by Eliana West
Mae studied her for a minute. “You don’t sound too happy about that.”
“It’s easier not to like someone when you don’t know them very well,” Jo admitted.
Mae opened her door and stepped aside. “Come on, I’ve got wine and leftovers.”
After a dinner of some of the best tamales she’d ever tasted, Jo groaned and rubbed her stomach. “I shouldn’t have sat down. I’m so sore I can barely move.”
When they finished cleaning up they took their glasses of wine and sprawled out on Mae’s sofa to share the successes and struggles from their day.
“It’s nice to have another woman living in the building. I’m going to miss you when you move out. I’ll go back to being the only girl in the boys’ club.”
“They don’t seem that bad. Reid is really nice. I’ve only met Isiah once but…well he sure makes that sheriff’s uniform look good.” Jo batted her eyelashes.
Mae threw a pillow at her.
They heard the door open and close to Jacob’s apartment across the hall and Jo looked at Mae with a raised eyebrow.
Mae rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Okay fine. How are things going at work?”
“Some days I think I’m making progress and then I run into another obstacle. The good news is that we got the funding so that Nate can hire another firefighter.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“We’re about a hundred years behind in terms of technology—our computers are antiques.”
Jo perked up. “I can help with that.”
“I have to admit, I wanted to ask but you have a lot going on and I didn’t want to burden you.”
“It’s not a burden. Colton is my home now and I want to do my part to help.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have very much money to pay—”
Jo held up her hand. “I’m volunteering my time. Invest the money into updating your equipment.”
Mae grinned at her. “Have I told you lately how happy I am that you decided to move here?”
A smile tugged at Jo’s lips. “Not nearly as happy as I am.”
*
Before Jo finished sliding onto the stool the next morning, Tillie was setting a cup of chamomile tea on the counter in front of her.
“How did it go yesterday, honey?” she asked.
Jo took a deep breath, drawing in the floral aroma. “Thank you, Tillie, this is just what I needed.” She took a sip and sighed. “It was okay. It could have been worse I guess.”
Tillie patted her arm. “Let me get you something to eat.”
“I’d love a biscuit with honey and butter.”
“Coming right up.”
Tillie returned just a few minutes later with a couple of biscuits on a plate. She rested her elbows on the counter. “You want to tell me about the good part first or the bad?”
Jo took a bite and thought about her answer.
“There wasn’t anything bad really; it was just…awkward.”
Jo went on to tell Tillie about the conversation she and Taylor had over lunch.
“I’m sorry if this makes you uncomfortable.” She grimaced.
“What, talkin’ about race? Sometimes it’s supposed to be uncomfortable. Seems to me we don’t talk about it enough.” Tillie snorted. “Maybe if we talked about it more we would be better off.”
“Thank you, Tillie.”
Tillie handed her a bag. “Here’s something for y’all to have for lunch. Tell Mr. Hollywood big shot he has to share the pie.”
Jo laughed and then gave Tillie a quick kiss on the cheek and headed out the door.
Chapter Six
After that first day they had more challenges than successes. Sam ended up rewiring most of the house. They discovered the main plumbing line needed to be replaced. Jo didn’t hesitate to jump in and they spent days digging trenches for new pipes.
If Taylor expected Jo to be intimidated by the work he was quickly proven wrong. Each day that passed he become more and more impressed with her. Two weeks later they were ready to move in. There was no reason to be nervous—he had been spending every day with Jo for the last two weeks but today was different…permanent.
He’d started moving a few of his things in over the last few days so all he had left to move in were his clothes. Jo pulled up and Taylor came out and met her at the back of her car.
“Here, I can grab one of those.” He gestured to one of her suitcases.
“Thanks. This is all I have.”
Taylor wrinkled his forehead. “What about your furniture?”
“I’ve got a bed being delivered today.”
Taylor followed her inside to her room. The house still smelled of fresh paint from the soft white color they’d agreed on for the hallway and bathroom, which allowed the beauty of the mahogany woodwork to shine.
Taylor set her suitcase next to the small stack of boxes in the corner of the empty room. The floors were swept clean but still needed to be refinished.
“It’s looking pretty good in here. You did a good job prepping the walls.”
“Thank you for taking the time to show me how to do it.”
“Have you decided on a color yet?”
“I’m thinking about something blue, maybe a teal color. It’s probably not historically accurate.”
“This is your room—do whatever will make you happy. I can help if you’d like.”
“I’d appreciate that. Callie, Mae and Emma mentioned something about a painting party so we might turn it into a girls’ night.”
“You’ve made friends quickly.”
The twinge of jealousy he felt took him by surprise. He’d thought he’d be able to spend more time with Dax and getting to know Jacob better, but when he wasn’t working on getting the house ready to move in he was working on the logistics of getting ready to start filming his show.
There was a loud knock on the door and someone called out, “Hello.”
