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Chapter One
Nolan
“Are you sure you don’t want to look at another house?” my friend Kayley asked hesitantly from behind me.
“No! This one is perfect, Kay!”
I heard a clatter and spun to see her trying to catch the cabinet door before it hit the floor. When she turned to me, clutching it tightly to her chest, her eyes were wide and she was wincing. “Perfect, Nolan? This house is far from perfect. The damn thing should be condemned! I can’t believe it’s even on the market. The owners should have bulldozed it and sold off the land.”
“Ah, come on, Kayley. It needs a little bit of work, that’s all. I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty. You know I like to fix things. That’s one of the reasons that you and I became such great friends.”
She shook her head and set the cabinet door on the counter. “Girl, there is a huge difference in fixing things on a house you own and buying a house that is ready to fall down around you before you can even move in. Did you ever see the movie about the couple that buys their fixer-upper dream house, and it is nothing but a nightmare, and they practically kill one another?”
I laughed. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m not married any longer, and this house is not that bad.”
She gave me a stern look. “You need an eye test. Let’s just talk about the kitchen here for a moment, shall we?” She didn’t wait for me to respond as she continued. “Obviously, the cabinets need to be replaced, or at least a heavy sanding, a new coat of paint, and hardware—boy, do they need new hardware, and the counter is warped.” She shook her head, talking more to herself as she bent down eye level with the counter. “I don’t think I have ever seen a warped countertop like this before.”
“Relax. I have every intention of putting in new countertops.”
“Yeah, well, you are going to need new appliances, a new floor, and—” She bent over and opened the cabinet under the sink. “Holy crap, all new pipes.” She was shaking her head as she stood again. “Seriously, Nolan. We need to walk away from this.”
“No. Kayley, you know as well as I do that I can do almost all of this on my own.”
She gave me a doubtful look. “When did you get your plumber’s license?”
“You are so dramatic.”
“And you are stupid if you are even considering this house. We already looked at four other homes that would be perfect for you and the kids that are all move-in ready, and I still have another four to show you. None of them need anywhere the amount of work that this one does.”
I shrugged and sighed. “I know. That’s why I want this one. It will keep me busy. I’m not going to have the kids for another three months. Having a house to work on will keep me from going nuts without them.”
“You are going to be working and coaching. You are already going to be busy. Besides, this isn’t a three-month project for one person—it’s athree-yearproject for a couple!”
“Pft. Not busy enough. You know that I can’t stand sitting around, Kayley. Without the kids, the next few months are going to be a nightmare. I need something that is going to exhaust me every day so that I crash at night and not lie around missing them.”
“Then get a hobby or buy one of the other places and repaint every room and plant a garden. That will keep you busy.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and studied Kayley. Her reddish-blond hair was shorter than it had been when she lived in New York. It looked nice, and the glow on her face fit her beautifully. I couldn’t wait to see her with her stomach poking out as she shuffled around. “You realize that you do exactly what I’m planning on doing every day in your job, right?”
“Yeah, I am aware of that, but I’m a paid professional. Not a schoolteacher that is taking up remodeling as an expensive hobby.”
I laughed—hard. “You know, less than a year ago, you were a paid professional selling houses. Now you are helping your brother build them, and you don’t even build them now that you are pregnant and everyone told you no.”
“Hey, I help when he needs it. Just the other day, I was slinging my hammer and framing a garage.”
“Oh, I bet Cam loved that. Why is it weird that I want to fix up my own place when you do it for other people?”
“What Cam thinks is null and void, and it’s not weird at all, Nolan. I just think you should start with a house that doesn’t need ninety-nine percent of it torn down before you can live in it.”
I laughed. I knew Kayley was only looking out for me. She’d been doing that since I called her and told her I was getting divorced. That was two years ago, and she had helped me find a small house that would work for me and my two girls, who were then eight and ten. When Kayley moved away, I’d lost my best friend, tennis partner, and drinking buddy. I’d also been fired from coaching the boys’ soccer team and told in no uncertain terms that I should stick to teaching. They said that coaching a boys’ team was no place for a woman like me.
A woman like me? What the hell did that mean? Did they mean a competitive, brutally honest, hardworking woman, who expected everyone to do their best and give their all to succeed? If they didn’t want my style of coaching, then fine!
So I started to look for a new place to coach. Then, after some upper management positions changed at the middle school where I was employed, I got irritated with my job altogether and decided that moving wasn’t such a bad idea.
Kayley’s sister, Riley, was a teacher in elementary school here in Millerstown, and she’d heard that they were looking for a couple more teachers at the middle school. When I called, I found they were looking for a new soccer coach, but not just for the boys but also for the girls' team. I told them I’d take on either team. After a couple of visits down here, I had my certification to teach in Pennsylvania, a new job, kids to coach, and now I was shopping for a house.
The hardest part of all of this was that I had left my girls in New York to stay with my parents while I got situated and so they could finish the school year. I had never been away from them for more than a couple of weeks, and I knew that I had to keep myself busy enough that I made it through the next three months.
