AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Exactly."
"Where's he staying while he's in town?"
She cleared her throat at that question. "Joel asked if Decker could stay in the apartment over the café."
Hannah laughed. "Above your café, huh? Well, that sounds perfect."
"Stop. He's just going to do some work for me. If he still wants to after he goes through the house. And if his bid isn't completely out of our budget."
"Looks like we're about to find out," Hannah said.
As Decker strode through the front door, Chloe had to admit he was a very attractive man in a rugged, doesn't-know-how-good-he-looks kind of way. His hair was a little long, a little tousled, and there was some dust now on his shirt, probably from the house, but there was power and strength and purpose in his stride, in his gaze, and her heart raced as that gaze settled on her. She tried to shrug it off. This was crazy. She was dating his friend. Her reaction was probably coming from too much adrenaline. It would pass.
"What exactly do you want done?" he asked.
"Well, before I saw the place, we thought that the two bathrooms should be remodeled, that the house should be painted, and maybe some new tile or cabinetry in the kitchen. The floors, too, probably need to be redone."
"Definitely. You made sure of that," he said with another smile.
"Do you think all the floors upstairs are that fragile? Why would it suddenly break apart?"
"I suspect you have a leak in the bathroom that rotted the floor. It will take some discovery to see how far the damage goes. It's difficult to know if there are any other structural problems in the house. It will have to be cleaned out to be sure that there are no other surprises."
"So, what do you think?" she asked him.
"I think you need me."
His gaze bored into hers, and she felt like there was a double edge to his words, one that made her go on defense. "I need the house fixed," she said, wanting to make that point clear. She didn't need him. She needed his construction skills. "I'll also need to see a price. My parents have a budget, and I can't go over that."
"I'll work up a bid. Joel said you might rent me the apartment over your café?"
"Yes. Do you want to see it now?"
"That would be great. I can get settled and then get started on your bid."
"Well, I'm going to head to work," Hannah said, interrupting their conversation, a thoughtful gleam in her brown eyes. "I'm sorry I freaked out over that gigantic spider, Chloe. I feel a little responsible for what happened."
"You were totally responsible," she said. "How are you so afraid of spiders? You look at broken bones sticking out of people's arms and legs."
"That's different," Hannah said with a helpless smile. "The bones don't crawl toward me."
"Well, I'm sure we would have discovered the problem in the floor at some point."
"By the way," Hannah said, turning to Decker. "We didn't actually meet. I'm Hannah McKenna, one of Chloe's oldest friends. I really appreciate you getting her out. You saved the day."
"Happy to help," he said.
"Well, I'm sure I'll see you around," Hannah said.
"I hope so."
As Hannah headed to her car, Chloe turned to Decker. "Shall we go?"
"I'm ready."
"Leo, come on. And you're not bringing the stick," she said, as he started toward her.
He gave her a sad look. "But it's the best one I've ever found."