Jo’s lips quirked. People knocking and then walking in was a part of small-town life she was still getting used to. They walked out and found Callie Ellis hovering in the front hall.
“I brought you a housewarming present.” She held up a silvery-green plant in a pretty floral pot. She handed the pot to Jo and reached into the tote bag over her shoulder, pulling out a brown label-less bottle. “Taylor, this is from Reid and Dax.”
“Is this what I think it is?”
Callie nodded. “Mr. Wallace’s private reserve from the Buckthorn.”
Taylor gave a low whistle looking down at the bottle in his hand.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Callie offered.
Jo shook her head. “I think we’re okay for now. Would you like a tour?”
“I’d love to see the house and what you’ve done so far.”
Taylor’s phone rang. “I have to take this. Thank you for the housewarming gift, Callie.”
Taylor found Jo in the small parlor after his call. She was crouched down in front of the fireplace studying the intricate carving.
“It’s amazing isn’t it?” Taylor said, kneeling down next to her.
Jo reached out to gently caress one of the birds carved into the mantel. “It’s extraordinary. Every time I look at it I see something new.”
He pointed to one of the birds. “Have you noticed how they are all pointing in the exact same direction?”
Jo leaned back and cocked her head. Her breath caught and she looked at him with wide eyes. “This is a map.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Look—the bottom of this side is Halcyon,” she said pointing to where a large oak tree had been carved. Barely distinguishable behind the leaves on the tree was one of the columns from the front porch of the house.
“The bird is flying over a different landscape—the field and flowers change. Look at the stars in the sky at the top. They’re scattered. They wanted whoever was looking to think it was just random stars in the sky,
but it’s here.” She reached up and traced the outline of the Big Dipper. “The last bird…” Her voice caught. “The last bird had made it to freedom.”
The bird at the opposite end was flying to a nest in what looked like a Christmas tree. Taylor’s jaw dropped. He reached out and placed his hand on the carving.
“The bird is a halcyon. I’ve looked at this a thousand times and I’ve never seen it,” Taylor murmured.
“Sometimes we don’t see things until we want to. If a White person looked at it they would have seen nothing more than beautiful flowers and trees. Someone had to know what they were looking for to see it.”
“What other secrets has this house been hiding?” he asked.
Jo looked at him and he could see the exact same thought he was having reflected in her eyes. They both jumped to their feet and spent the next few hours looking through every inch of the house. But there were no other hidden maps or messages that revealed themselves.
“I still can’t believe it,” Taylor said, when they were standing in front of the fireplace again.
He had brought a sketch pad back with him and was sitting on the floor sketching the mantel, while Jo took pictures. When she finished she stood behind him watching as he sketched, mesmerized by how his hand moved the pencil across the paper.
“You’re really good.”
Taylor hesitated before he continued to fill in the detail of one of the bird’s wings. “My parents weren’t very impressed with the A’s I got in art class compared to the C’s and D’s I always got in science.”
“They must be proud of you now.”
Taylor put the sketch pad down and stretched. “Not so much—my parents think I’m wasting my time with old houses. They’re still disappointed that I didn’t follow in their footsteps to become a doctor like my brother.”
“I think it would be wonderful if you did some drawings of the house that we could frame and have on display.”
Her compliment brought a reluctant smile to his face. He rarely shared his drawings with anyone.
“I doubt I’ll have time but I’ll see what I can come up with. I’ve got some drawings for the kitchen since that’s the room we’ll be working on first. Do you want to take a look?”
They left the small parlor and went into the kitchen where Taylor spread out a set of drawings on the table.
“I made these before…”
“Before I came into the picture,” Jo offered.
“I’ve had years to think about what I would do in this room, but nothing is set in stone.”
Jo looked over what he had designed. “These are good.”
“Do you have any ideas for what kind of cabinets and fishes you would want to use?” he asked.
“Would brick floors work, maybe in a herringbone pattern? With simple white cabinets, and more of the Georgia blue granite for the countertops. I imagine there would have been a cast-iron stove here when the house was built. Maybe we could use black appliances as sort of a reminder of what was here before.”
Taylor stared at her. “You described the room almost exactly the way it used to be before it was remodeled.”
Spots of pink appeared on her cheeks. “It just seemed like that’s what it would have looked like.”
Taylor kept watching Jo out of the corner of his eye while they worked together making lunch. It was easy working alongside Jo. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what was so different about her.
Jo sighed, slathering mustard on a piece of bread. “I guess I should get used to sandwiches for a while.”
“We could get a Crock-Pot,” Taylor offered. “We’ll have catering on days when the crew is here and that will help.”
“How many crew members will be here?”
“On a normal shoot we could have as many as thirty, but now that you’re here I thought that it might be better to work with a smaller crew to begin with so there’ll only be eight working for now.”
Jo focused on making her sandwich. “Thank you, I appreciate that.”
It surprised him how nervous she was about the show. They had a huge backlog of people who wanted to be on History Reborn.
