Needs A Little TLC (Spinning Hills Romance 2)

by Ines Saint

  “Whipped?” Cassie repeated as she took the key, knowing she’d have no choice but to take a quick look at the office before they left.

  “He means where Dan found true love,” Ruby clarified.

  Ruby and Marty sparred about Dan’s current status while Cassie stared at the pink, rhinestone-studded key in her hand. The words Daddy’s Little Princess were written across the top in a curly purple script. The key reminded her of a pillow her father had gotten her years ago. The pillow’s colors and message had been so unlike her—she was hardly a princess—but what had mattered was that it had come from her dad and she’d carried it with her everywhere.

  Cassie shook her head. Mr. Montgomery had always procured fun keys for his businesses, but this one only served to remind her she wasn’t sure what her next step would be. If proving something to her parents led her down a rabbit hole, then she hadn’t grown at all.

  Sam went back into the house and looked out the window toward Star Springs Park for a long time after Cassie left. She’d teetered and sunk in her three-inch heels, but she’d made it down the ravine without falling.

  New leaves were beginning to shade the park’s streams, glistening evergreens, bright red benches, and crisp white gazebo. He’d worked on both projects.

  From an early age, Sam had known what he’d loved and what he wanted with a strength and purpose he’d later learned weren’t usual. Family and community were his anchors, appreciating and preserving true craftsmanship his calling.

  So many of his memories were attached to the town. His eyes traveled up the oldest tree in the park, a majestic oak, and his mind’s eye saw ten-year-old Cassie sitting up there, scared and regretful. It was the first time Sam had ever been terrified that something bad could happen, and the panic of the moment had etched the memory into his brain. It had been during an especially hot summer. He could still smell the stagnant water, feel the waves of regret coming from Johnny, and hear the anxiety in Dan’s voice.

  “Holy crap. What’s Cassie doing up there?” Dan demanded.

  “I dared her to climb all the way up,” Johnny explained, shielding his eyes and looking up. “I swear I didn’t think she would.”

  Sam squinted up, his heart pounding fast. Cassie was sitting on a sturdy-looking branch while holding on tight to a smaller branch in front of her. He could barely make her out through all the leaves. Round blue eyes in a pale face were staring down at him. “I’ll go up and get her,” he announced, swinging up to the lowest branch.

  “No. It was my fault. I’ll go.” Johnny came up behind him.

  “No. Both of you stop. Give me a quick second to think.”

  Dan looked around, his eyes wild.

  Johnny cupped his hand and yelled up, “Hold on, Cassie, we’ll find a way to get you down.”

  Sam quickly climbed up another few branches, hoping Dan wouldn’t notice.

  “I’m okay. Don’t come up!” Cassie squealed.

  “Well, if we don’t get you down, someone will call the fire department. Your hair makes it look like the tree is on fire,” Johnny yelled again.

  “No, don’t make her laugh!” Sam called down. He was already one-third of the way up.

  Dan glanced at Sam, noticed how high he was, and quickly ran over to start climbing, too. “Fire. That’s it. Johnny, you run to the fire department and have them bring a ladder, like they do when a cat is stuck. Sam, stop. I’ll go up.”

  Johnny ran toward the fire station, one block down.

  A while later, a downcast Cassie, Sam, Johnny, and Dan sat on a bench and listened to a firm scolding from Fire Chief Johnson, Sheriff Brown, and the three women who owned the Gypsy Fortune Café and Bakery, which, unfortunately for them, was right next to the park.

  “I’m sorry,” Cassie whispered, squeezing Sam’s hand. Sam squeezed back. To the adults she said, “I promise I’ll start to think before I act. Please don’t tell Sam and Johnny’s mom. They were only trying to help.”

  Johnny looked up. “It was all my fault. If you have to tell Mom, tell her it was my fault.”

  “Tell our dad,” Dan said. “I’ll take you right to him. He’s working on a house in West Kettering today.”

