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I turned and lifted a brow toward him. “Snake problem?”
“Oh, yeah, I think my dad told her to call Bobby Lee to get them out of her house, plus you know she’s got mice, probably bats in the attic, too.”
“Wasn’t there a rumor that the place was haunted?”
He smirked. “I’d take a ghost over a snake any day.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I probably would too.”
Our conversation turned to other things, and it was later that day when Kayley showed up on the site. She stood in the front yard watching Chad work, a smile of satisfaction on her lips that I hoped was for the job he was doing and not the way he looked. She already had one younger man in her life. She sure didn’t need two.
“What brings you here today? I thought you were working on the books and doing two estimates.”
“All of that is done.” She smiled. “I came by here to speak with Milton for a moment. His father told Nolan that he does custom bathrooms. She’d like to see what he can do for her.”
“I heard there were snakes in the house.”
She shivered. “Oh, yeah, there are. We had an eastern milk snake make itself known. I know they aren’t poisonous, but they are scary-looking. Bobby Lee was supposed to search the property and go under the house in the crawl space to see if he found any other critters and seal any holes he finds. I think he’s over there now.”
Her phone rang, and she held it up as she answered. “Speak of the devil. I was just talking about you.”
I heard her loud voice. “Bats! There are bats in my house!”
Kayley chuckled as she looked at me. “How many bats are in your house?”
I laughed as Kayley listened. I could just barely make out the animated voice on the other end of the line. “You know, Kayley, I can handle a lot. I can do a lot, and I knew that the house would have mice and spiders and those other creepy-crawly things, but I never considered snakes and bats living in my house!”
I couldn’t help it, but I found myself laughing more as Kayley tried to calm her friend down. “Nolan, no one lived there for two years. It’s their house too. You are going to have to make sure they know they are not welcome.”
“I know, but come on! Next, I’ll find a bear in the closet or something.”
Kayley chortled. “I think you are safe on that.”
Chad called me over to his side to ask a couple of questions about the blueprints, and when I was done assisting him, Kayley joined us.
“Has she decided that she made a mistake in buying that house yet?”
Kayley chuckled. “Oh, no. She’s even more determined than before to restore it to its original beauty.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “Although she was a little freaked out when Cam mentioned that the house might be haunted, but that was also when we found the snake in the house.”
“Most women I know would have burned the house down once they saw the snake,” Chad said with a smirk.
Kayley laughed for a moment. “I would be one of those women, but she’s different. She’s not your typical woman. Yeah, she’s not a fan of snakes and ghosts, but she wasn’t screaming and running away.”
“Sounds like a rare kind of woman,” I commented.
“She is, and that leads me to my next question—”
“No.” I sighed. “Before you even ask, the answer is no.”
“You don’t know the question, Bradley.”
“I don’t have to to know the answer. You start talking up your friend and then say you have to ask me a question. I am not going out to meet her or ask her out on a date.”
Kayley gave me an annoyed look. “That isnotwhat I was going to ask.”
