3. Chapter 3
Chapter three
Quinn
The meeting room at the Hillyard Hotel certainly served its purpose, however boring it may have been. Not exactly Quinn’s style—too beige, and furniture very much out of the bargain bin—but he didn’t have to pay for it. Hell, he didn’t have to pay for any of this. Homescapes TV was footing the entire bill. For this meeting, for the house, and for the meeting space any time they needed to use it. He could have gotten a small payment if he agreed to meet in his current apartment, but his studio wasn’t exactly a good fit for him, a seven-person renovation crew, and everyone involved in production. Not if they also wanted to, like, breathe. The odd fifty bucks here and there wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway.
Quinn nodded to the twitchy young man currently across the ovular table from him. “So how far ahead did they send you?”
“Oh, just twenty minutes.” He glanced down at his phone and nodded, pasting on a fake smile. “I’m sure they’re almost here.”
“I’m not mad, if that’s what you’re thinking. You guys are doing me a big service. I just feel bad that you’re stuck with the shitty job, babysitting me in a hotel meeting room.”
“Oh, no. I’m not worried about that.”
Before he could say anything else, a figure appeared in the doorway and Quinn stared. Even as he did it, he knew it was rude, and certainly not subtle, but his eyes wouldn’t unglue from the man walking in. A wave of blond hair swept back from his head, showing off plenty of tanned skin, and a strong jaw, bearing the slightest hint of stubble. His navy T-shirt hugged tight across his chest and shoulders, and as he shifted his grip on the bag hanging off one shoulder, the hem of his shirt rose up. So of course Quinn looked at the peek of a treasure trail coming through, all downy and soft and inviting—
“You must be Quinn.” The guy extended his hand, scarred and pocked, the nails trimmed down to almost nothing. “I’m Jake Rasmussen. The others are right behind.”
“Hi.” Quinn swallowed and, after what felt like an eternity, took the outstretched hand. “Yeah. I’m Quinn. Benson. Quinn Benson. You’re…part of the crew?”
“Carpenter. Handling wood is my specialty.” He wiggled his eyebrows, then laughed at his own joke, full-mouthed and not ashamed at all. “Tell me to lay off the wood innuendos and I will. Otherwise, they’ll just keep coming.” He cringed, shaking his head. “Pun not intended that time.”
Make all the innuendos you want. Some of the shock had worn off, but even as more people piled into the room and took their seats around the table, Quinn found his gaze constantly flicking back to Jake. He settled a couple chairs away, immediately tipping onto the back two legs, and nearly fell over, then caught himself on the edge and flashed a smile to Quinn…then continued to tilt backward.
And for the life of him, Quinn couldn’t help but find that utterly charming.
After everyone had been introduced and they got the camera set up and recording, Mason spread his hands out over some papers, then looked at Quinn. “So, we have some of the story. You were raised by your grandparents, and after your grandmother passed away, your grandpa got into a bit of a shopping frenzy. Then he got sick too and he couldn’t take care of the house.”
Jumping right in. A few beats of silence passed as Quinn tried to put himself back together. He hadn’t expected to have it laid out like that. “Yeah. Yeah.” He flicked his thumbnails off each other, looking at the table instead of around the room. “Both of them were always sort of packrats. It got really bad after grandma died, though. He wouldn’t donate or sell any of her stuff, and he stopped going out nearly as much. Just ordered stuff online all the time. I tried to help him clean up a few times, and I helped after the fire, but it was…a lot.” He felt the familiar prickle behind his eyes and stiffened his back. He was looking up, but not making eye contact. “I didn’t know how bad it really was until after he died. He never wanted me to go upstairs after I moved out. Now I know why.”
Jake leaned around, and when Quinn caught even a hint of his deep blue eyes, his gaze was drawn straight to them in spite of himself. When Jake spoke, his voice was a soft rumble. “What was the story with the fire?”
Quinn blew out a long breath. “I don’t know exactly. He kept a lot of stuff stored out there. I think it was one of the cans of lighter fluid for the grill, but…it was just lucky I was coming over anyway when it happened. I called 911 and grabbed a fire extinguisher. Tried to move back in with him after that, but he got so mad I dropped it.” The prickle again. Quinn didn’t talk about his grandpa much. Didn’t have that many friends around Springfield, and his online friends…they tried to keep things lighter with each other. “I was looking into moving him to a hospice, but we ran out of time for that.”
Mason nodded. “And he left the house to you.”
“Right. Didn’t have anyone else in the family.” Quinn swallowed hard. “I haven’t gone over there since he passed. Seems like too much. So I applied once I saw that your show was looking for people. And I’m just hoping it can be livable again. Or if it needs tearing down, you can tell me as much.”
“I don’t think we’re looking at demolition.” Jake was still leaning over so he could hold eye contact. And he lowered his voice as well. “If you need a break to collect yourself, we all get it.”
Am I being that big of a crybaby? Quinn dragged in a harsh, grating breath. “I’m okay. So you don’t think it’s going to need to be torn down?”
