Page 9 of New Year's Renovations

A gray tail swished in my face, tickling my nose. “Who’s this little fella? Is he yours?”

Harper shook her head. “No. I’m assuming he belonged to my aunt. I heard she had a lot of cats, but he’s the only one I’ve seen so far.”

“The rest were probably adopted. Maybe this guy got scared and ran away.” I scratched the cat behind his ears and he purred under my hand, his fur prickly on my skin. “Are you going to keep him?”

“I guess. I haven’t let him in the house, but I probably will tonight. The temps are supposed to really drop. I’d hate for him to freeze.”

“He needs a name,” I said, standing up. “Since he’s yours now. You fed him, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I felt bad for the little guy; he seemed hungry.”

“Rookie mistake. He’ll never leave now. So what’s your new cat’s name?” I tilted my head, grinning.

Harper laughed, a tinkling, melodic sound that sent excited ripples down my spine. “Earl. Earl Grey, like the tea.”

“Nice. I like it. C’mon, let’s go back in; you’re freezing.”

We walked through the rest of the house, Earl Grey hot on our heels. The house had a typical Victorian floor plan, with narrow hallways and small bathrooms and closets. Not great for resale, unless you were into historic homes. But Harper would probably do fine renting it out.

“So what’s your verdict?” Harper asked, folding her arms across her chest, gnawing on her bottom lip. I wished she’d quit doing that because it made concentration difficult, all my focus drawn to her full pink lips. Lips I would very much like to taste.

Instead, I scrubbed my hand over the back of my neck, forcing my gaze down to my clipboard and the estimates I’d scribbled. I ignored the heat rising down south, shifting my weight from foot to foot.

“I’ll have to get my subs in here to give you a more accurate number, but I’d say,” I scribbled on my notepad, doing the math, “somewhere in the two hundred thousand ballpark.”

“Dollars?” Harper asked, blinking hard.

“Yeah. And that’s assuming we don’t come across any major issues. So add in a buffer of at least ten percent for unforeseen problems.”

“Ugh,” Harper said, shaking her head.

“Did your aunt leave you a renovation budget?”

“She left me everything, apparently including Earl Grey here.” Harper stroked the cat as he rubbed against her leg. “I should have enough to cover it, I just had no idea about costs. Again, not a homeowner.”

I nodded. “I understand. You’re a reno virgin.”

She laughed again and a ripple of pleasure shot through me.

“As long as you’re here with me, I can do it.” She squeezed my arm again, locking her wide eyes on mine, and my heart hammered hard in my chest.

There was no way I could turn her down, even with my resolution on the line. “You got it. Let’s get to work.”

6

Harper

Turns out demolition is fun. Like, really fun. Every time I smashed a wall, I imagined Clark’s smug face floating on the wallpaper.Soft. Irrelevant.

Asshole.

The only irrelevant person right now was him. I’d rather hang out with Jackson over that sanctimonious jerk any time.

Tall and muscular, I just knew Jackson’s body was ripped underneath his jeans and t-shirt. Besides being absolutely gorgeous, he also happened to be warm, funny, and kind. So, the exact opposite of Clark.

Unfortunately, he didn’t appear to be interested. He was friendly, sure, and we’d had that moment when he’d accidentally palmed my breasts and heat shimmered between us. But other than that, he’d been purely professional. Which wasn’t all bad, I guess, considering I’d only be in Starlight Bay until the house was renovated.

During the day I worked on the reno, side-by-side with Jackson and his crew, but at night I scoured the internet for jobs, applying to any and all television postings I could find. I also sent my updated resume to every news station in the greater Boston area and posted on all my social media accounts that I was back on the market. No bites so far, but it’d only been a hot minute. Surely something would open up.

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