The July Guy Page 14

  When her cell phone interrupted, she set down the palette and brush. She had to let the oils dry now anyway.

  She glanced at the screen and almost didn’t answer. It was Ethan Bradford again. He’d called three days ago to offer to buy the house. After hearing what Noah and others had said about him, she’d turned him down flat. Besides, the price he’d offered was an insult. She had a feeling it was his company that had made the anonymous offer on the day she arrived.

  She knew she might as well answer and get it over with. Last time, he’d called her every hour until she talked to him. She stepped over to the window to soak in the relaxing view before she accepted the call. “Hello?”

  “Anita, it’s Ethan Bradford again.”

  “What can I do for you, Mr. Bradford?”

  “You can sell me that beautiful lake house,” he said with a laugh. “I got to thinking that maybe you didn’t understand when I made my offer the other day that I’d take it off your hands immediately, and then you wouldn’t have to pay all those people who’ve been working nearly around the clock on all that unnecessary work.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He continued as if she’d never spoken. “In fact, you can tell them right now to stop that work. It’s throwing money away, Anita.” He cleared his throat when she remained silent. “Ms. Delgado, Noah Colburn is costing you a fortune for what is no more than an expensive publicity stunt.”

  “I had already planned to have that work done.”

  “Of course you had. But why spend all that money making the house nice for strangers? I can give you money and save you the trouble.”

  She let out a bark of a laugh. He had all the appeal of a used car salesman. “So you can win the mayoral race and tear down my grandmother’s house?”

  “Now who told you I was going to tear down the house?”

  “It’s common knowledge that you want to demolish it like you did the Packard property next door, and I don’t want my grandmother’s house torn down. So the answer is no, Mr. Bradford.”

  “Hold on a minute. We can help each other out. I run a development company. It’s what I do. It’s common knowledge that you’re not staying here in Lakeside. I’ll take the house off your hands right now and you can get back to your life in Philadelphia.”

  Get back to her life in Philadelphia? Why didn’t that sound as appealing as it should?

  “I can raise my offer,” he added when she didn’t respond. He quoted a price almost double what he’d offered previously. “Cash money. It can be in your account tomorrow.”

  It was tempting, but as much as she’d hated her grandmother when she’d first come to Lakeside, Anita had come to know her better. Perhaps even understand her. Enough that she wanted the house preserved for more than its historical value. Curled up with Noah in the middle of the night or painting in the studio she’d finally accepted from Aggie, she sometimes thought about keeping the house. But she knew that was a foolish idea. Not only did she need the money from the sale to take care of her mother, she wouldn’t have time to use it if she did keep it.

  They were only halfway through July. Someone would want to buy this house for their full-time or vacation home. She had time.

  “My answer is still no, Mr. Bradford. Please don’t bother to call me again. If for some reason I change my mind, I have your number.”

  …

  Noah enjoyed getting out of the office and out on salvage jobs whenever he could, so when Todd called in sick, he called Carter, and they jumped in the box truck with Louis for a one-day job in East Aurora. He’d be home before dark, so he could check on the progress on the porch. The painters thought they’d be done this afternoon. It was all coming together.

  Many of the residents he’d talked to when he’d gone door-to-door had mentioned they were looking forward to seeing the renovations on Aggie’s house. They thanked him for respecting the history of their community. Of course, there were others who worried the village was going to stagnate, that without the boost of fresh businesses and ideas, Lakeside would lose what it had and eventually turn into a ghost town. Noah had agreed with the sentiment but pointed out that tearing down what made their town great, simply because it was old, wasn’t going to do the town any favors.

  He’d mostly enjoyed the face-to-face conversations with the residents. But now that he was done with that part of the campaign, he was enjoying his evenings with Anita again. She was ordering pizza for dinner tonight. He had to remember to pick up the beer on the way home. He started every day looking forward to getting back to her. Each day, it was getting harder not to hope she’d want to stay once the house was finished.

  She was putting her own touches on the house. She’d chosen all the latest kitchen appliances. She’d known neutral colors would be the best for resale, but she’d decided on a purple accent wall in the living room and an orange one in the dining room. She’d told him she wanted the outside to look like the historic home it was, but the inside to be new and fresh.

  How could she walk away from the house when she was putting so much of herself into it?

  Noah knew he was betting too much on a house. Not only the mayoral race, but his future with Anita. He had to get his mind back on the work at hand.

  He and Carter got to work pulling out the heavy solid wood doors from the early twentieth-century home slated for demolition. Louis was working on removing the gorgeous vintage tiles in the bathroom. It was obvious the house had been vacant for years and the structure had been compromised to the point that renovation wasn’t possible. They were there today for the doors, hardware, and light fixtures. They’d be back home for dinner. His mouth was already watering for pizza.

  And Anita.

  They’d gotten all the doors loaded in the back of the truck when his cell rang. He knew from the ringtone it was Hannah. He hoped there wasn’t a problem. The twins normally texted. “Give me a minute?”

  Carter waved him off and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler.

  “What’s up, sweetie?”