  Sheriff Brown sighed. “I know you boys were only trying to look out for her, but I’ll have to at least tell Senator McGillicuddy,” he said, mentioning Cassie’s dad with a grim look. “Your grandmother is getting older, Cassie. Your dad asked me to look out for you when you visit.”

  “But looking after me isn’t your job.” Cassie shot up off the bench. “I’ll tell him. I’ll go to Grandma’s and call him right now. I’ll explain it was all my fault.” With that, she ran away. Sam got up and ran after her, knowing she was beating herself up and wanting to tell her not to try too hard to change, because he liked her just the way she was.

  Ten years later, Sam had stopped running after her for good. No way he’d start again.

  The weariness he kept fighting was pushing back harder than ever. Too many people were counting on him, too many worries were weighing him down, but he plowed on, for his son, for his ex-wife Heather, for his brothers, and for the town. There wasn’t much more he could take. His gut told him Cassie could deliver better than any of the other Realtors he’d met with, but he suddenly hoped she’d say no and walk out of his life forever.

  Jessica silently ran numbers while Cassie stared at the giant oak outside her office, remembering the time the boys had rescued her from a tree. It wasn’t a bad memory, because they’d laughed about it for years, but it wasn’t a good memory, either. The fire department had been involved, after all. The tree was one of the reasons she’d chosen this office. It reminded her to be herself, but to think before she climbed.

  After a while, Jessica looked up from her calculator and asked, “Did I ever tell you what Peter was most worried about the morning of his last surgery?”

  Cassie shook her head no.

  “His goatee,” Jessica said with a sad smile. “One of the risks was that he’d fall into a coma, and he made me promise I’d keep it looking good. At first, I was kind of upset, I mean, why wasn’t he worrying about the kids or me? But looking at him, it hit me . . . he wanted to live and thinking about what would happen if he were no longer there was too hard, so he was focusing on the mundane, everyday things. I told him I would make sure his goatee looked great if he promised me he’d make sure I was always wearing pink blush lipstick if our positions were reversed. He laughed so hard. Whenever I remember the sadness of that day, I try to focus on the fact that we shared a good laugh.”

  Cassie swiped at her eyes and swallowed a few tears.

  “I didn’t tell you this to make you cry!” Jessica exclaimed.

  “But it’s so sad.”

  Jessica shook her head. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m bad at making a point. What I’m trying to say is . . . I don’t know what happened at your grandmother’s house, but you came back looking deflated. I know being back must bring back bad memories, but try to focus on all the good memories, too.”

  Cassie nodded and, wanting to change the subject and lighten the mood, said, “So. Pink blush lipstick. I’ll remember that.”

  “Please do.” Jessica smiled. “What about you? Do you have any special requests?”

  “If I’m ever in the hospital overnight, you better bring me a pair of tweezers.” She waved a hand over her eyebrows. “I look like a spawn of the devil if I don’t pluck every single day.”

  Jessica laughed and Cassie managed a smile. She had a difficult decision to make and her friend was right. The good had to weigh in, too. The problem was, Cassie had never been good at weighing things. The only way she knew how to move forward was to jump. Even if she fell afterward, it was always easier to get back up if she’d fallen after taken a running leap.

  “Have you heard from Billy?” she asked. Her kindred spirit had been on the back of her mind all day.

  “Yes, he called just before soccer practice, all excited because everyone had noticed his
hair.” Jessica shook her head.

  “So he’s happy.”

  “He’s in his own little world, but he’s happy. And I think you’ll be happy, too,” she said as she put her pencil down and pushed the calculator away.

  “Do the numbers make sense?”

  “They do. A long-term partnership with a business like Amador Construction and Preservation is worth the short-term hit. We can get moving on this right away. You’d need to take care of the new lease and finding a new Realtor for the Cincy office. I’d have get to work on hiring painters, ordering furniture, and decorations for the new one.”

  Cassie took a good look around. Jessica’s taste was impeccable and they had the same scheme in each office. Beige walls with dark red accents that matched their name, framed black-and-white pictures of old homes and neighborhoods, and an eclectic mix of vintage furniture that matched their niche market. “If we decide to move forward, I can handle both markets until I find the right Realtor.”

