an eyebrow at him.
"Take down the old curtains too. I'll put in some blinds and you can slap on a fresh coat of paint," Mrs. Del Rio said.
They moved on down the hall and found that one of the smaller bedrooms needed the most work. It had a leak around the window and the wood floor had warped right underneath it.
"No one is staying in here," Enrico said while Mitch took notes on the repairs.
The last room was in good shape, and Mitch was relieved since he was already thinking of it as Sammy's room. It was too soon for that, but the place was winning him over, and Mrs. Del Rio seemed serious about giving him the job.
Going downstairs, Mrs. Del Rio was saying, "As you see, it's a little ways out of town. I hope it won't bother you not to be in the thick of things."
"In the thick of what exactly?" Enrico said and she shook her head.
"We're busting at the seams with tourists, but you'll get plenty of peace and quiet out here," she told Mitch. She did sound like she thought he and Sammy would be staying here.
In the living room, she pointed out the built-in shelves. "I want to keep that bookshelf, refinish it and take out some of these shelves in the middle so a big TV can fit there."
The rest of it was just taking down more wallpaper and curtains including in a small sitting room that Sammy liked because it was prettily decorated. Going to the other end of the hall, they reached the kitchen. The kitchen cabinets were keepers too, but the tiled countertop had to go.
Enrico and Sammy looked out the back door at the open space they had seen when they circled the porch. Sammy once again gave the bench a sad look.
Next they were going to see about the basement. "Daddy," Sammy said plaintively and stopped at the top of the basement stairs. "It's dark."
"I'll fix that," Enrico said and went ahead into the basement. After some mumbled curses, he had the light on, but Sammy still wouldn't budge.
"Oh, she doesn't want to go down there," Mrs. Del Rio said as she also hung back at the top of the stairs.
"There is a reason they say, 'Don't go down into the basement,'" Enrico joked but Sammy didn't get it. "Not a big horror movie fan?"
"Let the boys go down there. Me and you can stay up here, honey," Mrs. Del Rio said to Sammy.
"Stay there with Mrs. Del Rio. I'll be right back," Mitch said and smiled at Sammy so she wouldn't be worried. Then he followed Enrico into the basement.
Using a flashlight to see into dark corners, Mitch was looking around for potential problems with the foundation and leaks. Enrico was poking around in the huge pile of stuff that was stored there. While doing that, he found a locked door in the back of the basement. There was a key in the lock, and Enrico gave Mitch a significant look before opening it in slow motion. All they found inside were shelves with decades old canned food.
