Chapter 19
NINETEEN
RHETT
This was a win-win situation. Or at least that was what I’d told myself on the drive over.
I could’ve bought Piper out, straight up, flipped the house myself, and kept all the profits.
But I knew the optics of that, and they weren’t good.
I didn’t want to give anyone in this town reason to start chipping away at my hard-won reputation.
So, I’d figured we’d fix it up together.
She’d have access to my know-how and resources and get a share of a much bigger profit, and I’d get some good PR out of it.
It was basically a charitable donation. I was lending a helping hand to a single mom without giving her outright charity, which her hefty pride wouldn’t allow.
But now that I was here, following Piper around the house like some sort of lost puppy—or lost kitten, as it were—it began to dawn on me that I hadn’t really thought this through.
“We’ll lean into the existing architectural features. The views out of every single window are like a picture, especially with these thick architraves,” she said, framing a tiny window in the third bedroom with her hands. All I could see was the reflection of her smile in the dark pane.
“You must take different pictures than I do,” I said, bending down so I could look out at the darkness beyond.
Piper shot me a sideways glance, clearly unimpressed, then paced the room in both directions.
“A double bed will fit here. We could do built-ins along the angled ceiling.” She considered the roofline, running her hand along the ceiling as it dove down toward the floor.
“I bet the light in here is fabulous as well. We’ll have to do viewings before noon.
Fresh flowers, pops of color.” She grinned to herself. “This place will look great.”
She smiled at the bare walls, but I couldn’t quite see her vision.
The wall next to me, which was shared with the tiny main bathroom where we’d stood nearly chest-to-chest earlier today, was showing signs of water damage.
All that fresh paint that the owners had slapped on the walls before putting the house up for donation was beginning to bubble, and the wooden baseboards looked like I could put my finger right through them. I kneeled for a closer look.
“I’m thinking we target young families, so that—what are you doing?”
Piper’s screech made me turn around, glancing over my shoulder while my fist remained rammed through the drywall. I turned back to my work, ripping a piece of drywall off, glancing at the back of it, and tossing it aside. Just as I’d suspected.
“Water damage,” I said, pointing to the stud I’d just exposed. “The waterproofing in the bathroom has failed.”
“You can’t just go around punching holes in walls!”
“The whole wall needs to be replaced, Piper,” I said, trying and failing to find my patience. I ripped another piece off and turned it around so she could see the evidence of water ingress painting odd shapes on the back of the drywall.
Her lips turned down. She moved close enough that I could get a hint of her perfume as she bent over for a closer look. “Warn me next time” was all she said, voice clipped.
I tossed the drywall onto the bare floorboards and shrugged. “Fine. But it’s better we know what we’re dealing with before we go making plans about pops of color and paint swatches.”
When I looked up, Piper’s jaw was tight.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Don’t do that. What’s wrong?” There was nothing that sent my blood pressure skyrocketing more than a woman not telling me what the hell I’d done to upset her.
Sarah used to pull that all the time. I’d walk on eggshells for days, only to discover I’d hurt her feelings when I hadn’t let her have any of my fries at the restaurant at dinner days before.
She’d hold little things over my head and make me feel like I needed to prove myself to her over and over and over again.
I had no patience for it. If someone was upset, I expected them to have the guts to tell me about it.
As if she could read my mind, Piper took a deep breath, then said, “If we’re going to work together on this, you’re going to have to stop talking down to me. You might be my boss at the office, but in here, we’re partners.” She pointed at the floor, her eyes never leaving mine.
And that was a little rich, wasn’t it? She was just like Sarah, twisting a situation to put me in the worst possible light. “I haven’t talked down to you once!”
“You’re condescending. You don’t think my ideas matter.”
Where the hell did she get that? “I’m just saying we need to fix the structural, plumbing, and electrical issues before we talk about cushions, Piper.”
“See that? That right there? That’s condescending! My cushions are going to sell this place. Nobody’s going to walk in and fall in love with the waterproofing they can’t see.”
“You still can’t pretend it doesn’t have to be done.”
“I never said that!”
“You’re talking about decorating like we don’t have a million things to do first.”
“I’m talking about my ideas, Rhett!” Her breath gusted out, and I realized we’d moved closer.
Her chest brushed mine with every deep inhalation she took into her lungs.
Her cheeks were red, and sparks flew from the fury in her eyes.