  “It sounds like you’re not ready to commit.”

  “I have too much time on my hands right now. Whether we open a satellite office down there and take on four properties or take on six and move our headquarters, handling both markets will be a challenge. I’m up for it.”

  Jessica frowned at her. “Red Realty shouldn’t be your life. You need to get out more.”

  “But I’m happy. I love my business. Most of my clients become family.”

  “Define happiness.”

  “Good friends, success in my chosen field, an automatic coffeemaker, and my heart in one piece. So I’m all set,” Cassie said, not missing a beat. “I’m in my own little world, like Billy.”

  “Committing to Spinning Hills by moving our headquarters would bring you closer to old friends, make you even more successful in your chosen field, and you can find an automatic coffeemaker anywhere, so I’m guessing it’s your heart that’s holding you back?” Jessica looked into Cassie’s eyes. “Before you went to your grandmother’s house, you said you could handle Sam and that it would all come down to the numbers. Well, the numbers say we should move permanently.”

  Cassie narrowed her eyes at her friend. “You’re a sneaky one, but the only thing holding me back is my dead therapist’s voice inside my head. She told me to think before I jump, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

  Cassie’s apartment was a thirty-minute drive from her office, and it had never felt like part of her world. It was only a place to park while she was out creating it.

  Every week, without fail, she and her associates blogged about the history of particular houses or towns in their different markets, and every week, without fail, people looking to buy or sell an old house found them through that blog.

  Every so often, a new client ended up being a troll or an ogre, but mostly those who found her understood the special magic hidden within the walls of old structures and they became part of her world. A home of her own hadn’t been necessary. Her needs and goals were met by spinning that magic for others.

  But the moment she’d walked into her grandmother’s house, she’d been struck by an overwhelming sense of loss. Once upon a time, that abandoned, run-down structure had been her home and her sense of place in the world, until the day even Cassie had been stolen from her grandmother’s memory by cruel disease.

  Cassie climbed out of the car and made her way to her mailbox, feeling more exhausted by the many short trips down memory lane than the long drive home.

  A white, letter-sized envelope caught her attention first. She flipped it around to see the words It’s not too late to go back to school and finish your degree! printed across the front in bold green letters. It was from a college her mother had been talking about a few weeks before.

  Cassie closed her eyes and breathed in and out a few times, inhaling her determination to prove herself to her parents and exhaling their disappointment in her.

  Number one. It was the only number they respected and she was so close.

  She needed to show them she wasn’t a failure. She could do things her own way and still be a success. Her vision and passion were so strong. They’d finally see.

  Chapter 4

  Sam walked into his office early the next morning to see Dan and Johnny looking down at a piece of paper. Dan glanced up, a question in his eyes. “You gave her sixteen properties, including the Tudor on Manor Row? I thought I heard you tell one of the other Realtors you wouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. That’s nearly half your eggs, bro.”

  Sam blinked. So Cassie had decided to move her headquarters to Spinning Hills. He pulled the contract out of Dan’s hands and slipped it into a drawer, wishing they’d leave so he could pour over it.

  Johnny pretended to cup his privates. “Speaking of eggs, looks like you’ve lost your huevos,” he said in a bad Mexican accent.

  Dan lifted an eyebrow. “I’d check and see, but I can’t see up his skirt from over here.”

  Sam turned to the file cabinet so they couldn’t see he’d cracked a smile. The last thing they needed was encouragement. “If you guys don’t stop snooping around my desk, I’ll change the locks to the front door.”

  “We were here when she dropped it on the desk, right in front of our noses. We couldn’t help it.” Johnny shrugged.

  “She said to tell you she’ll meet you at the Tudor on Friday at seven in the morning to go over all thirty-four properties so she can choose which ones she wants,” Dan added.

  Sam’s back stiffened and he slammed the door to the cabinet shut. “She thinks she’s calling the shots?”

