Page 100 of Lowdown Dirty (Down and Dirty)

Valerie started up the rear staircase that was accessible from the hallway just off the kitchen and studied the fixtures and renovation work as she went. Her guess was that Clay had only recently repaired the ceiling as well as some stair treads. Probably the braces beneath it, too. Once people started tinkering with structural components like stairs, studs, and supports, they tended to proactively fix the items immediately around them, too, just to feel confident about the durability of the work.

Peeking only into the rooms that had lights on, Valerie alternately grunted with appreciation and shuddered in revulsion at what she saw. There had to be an eighth-inch of peeling wallpaper in one room. There was a hole in the floor in another. The afterthought of a bathroom slapped onto the end of the hall sometime in the last-half century, probably, made Valerie’s eye twitch.

Clay’s bedroom, added on at about the same time, was large and dark and spacious. The bathroom was a mess, but the bedroom would be worth the rest of the frustration by the time everything was done.

She lifted the end of the bondage cuffs he’d left dangling from a bedpost and chuckled. “I hope he cleans up before inviting his mother over.”

She made her way back downstairs and into the kitchen.

Clay had returned. He wriggled his eyebrows at her and leaned into the fridge. “Did you give yourself the grand tour?”

She chuckled. “I wouldn’t saygrandtour. More like the abbreviated discount tour.”

“So…” He backed away from the fridge, expression surprisingly bashful for a man who was outgoing by profession. “What’d you think of the bathroom?”

“It’s a terror, but you know that. Looks like you don’t use it.”

“Nope. Tim and I didn’t even use it when we were kids. We always used the one down here. We didn’t have to worry about falling through the floor that way.”

“I’d get rid of that upstairs bathroom, not that you asked for my opinion.”

He put up his hands. “No, no. Go ahead. I’m curious to hear what you think.”

“I mean, I suspect it was put there because the existing plumbing was easily accessible from that location, but the plumbing got updated later anyway, right?”

“It did, and I’m updating it again. I’m getting rid of that tiny room off to the side of the master and using it for a bathroom and the closet I don’t currently have. Or at least, that’s my plan. I haven’t talked to the architect yet.”

“I hope you and Tim don’t share an architect.”

“We do. Why?”

Valerie forced a breath through her clenched teeth and shook her head. “My grandmother always says, ‘God don’t like ugly,’ so I’m keeping my mouth shut.”

“God also doesn’t like botched reno jobs, so you run that mouth all you want, honey. If the architect’s a hack, tell me now.”

Valerie took another sip of tea and stared at Clay over the rim of the glass.

“Fine. You didn’t say it, so I’m gonna assume it. He’s a hack.” Clay threw up his hands. “Great. Super. I already gave him the down payment for the next thing.”

“Get it back. I wouldn’t trust him to design so much as a gazebo.”

He swiped a fist through the air, and growled out, “Fuck. And now I want a gazebo. I don’t like you, lady. You make me want stuff and stuff costs money.”

“Like my sister? She costslotsof money.” Shaking her head, she laughed. “Don’t worry about the house, Clay, I think you’ll figure it out.”

“Yep. He’s good at thinking outside of the box. Always has been,” came the voice of a newcomer to the room.

No…

Valerie stared straight ahead, unseeing, and sipped the dregs of her tea. She wasn’t going to look toward the door.

That voice, that had sounded so much like Tim’s, was surely just a phantom in her mind. Perhaps the sound was only a bit of delirium on her part due to the stressful past couple of weeks. Tim wasn’tactuallythere.

She wasn’t going to have to deal with him tonight.

Not at all.

“You got here fast, Timmy,” Clay said.

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