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He wanted to know why she wanted to blend in so much but decided that it wasn’t worth getting into now. She’d talked about her life. More than he expected.
“As I’ve told people before. There isn’t anything wrong with being boring. And now I feel like a horrible host. You came in, I hung your jacket up and you followed me to the living room and we sat down. Can I get you a drink? Do you want a tour of my house? You mentioned you were shocked I lived here and we got sidetracked.”
“Sidetracked because I blurted out things and I don’t normally do that. So yes, I’d love to see your house if you don’t mind showing me around.”
8
Have To Own Them
Kendra was losing her mind.
She wasn’t one to blab like she had. To offer up that much personal information about herself or her life, least of all her past or her mother.
But she walked in the front door of Ivan’s house, took one look at him in jeans and a fitted T-shirt and had to stop herself from drooling.
His dark hair was slightly messy as if he was in a hurry and ran his hands through it when he looked in the mirror. His brown eyes were watching her, they were listening and they were intense. He was paying attention when she could say not many did in her life.
When she’d commented on not being good enough for him, some of it had to do with the way he looked.
He was smart and maybe some could think he was nerdy, but she didn’t see that. She didn’t think it either.
She knew she was nerdy. She’d been told that a lot in her life. From the thick glasses to the thin straight hair that didn’t do much other than fall limp around her shoulders.
She’d been looked down on too for not having as much as others. For not being as outgoing or dating often.
Her clothes were dull and boring. She knew, she bought them.
It was cheaper and easier to get dressed daily. She got more use out of solid items than bold flashy prints.
And when she pulled into Ivan’s driveway in this nice development she started to wonder what his idea of cheap was compared to hers.
No one who owned this house was cheap. No way. It was too big and nice and modern.
“This is my living room,” he said. “I don’t spend a lot of time in here. My mother got on my case when I didn’t have furniture in it. The house is big and would take a lot of furniture. My parents got new furniture last year and gave me these items.”
She grinned over that. “It’s nice. I wouldn’t have guessed it was that old.”
“It’s not,” he said. “Maybe five years. My father complained it wasn’t comfortable. The couch wasn’t and the chair was too small for him. Both of them. My mother has this habit of buying different pieces and putting them together and my father never likes them. She told him if he wanted a say then he had to shop with her. Which he hates.”
“Do you get that from him?” she asked.
“I think so. But it’s more that I know my grandparents immigrated here from Ireland and were poor. My mother and Aunt Jolene came from really, really humble beginnings. So maybe I’ve got more of that blood in me. I never really thought of this room as a living room. I’m not sure what it was, which is why it was empty for so long.”
“It does seem out of place,” she said. “Which is odd because I’d think this house isn’t that old and most new builds are an open floor plan.”
“The house is about thirty years old and the people who had it built did some weird layout things that I’ve fixed. More so they didn’t keep the house up and fell behind in their mortgage. The outside had been overrun with weeds, the siding a mess, the roof had to be replaced. I told myself I wanted the worst house in any neighborhood that I bought.”
That sounded more like it to her. “I’d do the same thing if I could afford something like this. Even run down it had to be more than I could afford. You did all the work yourself?”
“My father has worked construction his whole life. I’ve got a knack for it, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do full time. This house needed a ton of work and I have pretty much done it all.”
“There are a lot of doors off of this room,” she said.
“Yes. That one is to a hallway that goes to the garage. That hallway also brings you to the kitchen. So there is a little mudroom-type area in there.”
She moved over and popped her head in the hallway and saw the coat racks on the wall and a place for shoes and then could see the kitchen further down.
“That’s convenient.”
