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None of my thoughts needed to be up for public consumption. I hardly knew how I felt about any of this. His opinions wouldn’t help me in the slightest.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do tonight,” I told him. “I need you to go to the township and pull the original blueprints to the house if they’ve got them. I’ll get working on this estimate.”
“How long do you think it’ll take?” he asked.
Regret clogged my throat before I answered, even though she’d be thrilled.
It was a strange reaction, nothing that made sense, because clearly what had happened between us meant a hell of a lot more to me than it did to her.
Meant nothing to her, by the looks of it.
“Not long.” I tucked the measuring tape back into my tool belt. “The house doesn’t need much. We’ll clear it out and start pulling up all the floors as soon as she gives us the green light. I’ll call the guys tomorrow and give them the option of taking this job or just staying laid off until something bigger comes. We can handle a smaller crew on this.”
“You gonna pull up the dusty old carpets if they say no?” Ian asked with a raised brow.
“Yup.” I gave him a level look. “There’s not a piece of this process I haven’t done before and won’t do in the future if it needs to be done.”
He held up his hands.
“You’re not making fancy-ass furniture for the rich Brits anymore,” I said easily. “Get used to doing the dirty work again, brother.”
“I know why I’m here,” he answered with an edge. “And I’m not too good for it.”
“Great to hear.” I jerked my chin toward the door leading out to the porch. “Let’s get moving.”
Ivy
“I saw sunglasses like that at the drugstore in Redmond last week,” the girl at the front desk whispered. “Don’t you just love them?”
With a glance at where I’d set them down, I tapped a manicured nail against the front desk counter, a nondescript laminate in a beige color. “My favorite pair.”
Mine were Dior, so I highly doubted she found them at any drugstore, but it wasn’t helpful to say that.
She stared at the glasses wistfully, then straightened, shifting her attention back to the computer.
As she clicked her long pink nails on the keyboard, I gave her a surreptitious once-over.
I’d seen her type my entire life. She had style. It was obvious in the choices she’d made in coming to work at a small town inn on the outskirts of town. Her jewelry was on trend, if not cheaply made, and the colors she chose favored her rich dark hair and pale skin. Either she stayed out of the sun completely or she wore spf 100 every time she walked out the door.
Her brows lowered as she clicked to another screen. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t have anything else. Is the room not to your liking?”
“It’s fine,” I said. “You’re sure you don’t have any suites? Having a place to work while I’m here would be helpful, and there’s no table in my room.” I peered at the name tag pinned to her shirt. Amanda. “I appreciate anything you can do, Amanda.”
“We only have one larger room, and it’s booked all week,” she said. “I really am sorry.”
I gave her a closed-mouth smile. “Nothing to apologize for.”
“You could work at the library,” she said. “Or the coffee shop downtown. I heard you stopped there this morning. My best friend works at the counter every morning and she told me all about your dress and your shoes.”
The beginnings of a headache bloomed behind my eyes. “Did she?”
Amanda nodded furiously. “You’re kinda hard to miss.”
Notoriety was an ill-fitting look for me, but I was afraid it was something I wouldn’t be able to avoid.
Lynches are above reproach.
I gave her another smile, the slightest degree warmer this time. Amanda and her excellent taste in sunglasses would get all my niceness because she wasn’t a giant-sized builder with giant-sized hands that had been two inches from making my toes curl up in my Louboutins.
