Page 59 of Flippin' Cowboy
“I don’t really have any plans this year,” he said. “My folks decided to spend the holidays on a beach in the Caribbean.”
“Why don’t you stay here, then?” Winnie suggested. “Mom and Dad like you, and I’m sure they’d love to have you and Kegan over for Christmas. And, from what I’ve hear, Kegan’s made friends with Jayden and my nieces.”
“Thanks,” Nick said, genuinely touched. “I’d love to.”
Then she hit play and snuggled against Nick’s side as they ate popcorn and commented on the episode.
Snowberry Springs was already starting to feel like home.
Now, all Nick had to do was convince Winnie that he was a keeper. It wouldn’t be easy, though. Thanks to Dickweed Ex, she had built walls around her heart that felt as high and solid as a medieval fortress.
And the rocky start to his relationship with Winnie probably hadn’t done much for her trust issues, either.
But that was okay. Nick was used to dealing with wrecked structures and rebuilding them until they were better than before. With hard work and a little luck, he could succeed here.
Chapter 19: Salvage
The next week passed in a flurry of activity as the construction crew raced to complete the roofing work and weatherproof The Soiled Dove Inn before work shut down for the holidays.
Luckily, the weather held. The days leading up to Christmas marched in by a succession of cold, sunny days and clear, freezing nights.
With Nick’s approval and his promise to make up any construction budget shortfalls, Winnie had selected high-quality, environmentally friendly synthetic roof tiles that looked identical to the building’s original cedar shakes.
The pace of interior restoration work in the downstairs rooms picked up now that the plaster walls had been closed up.
Things were looking good, Winnie thought with satisfaction as she surveyed the progress on the downstairs restoration work.
The entrance hall’s restored tiled floor was a gem. Salvaged antique wainscoting and trim Nick found at an antique store in Three Forks enhanced the walls and large cased openings to the parlor and sitting room. Jason had reworked all the medallionson the salvaged trim to incorporate the house’s original dove motif.
On the personal front, Nick spent nearly every night over at Winnie’s place. After the third day, she invited him to store toiletries and a change of clothes at her place. Even though she told herself that it didn’t mean anything beyond practicality, it gave her a secret thrill to see his toothbrush next to hers on the vanity.
He still left her bed before dawn every morning to hurry back to his cottage and prepare breakfast for his son and nanny.
Winnie had never minded breakfasting alone. She wasn’t really a morning person, and her preferred prework routine involved silence and strong coffee as she slowly came to full consciousness.
Nevertheless, sitting by herself in the breakfast nook with her mug and a plate of toast started to feel strangely lonely. Especially after having spent the past ten hours skin to skin with Nick.
Even when they weren’t having mind-blowing sex, he maintained near-constant physical contact, whether it was snuggling together on her couch, holding hands, or spooning in bed.
On the Friday before Christmas, the last full day of work before production shut down for their holiday break, Winnie arrived at The Soiled Dove Inn to find Nick pacing around the building’s snow-covered garden. He was holding an angry conversation with someone on his phone.
“You know what? I’m done dealing with you guys,” he snapped, his dark brows drawn together in a thunderous frown. “When I put down that deposit, you swore you had the flooring in stock.And now you’re telling me it’s gonna be another six weeks? After the three weeks you’ve already jerked us around?”
He caught sight of Winnie and his scowl vanished. Without bothering to cover the phone’s microphone, he told her, “I’m canceling the order for the upstairs flooring. Themythicalupstairs flooring.”
Three weeks ago, she would have argued with him about his decision, especially since it had taken them so much time to source the right size and type of flooring.
But he was right—dealing with Brandon’s Bozeman Lumber & Flooring had been a nightmare so far. And experience had taught her that when a vendor flaked on you this early in the process, things never became more reliable. It was always better to cut your losses and move on.
She nodded. “We’ll find somewhere else to source it,” she replied, with more confidence than she felt. “Tell him we want a refund on our non-refundable deposit because he missed the contracted delivery dateandthe extension we granted two weeks ago.”
Nick gave her the thumbs-up. Winnie waved and continued inside the building.
Her filming schedule today started with her and Jason reinstalling the stripped and restored newel post.
Jason’s dip-and-strip treatment on the grand staircase proved highly successful in removing decades of old paint layers without harming the original old-growth Douglas fir wood beneath.
Now he was almost finished reinstalling it, complete with structural reinforcements and a set of replacement spindles carved and stained to match the originals. The newel post wasthe final touch, barring the custom carpet runner that Nick had ordered.
