Page 12 of Just One Look

“Nice house. Anything missing?”

“I don’t think so, but my assistant will have a list of staged items.”

Bobbing her head, she took in the spacious game room. “I thought you did commercial development?”

“Normally, yes. Not too long ago a friend of mine approached me with an opportunity to buy out a builder who had gone belly up. He’d built one spec house and was putting up two more when, thanks to a messy divorce, his finances went south and he had to shut down. Once the divorce was settled, the three houses and several lots became available for a song.”

“And you can’t resist a good deal.” She smiled.

“Emily mention that?” He grinned back, liking the way she seemed to like what she was seeing.

Her smile widened. “Among other things.”

“Uh-oh.” He crossed his arms. “Would you like a guided tour of the rest of the house?”

“I’d love it, but,” she paused at a built-in bookshelf, “mind if I move something first?”

“Move?”

Shaking her head, she backed away from the shelving. “Never mind.”

“No. I wasn’t following you.”

“Have you ever heard the expression ‘less is more’?”

He nodded.

“It applies to staging. Sometimes if a stager over fills the house with tchotchkes, it can distract home buyers, and not always in a good way.”

“I see.” Not that he had any idea why knick-knacks mattered.

“Watch.” She raised her hand at him before walking away. “Close your eyes.”

He did as he was told.

“Okay. Open them.”

Blinking a couple of times, he studied the shelf, then he looked at the matching one on the other side. She was right. There was too much on the other shelving. One unit had just enough to highlight it—the other one had him looking at all the decorations and not at the house. “How do you know this?”

She chuckled. “Has my big sister not mentioned that I’m an interior decorator?”

“No.” At least he didn’t think so. Stifling a laugh, he shrugged at her. “Maybe?”

Chapter Six

What started out as moving a few pieces out of the way swiftly became a redesign session. Together, they started removing the extra knick-knacks and soon wound up rearranging furniture and placing the pieces she thought were superfluous into the garage. “You should be able to call the staging company and have them pick up the unwanted items from the garage. No point in paying for what you don’t need.”

“It’s funny how moving the chairs away from the fireplace make this room so much more inviting.”

It delighted her to no end that he appreciated what she’d done. “So glad you like the changes.”

“Very much.” He nodded. “You should open a staging business. Houston is woefully behind other cities with staging options.”

“That’s actually why I’m here.”

He cocked his head to one side. “To start a new business?”

“No.” She chuckled softly. “I have a client who decided to venture out into flipping houses in Houston. Until he decides if he’s going to do more houses here or not, he’s bringing his team in. In only a few days, I’ve managed to figure out it’s not going to be as easy as I like. We may wind up just buying the pieces I want and offering them for sale later.”

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