Fixer-Upper (Spinning Hills Romance 3)

by Ines Saint

  She glanced at the gutted kitchen. “Where?” she asked, her voice laced with amusement. Only a kitchen cart with portable double burners sat in one corner.

  He bit his lip, knowing a normal person would feel ashamed of the house’s condition. But he wasn’t normal. “In the one bathroom.” He gestured with his head to the hallway. The bathroom only had a toilet, a pedestal sink, and a cracked mirror. Some of the new wiring and plumbing was still visible.

  She washed her hands, then followed him into the dimly lit, still damp-smelling room. Chico and Biggie were roaming around the makeshift whelping box, while Pas, Milo, and Pepito blinked and began to rustle. Marissa sat cross-legged on the floor, gently picked Milo up, and began to cuddle and coo. Johnny sat down in front of her and stroked Chico’s fur with the backs of his fingers.

  “He’s so plump and warm, and they all look healthy.”

  “They’ve got a heating pad, and they’re all feeding well. We’ve been lucky.”

  She looked over at him, eyes shining. “I wish I could take one home with me.”

  The longing in her voice gave him pause. He wished he could tell her Brian wasn’t allergic to dogs, but as long as he doubted his own intentions in telling her, he’d keep quiet. Maybe Brian had been telling the lie so long that he believed it. The way Cassie truly believed she was allergic to seafood, when in truth, she only hated it.

  Before long, all five puppies were whimpering and sucking their little mouths in.

  “I’ll go warm up their milk. I’ll be right back. Don’t let them suckle each other! The vet said that could cause sores and infections.”

  By the time Johnny got back, the puppies were all hungry, and Marissa looked like she was in love. “How do you decide which ones to feed first? They’re all hungry! Only Pas looks ready to wait.”

  “I weigh them daily, and feed the ones who’ve gained the least first. Today that would be Biggie and Milo. Here’s Biggie. He’s the one I’ve bonded with most. There’s definitely no way I’m giving him up.” He handed her the first puppy and showed her how to feed him. It was a difficult task because Marissa smelled soft and feminine, and it was hard not to lean in closer than necessary. “Um, you need to be very careful. I pet them, to calm them down while they feed. If they get too desperate, the vet said they could get aspiration pneumonia or drown.”

  Johnny began feeding Milo, and they settled into a comfortable, companionable silence.

  “Who should I feed next?” Marissa asked when she was finished with Biggie.

  Johnny pointed to a golden pup. “Chico.”

  Marissa picked him up and carefully began the process again. “How often do you feed them?” she asked, when he was finished with Pas.

  Johnny picked up Pepito. “Every four hours, but they can go six hours without feeding during the night.”

  “I’m so sorry!” she gasped, her own puppy-eyes showing surprise and remorse. “I had no idea it would be so much work, but I should have known. I should’ve at least asked. And I should definitely be helping you out. How have you managed?”

  Johnny let out a soft chuckle. “You ask about them all the time. Every day, in fact. I told you, Sam and Jake have been helping me out. Sam comes home for lunch, and he feeds them then, often with Dan or Cassie’s help, and Jake can’t wait to feed them in the afternoons when he gets home from school. He’s really bonded with Chico, and Cassie’s going to keep him for him. But we’re keeping them all together for now so they can get socialized. The vet, Tara, has come out to help, too.”

  “I’ll bet she has,” Marissa muttered, without looking up. Johnny gave her a sharp look, thinking he’d detected some jealousy there, but he couldn’t see her face and she was probably just teasing him about his messed-up love life, the same as everyone else did.

  “Ruby, Sherry, and your grandmother have been checking in on them during the day, since they’re so close by,” he continued. “But they get started on puppy mush next week, so it should get easier.”

  “My parents are thinking of taking one. The only thing is they want to travel during the summer months and they’d need someone to take care of it.”

  “I could take care of another one during the summers.”

  Marissa smiled brightly. “I think that’ll seal the deal.”

