“I see.” He studied the woman across from him carefully. She was beautiful, and he wanted to ask if she came with the house, but after Kami, he was a little too skittish around beautiful women for that. “So, you want the bathrooms redone?”
“We want to start with the kitchen,” she said. “It is a great kitchen, but it hasn’t been redone since it was built in the early nineties. My sisters and I haven’t had much chance to talk about exactly what we’re looking for, but my sister Amanda is an interior designer, and I know she went through the house last night making some notes.”
“Yes, I did,” said another feminine voice, and Nick’s eyes gravitated to yet another beautiful brunette. The Romriell girls were all lookers. There was no doubt about that. “I’m Amanda.” She walked in and sat down on a chair, pulling out a notebook. “The first order of business is definitely the kitchen. We want a commercial dishwasher installed, and I have marked the one I’m interested in. If you can’t get it at a discount through your suppliers, then I can through mine. We want the old, ugly linoleum taken out and ceramic tile to take its place. The walls need a new coat of paint—in a more appealing color—and I’d like the cabinets ripped out and new ones put in. I’ve drawn up what I’m looking for in each of those things. We’ll also need a new six-burner stove and a new wall oven. A kitchen island with a sink in it, so two of us can work on meals at once. There are a few other things, but that’s the beginning. Are you capable of doing all of that?”
He smiled. “I most certainly am. I’d love to see the kitchen.” He hoped they’d let him start immediately. This was the kind of project he’d been practicing for his entire career.
Alyssa shook her head. “I think Nick here has designs on our home.”
“I definitely do. I’ve seen this house a million times growing up in town, and I always wanted to see the inside. Now I’m seeing it, and I want to touch everything, and . . .” Nick shrugged. “I love this house.”
“We do, too,” Amanda said. “That’s why we want to make sure you’re the right man for the job.”
Alyssa looked over at Amanda. “Did you and Taylor go over everything last night? Is there anything she thinks is more important to start out?”
Amanda shook her head. “We went over it, and she’s happy with my plans. She also wants a commercial washer and dryer, but that won’t be in Nick’s realm.”
Yet another sister walked in then, and Nick was starting to get a little nervous. There was no way he was going to be able to tell them all apart. Their hair was the same shade. Alyssa had big brown eyes, though, and the others had lighter eyes. At least he could pick her out from the others. “That’s right. I’m very onboard with Amanda’s plans. I think she’s got great taste. I just wish we could agree on a theme for the guest rooms.” She sat down in yet another chair and looked at him. Nick felt a bit like he was surrounded.
“That works. When do we want to get started?”
“Today,” Taylor said emphatically. “Are you currently working a job?”
“I finished one Friday. I’m happy to start whenever you’re ready for me.” Nick was excited, thanking God this had dropped into his lap when it did. He still couldn’t believe his good fortune. He was willing to do anything he had to do to get this job.
“Let’s have you work a bid up on the kitchen, then. We don’t have unlimited funds to make this happen,” Alyssa said, getting to her feet and leading him toward the kitchen.
When Nick stepped into the kitchen, he couldn’t help but smile. The room was huge, with a table for eight at one end and seemingly endless cabinets and counterspace. “Are we leaving the counters as is?”
“I’d prefer granite counter tops,” Amanda said, stopping next to Lauren. “That smells good. What are you making?”
“I call it breakfast!” Lauren said as her sisters and the contractor swarmed her in the kitchen.
“Good choice,” Alyssa said with a grin. “Coffee?”
“In the pot. I started that first thing.”
Alyssa helped herself to a mug. “Coffee?” she asked Nick.
“Sounds good.”
She poured two mugs of coffee, obviously not caring if her sisters had to get their own. “What do you think?”
“Give me an hour to check on some prices, and I’ll give you an estimate. If I only supply labor, I can give you a cheaper price . . .”
“I’ll handle the supplies, then,” Amanda said. “I have suppliers in Salt Lake, and to save the money, I can drive down and get the materials if that makes things easier.”
“It probably would.” Nick looked around slowly as he sipped his coffee. “I’m going to need to take some measurements and make some notes.” He looked at Amanda. “I’m assuming you want custom cabinets?”
“Yes, absolutely. Can you build them yourself, or will you need to farm that out?”
“Oh, I can do that myself. No problem at all.” He smiled. “Can I get started measuring now?”
“After breakfast,” Lauren said. “You’re eating with us, because I made extra.”
Nick grinned. He had left the cabin without breakfast that morning, having gotten into the habit of eating from a gas station with Kami living there. “That would be wonderful.”
Together, the five of them sat down to eat, and Nick only felt a little out of place. His eyes were on the remodel he would do, and he was thinking about exactly what the work would entail. He’d eaten two bites before he couldn’t hold back his next question. “When do you want the kitchen done by?”
Amanda and Taylor exchanged a look. “We’d like to have it done within the next two weeks. We have a lot of work that needs to be done before we can open the B&B, and we’re hoping to be able to open by June first.”