“There’s nothing to worry about. They’re a great group of people and I’m looking forward to you meeting Tessa.”
“She’s your producer, right?”
“Producer and closest friend.”
They sat down at the table and studied Taylor’s plans while they ate.
“I have to admit when we first started working together I was worried you would want to come in and make everything modern and strip away the old character.”
Jo put her sandwich down. “You don’t know me very well, do you?”
“I’m getting to know you now. I’ll tell you what, how about if I promise not to make assumptions about you if you do the same for me?”
Jo gave him a weary look. “It will make our time together easier if we can be friends,” she admitted.
“As your friend there’s something I need to tell you,” Taylor said with a serious expression.
“What?”
Taylor’s lips quirked. “You have mustard in your hair.”
Jo looked down at her ponytail sitting over her shoulder and rolled her eyes with a groan when she saw the bright yellow at the tip.
*
Taylor had to deal with another round of emails and phone calls after lunch. When he finished he joined Jo at the kitchen table where she was working on her laptop.
“Anything I can help with?” he asked when Jo sighed.
“I’m just finishing up the program I created to track the remodel and soon I’ll have all of the code written. I’m sure I’ll have some questions when I start entering in the data. I had no idea my list of projects for the house was going to spiral out of control this fast.”
“A lot of people start restoration projects thinking they know what they’re doing and end up selling a house half-finished because they can’t handle it.”
Jo snapped her laptop closed and glared at him. “I’m not selling.”
“So you’ve said, but there’s no shame in changing your mind.”
“What about you? Maybe you’ll change your mind.”
Taylor wrinkled his forehead. “You don’t have to get defensive if you’re feeling in over your head. Even with my experience, I’m intimidated by the scope of this project.”
“Don’t.” Jo poked him in the chest. “Stop acting like you know better than me. If I don’t know something I can figure it out. I’m the one who found Sam and made the arrangements for him to work on the electrical not you.”
“It’s not that I know better; it’s just that I know more—”
“How dare you,” she snapped at him. “I can’t believe that I’m going to be stuck in this house with a man who thinks he knows better just because he has more testosterone.”
“That’s not fair!”
They were so focused on each other, neither one of them heard the knocking at the front door.
“Hey, you two are gonna wear each other out. Try to pace yourselves,” Tillie announced, standing in the doorway and holding a basket. “Y’all are so busy bickering you didn’t even notice you have company. Good Lord it’s even worse than I remembered,” she said looking around the room. “It’s a good thing I brought y’all something to eat for dinner.”
“Thank you, Tillie, that’s really nice of you,” Taylor said.
Tillie came over and gave Jo a pat on the shoulder. “How’s it going, honey?” she asked.
Jo took a breath and shot Taylor an angry glare. “I’m fine.”
Tillie started unpacking the basket. “I made a chicken and rice casserole with some greens and there’s cherry hand pies for dessert.”
“Would you like to join us?” Jo asked.
“Sorry, honey, I can’t run interference for you. You’re gonna have to figure this out on your own. I’ll see you at the café or better yet let’s have a girls’ day and get manicures.”
She turned to Taylor and took his arm. “Come on, handsome, walk me out to my car.”
The minute they stepped outside, Tillie smacked him on the back of the head. “What in the world do you think you’re doing? You haven’t spent one night under the same roof and you’re already fighting.”
“It’s not all my fault you know, it takes two people to have an argument.”
“Men.” Tillie rolled her eyes. “Y’all spend half the time not knowing what you’re talking about and the other half trying to figure out what you said wrong.” When they reached her car Taylor opened the door for her. She paused before getting in. “You gotta stop acting like you have the advantage here because I guarantee you a woman like that will bring you to your knees.” She reached up and patted his cheek. “I always liked you—you’re a good boy. Now remember your manners and go back in there and make nice.”
Taylor felt the heat rise in his cheeks. “Yes, ma’am.”
Jo was putting the food away when he returned.
“I’m sorry, I overreacted,” she said quietly.
“I get a little defensive when it comes to Halcyon. The house is what’s most important here. I just want to save it before it’s lost forever.”
“I want the same thing.”
“We just need to remember that.” He gave her a small smile. “I need to remember that.”
Jo would take good care of Halcyon. A part of him knew that. He’d seen how much care she’d put into the work they had done so far. It was both reassuring and unsettling how quickly she’d connected with the house. Then there was the fact that he never thought he’d find a woman who loved this house the way he did. And that was attractive as hell.
“Hey.” Taylor grinned at her. “Want to see how many layers of wallpaper are in the big parlor?”
Jo stared at him for a minute before she shook her head laughing. “Sure, why not.”
*
Seven. There were seven layers of wallpaper, each more hideous than the last. It took the rest of the afternoon to peel back the layers. They were laughing so hard by the time they reached the final layer on the first wall Taylor was wiping tears from his eyes. It felt good to laugh like that. When he stopped to think about it, he couldn’t remember the last time he had.
