Chapter 1 #2
Paige was a workaholic, primarily because she loved her job.
It never felt like work, so she tended to spend a lot of hours holed up in her office, either the one at Sparks or the one at home.
She didn’t go on a lot of dates, simply because she wasn’t around people enough for anyone to ask her out.
Plus, while she’d been out of high school for well over a decade, most guys around here viewed her as the same high-strung, nerdy Paige she’d been as a teen, which, to be fair, wasn’t too far from who she still was.
She was a creature of comfort, and for her, that meant schedules and predictable routines and lots and lots of big, fat, juicy to-do lists. God, she loved a to-do list.
And while her social life and list of available suitors basically sucked, she wasn’t desperate enough to find someone to try online dating. Jesus, just the thought of signing up for that kind of chaotic, “toss the dart and hope to pop a balloon” style of dating blew her controlled, methodical mind.
Paige preferred dating the old-school way.
Meet someone, strike up a conversation, feel an attraction, go out for coffee then—if that goes well—advance to dinner.
Putting her photo and pointless information about herself on a website, then letting a bunch of randoms spam her inbox was just all kinds of wrong.
Since she wasn’t sure where she wanted to land on the relationship front, she had decided to take the bull by the horns on another aspect of her personal life instead. She was sick of wasting money on rent, so she bought herself a house.
“How long did that house sit empty?” Tyson asked.
Paige grimaced. “Five years. Ms. Bly never married, so everything she had was left to a great-nephew, who’s apparently independently wealthy. I guess Ms. Bly’s house wasn’t worth enough in his mind that he needed to sell it right away.”
“Must be nice,” Tyson murmured.
“Right? Rent it or Airbnb or something, but he just paid the property taxes and let it sit empty. Anyway, the neighbors got tired of mowing the grass and complained to the town.”
Tyson chuckled. “Only in Maris would neighbors mow the yard of an abandoned house for five years before thinking to complain.”
Paige giggled. “In their defense, they’d taken turns mowing it for Ms. Bly for a good twenty years before her death. The woman was ninety-four when she died, for Pete’s sake. Anyway, the town reached out to the great-nephew, which forced him to get off his ass and deal with the house.”
“When do I get a tour?” Tyson asked. “Tomorrow? How about tomorrow?”
Paige sighed because she’d been expecting and dreading that request. “It needs a lot of work, Ty.” She’d done the walk-through with the real estate agent on her own, and so far, no one in her family had seen the monstrosity she’d bought.
Tyson shrugged. “I assumed so. Ms. Bly lived in the thing for over sixty years. Is it the blast from the past I’m anticipating?”
“Maybe even worse. It’s the house time forgot. It’s a seventies nightmare, with avocado and brown appliances in the kitchen, shag carpeting and aggressively floral wallpaper in every room, not to mention the wood paneling. So much wood paneling,” she said with a shudder.
“Jesus. I can’t wait to see it.” Tyson rubbed his hands together with too much glee at her expense.
She narrowed her eyes. “If I promise to take before and after pics, can I convince you to wait until I’ve tackled at least part of the remodel?”
Tyson shook his head. “Hell no. I’m already planning a photo shoot for me, Harley, and Cal in seventies attire, sitting on that shag carpeting for our Christmas card this year. Harley’s getting maternity bell bottoms and Cal and I are thinking of growing pornstaches. You gotta let us in.”
“You idiot,” Paige laughed, picking up a pretzel from her paper plate and chucked it at her brother’s head. “That’s my house you’re talking about.”
Tyson deftly dodged the flying pretzel. “Besides, you can’t keep us out. We’re helping you move in, remember?”
He had a point there. “Oh. Yeah.”
“You still determined to do the lion’s share of the renovation work yourself?”
Paige nodded. “I’d like to. I think it will be a fun project. I’ve been all work and no play for years. It’s time for me to start chiseling out some time for myself.”
Tyson smirked. “I think you and I should discuss the concept of play, because I don’t think you’re fully grasping it. Renovating a house falls in the work category. The hard work category.”
Paige brushed off her brother’s joke. “You, Cal, and Harley are doing something to that house of yours nearly every single weekend.”
“Because we need to. Not because we love painting or power-washing the deck or retiling the kitchen floor. Those things needed to be done,” Tyson pointed out.
