Page 4 of Designs on You

So far, today was going exceptionally well. Even better, now she wouldn’t have to find something for dinner tonight.

• • •

Eugene left his office and drove to the house—one of the many he’d looked at since moving here. He had yet to find one that would suit his needs. And the small executive rental the company put him in was nice enough, but not for what he needed since he often worked at home. He had to get out of there.

He pulled up in front of a two-story white house with black shutters, the landscaping utterly perfect. It was private, and he liked his privacy. The Realtor met him at the front door.

“Hey, Mark,” Eugene said. “Love the outside of the place.”

“You’ll like the inside even more. It has everything you need.”

Mark had shown him enough spaces that he’d learned that Eugene didn’t need him to talk up a place. He wanted to walk around and get a feel.

Living room had arched ceilings, but a slider leading to the backyard. He would change that to accordion sliding glass doors to let in more light and give him a better view of…He opened the door and stepped outside.

Oh yeah. Killer backyard. Pool, lush green landscaping, and apool house in the back. Plenty of space for parties. Big covered patio. Needed an outside kitchen, though.

He walked back inside and went to the kitchen, which was closed off to the living room. That would have to change, along with the décor, which was about twenty years old. The kitchen was dark, the dining area small, so opening it up would help all of that. And every room needed updated lighting.

There were four bedrooms, so he wandered through all of those. Mostly cosmetic things like changing carpet to tile or hardwoods, but the rooms were all big, and that helped. And there was a bonus room that was set up as a media room, which would be perfect for his office. With a few modifications, of course.

Once he finished, he turned to Mark. “I like this one.”

Mark looked surprised. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because you haven’t liked anything I’ve shown you for the past month.”

Eugene laughed. “Hey, I have certain needs, and I don’t want to have to raze a house to make it livable. This one needs some adjustments, but I think I can make it work. But I want my brother to come look at it since he does renovations.”

Mark nodded. “Sure. Just let me know.”

“Will do.”

When he got out to his car, he called Linc. It took him a few rings to answer.

“I’m in the middle of installing a bathtub. What do you want?”

Eugene laughed. “I might have found a house.”

“Yeah?—No, don’t put that there. Hang on.—Hey, Eugene, come for dinner tonight and tell me about it.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll text you the time. I gotta go.”

He hung up and Eugene grinned.

The day was looking up.

CHAPTER THREE

After meeting Sean to drop off the kids—which was never without scathing looks or some kind of whispered quip about how much this was hurting his children—Natalie shook it off and drove over to Hazel and Linc’s house.

“I have wine, sangria, and beer,” Hazel said as she let her in, the dogs happily greeting Natalie with whimpers and wagging tails.

“Hi, pups,” Natalie said, so used to them now that she bent down and gave them all some pats and ear rubs. “Sangria sounds great.”

---