Jake nodded, raising his voice again. “The home inspector cleared it, and just from what I’ve seen, there’s some parts that are going to take some real work, but nothing that pings off the old radar dish.” He rapped a couple times on the top of his head.
Quinn blew out a long breath. “Good. I was worried.”
Mason leaned a little bit forward, one hand on a sheet of paper, the other in the middle of the table. “So, correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like you want to move in there. That’s what we’ve been running with, but if you’re leaning more toward rental or sale—”
“I still want to move in.” Quinn hadn’t gone back there since they carried his grandpa out, but more painful than stepping back in there would be losing it forever. Not that I can say all that. “I’d be a fool to turn down a house that’s just handed to me.” He made himself smile, like it was a nice, charming joke.
It got some polite laughter, too, and Mason shifted his papers around, then glanced to Eliza. “Are we good to move on to the fun stuff?”
She nodded. “You’re running the show. I mean, I am technically, but I cede it to you. However you would normally do things, then if we need to make changes, we’ll confer. Not like it’s your first time doing this sort of thing.”
Quinn knew from the application and his further communications that this crew had a home renovation channel on VideoHead, but they hadn’t posted anything in a while. He’d scrubbed through a couple of their videos when he got the offer to actually be on the show, just to get a vibe check, and they seemed good enough. But if Homescapes is this willing to throw all the control at him, maybe I should watch back through. Might be good entertainment, at least.
Mason sighed. “All right, so let’s talk big picture: dream house, what does it have for you?”
Quinn swallowed hard and blinked. “That’s a pretty big question.”
Mason nodded. “It is. But it’s the process we’ve always worked with. Go crazy, then we bring it back to reality a little more. But this should be fun. As much levity as we can bring into a rough sort of situation.”
Quinn nodded, then glanced over to Jake. He was tilting back in his chair again, but locked eyes on Quinn and shrugged.
Then tipped and toppled, smacking his head on the floor and sending the chair skidding across the floor.
That laugh and smile wasn’t Quinn putting on a show, even as he got up to check on him. “You good?”
“I’ve had worse falls.” He took Quinn’s outstretched hand. When Jake pulled himself up, his weight almost dragged Quinn into a pile with him on the floor. But not quite. He nodded and brushed his butt off. “Thanks.”
“Maybe keep all four feet on the floor?” Aras shook his head. “Can we get back to the meeting?”
“Sorry.” Jake flashed another grin to Quinn, then gathered up his chair and sat back down. “I know it’s kind of a weird exercise, but when you get into it, talking dream house stuff is a lot of fun. And you might be surprised what we can actually pull together.”
Quinn caught himself smiling, then turned back to Mason. It was a big question, so he had to take a little time and effort to find the right angle from which to approach it. His words started out slow, figuring things as he went. “I work from home, so I’d want space from that. I don’t do a lot of entertaining, so I’m not convinced that I need a dining room or anything like that.”
Mason started scratching notes out on his paper and a few others were taking notes on phones or tablets or laptops. But they let Mason take the lead. “What do you do for work? So we can make sure you have the right kind of space.”
“I work for an economic consultation firm in Chicago. I don’t go in very often, but if they call for all hands, I have to head that way. Otherwise, it’s all me and my place.”
Jake whistled low. “I have no idea what that is, but it sounds like a lot of math.”
Again, Quinn couldn’t help smiling. Before he could reply, Ozzy sighed. “It’s in the title. He consults with business about economic data. Making sure numbers line up before court cases, auditing, that kind of thing.”
Quinn clenched his fist down below the table. “That’s the long and short of it. But I mostly work litigation. I make sure that, when there’s an economic crime or a personal injury lawsuit or whatever, my clients get the right numbers to do their jobs.”
Jake nodded, apparently unfazed by Ozzy’s sniping. “Sweet.”
Mason tapped his pen pointedly on the table, drawing the attention back his way. “It’s a three bedroom, so we could totally do an office. Do you want to have a guest room ready?”
Quinn shook his head. “I don’t get guests who need a separate room very often.” He glanced over to Jake and couldn’t miss the broad smile on his face, or the raise of his eyebrows at the implication. Quinn pushed through it quickly, mostly so his mind didn’t think too much about Jake in a bedroom with him. “I could use a better space for gaming, though.”
Mason nodded. “We’ll hook you up with Jake for that one.” He smiled at him, then at Jake. “You good with that?”
“Hell yeah. There’s not a ton of important, structural stuff for me to work on, outside of the deck. We can get you a good setup. Console or PC?”
“Both.”
“Nice. Can’t miss those exclusives, right?” Jake held his hand out, and Quinn tentatively returned the offered fist bump.
That boy is going to be a problem for me. He couldn’t let himself get involved with some traveling carpenter. He had a house. It was getting cleaned, repaired, refurbished. He had a good job, and he had to be on call. He didn’t need some guy he knew was going to leave him. Been through that already.
But he could appreciate the view for a bit, as long as he was careful.