  “Hey, Dad. We wanted to let you know we might be coming home earlier than we’d planned.”

  They could come home as soon as they wanted. He wouldn’t have enough time with his girls before they left for college as it was. But his daughter’s voice wasn’t upbeat. “Problem?”

  “Mom and Bruce are fighting.” That was Sarah, her voice a little softer than her sister’s. He could picture them in their usual huddle around the phone. “About us. I don’t think he wants us here anymore.”

  Noah held back the furious growl that threatened to escape. He’d been afraid the childless executive would be jealous of the time two teenage girls would take. “Did he say that to you?”

  “No,” Hannah said. “But sometimes we can hear them arguing. Mom’s pissed at him, and he’s all grumpy when he gets home from work.”

  “I think he’s tired of us being here,” Sarah added.

  If this were a cartoon, steam would be blowing out of Noah’s ears right now. “You can come home anytime. Just let me know when to pick you up at the airport.”

  “Okay. We don’t like the fighting.”

  He gritted his teeth. “Is your mom there?”

  “She’s pacing out on the lanai and yelling on the phone at him.”

  “Tell her to call me as soon as she’s off. We’ll work this out. I don’t want you two to worry about it.”

  “Wait. She tossed the phone down,” Hannah told him. “Whoa, that just missed sliding into the pool.”

  “I’ll get her,” Sarah said.

  In a moment, his ex-wife was there. “Noah? What’s up?” Her voice was strained, like it always was when she talked with him nowadays.

  He usually tried to stay as pleasant as possible with her, but there was no way that was possible today. “What the hell, Char? Do you two have to fight where the girls can hear you? They think you want to get rid of them.”

  Carter had been wandering around at a discreet
distance, but now he frowned and walked closer, eavesdropping unabashedly.

  “No one ever said that,” Charlene shot back.

  “Well, that’s what our daughters heard. They think Bruce wants them to leave because he’s tired of them being there.”

  “He never said that.” But the hesitation in Charlene’s voice made him think her boyfriend had definitely said something close to that.

  “I don’t want them to think they’re not wanted there. Or anywhere. You shouldn’t, either.”

  “I want them here, Noah. I’ve…I’ve missed them. We’ve been having a good time. Going shopping. Going to the beach. I don’t want them to go home yet.”

  “Well, at the end of the day, they’re old enough to decide for themselves. You know they can come home whenever they want to.”

  “Yeah, and how’s your new girlfriend going to feel about that?” The snark was new to Charlene. She’d always been easygoing and soft-spoken. Until she met Bruce.

  “Anita would be fine with it.” At least, he was relatively certain she would. She knew he had twin daughters, but they hadn’t talked about them much because Anita was supposed to be gone before the girls came back. What if she decided to stay in Lakeside? How would she feel about his girls?

  “Looks like the two of you’ve been hands-on all over the place,” Char went on, the snarkiness still clear in her voice. “You never grabbed my ass in public.”

  Noah sighed. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. I have to get back to work. Just…just handle it. The girls are young and were upset enough to call me about it.”

  “They’re almost eighteen. Not that young.”

  “They shouldn’t feel they’re not wanted at any age. If your boyfriend can’t make them feel welcome, send them home.” Charlene was quiet. “You know I’m right.”

  “Yeah, I know.” She’d lost the attitude. “I want them here, Noah. I’ll work it out.”

  “Good. Let me talk to them for a sec.”

  “Hang on, they’re in the next room.”

  In a moment, his girls were back on the line. “Listen, you guys call me if you have any more problems, okay?”

  “Okay, Dad. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” He disconnected and turned to Carter. “Let’s get back to work.”

  Carter handed him a bottle of water. “Troubles in Florida?”

  “The damn boyfriend.”

  “I never got what Charlene saw in Bruce Shaw.”

  “According to her, Bruce didn’t come home with dirt under his fingernails.”

  “That was it?”

  “And she hadn’t known him since she was twelve.”

  Carter crossed his arms. “So she just wanted something different? Someone different?”

  “Who the hell knows? Let’s get back to work.”

  Noah’s mind wandered as he continued to load doors, disassemble light fixtures, and get more dirt under his fingernails. Part of him wanted to jump on a plane, gather his daughters in his arms, and bring them home where they’d be safe from thoughtless people and hurtful words.

  What would his life have been like without his girls? What if Charlene had decided fifteen years ago that she didn’t want to be married to him any longer, wanted to move to Florida and take their little girls with her? He couldn’t imagine a scenario where he wouldn’t have followed them there, or at least visited as often as he could. He wouldn’t have cared how long the distance. If he’d been separated from his daughters, he would have moved heaven and earth to be with them as much as possible.

  What had happened to Patty and Tony Delgado? Anita had only heard Patty’s side of the story. Noah couldn’t help but feel that Tony had a story to tell, too. And if he was reaching out to Anita, then he wanted his daughter to know his side. Better late than never, right?

  After work, before he stopped to pick up the beer to drink with the pizza, Noah pulled up Facebook on his phone and began to search.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Move in with me.”

