by Tegan Maher
“I know,” I replied, sighing as I made the first note on my legal pad. “The roof’s obviously going to need replacing, to start.”
She shook her head. “Not necessarily. I think those stains are from a plumbing leak rather than the roof. It may be as simple as fixing or replacing a little bit of pipe.” She ran her fingers over the places on the fireplace where the rocks had come loose. “And the mortar on the fireplace seems to be in good shape. That’ll be a relatively easy fix, too. It’s aesthetic, though. Do you know if they’ve had the chimney cleaned lately?”
Finally, a bright spot. “Yeah, Marnie said they cleaned it last fall when they put the place up for sale.” I leaned against the banister on the staircase and gave a little squeal of surprise when it gave a little under my weight. It held, though, so I put that in the win column, after adding it to the list of things to repair sooner rather than later. At least the whole thing hadn’t collapsed.
She hummed, wandering toward the kitchen. “Yeah, and she also sent you pictures of this place that were taken ten years ago. It’s probably a good idea to have it checked. I know a guy, and he owes me a favor. If it’s okay with you, I’ll see if he can come out this week.” She rubbed her hands together, then jammed them in her coat pockets. “Then we can blanket off the upstairs and get the bottom floor warm enough that we can work on it without firing up the furnace.”
I hadn’t even factored that cost in, so I was glad she had. As we started the to-do list, I was glad all over again to have her by my side. I’d been angry and stressed when I’d made the decision to buy the lodge, thinking more about getting away and starting over than anything so banal as the logistics of buying and moving into some fairy-tale manor. The price alone should have been a clue. Even though I’d overpaid considering the condition of the place, I’d still gotten it for a little less than I’d have paid for a mid-range house in Orlando.
She trailed into the kitchen and gasped. “Holy crap. Have you been in here?”
“Not yet,” I said, afraid to follow her. After finding out the plumbing was shot and the banister was about to fall over, I didn’t hold out much hope the kitchen was any better. Therefore, I was surprised at her next comment and elated when I saw what we had to work with.
“It’s amazing,” she said in awe, trailing her fingers over the four dusty cast iron grates of a new gas stove. It even had a built-in griddle in the center and double ovens underneath. The rest of the room was in decent shape, too. As a matter of fact, aside from the inch of dust on everything, it looked even better than the pictures Marnie had sent me. It had obviously been remodeled, and I wondered what the former owners had been planning before they passed away.
“Wow,” I said, checking out the stainless steel appliances. “I don’t get it. These still have plastic on the front of them.”
Dee swung the door of the fridge open and frowned; it was pristine. “Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense, especially considering the shape of the rest of the house.”
I thought I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned to look, there was nothing there. My heart sped up. The feeling of being watched made the hair on my arms stand up, and I wasn’t sure we were alone. After all, the place had stood vacant for over five years; it wouldn’t have surprised me if somebody was squatting in it.
After scanning the dark corners of the room, I figured it must have just been a trick of the light and a case of the heebie-jeebies and pushed it from my mind.
Chapter 14
I AWOKE THE NEXT MORNING refreshed and feeling like I’d accomplished something. We’d made an inventory of what we’d have to do to make the lodge habitable, and as Dee had suggested, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. In fact, two of the six bedrooms were in fine shape, and only two of them needed major work. The bathrooms were dated and in desperate need of an overhaul, but they were functional for the time being.
As far as the kitchen, I’d called Marnie and asked if she knew anything about it. Though she tried to play it off as if she did, I had the sneaking suspicion she was as clueless as we were. I decided to ask Scout the next time I saw him since he’d been taking care of the place.
Once we’d gotten back from the lodge, we’d put my bed together and had even managed to unpack at least half the boxes. Not bad progress for a day’s work.
And to top it off, I had the bed to myself. I flung the covers off and got up. The morning was a bit brisk, but nothing compared to that first one. Dee’d moved her stuff into the other bedroom the night before, so she’d shown me how to bank the fire and add more if I happened to get up in the middle of the night.
For the first time since I’d gotten there, I actually had a glimmer of hope that this whole gig could work.
I pulled on a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, then went in search of a caffeine fix. Bear lay sprawled across the entire length of the couch, his paws dangling over the edge, and he cracked a sleepy eye open when I came through.
“Hey, big guy!” I said. “Was I hogging too much of the bed, and you had to hit the couch?” He just huffed out a put-upon sigh and closed his eye again. As far as roommates went, I’d had worse.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a fresh pot of coffee already made, along with a sticky note from Dee saying she’d already headed up to the lodge. I filled a couple to-go cups and decided to join her. She’d done a great job of motivating me the day before, and I was anxious to get started.
“You ready to go for a walk?” I asked Bear, and his fuzzy ears perked. He stepped off the couch with his two front feet, stretched, then climbed the rest of the way off and sauntered out the door. I locked the cabin and followed along, appreciating the beauty of the morning. The birds were chirping, I could hear a woodpecker pounding away on a tree, and thankfully, there was nothing rustling in the bushes nearby. I glanced at Bear. Maybe just his presence was enough to keep the wildlife at bay. I mean, they had no idea he wasn’t as tough as he looked.
