Fix Her Up (The Fix Book 1)

by Carey Heywood

  He pulls a screwdriver from his belt and jabs at the jousts to show me how solid they are.

  “That’s great!” I beam.

  He blinks at me before looking back down at the jousts, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

  The condition of this house wasn’t a surprise. I knew I was buying it as is. My home inspector assured me that the foundation, beams and jousts were all sound. It’s a relief to get confirmation of that. I was terrified I’d open up the floor and find a rotted disaster.

  “How long do you think it will take to get all of this up?” I ask.

  “You should move your fridge and microwave to one of the front rooms and keep pulling up the flooring into the kitchen. I’ll get as much of this up as I can before I have to leave.”

  “You have to leave?” I ask, and then feel silly for it.

  Of course he has to leave. It’s already insane that he’s helping me at all.

  He leans back, resting his forearm against his knee. His gaze is intense.

  “I can come back tonight. We can eat and then keep working.”

  “You’d do that?” I ask, and then add, “come back and help me?”

  “Try and keep me away,” he murmurs, holding my gaze.

  I look away first, biting back a smile as I get back to work. When I turn back to see how Noah’s doing, my jaw drops.

  I gasp and feel my eyes widen. “Wow! You move fast.”

  He gives me a half grin. “This isn’t my first time.”

  Wow that sounded flirty. Would it be insane to flirt back? Then I remember I’m still sick, not wearing makeup, and am covered in dirt and sweat.

  Not to mention the fact that I’ve decided I should be on my own for the time being. I’m clearly reading too much into how nice he is.

  Sticking with gratitude, I look at him, hoping he believes what I’m about to say. “Thank you again for doing this.”

  “You’re welcome.” He gives me a smile, and we both get back to work.

  By the time I have the old wooden planks up in the kitchen, he has the new subfloor down in the den.

  When he finishes that, he helps me break apart and toss the old cabinetry.

  “That’s all I can do for now.”

  “All?” I laugh, looking at everything we’ve done in only part of a day. “You’ve done so much.”

  He wets his lips and I hurriedly offer him a bottle of water.

  Taking it from me, he says, “I’ll be back later with dinner. Try to rest up so you’ll be ready to work.”

  Gesturing toward the wood planks now uncovered from where the cabinetry was I ask, “Should I finish pulling those up?”

  He nods. “Go for it.”

  I do, working until the cable guy shows up.

  He gives me a dubious look as I usher him inside. One good thing about all the holes in my walls from the new electrical wiring is the cable guy doesn’t need to make any new ones. While he works, I finish pulling up the planks in the kitchen.

  I’m finished before he is. Though I’m tempted to, I don’t attempt to pull up any of the subflooring. Instead, I admire my new plywood subfloor in the den. Once the cable guy is done, I stop daydreaming about wood flooring and hook up my computer and TV.

  After that, I call my mom to share all my good news.

  “And he’s doing it all out of the goodness of his own heart?” She asks after I tell her about Noah.

  “His sister is my Realtor Abby,” I explain.

  She hmpfs on her end of the line. “I never had the sibling of a Realtor renovate any of our houses and we moved four times before we bought this house.”

  “Okay, I get this isn’t something that happens everyday but he was concerned I took on more than I could handle.”

  “Your father and I were concerned and you wouldn’t let us help,” she argues.

  “Mom,” I warn. “I thought this was good news, I wouldn’t have told you if I thought it would upset you.”

  “Finley Elizabeth Reeves, don’t you dare say you’d ever keep things from me,”

  “Yes, mama,” I agree readily.

  “Well, tell me about this man. What does he look like?”

  “Why does that matter?” I ask defensively.

  My mom covers the mouth of the phone to say something to my dad; too bad I hear every single word. “She won’t tell me what he looks like so that means he’s good looking.”

  6

  Noah

  From Finley’s house I drive home to shower and change before my appointment. While I am a contractor, I doubt showing up filthy and soaked with sweat will inspire anyone to hire us.

  More than once, after leaving her, Finley drifts into my thoughts. We worked well together. She’s strong and didn’t expect me to do all of the work even though I offered to help. She also made a point to bring up paying me back for the plywood.

  I’ve known women who have no problem being taken care of. I appreciate the fact that Finley isn’t like that. Hell, she’s sick and is still working her ass off.

  My phone rings while I drive. Since I show up early to my appointment I have time to check my message.

  It’s Eli, being his usual overbearing and bossy self. Someone, probably Abby, told him about Finley and the work I’m doing on her house given the fact that in his message he asks if I’ve lost my mind doing free work for a woman I’ve just met.

  I decide against calling him back. If I do, we’ll probably argue and I’ll say things I’ll regret. With everything he has going on with Brooke, I’m not surprised he’s calling me. He’s got to be pretty pissed at life and he’s taking it out on me. I didn’t ask for, nor do I need his opinion.

  The only opinion that truly matters is Jon’s since I was at her house during work hours. As long as he’s cool with what I’m doing, that’s all I need. He’s a romantic and he’s got Emily involved so I could spend every day for the next month there and he wouldn’t care.