  “What?” Anita’s gaze shot up to Noah from the plastic tote where she’d started packing the rest of the kitchen items early in the morning. Her heart beat faster. Move in with him? Was he crazy? She didn’t move in with her flings. She didn’t move in with anyone.

  “Seriously. You can stay with me as long as you need to while the house is torn up.”

  While the house is torn up. Her racing heart began returning to normal. “Are you sure?”

  Tomorrow, the work was going to start on the interior of the house. She’d been contemplating how she’d manage to live in the chaos. There weren’t going to be any renovations upstairs, so she’d decided to move her stuff up into her mother’s old bedroom. The bathroom was there. The studio, too. She could live up there. It wouldn’t be much smaller than her condo.

  The only problem was the kitchen would be torn up. Yes, that’s what takeout was invented for, but all the noise would be distracting. And there’d be times when the workmen would have to shut off the power. And the water.

  Evidently, Noah had been thinking about it, too.

  “I’ve got plenty of room. A working kitchen. Plenty of water and electricity.” He raised his brows. “And a bigger bed.”

  It wasn’t really moving in. It made a lot of sense. “I’ve never even seen your home.”

  “About time we remedied that, don’t you think?”

  Had she even seen any of her other July guys’ homes? Very few. Maybe Hank the park ranger’s RV. And she’d been in Jean-Paul’s apartment, but that was because it was in the same building as hers. But she’d never spent the night in either one.

  She was curious to see what kind of home Noah lived in. He’d raised his daughters there, so she assumed it would be a big family home, probably like the Colburns’ house, the one he’d grown up in. She’d grown up in a small city apartment. Aggie’s house was the closest to a family home Anita had ever lived in.

  She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ll take you up on your offer, salvage man. Thank you.”

  He tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ll pick you up after I get off work tonight. They’ll probably start work on the kitchen first thing in the morning.”

  “Okay. You do have a coffeemaker, don’t you?”

  “Don’t worry. I can provide you with all the coffee you want.” He kissed her in that mind-blowing way that hadn’t dampened one bit. “There’s a sunroom at the back of the house. There’s no lake view, but the hills look spectacular. I was thinking you could use that as your studio.”

  An unexpected warmth spread through her chest. She should have known he’d be concerned about her having a studio while she was there. She cupped his jaw. “Thank you.”

  “I have to get going. Feel like stopping at Bud’s for dinner on the way home?”

  Home. It meant different things to different people, didn’t it? This house had even started feeling a little too much like home. It was a good thing she was taking a break from it. “Sounds great.”

  He dropped one more quick kiss to her lips and was gone. Anita found herself staring at the door after he closed it behind him. This was getting a little too domestic. She turned away and poured a cup from the coffeemaker that would be the last thing she packed up this afternoon.

  Tomorrow morning, she’d be drinking coffee in Noah’s kitchen. What would that feel like? Even more domestic? Too restless to continue packing at the moment, she took the coffee through the French doors out onto the finished porch.

  The bright-white porch shone in the sunlight. She’d picked out a wide wooden swing, and last night, Noah had hung it from the one end. She’d bought a cushion that matched the ones on the lounge chairs. She headed for the swing when she saw Cindy, her neighbor, crossing the yard. She waved.

  “Hi. Your house looks great. And the porch. Wow.” Cindy stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “I had to come over and check it out.”

  “Come on up.” There were times when y
ou had to be neighborly. “I just poured some coffee. Would you like to join me?”

  “Thanks.”

  Luckily, Noah had set up the patio table and chairs she’d bought the other day. He didn’t even ask her why she was buying all the furniture if she wasn’t going to be keeping the house. It was a good thing, because she didn’t have an answer to that. “Have a seat at the table, I’ll be right back.”

  Cindy didn’t pay any attention. She followed Anita right into the house. She gasped when she saw the stacked totes. “You’re not moving out, are you?”

  Anita poured another cup of coffee. “I hope you don’t take anything in your coffee. The fridge is empty, and everything’s all packed up. They start work in here in the morning.”

  “Oh, that’s why everything’s in boxes. That makes sense.” Cindy reached for the mug. “Thank you. Black is fine.”

  Anita paused in the middle of the living room as they headed back to the porch. This woman probably knew Aggie better than anyone else. “Did my grandmother ever tell you why she smashed the mantel with a baseball bat?”

  Cindy’s eyes widened as she took in the sad shape of the fireplace mantel and the bat propped up beside it.

  “Guess not,” Anita murmured.

  “Aggie did that?”

  “She left me a note apologizing for it.”

  Cindy shook her head. “That sounds like Aggie.”

  “It does?”

  “She wasn’t much for talking about her feelings. We’d talk about the weather. Or friends and neighbors. But mostly she talked about you.”

  “I didn’t think she knew anything about me.” Anita wanted to be sitting down for this conversation. She led Cindy back out onto the porch. They sat at the glass-topped table, both of them facing the lake. Clouds were rolling in, and the breeze was picking up. Waves slapped against the shore.

  “Storm’s coming in,” Cindy remarked and took a sip of coffee. “Why would you think Aggie didn’t know anything about you? She was your grandmother.”