Page 55 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

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Dripsof sweat fell down Grace’s back as she pressed the putty knife to the wall and pushed up. She scraped for several seconds before wiping her forehead with the back of her hand and stepped back. She’d been at it for nearly six hours and her progress was less than impressive.

Above her she heard the clicking and clacking of nail guns and footsteps and it was music to her ears. The new roof was going on, which she was grateful for considering the old one had Swiss cheese level leaks. The roofers weren’t sure if they’d be able to work this week due to weather, but thankfully, Mother Nature had been kind and the storm that was supposed to hit passed with only about an inch of snow.

When Grace found out about the show, the day she’d gone to the office to meet Lauren to look at houses, she’d asked her why they would do a reno show in the winter. Why not do it in the summer? Lauren explained that the network wanted to add as much “built-in” drama as they could. The recipe they’d chosen for ratings success was tight timeline, small budget, teardown houses, and unpredictable weather.

Another drop of sweat slid down Grace’s back as she pressed her putty knife to the wall again and continued scraping. This was literally sweat equity. They didn’t have it in the budget to use the crew for these tasks and since she wasn’t qualified to do the work that Easton was, she was doing the grunt labor. She was scraping wallpaper, removing tiles from both bathrooms and there were three layers of linoleum to get up off the kitchen floor with her name on them. She’d thought she’d be done with that work in a week, but she’d gotten the keys to the house eight days ago and she still had a room of wallpaper and the kitchen floor to do. She had greatly underestimated what this reno would take.

Her nails were all chipped, her back was screaming in pain, she smelled like dust and old house, but she was happy. There was something so satisfying about working with your hands, fixing something that was broken, and bringing back to life something that was forgotten and neglected.

As rewarding as the work was, she knew that she could not have done any of it without Easton. He was a ringer. She’d been confident with his construction skills, but she hadn’t expected him to have such an eye for design.

They hadn’t actually spent that much time together since the day they got the keys and decided on a game plan. Since they’d finalized the plans, their interactions had been relegated to short conversations when he needed to bring something to her attention. Since she was working purely on cosmetic things and he was the one breaking into all the walls, he’d been the one who became aware of problems first and had to relay that information to her. Sometimes it was good news like when he told her that one of the walls that they wanted to bring down wasn’t load bearing. Most of the time it was bad news, like when he told her that the other two they hadn’t thought were load bearing, were.

Each day had come with new challenges that Easton had faced head on. He seemed to look at every problem as a chance to find a solution. It was inspiring. And sexy. Not quite as sexy as watching him wield a sledgehammer, carry two-by-fours, and tear down cabinets, but it was close. She would have thought that nothing could beat watching him do manual labor, but it seemed his sexiness knew no bounds. It was emotional, visual, and audible. She wasn’t just referring to his deep, baritone voice, although that alone was noteworthy.

The first day of demo when she heard him speaking Spanish with some of the crew she’d damn near swooned. Her knees had literally gotten weak. Then, yesterday, he’d been on the phone with the company that was supplying the marble countertops and she’d heard him speaking Russian. Unlike Spanish, which is considered a romance language, Russian is much harsher, and it turned out she was a big fan. Her lady parts stood up and saluted.

She’d heard the term Renaissance Man thrown around before, but she’d didn’t believe any existed in this post internet, dating app, self-obsessed society. But one did. That’s exactly what Easton was. She’d never met anyone like him, and she knew that she could live to a hundred and fifteen and she never would again.

“Grace.”

Speak of the devil. She turned and when she saw Easton’s face she knew this was definitely a bad news delivery. He always had a tiny wrinkle above his nose when he had to tell her something he knew might upset her. The sweetest part was, she knew that it wasn’t because he was bothered by the news, even if whatever the issue was meant a shit ton more work for him. No, he had that tiny wrinkle because he was concerned about her.

“What now?”

“We have water damage. I’m going to have to reframe the entire back wall. The inspector is looking at the new plans now, but I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

Grace knew that this house was going to come with issues. It was built in the ’50s and hadn’t been well kept. She also knew that their budget could only stretch so far, even with her and Easton working fourteen hours plus a day, which they had been. “Is that going to cut into the design budget?”

“There’s no cost for labor, but the lumber is going to be about eight hundred.”

Oh good. She could find eight-hundred in the budget. That hadn’t been as bad as she’d thought from his face.

“But that’s not all.”

Of course it isn’t.

“We have asbestos around the duct work that is going to need to be remediated.”

Remediation was a very bad word in reno. It could blow a budget, especially one of this size, right out of the water.

“How much is that going to cost?”

“Five thousand.”

Grace’s heart sunk. It was the things they had to do behind the walls that were the most expensive and you didn’t get to see them to add value to the appraisal.

“And one more thing.”

Grace braced herself. “What?”

“I think we need to find two thousand in the budget so I can insulate and install double pane glass on the back sunroom.”

“I was actually thinking the same thing.” She’d had a dream about it the night before. Even when she wasn’t at this house, she was dreaming about it. “It won’t add square footage, but it will add livable space which is perceived value on an appraisal. I’ll find it in the budget if you can find it in the schedule.”

“I’ll make it happen.”

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