“Just like those things need to be done in my house. Besides, I recall you all had a lot of fun decorating the nursery.”
Tyson grinned. “That’s different.”
“I love home improvement projects. I did a ton of work in my last apartment that the landlord loved.”
Tyson barked out a laugh at her use of the term “landlord,” since she’d been renting her last place from Caleb. Regardless, he didn’t deny the truth of her statement. “Cal says it’s nice enough now that he can charge more rent for it. Still planning move-in day for next weekend?”
“Yeah.” Because Caleb was basically her brother-in-law, he let her out of the lease early and even offered his truck and strong back to help her move her furniture.
Paige planned to move a bunch of stuff throughout the week on her own—like the fragile items, her artwork, and clothing.
Simply because she was too excited to wait a whole week.
Then she had no less than ten relatives lined up to do the big “official” move next Saturday, which was when she would be subjected to the “OMG, WTF” expressions.
Because the house really was…wow…so gross.
“You sure you don’t want to tackle some the renovations before you move in? Cal hasn’t rented your place yet. If it’s as bad as you say…”
Paige shook her head. “The house is at least three times the size of my apartment, so it’s not like it’s going to be overflowing with furniture. And while it’s eye-assaulting ugly right now, it’s perfectly livable.”
Tyson grinned smugly. “Knowing you the way I do, I assume you’ve already got a schedule of what’s happening when, how long it will take to do each task, and how much it will cost.”
“Color-coded and printed out, hole punched, and stored in a brand-new three-ring binder,” she said, unoffended by his teasing. She was used to everyone poking fun at what they considered her overplanning ways.
“That’s my girl. Just don’t bite off more than you can chew,” Tyson said, ruffling her hair affectionately as she tried to push his hand away.
As far as big brothers went, Paige had hit the jackpot with Tyson.
Actually, she’d hit the jackpot with the whole family.
Her cousins weren’t just relatives, they were her best friends.
Paige referred to Gia and Jeannette as her sister-cousins, as they’d moved in with her family after their parents’ untimely deaths in a car accident.
Paige was also very close to her mom, the two of them talking on the phone practically every single day.
While she loved her dad, and she knew he loved her, Paige had spent too much of her childhood living in fear of disappointing him.
Dad had very strong opinions about her “wasting her hard-earned money” on a house that needed a hell of a lot of work, so she’d taken to avoiding him lately, just because she couldn’t listen to another of his lectures on making smart financial decisions.
“You don’t have to worry about me overdoing it in the house because you failed to list one of the most important column headings on my renovations chart. It also includes the three days each week I’ve scheduled Bobby Duncan to come help with the work.”
While Paige enjoyed painting and decorating, she knew she would need help with some of the projects she planned to undertake—namely, tearing up the shag carpeting, ripping out the wood paneling, and hanging new drywall in the dining room.
There’d been a slow leak from the upstairs bathroom at some point, which had only been discovered when it leaked through the ceiling and down the wall of what was going to be Paige’s home office.
Ms. Bly hadn’t bothered to have the drywall replaced.
Bobby, a local handyman, was going to be her muscle, and he had no problem doing a lot of those tasks with her.
Paige figured if she’d gotten married and bought this house, it would be her husband working with her.
Since she was sans hubby, she had to hire her muscle.
For bigger issues, she’d simply hire a plumber or electrician as needed.
“There are some jobs that take more physical strength than I have or require two people,” she went on to explain.
“You could hire Beck Reed,” Tyson suggested. “Sounds like his construction business is starting to take off.”
“Nope,” Paige said. Beck Reed had moved to Maris three years earlier, and while he was making a name for himself as a local contractor, she had zero interest in working with the man.
“How about Mr. Ryan?” Tyson said.
Paige shook her head. “Rumor has it he’s retiring. Besides, Mr. Ryan and Beck are both general contractors, not handymen. They would bring in their own crews to do all the work, which isn’t what I’m looking for. I want to be hands-on every step of the way.”
“I say this with all the love in my heart, Paige, but you’re kind of a control freak.”
“Only kind of? Ty, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Tyson laughed, until they were interrupted by a deep voice.
“I’m glad you didn’t do one of these ridiculous things, Tyson.”
Paige and Tyson looked up as their father stopped next to them, paper plate full of food in hand.
“Caleb isn’t fond of gender reveal parties either,” Tyson said.