“I need you to listen to me and treat me like my ideas are worth the time it takes to hear them. I need you to respect me.”
Her voice trembled on the last word, and it sent a knife right through my gut. Shame stabbed me, shame for hurting her, for making her feel like she had to fight me like this. Then I got mad, because what the hell had I done to make her feel this way? I was doing her a favor!
Through clenched teeth, I said, “I wouldn’t have proposed this stupid idea if I didn’t respect you, Piper. I’ve seen the work you’ve pulled off in a few weeks at the office. I know what you’re capable of.”
“You’re real good at saying nice things in the worst possible way, Rhett.”
“I just can’t do anything right, can I?”
Piper let out a long, frustrated growl, then marched past me out of the bedroom. Her scent lingered for a second, and I couldn’t help spinning around to watch her walk away.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going home, Rhett.”
“That’s it? Walkthrough over?”
“Walkthrough over,” she confirmed, not looking at me.
Her head disappeared as she went down the stairs, and I stomped around the banister to follow her. “Is this how you usually resolve your issues?” I called out, sounding callous and cold even to my own ears. “You just turn your back and run away?”
I knew I was being an ass. I knew I was needling her, trying to get a reaction. The truth was, I didn’t know how else to act.
I’d proposed this plan of action because I’d felt bad for making her feel bad.
I wanted to do something nice for her because damn it, she was new here and she’d done good work and she had two kids, and one of them had a broken arm and I wasn’t a complete monster.
The mask I wore to hide myself from almost everyone wasn’t a total lie.
I didn’t want her to suffer, for God’s sake.
Would it kill her to show a little gratitude? I could’ve easily dragged her through the courts and taken this house from her. I could’ve bought her out for a fraction of what we might make if we flipped this place. I could’ve fired her.
I did none of those things. I tried to be generous, and this was how she repaid me?
It made me feel unappreciated, unseen, and foolish. I’d gone out on a limb, and all she could do was stomp away from me the minute things got a little testy.
It made me want to fight back, just so she’d turn around and give me something. I couldn’t take the cold shoulder.
My mother had ignored me until I lashed out, and then she’d taken all her hurt and aggression out on me. My ex had known how to push my buttons so she could get a reaction and then play the victim. It seemed like Piper was just like them.
And it seemed like I was destined to keep making the same mistakes.
“This isn’t going to work,” I called out.
“Forget it. How about I just buy you out and we can be done with it?” Bitterness dripped from every word.
She could finish the lodge design, then I’d offer her a generous severance package and we could go our separate ways.
I wasn’t going to twist myself into knots to make a woman happy.
I knew from experience it was an impossible task.
Piper had reached the front door by the time my words echoed in the foyer.
She paused with her fingers on the handle, the jacket she’d slung over the banister hooked over her arm, and I watched her shoulders rise and fall with a slow inhale.
Then she turned, and the anger was still simmering in her eyes, but her face was calm.
“I need a minute, Rhett,” she said quietly.
“A lot has happened in only a few days, and I just need some time. My son has a broken arm, I’m trying to find us a place to live, and now we’re talking about taking on a huge project.
I’m not sure I have the bandwidth, especially considering being around you seems to drive me completely fucking insane. ”
I opened my mouth, but Piper held up her hand.
“I’m sorry,” she added. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
It was a shock to be spoken to like that in a moment when I was ready to take off the gloves and fight until we were both bloody and broken.
I didn’t know what to say. Piper stood there, framed by the door behind her, looking small but strong and overwhelmingly beautiful.
Her hair was pulled back, revealing her cheekbones and angled jaw.
Her eyes burned with inner light, and her strength made her seem completely immovable.
I didn’t know how to react.
She held my gaze. “Will you give me the rest of the week to think about this? I’ll organize a babysitter for Saturday. We could meet here, talk about the way we see this working. Come up with a plan when we’re both levelheaded.”
The shame I’d tried to bury with indignation came back up with a vengeance. It tasted sour at the back of my throat, burning as I swallowed it back down. I’d wanted a fight, and Piper was showing me what it meant to be better than that.
“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, of course.”
“Thank you,” she replied, and it sounded like she meant it. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
The door opened and closed, and I was alone. I sat down heavily on the stairs and dropped my head in my hands. That hadn’t gone the way I wanted, and I knew it was my fault.