When I got to the lodge, Dee was standing on a ladder stripping off some peeling, cabbage-rose wallpaper in the great room. Truth be told, even if it was in immaculate shape, it still would have gone. I wasn’t exactly a cabbage-rose type of girl. I wanted to keep at least some of the ambiance, but a simple pattern or muted paint was more my style.
She glanced down at me. “Hey!”
“Decided to start early, huh?” I asked, surprised to see she already had most of the wall stripped bare.
“Yeah. There’s a lot to do and I’m excited to start transforming this place into something like its former self. Plus, it keeps me busy.” A shadow crossed her face. “If I allow my mind to wander, all I can see is Fiona. Her eyes ...”
I wiggled her coffee cup to keep her mind—and mine—from going there. “I brought you something. Thanks for leaving a fresh pot.”
She smiled appreciatively as she climbed down the ladder. “No problem. Thanks for bringing me another cup. Some of the rooms are better than others, so I think we should start with them since they’ll take less work,” she said as she took the coffee.
I nodded. “I don’t think the outside is as bad as I thought it was, either, now that I’ve looked at it without the feeling of gut-wrenching despair I had when I first saw it.”
“Nah,” she said, flapping a hand. “Nothing some paint won’t fix, for the most part. Except for the roof that is. That’s gonna be a pretty penny if you have to have it replaced. So far, though, I’m not seeing signs you will. You should have it inspected though.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. I needed to get somebody out to give me an estimate, and I was dreading the number. With the number of peaks and gables, I was afraid to even think about it. “Did you find anything we overlooked yesterday?”
“Nothing, if you don’t count a wandering spirit or two,” she said.
My head snapped her direction. “What?”
She looked at me and laughed. “You should see the look on your face,” she said, her eyes sparkling. She b
umped my shoulder with her own. “I was just kidding. But your expression was priceless. So, do they have a big ghost problem where you come from? Because that was way too easy.”
I rolled my eyes, covering up the fact that I’d half believed her after the creepy feeling of being watched I’d had the night before. “No. But I’ve seen some of those ghostbusting shows, and for all I know, that crap’s real. I’d rather not have roommates who live on a different existential plane than me.” The last thing I needed was to be too nervous to hang out in my own house.
Dee gazed at the lodge. “But if it were haunted, think of all the money you could make renting it out to thrill seekers, Halloween party planners, ghost hunters ... the list is endless. Plus, you could score a movie and book deal just on the haunting alone.”
“No thank you.” I shuddered as I took a swig of coffee.
Dee laughed and motioned toward Bear, who was stretched out in the sun. “Maybe he could protect you from the supernatural invaders if we had any.”
I hmphed. “I’m not sure he’s able to protect me from the natural invaders.”
Her eyes softened. “He’s a good boy. I just don’t think Fiona was any nicer to him than she was to anybody else. And I’m pretty sure he spent a lot of time alone. Between Fiona running the café and meeting the bakery orders, and being so sour she didn’t have much company, he probably wasn’t socialized properly. The fact that she was never around probably made life easier for him anyway.”
“Why didn’t you do the baking? Lighten some of her workload? I mean, if her cooking was anything to go by, I’m sure you would have brought in more customers than she did.”
Dee choked on her coffee a little bit. “You do remember that control freak extraordinaire you met, right? I mean, she was family and all, but she was horrible. She couldn’t stand to allow someone else to do something, especially if she had it in her head she could do it better. And as far as Fiona was concerned, she could do everything better than everyone. To be fair, she was a decent baker—her pies were better than her burgers.” Her cheeks pinked a little. “But not as good as mine would have been, though I feel bad saying that with her dead.”
I patted Dee’s back. “I’m sorry. Well, now that she’s gone, maybe you can open up a bakery.” I shrugged. “Or just do it on the side as an extension of the restaurant like she was doing.”
“That’s a thought,” Dee said. “The café’s not equipped to run as a bakery. But, I’ve been thinking a lot about that brand-new magical kitchen you have in there. It’s a baker’s dream. I know you said you didn’t feel right having me working here for free.” She cast an anxious eye at me and held up her hands. “And not that I’d mind doing that at all, but I have an idea that may work for us both.”
“Go on,” I said. The bottom line was that I was in desperate need of help, but there was no way I was going to let her work for free. It wasn’t right. But if she had another option, then I was all ears.
She gave me a giddy smile. “I definitely want to put my pastry skills to use. The problem is the kitchen at the café isn’t suited to baking. The oven’s old, small, and off-level, and there’s not much counter space. So, I thought maybe I could help you get this place up and livable in exchange for using the kitchen.”
I liked it. I needed her help, and she needed a kitchen—that was a deal just waiting to be struck. “Deal,” I said, sticking my hand out.
“Deal!” Dee agreed, giving my hand a firm shake. She paused, then gave me a tentative smile. “Or if you ever decide to open this place again, maybe I can be the baker here. Fresh bread, sweet rolls, pies, cakes, you name it.”