  “Didn’t she always?” Dan teased.

  Johnny shook his head. “Uh, no. That’s what Sam used to let her think.”

  Sam glanced at Johnny. “You’re smarter than you look.”

  “That I am.” Johnny grinned. “Which reminds me, how’s the property on Old Spinning Hills Road coming along?”

  “What now?”

  “You know, Grandma Maddie’s old house. You’d said that was one of the last you’d work on, but the guys told me you sent a crew there this morning.” Johnny unwrapped a sandwich and took a bite.

  Sam rubbed the back of his neck. “It backs up to the park. It’ll sell fast, so I decided to move it up.”

  “Can’t wait to hear your plans on that one. Let’s take my new truck.” Dan picked up his keys.

  “Let’s take your new truck where?” Sam eyed him warily.

  “To Maddie’s house,” Johnny answered, mouth half full.

  “No need.”

  “Why?” Johnny asked, taking another—for some reason, annoying—bite of his sandwich.

  Sam began rolling up blueprints. “Look, ladies, we have too much work to do to stand around chatting, so can it already. Get going.”

  “To Maddie’s?” Johnny asked.

  “He’s turning purple. I think we should leave him alone already.” Dan laughed and helped Sam clear the desk. “Last time I saw him this way was when I told him if he didn’t quit playing ‘Throwing It All Away’ twenty times a day, I’d snap the Genesis CD in two using his head. That would’ve been about ten years ago, right, Sam?”

  “ ‘Throwing It All Away,’ really?” Johnny sighed and shook his head. “You’re right. We should leave him alone and offer our support. If any of this causes you anxiety and you want to talk things through, I’m here for you, bro. But if you’ve got things to work out and you want to work them out on her grandmother’s old house, I’ll just go take a peek every few days and analyze what it all means.”

  Sam looked away, ignoring them, but his shoulders and back were beginning to hurt from remaining rigid.

  “I think we should go,” Dan said to Johnny. Sam turned to see them heading toward the door. “We’re going to stop by and help Cassie set up the office she signed off on yesterday afternoon. We’ll leave you and the contract alone.”

  They left and Sam pulled the contract back out, annoyed that Dan had been right. He picked up a pen, but his hand wave
red above his printed name. Yesterday’s confrontation had made an already uncomfortable situation all the more awkward. He didn’t need it. But he blew a short breath out and scribbled his signature anyway.

  Then he looked Cassie’s blog up again. The time stamp for her current post was just after midnight. It seemed he wasn’t the only who’d had trouble sleeping. She was announcing her new headquarters and it was all straightforward enough. Until he got to her reasoning for moving to the Dayton region.

  When I walk the streets of Dayton, I feel like I’m stepping into old, important memories. No, Dayton is not New York, LA, or Chicago. You won’t see it star in movies. People don’t wear I LOVE DAYTON T-shirts in every corner of the globe. But none of those cities knows what it’s like to truly be forgotten. I like that Dayton knows. I’ve never forgotten it. And I’m coming home.

  Her words struck a deep chord.

  They could make this partnership work. What they needed was a fresh start.

  The day before, he’d done a thorough inspection of Maddie’s house and had found Cassie’s old bike abandoned in a cobwebbed corner of the attic. It was all rust and missing parts.

  He didn’t have time to spare, but it was still early and one day would be enough for him to restore the sky-blue and white bike to its original glory. It would be a peace offering, of sorts, without having to go through a heavy and uncomfortable conversation.

  Cassie and Jessica stared up at the rubble stone-and-stucco cottage that would now house their headquarters. Wood shingles, sharply pointed gables, and rolling eaves gave it the kind of whimsical charm that fueled fantasies. “I’m in love,” Jessica said, echoing Cassie’s sentiments.

  “Me, too. But what’s that smell?”

  They sniffed around until they found the source. Cassie wrinkled her nose. “No way clients will feel the magic if they’re accosted by a pile of dog poop when they visit the office.”