He choked a bit on his coffee. “June first? I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“How long do you think the kitchen will take, then?” Amanda asked. She wasn’t going to back down on what they needed to change. If they were going to run a business out of the house, they had to be equipped for it.
“Three weeks if I hurry? Do you object to paying a little extra for a rush job? I can work weekends if that’ll help you, but no days off might make for a grumpy Nick.”
“Grumpy or not, if you get the work done properly, we’ll be happy.” Alyssa took a bite of her scrambled eggs. “Now you understand why we want you to start immediately.”
“I do.” He took a deep breath. “As soon as breakfast is over, I’ll get an estimate worked up. I’d like to start immediately after lunch, if possible.” He was pretty sure the job was his, because he’d been recommended by Hannah, but more importantly, he was there, and no one else was. He needed to get to work right away.
“Sounds good.” Alyssa seemed a little off to him, and he wasn’t sure why. She was a beautiful woman, but something was going on there. “I’m going for a run after breakfast. I trust my sisters to be here with you while I do.”
Lauren frowned at Alyssa, and Nick couldn’t help but wonder why. “A run?”
“I’ve discovered in the past few years that I love to run, though I don’t love lifting weights. So, I’m going to continue my runs.” Alyssa shrugged, sipping her coffee. “And I’m the oldest, so you don’t get to worry about me.”
“Try and stop me.” Lauren grinned at Alyssa.
“That goes double for me,” Taylor said softly.
“You’re not leaving me out,” Amanda said. “Sisters worry about sisters, and it doesn’t matter who is the oldest and who is the youngest. That’s just how it works.”
“I guess it is.” Alyssa took another sip of her coffee and stood up. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes or so. I might run along the beach.”
“There’s not much of a beach right now. It’s just snow. I would stick to the roads if I were you.” Nick felt the need to warn her.
Alyssa made a face. “I might need to have a treadmill here. That will keep me running no matter the time of year.” With those words, she disapp
eared out the front door, and Nick had to wonder why the others were worried when she went for a run. Seemed to him that running was good for a person.
Fifteen
As soon as Alyssa was outside the house, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her hormones were in a whirl after meeting Nick. She was a million times more attracted to the man than she had ever been to Tim, and spending time with the contractor was the last thing she needed. He was certainly good-looking, but it was more than that. Her instinct was to run from him, because she couldn’t deal with another relationship with a man like Tim. She almost wanted to refuse whatever bid he gave them, just so she could avoid him, but contractors weren’t that plentiful in Bear Lake. If his quote was good, they would have no choice but to accept it.
She did wish her sisters hadn’t made a fuss about her running in front of him, because it was none of his business why they didn’t think she should run. All of her sisters had expressed to her—privately—that they were worried she was becoming anorexic after the time with Tim. She didn’t think so, but she had to respect their worries. Still, she would have preferred if they hadn’t spoken so freely in front of Nick.
She stretched a little and started a slow jog down toward the lake, which was one of their property borders. She could see that Nick had been right, and there was no beach, only snow, so she decided to keep her run on the streets of the small town. It wouldn’t be as fun, but she could run on the beach all summer long. She hoped. It had been known to snow in Bear Lake in June.
Her favorite thing about running was allowing her thoughts to roam freely. She never tried to direct her brain to certain thoughts, and instead it was whatever jumped to the forefront. Alyssa knew a lot of people who preferred to run with an audiobook or music playing, but that kept her from what she needed.
Being back in the small town was wonderful. She remembered each street well. Running past the house where Hannah had grown up, she smiled. They had spent a lot of time playing at her house so her cousins and sisters wouldn’t bother them.
Next, she ran past the shake place where Bear Lake raspberry shakes were made and sold. It had been a thing when they were kids to walk over there every day for a raspberry shake. Of course, Kayla had always insisted on chocolate shakes, which made no sense to Alyssa. Chocolate shakes were everywhere. Only in Bear Lake could you get raspberry shakes—or better yet, raspberry cheesecake shakes—to keep your taste buds jumping. She noted that the shake shack was closed until Memorial Day and frowned. They would have to figure out how to make raspberry shakes on their own. It was too much a highlight of being at the lake to miss out during the spring and winter.
She kept running, moving on toward the elementary school. All the kids in the area went to this little school, but for junior high and high school, they were bused over to Montpelier like all the other kids in the country.
She made a full circle around the elementary school and headed back toward the house, not sure if she was ready to be finished. Glancing down at her Apple Watch, she saw that she’d only gone one point two miles, and she wanted to do a full four miles before she was done.
And she didn’t want to do it because it had anything to do with her weight. It was for her health, and it just felt good to run. Despite what she’d always thought, when it became a habit, she actually started to enjoy it. She hadn’t run much in the past few weeks as she’d dealt with the fallout of her parents’ deaths and the decisions they’d made following them. Now she realized that she’d needed to have this time with her thoughts flowing freely.
Every car she passed had a driver who waved at her, which was one of her favorite things about the small town. No one was a stranger to anyone, and eventually, she and her sisters would be considered locals and not just summer people.
