by Nancy Naigle
“What’s your hurry? Let’s take a look at your plans under some light.”
She followed him back into the dining room and they spread out all of her drawings. Matt made a few suggestions on the layout, most of which she really liked, and they even laid out electrical-outlet placements while they talked through the usability of what she’d designed.
“I think you’ve got a really good plan here.” He looked up. His gaze connected with hers. “I’m glad I got to be a part of this with you.”
There was an awkward silence as her mind reeled. Matt seemed so connected to Angel’s Rest that it was a little unsettling, and she wasn’t sure if it was in a good way or not.
He cleared his throat. “Do you remember those church outings they used to have at Angel’s Rest during the summer?” He sat back in his chair, a thoughtful smile spreading across his face. “Those were great. People still talk about those days, and the hay rides to see the Christmas lights—”
“Of course I remember.” Where was he going with all of this? They’d already talked about it.
“And the fly-fishing. I liked that the best. Really memorable,” he said. Silence hung between them again. “I remember you from back then.”
“You do?” She tried to imagine him younger.
“Yeah, and sadly I have to admit that you outfished me every time. I’ve never met another woman who could cast a fly rod like you.”
She laughed. “Pop taught me. I was fly-fishing from the time I could walk. He gave me this little bucket hat and he put all these colorful lures all over it. It was so pretty, but I’d never use any of the lures. No matter how many I lost or got hung up in a tree I refused to give up any of the ones on my hat. Those things are expensive. Of course, at the time I had no idea. I was just a little thing. I loved being out there with him. He spoiled me, not so much with gifts, but with his time. I was so lucky.”
“Your grandpa was a great man. He must’ve had the patience of a saint to put up with all us kids all the time.”
“He lived for that.” She looked at Matt. “I can’t believe I don’t remember you. Maybe it’s the beard.”
“Yeah. Maybe. I didn’t have this back then.” He rubbed his hand across his beard.
“A ten-year-old with a beard would’ve been memorable.” He was good-looking, but she’d never been a fan of a beard. Why a man would want all that scruff on his face was hard for her to comprehend.
“I remember you serving hot chocolate in a red coat and Santa hat with your grandmother one Christmas too. Then, you rode back down the hill on the hay wagon and brought enough cookies for everyone.”
“Snickerdoodles.” Her voice was soft. “It’s still the only cookie I know how to make.”
“They were good.”
“Those were great times. I want to bring that back to this town.”
“I hope you will. This town could use that burst of Christmas spirit again.”
A tingle of excitement coursed through her, but when her eyes locked with Matt’s that tingle turned into a rioting panic.
She glanced at her watch. “Oh gosh. Look at the time. I’ve taken up nearly all of your day. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be silly. This has been the best Thanksgiving I’ve had in a while. I’m glad it worked out the way it did.”
She wanted to run. To bolt straight out of there. Was she misdirecting her excitement over Angel’s Rest toward this guy? She didn’t even know him. Didn’t even want a relationship. Especially now. There was no time for that, especially if he was going to be working on this project for her. These had been her memories for so long, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to share them with anyone else.
His place had some feminine touches. For all she knew he was married. “You know, it’s none of my business, but why are you spending Thanksgiving alone?”
He sat there quiet for a long moment. “I lost my dad last year. Cancer. My sister usually spends Thanksgiving in South Carolina. That’s where she lives.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
“I noticed your necklace.”
Her hand went to the special sand-dollar pendant.
“Usually it seems like people either love the mountains or the beach. Not both.”
She twisted it in her hand. “You’re right. I’ve always been a mountain girl, but I worked on a project in South Carolina. In fact, I just finished it up. I found a real appreciation for the beauty of the coast while I was there. I kind of splurged on the necklace as a reward to myself on the project.”
“I guess both have their charms. You couldn’t force me to live on the coast, though.”
“I don’t know that I’d live there, but nature in all its natural glory is pretty amazing no matter what it is.”
“True. Well, congratulations on your project.”
“Thank you.”
He looked around, then sniffed, and a slight grin settled on his lips. “Dad and I worked together on this place. We made a lot of memories in the process. I understand your love of Angel’s Rest. Of those things that are special from the past. Come with me. Let me show you something else before you go.”
Reluctant for a split second, she followed him into the living room.
He pointed to a reclaimed wood frame hanging next to the fireplace. The wood was rough, some notches deeper than others.
“That picture is the first time Dad took me fishing.”
She could see his good looks even in the softness of the little-boy features. He was looking up at his father with so much pride as he held a tiny wiggling fish. “That’s so sweet.”
“Dad made that frame. That wood was the seat of the old wooden boat we used to take out. Those notches represented the fish we’d caught. How big they were.”
Her heart swelled. “Oh my gosh. That’s so neat.”
“I really miss him. He was a good man.”
She saw a tenderness fill his eyes.
“That’s the bad thing about love. When it’s gone it hurts like the devil. I treasure all of our memories together up here.”