  They were quiet again and Marissa picked up Pas. “I think I like Pas best.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “He’s barely whimpered. He’s just patiently waited his turn, like he doesn’t mind letting everyone else go first. And look at him now, he’s the only one who’s looked at me, and he looks so grateful!”

  Kind of like you, he thought as Marissa smiled down at the puppy, looking head over heels lost in love. Maybe he’d keep Pas, too. So Marissa could visit him when she needed a puppy fix.

  “Why do you like Biggie the best?” she asked.

  Johnny shrugged. “I think it’s because he gives me the most trouble,” he said, and Marissa laughed. Johnny grinned. “It’s true. He’s the rabble-rouser, always waking the other ones up and trying to get them up to mischief. He’s the runt of the litter, and yet he’s the only one trying to explore and get away. But he’s considerate, too, always cuddling up to whoever’s whimpering the most.”

  “In other words, he’s kind of like you.” She smiled and his heart expanded.

  Sure, it meant she thought he was a rabble-rousing mischief-maker, but she also thought he was considerate and cuddly. “I thought the same thing about you when you were talking about Pas.”

  She looked taken aback by that, but she looked down at Pas with a thoughtful expression. “Maybe. All I know is, you did a really nice thing, taking them in like this. I’ll try to help out more, okay? I’m sorry I haven’t helped at all.”

  “Pas and Biggie make a great team, you know,” he couldn’t help adding. “They’re always looking out for each other.”

  “Right. Like brother and sister.” She looked at him pointedly and he laughed.

  “You always do that,” she mumbled under her breath. “You did it outside and you’re doing it again.”

  “Do what?” he asked.

  She hesitated. “Use humor as your shield and armor.”

  “Um, what?”

  “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  “No. You can always speak your mind with me, Marissa. I want to hear what you’re thinking. Even if I don’t agree.”

  Marissa finished feeding Pas, but she didn’t put her down. Instead, she cuddled her in her lap and petted her with her fingers. Finally, she looked up at him and met his eyes. “A little while ago, you said you were teasing Holly and Cassie about showering, you know.. . naked.” Her eyes flitted away when she said that last word and he had to bite down on his lip to keep from smiling. “What were you all talking about just before you teased them?”

  Johnny sat back and tried to remember. “They were worried and fussing about me staying here.”

  “And you deflected their worries with humor. See?”

  Johnny considered what she was saying and shrugged. “I like people to feel comfortable around me, and I like seeing them happy. My teasing got Cassie and Holly to quit fussing over me, and it got you to stop feeling awkward.”

  “But just now, you did it because I was saying something nice about you.”

  “Maybe. But you have trouble accepting compliments, too, you know,” he pointed out. Not to get even, but because it was a good moment to speak up. “You always deflect them by shining the spotlight on someone or something else.”

  “I know,” she said. “I have a hard time with attention. It makes my skin crawl.” She sent him a lopsided grin before concentrating on petting Pas again. “But it’s different with you . . .”

  “Go on,” he said. He could see her throat work as she gathered courage. Though he knew he didn’t want to hear what she had to say, he felt the need to consider it.

  “You don’t have to fix every awkward situation you come across. It’s okay to
let people worry or feel bad sometimes, or even to allow some situations to explode. It’s uncomfortable, but people learn from the explosions and uncomfortable feelings, too. To be fair, I never see you do it with the students, but you’ve always done it with your peers. When you don’t trust that someone will be fine on their own, you underestimate them. I know, because I think that’s what we did with Melinda.”

  Johnny’s heart was pounding fast. “How long have you thought this about me?”

  Marissa looked back down at the puppy. “Marty would come home sometimes with nutty stories about you and girls, and my mind would always go back to Ana Maria, and all the what-ifs would come back . . .” She was silent for a while. “I never saw you flirt with her or treat her any differently from the way you treated me. But you used humor when things got uncomfortable, and I can see how someone might take that as flirting. You also try to make people feel good about themselves, even when you’re turning them down. And you’re an attractive guy. You add it all up, and you’re a nice, funny, attractive guy who’s showering others with attention. That feels good, and it’s hard for girls to let go of, especially if other things in their lives aren’t going their way.”

