Page 100 of Housebroke

Of course he did. He always did. “Thanks for that.”

“Sure. Anyway, there’s a property I’m interested in, and I was wondering if you’d look at it with me.”

“It’s local?”

“Yeah.”

She couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face. “So, you’re thinking of renovating another property in Orlando?”

“Yes. I just found it this afternoon, and it’s kind of perfect.”

She was intrigued. And very excited that he’d consider staying on here. “Are you sure you want me along?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay. Just let me know when and I’ll go with you.”

They cleaned up the plates and stood side by side at the sink, one of them rinsing and the other one loading the shiny new dishwasher.

“Hey, you were going to tell me why you were cussing at the wall this afternoon.”

“Huh?”

She wasn’t buying his confused look. “Come on. What was it that upset you?”

“Oh, I wasn’t upset. Just throwing some ideas around in my head. One of them was the idea of staying here. It just brings about its own set of... not problems, just... opportunities. And I got irritated because I didn’t have all the solutions right then.”

“Can I help?”

“You are. You’re going to go look at that house with me. And then...”

She waited. He took her hand.

“Then we’ll go from there, okay?”

She nodded, knowing there was a lot more he wanted to say. But she could wait.

“Okay.”

She wished she knew what it was that he wanted to say to her, or what was bothering him. She hoped that someday very soon he’d trust her enough to unburden himself and open up his heart.

Because she was in love with him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Linc was up to his eyeballs in computer work, talking with his local Realtor about possible properties to purchase, as well as fighting with a particularly annoying wiring problem in the upstairs primary bedroom.

How could a ceiling fan be such a pain in the ass? He did not have time for this.

Hazel had been busy poring over paperwork related to the foster organization, some annual reporting or something that she had been grumbling about. He’d kept his distance because he knew what kind of a nuisance paperwork could be.

The one house he’d wanted to show Hazel had sold before he could even get a showing, but there was another he really liked that was about to come on the market, so he was making plans to go see it soon. Hopefully, that wouldn’t sell out from under him. In the meantime, he had a lot to do to keep himself busy.

Like figuring out why this damned ceiling fan wouldn’t work.

His phone buzzed and he picked it up, then grinned at the FaceTime call from his brother Eugene. “Hey, asshole. What’s up?”

“Just missed your sweet face,” Eugene said, leaning back in a chair in his office. “How’s it going? Got that house finished yet?”

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