As she ran, she glanced at houses, noting when there was a “For Sale” sign. There were so many different homes for sale in the area, and she knew most would end up being Airbnbs if they didn’t get purchased by someone in the area. She could be someone purchasing a home in a month or two. The lake house would be a place she could always visit, but living with her sisters, though enjoyable for the short term, was not something she could do forever.
Finally, she turned down the street to go right back home, and she smiled at the word. Home. She really did feel like she was finally home.
She didn’t go to the front door, and instead she went around back to the deck, knowing she wanted to sauna before she joined the others. She wanted to kick herself for not remembering to preheat the thing before she started running, but it didn’t matter. Today was about reacquainting herself with the community and getting her things unpacked.
Alyssa walked to the sauna to turn it on, thinking she was going to have to go to the kitchen for some water anyway, when she noticed someone had heated it up for her. Not only was it on, there were three bottles of water lying on the cover of the hot tub. All of them had water dripping down the sides, so she knew they were cold.
She smiled, stripping down to her underwear. One of her sisters had definitely thought of her. She would have to remember to thank them when she was finished.
Getting into the sauna, she set the egg timer they kept on the bench in there for twenty minutes. At first, the heat actually felt good after the cold from her run, but it didn’t take five minutes before she was feeling too hot for comfort. She drank the bottles of water and wished she’d thought to bring her e-reader in. If she kept a bottle of cold water touching it at all times, she was sure the e-reader could be kept from over-heating.
The sauna was a decent size, meant for six people. Her parents and aunts and uncles had used it a lot when she was growing up, and she’d always thought they were crazy for cooking themselves. Since, she’d done research on the benefits of using a sauna for twenty minutes six days a week, and she’d wished she had access to one. Well, now she did. She was sure she’d mentioned to Amanda that she was looking forward to using the sauna after exercising. It was probably her who had preheated it and left the water.
When she got out, she shut the sauna off along with the light before putting her sweaty clothes back on. She went up the stairs to the bedroom she’d chosen for its view of the lake, and she stripped, getting into the shower.
At that moment, she realized that this was her perfect morning routine for the lake. She’d eat, run, sauna, and then shower. Then she would start the studying she needed to do to get her real estate license transferred to Idaho. She’d already set up her test for May seventh, so she only had about three weeks to prepare, but that should be more than long enough.
Once she was dressed in jeans and a hoodie, she went back downstairs, wondering if there was a bid yet. Surely Nick had enough time to get one ready for them.
Nick. Even his name made her heart beat faster. She sighed. That was not what she needed right now. She’d focused way too much on her relationship with Tim for the last seven years, and she was done with men for a while. It was time for her to focus on herself instead.
She went into the kitchen, where her sisters were looking over a piece of paper while Nick was looking more closely at the entryway of the house. “So, let me see.”
Amanda handed her the paper, and Alyssa blanched at the total for just the kitchen, but she knew Amanda knew a great deal more about what it should cost to do the work than she did. “Is that a good price?”
Amanda nodded. “It’s about half of what we’d pay for labor in Salt Lake. People here just work cheaper.” She shrugged. “Now I want you to keep in mind that with materials, we’re looking at double this cost, and I’ll be driving to Salt Lake for the materials. All he’s charging us for is his labor.”
“Wow.” Alyssa looked at Taylor and Lauren. “What do you two think?”
Taylor shrugged. “Amanda says it’s a good deal, and I trust her. He said he’d do the work in three weeks, and that sounds reasonable. He’ll be building cabinets off-site to get them ready to put in.”
“Lauren?” Alyssa as
ked.
Lauren shrugged. “I think I know less about this than anyone else in this room. If you three all agree, then I agree, too.”
Amanda smiled at that. “I say we do it. He can get started ripping out cabinets and tearing up that ugly linoleum this morning. I’ll place the order with my supplier in Salt Lake, and I’ll plan to head down to pick up the supplies tomorrow. He said he’d carry them in if we fetch them. He offered to go get them, too, but I don’t want him to miss a day of work when we need him so badly.”
Alyssa nodded. “That makes a lot of sense to me. Who is going with you? I don’t want you driving more than five hours round-trip tomorrow on your own.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Taylor? Lauren?”
Lauren nodded. “I think Taylor should be here to keep doing her bookkeeping stuff and getting all of our ducks in a row. I’m expendable, so I’ll go and help. My liberal arts degree in action!”
“Sounds good. I’d volunteer, but I want to start my studying for the Idaho test in the morning. I’ll probably run through neighborhoods again. I’m trying to get a good feel for the real estate market in the area.” Alyssa leaned back against the counter, pulling some Junior Mints from the pocket of her hoodie and popping a couple in her mouth. When she noticed Amanda smiling, she frowned at her. “What?”
“I just think you’re hilarious with the running and then the partaking of Junior Mints so close together.” Amanda was obviously thrilled to see her eating the sweets.
Changing Dreams (Bear Lake Dreamers Book 1) Page 9