  Now, all I have to do is have a word with Abby to encourage her to keep her mouth shut in the future, not that she’ll listen to me. I send her a text anyway.

  Then I get to work. This appointment is more successful than the one yesterday. They hire us to take down an interior wall and redo the flooring in that room.

  It’s a solid job for clients we’ve worked with before. We also have other previous clients that live on their street. Our trucks have our logo on them and we normally pick up repeat business when other homeowners see us in the area.

  I can make sure Jon has some extra business cards on him. He can have one of the guys stick them behind the metal flags on the mailboxes of the street they’re working on.

  I head back to the office and am surprised to find Abby waiting for me. I expected a response of some sort to my text. She meets me at the door of my truck.

  “Don’t you have a job?” I joke.

  “I got a new listing earlier and had a client make an offer on a condo today. Don’t worry about my job, I’m kicking serious Realtor ass at the moment. Now, what’d Eli say to you?” She asks.

  “He alluded to me being an idiot who thinks with his dick for the work I’m doing at Fin’s house,” I reply, holding open the door for her.

  “Typical Eli,” she mutters.

  “Hey Justin,” I wave, once we’re inside.

  He lifts his chin and replies, “Noah, Abigail.”

  After I close the door to my office behind us I ask, “Abigail?”

  She laughs. “I think I intimidate him.”

  “Don’t mess with his head,” I order. She rolls her eyes. “Now, why were you talking about me with Eli?”

  She settles herself into one of the chairs across from my desk and then shifts in it, trying to get comfortable. I have very comfortable chairs so it’s answering my question that must be bothering her.

  “Abby,” I grunt.

  She crosses her arms over her chest. “It just came out. I’m sorry.”

  “How does what I’m doing just come out?�
�� I question.

  Her arms fall to either side of the chair. “I was trying to get him to open up about Brooke so I told him you were interested in someone and how you were helping her out.”

  Slumping into my chair I groan. “Why?”

  “I know,” she replies. “I’m sorry. I never would have told him if I thought he would lay into you about it.”

  “Can you please keep my personal shit to yourself going forward?” I ask.

  She nods. “I will. I promise but, Gideon knows, too, and that wasn’t my fault.”

  “I told him,” I explain.

  She folds her arms across her chest as she cocks her head to the side. “If you’re telling people, why can’t I tell people?”

  I love my sister. I want to strangle her every once and a while, like right now, but I do love her.

  “Maybe because it’s my information to share,” I counter.

  That derails her and she nods. “Did you go over there today?”

  I nod.

  “Well,” she presses when I don’t give her any more information. “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” I reply, deciding against telling her I’m going back over there tonight.

  “That’s all?” She asks. “You didn’t start working on it or anything?”

  “We pulled up the flooring in the kitchen and den and got new subflooring down in the den.”

  She blinks. “You did all of that today?”

  I shrug. She grins.

  “I’m still pissed at you.”

  Her smile falls. “I deserve that.”

  Seeing her upset is harder than being angry at her. “Alright. You’re forgiven.” I point at her. “As long as you don’t do it again.”

  She holds up her hands. “I won’t. I promise. My lips are sealed when it comes to you and Finley. Side note, when did you start calling her Fin?”

  Damn it.

  “She told me her friends called her that,” I explain, hoping I’m not giving too much away.

  “When are you seeing her again?” She asks.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I grunt. “Did Eli tell you anymore about what’s going on with him and Brooke?”

  She frowns. “You’re seriously not telling me?”

  I shake my head and she huffs.

  “I told him I’m taking the kids to a movie this week. He wanted to meet me but I don’t want them telling Brooke and her thinking I was trying to play her. That pissed him off, but whatever. I don’t want his bullshit to keep me from seeing my niece and nephews if they end up getting a divorce.”

  “How did he take that?” I ask.

  Eli has never taken hearing the word no well.

  “He was pissed but he doesn’t scare me.”

  She’s lucky he’s never unleashed the full power of his wrath on her. If he had, she’d be more concerned about him being pissed.

  “Good for you.”

  She smirks. It couldn’t have been easy growing up with four brothers. There are plenty of times we drove her crazy. She learned early on how to hold her own.

  “We done here?” I ask.

  “You’re really not going to tell me anything?” She argues.

  “And have you tell everyone?” I counter.

  She stands, slinging her purse over her shoulder. “I’ll just find out from Finley.”

  “Go for it,” I reply.

  Her brows furrow. “You’re so annoying.”

  I grin. “I love you too.”

  She stomps out of my office. It’s crazy how that never gets old.

  “Your sister offered me a hundred bucks to key your truck,” Justin calls out a minute after she’s gone.

  “Hold out for two hundred!”

  When he doesn’t say anything I assume he took my advice.

  A few hours later, once I’m ready to leave, I text Finley to let her know I’m on the way. I pick up food near her house so it’ll still be hot by the time I get there.

  She’s waiting for me in her driveway. The outside light above her kitchen door is on and she’s set up a bistro table and two chairs.

  “Fancy,” I tease.

  She rests her chin on her palm. “Thanks. It was a moving present from my parents.”