“I think you do understand why I hold memories of Antler Creek so dear.” Her heart ached for his loss. Matt was clearly a good man too. Probably walking in his daddy’s very footsteps. “Thank you for sharing that with me. I think our paths crossed for a reason.” Things always happen the way they should. Pop’s twinkling blue eyes danced in her memory. “I better get out of your hair.”
“It’s been nice. I’ll get right to work on these numbers for you.”
“Thank you for everything. Email me the reports and I’ll go through them and then call you back with questions.” She walked over to the door and pulled on her coat. “Thank you again.”
He stepped out on the porch and waved as she drove off.
A gentleman to the end.
Liz shifted into reverse and turned to head toward the road, but her eyes locked on that rearview mirror until she could no longer see Matt.
Chapter Ten
The road down the mountain had been a little sketchy, but once Liz got to Main Street where things were flat it wasn’t threatening. He was right. There wasn’t one thing open in Antler Creek today. Not even the gas station. The road was empty except for her. Most everyone was probably eating or watching the ball game. There’d be no yard football today because of the weather.
Her mind kept drifting back to Matt, all the possibilities for the inn, and that dinner. He was a very good cook.
Matt had made some good design points today too, and if she wanted to update or make changes to the way the space was laid out, now was the time to do that while the place was mostly gutted.
She was dying to know what the ballpark estimates were going to look like. She’d gotten the place for much less than she’d expected to spend on her dream home, so she had a pretty good budget to work with. But it wasn’t unlimited. She might be getting excited over nothing.
Technically, she could continue working while repairs got under way to offset the c
ost, but if she really wanted to get that inn going again, didn’t she owe it to herself to give the project 100 percent instead of what was left of her time while working on opening another store for PROEM Service Group? Her job wasn’t a nine-to-fiver. It wasn’t even just a five-day-a-week job. It wasn’t uncommon for her to be gone for weeks at a time on a project. That would never work.
If she ignored the inn for two weeks, that project could go completely off the rails. It quite honestly could cost her more than she’d make, and she made a very nice salary.
It was exhausting trying to decide whether to gamble on the dream or admit defeat. Dan would be quick with the I-told-you-sos. It was easier tonight to push past all the what-ifs with Matt on her side, though.
Liz parked on the street in front of the Goodwins’ house. It was a pretty Craftsman-style home with a welcoming front porch and beautiful stone columns. Twice she lost her footing as she walked up the driveway to the back-stair entrance to the apartment. Thank goodness those stairs were protected from the northerly rain and ice.
She took off her coat and hung it on the thick wooden pegs of the hall tree. It wasn’t an original piece, like the one she had at her house, but it did make her think about how inviting that would be in the front entry at Angel’s Rest.
She could picture it sitting atop a richly colored hand-knotted Persian rug to anchor the space and give some warmth to the expansive original strip-oak flooring. A good rug could cover up a multitude of problems too, and there were several trouble spots, from what she’d seen in the dimly lit house this morning.
Character, she tried to convince herself.
The apartment had everything she needed, with an extra dose of testosterone. There was no mistaking that this was a young man’s apartment. Leather, a couple of deer heads on the wall, and even a kegerator. Not that she minded. She was thankful for the comfortable place to crash.
She filled the teakettle and sat on the edge of the leather couch with her laptop. By the time the water began to boil and emit enough steam to whistle, Liz had added a couple more tabs to her spreadsheet. One she could populate with detailed repairs and cost estimates, and another for the nice-to-haves. She also started looking up contact information for services she’d need, like utilities, inspections, and local emergency contacts. She was a firm believer in planning for any disaster. If you were prepared for the worst, it seldom happened, but if God forbid something did happen the plan to recover had already been created under a cool head when all of the steps could be well thought out. A failure mode and effects analysis also provided a clear view of just how catastrophic the event was—keeping things in perspective.
With the teakettle quieted and her tea steeping in a big mug with an Appalachian State logo on the side, she went back to work.
Without knowing the numbers Matt would come up with, she put together a realistic budget based on her remaining cash on hand and credit available. If Matt’s numbers exceeded this budget, she’d have to do the minimum work required to get it back on the market and walk away.
The thought made her stomach flip.
She took a sip of tea, hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
She fidgeted with the spreadsheet, narrowing the wiggle room a little, but not putting the project at risk by expecting to work during the project.
Finally, she transferred the figures to her spreadsheet and locked the cell with her final budget number. It was aggressive, but if she was going to abandon a dream over the number on this spreadsheet, she was going to give herself every opportunity.
The pressure was off of her now. She’d let the numbers decide the fate of Angel’s Rest.
She’d either be going all in or be putting lipstick on the old pig to flip it and get out. Dan talked about flip houses all the time. Mostly cursing them for shoddy work, but they did pull in a profit. With the deal she got, hopefully she’d do more than okay and at least break even. Then, she’d just have to come up with a new dream, because if things didn’t work out with this family property, she wouldn’t have the heart to try with a different place.
Her phone rang, and Peggy’s number displayed on the screen. “Hi, Peggy.”
“Hey. I’m making my famous potato salad to take to my mom’s for Thanksgiving and got to thinking, if you don’t have plans why don’t you join me?”
“Thank you, but I have plans.”
