Page 25 of When in December

“Give us a second, will y’all?” he asked, though it wasn’t much of a request.

The other guys mumbled around something but found other places in the small home to be as the man, whose voice more so resembled the man I had talked to and who was recommended through Home Haven’s directory, made his way until he stood in front of me.

“You must be Ms. Owens.”

“Poppy is fine,” I said. “Thanks for coming in and looking over the place. I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier.”

“We had an early start. Don’t you worry ’bout a thing. My name is Frank. I don’t care for no titles much either, so I have a feeling we’ll be gettin’ along just fine, working together.”

The corner of my mouth curled up for the first time since I’d walked in the door. “Nice to meet you, Frank.”

“We don’t have much time to waste, so let’s talk house. I don’t understand how such a project was brushed to the side like this,” he muttered, though not with me. According to Michelle, whenever she hired this man, he was thorough with his work. This place right now must’ve looked like a disaster. “Whoever was in here before us got lazy.”

That was putting it lightly.

“It looks like whoever did the exterior on this place during the summer months did a fantastic job. The inside looks like it was done by an entirely different team.”

I inhaled sharply, causing him to pause. I had known it didn’t look right the moment I saw that part on the project listing the other night when I was double-checking everything. Sure, it wasn’t completely out of character for Home Haven to assign two different crews to a house that needed a large overhaul. In some cases, it was too much work for just one, and Home Haven dealt in design and design only. The rest was hired out.

But in this case, it was a mistake.

And in the end, it was going to be mymistake.

“It was.”

“Whoever they are, you should make sure they’re off the list to work for you ladies at Home Haven.”

“Already done. After Michelle reached out, I let her know of the situation and that I was contacting a different crew to see if they could spare any time for us on such short notice.”

The foreman dipped his head. “I appreciate you thinking of the small business I have going here. We’re happy to be in contract, working with you all, and I’ll be damned if someonetook advantage of you not being on-site for the start of reno. This place is basically a historical landmark. It fires me up to see such a project treated this way. Would you like me to walk you through what I see has already been done to make sure we’re running at the same speed?”

“Yes.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I read through the report, and I have been following the schedule of what should’ve been done.”

“And it’s just you on this project?”

“Just me,” I confirmed, hoping there was more determination than nerves in my voice.

“I got a good overview of the house before you walked in.”

I tried to stand strong. He wasn’t judging; in fact, he looked a little nervous.

And nervous could only mean …

“Oh no.”

“It’s nothing to worry about,” he assured. “But we did find a problem in the bathroom.”

“The one we just finished?” For some reason, I could tell he wasn’t talking about the vanishing showerheads or the fact that not everything was properly grouted in the tile work.

“The problem is the original shared bathroom off the hallway. There’s mold.”

“Mold,” I repeated.

“It was likely left when they attempted to redo the panel. They weren’t paying attention, is my guess. It’s not too far gone, but it does put us another few days behind. There’s no way around it. We need to redo it to make sure the space is as it should be and won’t be getting anyone sick in the long run.”

“Right.” Mentally, I started to push things back in my schedule.

“But we also have other jobs coming up that we need to leave the site for. We have a week we can offer. Maybe a few days after.”

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