Page 65 of January

“You caught us between jobs, so it’s not a problem,” Myra said.

Kyle had called five different contractors just that morning, and three of them had told her they were booked up through the end of the year. One would meet with her next week, and Davies Contracting was available to meet today. Kyle had been surprised to hear that Myra Davies, the owner of the company, would be making the visit herself. Myra looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. Her black hair was braided in rows that fell down her back, and her deep, brown eyes were currently looking around the foyer of the garden house, which was what Kyle had started calling the place.

“Where do we start?” she asked, closing the door behind Myra, who was dressed in a starched, long-sleeved white-collared shirt with the company logo above the left breast pocket and a pair of khakis, which made Kyle think of Melinda’s uniform.

“I usually like to do a walk-through myself when I begin and let you know what I see. I know we spoke on the phone about some of the things you’ve noticed and what you’ve been told through the estate, but I find it best to start there.”

“Okay. Sounds good,” Kyle replied. “Do I walk with you, or do you do it yourself and I wait? Sorry.” Shechuckled. “I’ve never done this before. Probably a bad thing to say to a contractor, huh? Letting you know I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Myra laughed lightly and said, “I’m not one ofthosecontractors, okay? I’m not here to milk money from you. I’ll tell you what I see, and you tell me what you want us to work on. If it’s nothing because you want to go with someone else, that’s okay, too.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kyle said.

“I’ll start with the upstairs and finish up down here. It won’t take me long, and I’ll probably have some questions for you.”

“What happens if I don’t know the answer?”

“There are ways to get them. Plans on file with the city, permit history, that kind of thing.”

“Okay. I’ll wait down here,” Kyle replied. “Oh, do you want something to drink?”

“No, thank you.” Myra smiled politely. “It won’t take long.”

As Kyle watched Myra proceed up the stairs slowly and check out the banister as she went, she couldn’t help but wonder how much this was all going to cost. The money from her grandmother, in theory, should cover it, but the more expensive it was, the less money there would be left over for her and Jolie to finally have their own savings account with more than a hundred dollars in it in case of an emergency. To keep herself busy while she had to wait, she walked into the kitchen, pulled out a bottle of iced tea for herself, and left one on the table for Myra in case the woman wanted to take it to-go. At the grocery store, Kyle had had the option of buying regular tea and sweet tea bottles, and she’d gone with the sweet one since she was in the South, but she’d need to find a good dentist if she kept eating beignets and drinking sweet tea the entire time she was here.

It felt awkward, just sitting at the kitchen table, doing nothing, with a stranger roaming around the house, so Kyle took a long drink of her sweet tea and stared out the largewindow that overlooked the garden. She’d cleaned up the mess with the chair and decided that she’d buy new ones, but there was so much unknown to her right now. Should she buy cheap ones that might get destroyed by renters? That way, if she had to replace them, it wouldn’t cost much. Maybe she shouldn’t buy new chairs at all. They’d rent the house out for a bit, at least, but if they decided to sell it later, it would be one more thing to have to worry about. Besides, the patio didn’t look bare without them.

Then again, if she decided to stay, Kyle knew that she wouldn’t live in her grandmother’s house. She’d live here. That was the first time she’d thought about that. She’d live here in this house. It was big and beautiful, oldandmodern, and it had a history that Kyle wanted to learn more about. She’d thought about how long she might stay, and that ultimately depended on the work that had to be done on the house since the journals her grandmother had written could go home with her whenever she wanted. She’d finished reading one of them all the way through, but she’d decided to start at the beginning of the pile, checking the dates on the journals and organizing them before she dove in.

It turned out, her grandmother had begun writing journals when she got married, so Kyle had a few to get through before she even got to her mother’s birth and then, years later, the disagreement that had her getting kicked out of the house. Kyle had to fight her desire to learn what had happened between the two of them, but it was important to her to know the full story, and that began with the first journal. She’d only been about to start the second one when Myra had shown up for the appointment.

Staring out the window, Kyle was thinking about the history of that garden and what must have happened back there. How many family or neighborhood parties had been hosted there? The house was nearly two centuries old. Hundreds of people had probably been back there, celebrating things and spending time with loved ones, and now, Kyle had had a first date with Melinda back there.

She smiled, thinking about their kiss and how Melinda had offered much more than that. It reallyhadtaken everything in Kyle not to say yes, take her up those stairs, and do whatever Melinda wanted her to do to her all night long. She’d heard the woman, though, and she didn’t want them to move too quickly and risk losing whatever this could be. Still, today was a new day, so without further hesitation, Kyle reached for her phone and decided to chance it.

“Well, hello,” Melinda said.

“Hi. I take it, you’re not on a tour?”

“No, I’m in the office. What are you doing?”

“I’m at the house. There’s a contractor here looking at things.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. She’s doing a walk-through. I was just thinking about you and our date last night.”

“You were? Which part?”

“All of it,” she said, smiling into the phone. “Are you sure you’re not too busy? We can talk later.”

“I’m in the back office, doing the books, so I’m good. Jill is on the register. If you want, I can get you my schedule for the next week. It changes sometimes, but it’s more or less accurate.”

“Do you just give your schedule out to anyone?” Kyle teased.

“No one but you,” Melinda replied. “I guess, the question is, do you want it?”

“Oh, I definitely want it,” she replied.

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