“You do? Skipping Thanksgiving altogether isn’t a plan, you know. Turkey has to be involved.”
Liz laughed. Peggy knew her so well. “I had turkey a couple of hours ago.”
“Was it fast food?”
“No. I met Matt over at the inn to go over the repairs needed. Kind of an after-the-fact inspection.”
“Matt?”
“The inspector.”
“So you’re on a first-name basis with the inspector already?”
“Oh stop. He came highly recommended and I may have pushed a little to get the inspection sooner than next Tuesday. I’m thankful for the Thanksgiving Day inspection. There was icy rain and hail, so he invited me to share his turkey lunch with him.”
“You had a lunch date? I like what I’m hearing.”
“It wasn’t like that, but we did share lunch. He kind of insisted, and since I was the reason he was out on Thanksgiving I kind of felt obligated.” But that wasn’t entirely true. Why had she said that?
“Why are you dancing all around this Matt guy? He’s cute, isn’t he?”
Liz hadn’t found him nearly as attractive at first sight as she had once they’d been talking for a couple of hours. He’d really grown on her. “He has a beard. You know how I feel about that scruffy look.”
“You can clean him up. Did y’all have a good time?”
“We were inspecting the house. Talking renovation. But to answer your question … yes, it was nice.”
“Just nice?”
“Okay, it was more than nice. And I can’t even put my finger on when the mood shifted when I was at his house—”
“You were at his house? I thought you were inspecting the inn. Go on. Don’t leave out a thing.”
“It’s not like that.” Or maybe it was. “I almost felt as if I was with someone I’d known forever. Sort of, but also impossible, because he’d said himself that we hadn’t really known each other, just been in the same place at the same time, and I didn’t remember him at all.”
“Remember him from what?”
“He used to go fly-fishing and hiking with my grandpa’s group on the lodge outings. He even remembered how good I was with a fly rod.”
“Sounds to me like he had a crush on you back then.”
“Right, and he’s been pining away for me since he was thirteen. I’m sure you’re right, Peggy.” Liz laughed. “But whatever it was, in a few days I should have some idea of how big this project is. I just set my budget in stone and locked the cell on my spreadsheet. It’ll be a go or no-go.”
“I really hope it’s a go.”
“Me too.”
“What if your house sells while you’re figuring all this out?” Peggy asked. “I ran into Missy at the store yesterday and she said she already had three clients lined up to see your place next week.”
That was fast, but that was exactly why she’d listed it with Missy. She delivered results. “I’ll add that to my project plan to figure out. Even if it sold the first week, I can eke out at least thirty to forty-five days to escrow.”
“So, no problem.”
“I guess not. But honestly if I can’t restore Angel’s Rest, I don’t want to move. I like my house in Charlotte. If it hadn’t been for stumbling over that auction I never would’ve considered putting my house on the market.” Panic shot through her. She let out a steadying breath. “You know what, I appreciate you keeping me in balance about this, but I’m not going to jinx any of this by getting caught up in the negative thoughts. Once I get all the details from the inspection I’ll know for sure what my next steps are, and I haven’t signed anything wi
th Missy yet. We don’t meet until Monday.”
“Good. You have a great head on your shoulders, I know I don’t need to worry about you, but please promise me if you get lonely today that you’ll call. Okay?”
“I promise.” Liz was grateful for Peggy’s friendship.
“Great. I can’t wait to hear about the inspection. Happy Thanksgiving and I want you to know how thankful I am for our friendship.”
“Me too, Peggy.” Liz hung up the phone feeling blessed to have such a good relationship with Peggy. She wasn’t only her boss, but a true friend. It had been a good day. Yes, there was a lot to be done at the inn, but she was feeling hopeful. In the sky a sliver of a moon hung in the nearly starless heavens tonight.
* * *
BLACK FRIDAY IN Antler Creek was nothing like it was in Charlotte. Thank goodness, because Liz had been so consumed by the possibilities with Angel’s Rest that she hadn’t even picked up groceries for the apartment, and the leftovers from the Creekside Café were running low.
Desperate for a few staples, she’d had no choice but to venture out. Surprisingly, though, things were busy, but not half bad. As she drove by the new candle factory, she noticed that the parking lot was full, but there was no crazy line or anything. She swung in, and by some stroke of luck was able to get a front parking spot. Feeling pretty victorious, she ventured inside.
The retail side of Shining Sol Candles was laid out nicely, with whitewashed wooden stands that played beautifully to the mountain location. A huge Christmas tree soared from the center of the store, a star sparkling from way above them in the warehouse rafters. Even with the number of people here it didn’t feel chaotic.
The first candle she picked up was a beautiful spa-like blue labeled SAND DOLLAR COVE. A fresh seaside scent, it reminded her of her morning walks on the beach down in South Carolina. She put one in her basket, then tucked two more in as gifts for some of the people at the office.
She sniffed so many scents that she wasn’t sure her sniffer was even working anymore, but her cart was pretty full, so she still considered it a win. She hoped she wasn’t jinxing anything by purchasing candles with room themes in mind at Angel’s Rest, but at these prices she couldn’t help herself.