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“Greer mentioned in her text that you just found out about the house?” Ian asked.
I gave him a brisk nod. “It belonged to my grandparents. When they passed, they left everything to my mother, and she left everything to me. It was part of the dispersal of my trust that I received on my twenty-fifth birthday.”
Ian whistled. “You get better presents than me. I think I got an Amazon gift card and chocolate cake. I’d sure as hell know if I was going to get a house.”
Cameron elbowed his brother. Hard.
“What?” he whispered.
Cameron closed his eyes, like he was praying for patience. “Forgive my brother’s manners. We don’t usually let him around … people.”
I sniffed. “Understandable.”
Ian’s brows lowered. “Sorry, didn’t realize I was being rude.”
“No, I’m sure you didn’t.”
Cameron’s gaze was heavy, weighted with curious study, and for just a moment, I allowed myself to wonder what he was thinking.
Then I pinched off the thought, crushed it under my proverbial heel, like the head of a snake.
“What’s the state of the house?” Cameron asked. “Have you walked through it yet?”
“No.”
“Shall we? I can take some notes, work up an estimate tonight based on what you want to do.”
The house in front of me was the only thing big enough—scary enough—to keep my focus off the man standing next to me.
I had no recollection of ever being here, though our housekeeper Ruth told me I visited a few times as a baby. The front porch was big enough to hold chairs, and I had to swallow a gritty, cottony mess of questions.
What had she hated about this place? This town? Why did she leave and leave so thoroughly?
It didn’t look bad, considering how long it had been vacant. There was no evil vibe, no sense of discomfort that emanated off the skeleton of this family home.
The thought of walking inside felt an awful lot like someone would unsheathe a knife and slice it straight through my ribs, opening up all the most tender parts of what I kept inside.
There was absolutely no way I could do this with him walking by my side.
“No,” I said. “If you’d like to look, go ahead.”
Cameron set his hands on his hips and pinned me with a look overflowing with incredulous curiosity. “You don’t want to look inside?”
“Eventually, I’ll have to, won’t I?” I replied icily. Ian whistled under his breath, and I ignored it. “For now, I’d rather go to my hotel and get settled in.”
That muscle jumped in his jaw, and I wanted to slap him for using it on me.
Men who looked like Cameron should not be able to use their muscle-ticcing jaws like a weapon of mass destruction.
If it wasn’t him, I’d go in. I’d walk through the door and see what awaited me in this husk of a place.
Maybe.
But maybe not.
“My father told me everything was left untouched, so unless it’s been burglarized, I expect you’ll find dusty couches and faded walls.”
Cameron tore his gaze off my face and studied the house again, his own racing thoughts clear behind the deep brown of his eyes. “And what would you like me to work up for an estimate? Are you renovating it to live here?”
