Page 85 of Daddy By Design

“Yay.” But my voice was way less excited.

She rolled her window down. “Beer at Lonegan’s tonight? I need those details.”

“Deal.”

“Chin up, Dahl. It’ll work out.”

“I hope so.”

“See you in a few hours.” TJ waved as she backed down the drive.

I headed back up to the mansion and caught Gideon as he was coming out. “This is going to take a helluva lot longer than I had earmarked for today.”

Another bit of great news. “Okay, do you want me to reschedule?”

“I’m going to juggle some things since Rob said he can stay today. He’s definitely trying to prove himself.”

Bob, our usual inspector, was his father. “Is that a good thing?”

“He’s definitely got the knowledge. I think we’ll do okay. I just gotta call Mace and let her know I’ll be held up. You don’t need to stick around. I’ll have a full report for you by the end of the day.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Gideon.”

He smiled. “It’s a great house. I’m sorry to say it won’t be a quick project, but I think we can have most of it finished before winter.”

I winced. “Did you tell Nolan that?”

He patted my arm. “Not yet.”

“Great.” That meant it was probably up to me to give him the bad news.

“We’ll do what we can, but this one needs to be done right. This house has amazing bones. It’s just going to take my A-team and a few outsourced artisans.”

“Nolan mentioned he has a masonry friend. Archer was his name, but I’m not sure if it’s his first or last.”

“That’ll help. Hugely.” Gideon pulled out his phone and made a note. “I’ll ask him about that. They’re not easy to come by these days and the one I use is booked solid through the summer.”

I only hoped that would help with the timeframe. Nolan was not going to be happy with four or five months to do the work. Not that I was shocked about that.

“Okay, I’ll wait to hear from you. I’ll be at the studio.”

“Sounds good.” He lifted his phone to his ear as he walked away. “Hey, Mace. How are you feeling?”

Was it a baby epidemic? Or was Macy just not feeling great?

I made a mental note to try and stop by Brewed Awakening sometime this weekend. Macy was notoriously shit about answering her texts and phone calls. I glanced back at the mansion. I could already picture how amazing it was going to be.

A shadowy form drifted through one of the windows. “We’ll put your house back together, Harriette. I promise.”

I got in my car and blasted the air conditioner. Right now, I had a fluffy feline very much of this earthly plane to worry about.

EIGHTEEN

I stopped at the Airstream for a shower after the inspector and Gideon left.

It felt like a fine layer of dust was stuck to every part of me. Didn’t help that I’d sweated my ass off the whole visit. May was already a bitch with the heat. I couldn’t imagine what the real summer would look like.

Luckily, Gideon had been professional, if a little cool. Rob, the inspector, had been very thorough. He’d checked things I’d never even imagined I’d have to worry about, which proved even more how over my head I was.

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