After we’d gone through the place the night before, I’d thought about what I was going to do with it once it was restored. In theory, the idea of rambling around a big old house, letting my inner muse roam, was grand. In reality, not so much. I had plenty of time to consider my options, but I was leaning more toward taking in roommates or even turning it into a B&B. There were lots of great skiing and hunting opportunities, and I could even market it as an artist’s retreat. Then I’d have some extra income, and some company, too.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, but I barely knew her, and I tended to be an introvert. Inviting her to stay with me was so far away from my standard modus operandi that my head was spinning a little. I didn’t regret my decision, but I didn’t want to make any long-term promises until I knew her a little better. I didn’t want to get her hopes up just in case I decided to keep the house private, either.
Instead, I chose a middle-of-the-road answer. “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
Dee nodded. “I understand. It’s a lot to think about.”
“It is. And I think well when I’m doing busywork. Let’s get this god-awful paper down and maybe decide what would look best in its place.”
“That sounds great. I talked to Gabe, and he’s not ready to release the café yet. I don’t know why, but he did say he’s having somebody go in and clean it for me before he lets me back in.”
I was glad for that. I’d considered volunteering to do it so she wouldn’t have to, but I just didn’t have it in me to clean up a murder scene.
I went to the utility room and got another ladder. “Have you talked to Katie and Jeremy?”
“I did,” she said, peeling off another strip of paper and dropping it to the floor. “We’re going to meet up and talk about schedules and menus. Katie’s having some personal issues and really needs the income, so I need to go through the books and see what I actually have to work with. Jeremy has a business degree, so he’s interested in helping me out with that end of things.”
“Sounds like you have some work to do, then,” I said.
“Yeah, I do.” She stopped to rub her nose with the back of her hand, then adjusted the bandana covering her hair. “I think I’m going to ask Jeremy to help me create a new menu. What we have now is all over the place. I think she was wasting a ton of money on inventory that was going bad.”
“And the liver and onions has to go,” I added.
“Believe me—that’s first on the list.”
With two of us working, it didn’t take long to get the wallpaper down. I was surprised to find pine paneling underneath it and not the cheap, pressed stuff, either. It wasn’t exactly modern, but most of the decayed wallpaper glue had come off with the paper. I was hoping with a little elbow grease, we could sand it down and stain it rather than spend a fortune covering it back up.
After a few hours, my back was killing me, and the last thing I wanted to do was show up sore and stiff for my first shift at the bar. “Well, I’m going to head back to the cabin and try to get some work done on my manuscript before I have to go to work.”
Dee grabbed a handful of wallpaper off the floor and stuffed it in the big rubber can we’d hauled in from outside. “I’m stopping for a while, too. I’d like to get some of my stuff from the apartment if Gabe will let me in.”
“What’s the deal with him?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
I was surprised when her cheeks pinked. “You like him!” I exclaimed.
“Of course I like him,” she mumbled. “He’s a nice guy and a decent sheriff, at least when he’s not accusing me of murder.”
“No, I mean you like him like him.” I said.
She lifted a shoulder, trying for nonchalance but only half succeeding. “He’s okay. Not bad looking, and he’s single. That already puts him a few rungs above most of the other guys in this town.”
“How is it he’s single?” I asked.
“He hasn’t always been,” she replied. “As a matter of fact, he wasn’t until recently. He married a girl he met in college, but she couldn’t stand it here. Small-town living wasn’t her thing, and she left him to move back to the city.”
I waggled my brows at her. “Then that leaves him wide open, then.”
She sighed. “Maybe. But being the rebound is never good, and his divorce was only finali
zed last month.”
That was a valid point.
“So what are you thinking?” she asked, changing the subject. “The kitchen next? Then we can at least pack a few groceries in so we don’t have to go to the cabin every time we get hungry or want something to drink.”
I let the sheriff thing slide, at least for now. I didn’t want to push her in a direction that would lead to heartache. “Sounds good to me. We’ll tackle that first thing in the morning. And Dee?”
She slid a sideways glance at me. “Yeah?”
“Thanks. I know we’re kinda helping each other out, but I appreciate the extra hand. And the friendly face. You’re making settling in here a ton easier.”
Dee smiled. “Back ’atcha. I’m not sure what I would have done if you hadn’t offered to let me stay here. The thought of staying in the apartment ...” she shuddered.
I smiled. A new town, a new friend, and a new life. Except for when they delivered my furniture, I hadn’t thought about Steve hardly at all, and when I had, it was as if it was in another lifetime, which, I suppose, it was. I shut the lights off behind me, happy I’d made the move.
Chapter 15
THE FIRST COUPLE OF hours at my new job went well, but it was a little slow. That was probably a good thing, though, because it gave me a chance to learn my way around. I’d gotten there at a quarter to five, and Don had given me a quick tour of the place. There wasn’t much to see—the front area, the stock room, the walk-in fridge where the kegs were, the kitchen, and the bathrooms.
Don hadn’t mentioned it when he hired me, but then again, we hadn’t talked about much of anything. It turned out I was responsible for cooking as well as bartending. I couldn’t imagine it would be too tough though, considering the bar was small and the menu was all deep-fried foods except for the burgers.