  Everything Marty said the day they’d argued came back to him, including what he’d said about his mom, and he got it then, more fully than he’d gotten it before. He sat back, feeling as if he’d just run a very fast race and was now slowing down. So Marissa and Marty had had him figured out all long. Maybe a lot of people did, and that was why they’d let him get away with it for so long. The tension and guilt in his house over how his mom treated Dan had been stifling and unbearable. A crushing weight. His sense of humor helped, and for a long time, his family had come to depend upon him for it. Making others feel good and helping them avoid unpleasant feelings had started to feel like his responsibility at some point.

  He turned to her. “Nine years of psychology classes and mandatory psychoanalysis by renowned professors, and you had me figured out all along. If you hadn’t stopped speaking to me all those years, I’d be cured by now,” he teased.

  She rolled her eyes and sing-songed, “You’re doing it again.”

  “I know, I know.”

  Marissa laughed, put a sleepy Pas back in the whelping box, and stood up. He pushed to his feet, too. “Thanks for helping.”

  She studied him for a long moment. “I feel as if I should hug you good-bye, because you took the puppies on and you’ve done such a great job, and you feel like a friend again, but . . .”

  “You’re afraid I’ll get the wrong idea?”

  “No, more like it’ll be awkward. We have a strange history together, I guess.”

  Johnny smiled. “Well, you said yourself it’s okay to let people feel uncomfortable.” He tugged her into an embrace, and hugged her closer and longer than necessary, wondering if there was any hope she felt the same keen, bittersweet pangs of longing and deep affection.

  Marissa took a quick step back, feeling too much, as if she never wanted to leave that musty, foul-smelling, run-down world. There was magic in it.

  Gratitude. It was all gratitude. That’s what it was. There was both magic and reality in kindness, and Johnny had done the kids and the puppies a kindness that had led him here to this house. She turned to leave.

  “Aren’t you going to stay for the tour?” he asked.

  “Is there anything else to see?”

  “Not really, no.” He laughed. “You still think I’m crazy?”

  She looked around. “No. I think it’s perfect,” she said without thinking.

  “Perfect?” He quirked an eyebrow. “Now I’m worried you’re the one who’s crazy.”

  She laughed and it eased her misgivings. She’d call Brian on the way home, and tell him all about the run-down place and the puppies and nutty Johnny for taking on both the house and the pups. “I guess I thought this place would feel cursed, but it doesn’t.”

  “Enlighten me. What would cursed feel like?”

  “I don’t know . . . ominous? Evil? Haunted by dark spirits? Don’t tell me you’ve never had a feeling about a person or a place that you just couldn’t explain. When I last came here, it felt sad and neglected, but not cursed. Now it feels peaceful and right.”

  He looked around, as if considering her words. “What would you do to it?” he asked.

  Marissa headed toward the door and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not good at that stuff. I don’t have preferences for things like cabinets, fixtures, or countertops. Brian and I have been looking at houses, and I’ve discovered that while I don’t want to live in a cookie-cutter house or subdivision, or anywhere too vanilla, and that I want some color, that’s all I care about. I don’t mind letting Brian choose the details that’ll make him happy as long as the house feels right.”

  “It sounds like you need something cheerful, lovely, and a little overwrought. Just like you.”

  “Gee. Thanks.” Marissa half-rolled her eyes and got into her car, and Johnny waved from the door. She waved, too, and began backing up, all the way down the driveway, only stopping when she was just out of sight to bang her head on the steering wheel.

