Page 8 of Spark of Attraction

He tilted his hand back and forth. “It’s not something I have to report. It can stay up there with no problems. I’ve even had to tap off it when the building was too complex to replace it. When you get other electricians in here to give you a quote, they may give you a hard sell to remove it all. And you could. It’s totally up to how comfortable you are with it.” He explained the intricacies of disconnecting the panels and tracing it back to the fuse box. Though I couldn’t follow what he was talking about, I found myself soaking up his excitement. He stopped mid-sentence. “I’m losing you, aren’t I?”

“You’re as passionate about your job as I am about fixing up this place.”

He grinned, lighting up his whole expression even his eyes. “You get it. Not many people do. But yeah, I love taking old buildings and fixing them up so they’ll survive another hundred or more years.”

He packed up his case. “Let’s talk about this downstairs.”

I followed him back to the dining room, where he took a seat and made some notes on a notepad, tapped some more into a tablet. “Okay, so I’m not a home inspector. I’m going by what I’ve seen at other sites. You’ll need to bring in multiple people for getting this place into the shape you’re wanting.” He checked my list, scribbling numbers beside the tradesmen I’d need and confirmed most of what I’d already written, adding a few details I hadn’t considered.

“I’m going to make a quote based on stages, okay? I’ll do one for what I need do today, and what needs to be done to get the aluminum to pass if your insurance company needs documentation. You might get a better rate if you send them the forms I’ll give you. I can also give you a quote for replacing the aluminum if you want, and the knob and tube if it bothers you, but really, it’s fine as long as you have someone in to check the outlets regularly.

“You can fine-tune the plans once you’ve had a contractor in to tell you what can and can’t be done about gutting the kitchen.” He nodded toward the rough sketch he’d made of my dream kitchen. “You should hire a structural engineer to advise you about taking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room and putting in the proper structural support. But Ell, with what you’re looking for, gutting the kitchen is going cost you $50K. Easy.”

I nodded. “I’d figured it would be at least that. And don’t worry, I’m good for it.” And a lot more, but I was hesitant to let anyone know how much I’d inherited, otherwise they might see me as ripe for the picking and I’d find myself in another bad relationship. Or worse, out of a bad relationship with my savings drained.

“Oh, one last thing. The hydro pole partway up your driveway? That’s rotting and needs replacing. It looks like it’ll fall over in the next good windstorm. When you hire an electrician, make sure they put that high on the list because replacing that that could take anywhere from three days to…months, depending on if there’s a pole available. Plus, you need to hire an arborist to trim the trees because a branch could take out the power line, if not the pole too.”

I loved the trees lining the driveway, ancient maples that were probably a hundred years old, the cedar hedging along the roadway that had been planted when I was a kid and now towered twenty foot tall. “Wouldn’t the town be responsible for the powerline?”

He shook his head. “Nope, it’s on your property so it’s your responsibility.”

Then one phrase hit me. “Wait a minute. An electrician? Don’t you want this job?”

He closed his notebook and tucked it in his tool bag. “I would love to help you restore this place, Ell. I can see your vision for it. I’d love to be able to put this place on my website as a showcase, but you have some hard decisions to make.

“Like do you want to do it all in one go? Or do you want to make the changes bit by bit? Fix the roof this spring. Redo the kitchen this fall and change out the electrics in the extension at the same time. When does the upstairs ensuite fit in there? At the same time, next year? What are you thinking?”

“Splitting up the kitchen redo and the ensuite might mean I’d live in a middle of a construction zone for years instead of months. And it would mean I’d have to hire you and a plumber to come in twice, right?”

He nodded.

I studied my amended notes. “Do I really need to get quotes from other electricians? I already know I want you to do it. I trust you.”

His gaze softened. He lifted his hand and held it over mine as if he wanted to touch me again but pulled it back with a frown. Was I that disgusting that he didn’t want to touch me or did he worry he was breaching some business boundary? “Thank you, but you need to know for yourself that I’m giving you the best deal and going to do the best job for you. Plus, it depends on your timeline—I may have already accepted a contract for someone else and won’t be able to do the work within your timeframe. So yes, for your own peace of mind, and because I know Joshua will insist anyway, get a couple estimates from other electricians, too.”

Hang what Joshua thought. I wanted Malcolm, and not for his electrical knowledge.

Malcolm stood up, grabbed his tool bag and walked to the front door. He stopped on the sidewalk and faced me again. “Oh, and you definitely need to add insulation to the attic. That can save you at least a hundred bucks a month on your heating bill, probably more. I can recommend people you can trust not to hard-sell or upsell you.”

Another thing to add to my list. Still, if it saved money in the long run and made me more comfortable. “How long would it take? A complete gut job on the kitchen and all the other stuff. From start to finish?”

“A lot of it depends on supply and demand. Redoing a single house like this, which in most tradesmen’s portfolios is a small job, means you’d be lower on their lists for parts and labour. You need to set deadlines with each contractor and get them written into your contracts with whoever you hire. Thing is, Ell, everyone’s working on different schedules. So there may be months with nothing happening while you’re waiting for someone’s schedule to open up. You could have plumbing but no electricity for a week or a month, then you may have electricity but no plumbing because they couldn’t get ahold of a specific part because the supply chain was backed up. Lately some items have been unavailable for months. Then there’s all the large-scale equipment they’d have to book. Like the septic people need to dig a hole to expand your current system, or your electrician may need to bury the lines from the street, but the backhoe that’s needed has been booked out months in advance. In reality, in Port Paxton? You’re talking three to six months or possibly longer. It all depends.”

He was standing at the base of the stairs, I was one step up, so I could look directly at him. I found myself entranced by his lips, by the way the light spring breeze ruffled his hair. Of the muscles hidden beneath his faded blue brushed-cotton shirt and the way the worn denim clung to his legs, stretched over his groin.

In a move I’d fantasized about since I was a teen, I cupped his cheeks between my palms, leaned in and captured his mouth with mine.

His arms wrapped around me, his fingers digging into my ass, lifting me to my toes as he kissed me back. I melted against him, his beard scratching my chin, but I didn’t care. I loved the feel of his hard chest against mine, the way he groaned into my mouth, making my body soften even more. Then, too soon, he pulled away with a breathed, “Ellie, we shouldn’t be doing this.”

Had I made a mistake? “Why? We’re not in high school anymore.”

He brushed a thumb across my cheek. “No, but I shouldn’t be kissing you.”

“Why not?” I asked, resting my head on his chest. Inhaling him. “Neither of us are dating anyone else.” I stiffened. Had Josh or my mom failed to keep me in the loop about that important fact? “Or are you?”

His eyes opened and his gaze skated over my face, my hair, my body. I stopped myself from cringing, expecting some nasty quip about my weight, about my muffin top spilling over my waist band. Or maybe he didn’t like the color of my lipstick or—

He shook his head. “No. I’m not dating anyone. But for now? You’re a client and I’m trying to maintain a professional distance.”

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