  I set the takeout bag onto the table. “I hope Chinese is okay.”

  “I love Chinese,” she replies and then stands. “What would you like to drink? I have wine, or bottled water.”

  I’m typically more of a beer guy but enjoy a glass of wine every now and then, and it might take the edge off a bit if we both have one. “Wine, thanks.”

  She walks into her house and returns quickly with two glasses. I lean back in my chair and take a drink. There’s nothing like a New England summer evening. It’s perfect now, but if we stay out once the sun goes down we’ll get eaten alive by mosquitos. Since there’s work to do, we’ll be inside long before they’ll be able to make a feast of us.

  While we eat, I try to get to know her better.

  “What made you decide to move here?”

  Her eyes shift away. “It’s a long story.”

  “We have plenty of time,” I counter.

  “Parts of it will sound silly,” she argues.

  She moved cross-country, to renovate a house in a state she’s never lived in all by herself. Silly isn’t the word I would think of. “You can tell me anything.”

  She nods. “I needed a change. I love my family but I needed to get away so I could have a fresh start. The silly part is I could have ended up anywhere. I was waiting to find a house that spoke to me.”

  My gaze moves to the kitchen door. “And this one did.”

  She nods her head. “When I saw the listing online I knew this was the place I was meant to live.”

  “Why?”

  She gulps. “It’s going to sound crazy.”

  I shrug. “Try me.”

  “Well, not all of it is crazy,” she amends, and explains. “The price and location were both right. I looked at hundreds of houses but this one was different. With this house,” her face softens as her eyes move from mine to her house, “it stopped being all about getting away. When I looked at the pictures online I could already imagine what it would look like when it was finished.”

  “Abby says that happens all the time with the houses she shows. That when a house speaks to a client they know it’s the one to make an offer on.”

  “Yes, this house spoke to me.” Her eyes are bright. “Thanks for not thinking I’m crazy for wanting to fix up this place.”

  “It’s not crazy to want to fix something.”

  She passes me a fortune cookie and then starts to open the other one. I watch as she breaks it in half and tugs the paper fortune free. Her lips tip up as she reads it.

  “What does it say?”

  She tilts her head to my unopened cookie. “You first.”

  Shaking my head, I don’t argue that her fortune is already out. Once I have it open, my eyes move across the text. There is no fear for the one whose thought is not confused.

  “Well.” Impatience coats her words. “Read it.”

  I press the paper to my chest. “Why should I?”

  She reaches across the table, her hand wrapping around my wrist. “I want to see.”

  Her skin is soft and smooth, not yet marred with calluses from work.

  Her fortune sits face up in front of her. She lets go of my wrist to grab it when she notices my eyes on it. Instantly, I miss the feel of her touch.

  Slowly rising from my chair, I take a step towards her. She twists out of her chair and moves to stand behind it, a wild grin on her face. Who knew fighting over fortune cookie fortunes could be this fun?

  “If you run, I’ll catch you,” I taunt.

  She laughs. “Maybe it will be me chasing you.”

  That’s something I’d like to see.

  “You’d never be able to catch me.”

  She wets her lips. “I had the school record for the mile in elementary school.”

>   Dropping back into my seat I laugh and then hand her my fortune. “Okay Flash. Here you go.”

  She punches the air to celebrate her victory before taking my fortune, her fingertips brushing against mine as she does. Her sensuous lips move as she reads it.

  When she’s done reading she says, “That’s a good one.”

  “Are you going to tell me yours?”

  She’s still holding hers and keeps mine, putting it behind her fortune. “Be patient. The Great Wall of China wasn’t built in a day.” She holds my gaze as she slips both scraps of paper into her pocket. “Does that mean we should stop for the night?”

  Turning my gaze, I look at our empty food containers. “Not a chance. Break’s over. Time to get back to work.”

  We quickly clean up, tossing our trash right into her dumpster. Then I follow her into the house, liking the fact that she carried my fortune with her.

  “I got my cable set up today,” she brags, showing me her set up.

  “That’s good.” I give her a website address to look up. “If you pick floors from here I can get them at cost. This site will show you everything we have in stock.”

  “You have in stock? Do you sell flooring?” Her brows knit together in confusion as she studies my face.

  I scratch the back of my head. “I don’t sell it, but my family does.”

  Her mouth falls open. “Your family sells flooring?”

  I nod, “And plywood, and drywall, and shingles, and well, you get the idea. My family owns a hardware store. If it’s home related, they sell it.”

  “It’s like you’re my fairy home building Godmother,” she teases.

  My face twists. “Godmother?”

  She covers her mouth to muffle a laugh. “Sorry. Godfather.”

  I give her my best Brando, stroking my chin. “I can handle Godfather.” She smiles at me in return, causing me to stare at her mouth. I clear my throat. “So, you see any floors you like?”

  She turns back to her computer and starts to excitedly scroll and click through the pictures. “I like this one. Oh and this one! And what do you think about this one?”

  I move to stand behind her. Instead of a desk, she has both her TV and laptop sitting on a folding card table. She points out her three top choices to me.