  She wished he’d never said he loved her. It made everything feel loaded, from their friendly hug to their mild chatter . . . even to their waving good-bye. Even though she didn’t really believe he loved her. She wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous, like Melinda, and she didn’t excel at everything she set her mind to, like Marty. And it wasn’t like Johnny needed someone to take care of him and always be there for him and support him. That was what she was great at, and that was what she liked to do. Some people might need someone like that, but not Johnny.

  Chapter 14

  The next day, when Marissa drove into the parking lot, she saw there were at least two dozen kids gathered on the front steps, along with Amy, Mrs. Simmons, and Harold. They began pointing and waving excitedly when they saw her car. She glanced at the clock on her dashboard and frowned. School didn’t start for half an hour.

  She parked and quickly walked over to them. The school looked great—fresh paint and freshly mowed grass did wonders. “You’re all here bright and early,” she called.

  “Do you get news?” Azra asked, pointing at Marissa’s phone.

  Marissa’s heart soared. They had gathered early to see if she had any news. That was how excited they were. But a moment later, her heart settled with a thud and she was almost afraid to check her e-mail in front of them. Last week’s message had arrived in her in-box at seven thirty on the dot. What if she received bad news in front of them? They all looked so hopeful. But then she remembered what she’d told Johnny about underestimating people.

  If they hadn’t made it through to the final round, it would be a hard day, but they’d deal with it. No matter what, they’d learn a great deal. And they’d still get to finish and perform the musical.

  Marissa set her tote down, took out her phone out, held her breath, and checked her e-mail. “Um . . . no news yet. Remember they’re two hours behind us there. It’s only five a.m. there, and I don’t know who’d get up at five—oh wait.” A message from the Mosaic Marathon popped up just as she was speaking. “There it is.” Her heart stopped. Everyone went silent. Marissa looked up at their expectant, nervous expressions, then licked her lips before looking down again. Feeling as if she was peeling off a Band-Aid, she opened the message and quickly scanned it. The phone slipped out of her hand and hit the steps with an ominous crack, but she didn’t care. “We’re in the finals,” she announced. It was barely a whisper, but they all heard. Squeals and shouts filled the air. The kids started jumping, hugging, and high-fiving each other. Amy and Marissa hugged, but her nerves were tingling. They were so close!

  And where was Johnny? Somehow she knew he’d help her put things into perspective in a way that would make all the unproductive fluttering in her stomach go away. But after chiding him for always trying to make people feel better, and telling him people also needed to learn how to deal wit
h things on their own, it felt hypocritical and unfair to need him right then. It also gave her pause, that Johnny was the first person she thought of when she needed comfort. Two people with too much heart. That’s what they were, and she’d always known it. He’d get her, but she didn’t need to be gotten. She needed to be told to stop being so silly.

  The sun was in Johnny’s eyes as he turned east toward the school. He flipped the visor down and quickly glanced down at the sleeping puppies. He’d promised the kids he’d bring them in, and Mrs. Simmons had said it was okay. He figured he’d keep them at the school only about half an hour, so they wouldn’t became too much of a distraction.

  Johnny exhaled, thinking of the busy day ahead. He’d drive the puppies over to Amador Construction after the kids had gotten some playtime. The pups would get started on mush that day. Johnny would take care of the first feeding, then wait to make sure their tummies were handling the mush okay before returning to the school. Sam and Dan would be in and out of the office all day and would help with the puppy-sitting.

  The last two weeks had gone by quickly, and everything was only now starting to catch up with him. He’d barely slept the night before. Too many thoughts about too many things had kept him up. Melinda’s welcome home party, starting his internship, running into Marissa, adopting puppies, buying a house, getting to know the kids and his coworkers, getting caught up in the excitement of the musical, fixing up the school, and moving into the Cursed Lover.

  Last night had been a turning point for him. Having Marissa in his odd little house, talking with him, laughing with him, chiding him, and loving the puppies with him had showed him what real life would feel like if it was wrapped up in his dreams. There was something inside him that refused to let go of the idea that they were meant for one another. That she belonged in that house with him. That a long, happy life awaited them both if she would only open her mind to the possibility.