"Call me Colette, sweetie, and it’s me who should be thanking you. You'll see what I mean once you see the properties,” she said rolling her eyes and pulling me through the door. "Maybe while you're looking at the other houses you could have a look here and tell me what I could do to make it look better?" She gestured to follow her as she walked through the living room towards what I assumed was the kitchen.
I looked around and almost tripped a couple of times at how beautiful and classy yet homely Colette had made the place look. The walls were a bright white and had the odd picture here and there, the furniture was brown leather and glass and totally minimalistic, but it was the oak floorboards that made me drool.
"Oh my God, are these reclaimed or the originals?” I breathed as I stopped and stared.
"Ah, they're the originals. No one realized they were there because my great grandfather-in-law had for some reason put pine boards over them. When we moved in here, one of the boards was loose so I lifted it and found these babies underneath. At the time I was nesting because I was six months pregnant with my eldest Renwick, but I started tearing up those pine boards like a mad woman and went and bought some varnish from the store and would have done it if my Jack hadn't come in from the ranch when he did. I'll never forget when he walked in and saw all these floor boards thrown outside and me sanding the floor with this massive bump in the way," she said laughing hard and I couldn't help laughing with her at the mental picture she'd painted for me.
"Well, you've done a beautiful job. Honestly, this is like my ideal home - you’ve mixed the old with the new and blended them together perfectly, and it’s classy but homely at the same time. I love it!”
"Thank you, I love this place too. Now if only we can get my wayward kids to make their houses into homes too,” she sighed. "Let me introduce you to them. Two of my boys are in the kitchen this way. My other babies are in different states at the moment, but they’ve agreed to meet with you later to work on their homes thank the Lord.” She started back in the direction that we'd been headed before I started drooling over this home perfection.
I heard the deep voices coming from the kitchen and walked in to find the hottie from the store and the cute guy I’d seen at the bar last night. ‘Seriously, why was my luck so damned bad?’ I thought, tipping my head back to look at the ceiling for a second before I looked back at the visual heaven that was the Townsend brothers. My usual taste would have been the shorter of the two, but I couldn't stop looking back at the taller one that I'd seen in the grocery store.
"Ren, Cole, this is Maya Price, the designer. Maya, these are two of my troublemaking boys, Cole on the left and Ren on the right." Okay, so the sex God from the store was called Ren; if you didn't think of Ren and Stimpy, Ren was a hot guy’s name so it figured that he'd have it.
Cole stepped towards me drawing my attention back to him and pulled me in for a hug scaring the shit out of me.
"So, we meet again," he said as his eyes skimmed my face making me feel just a wee bitty uncomfortable, especially since we technically hadn’t ‘met’ last night as I’d been leaving when he arrived.
"Uh yeah, happy to meet you formally, Cole.” I heard a deep growl from over his shoulder, and Ren's face appeared as he pulled Cole off of me then softly stroked a finger down my face following its path with his gorgeous gray eyes.
"Hey baby, nice to finally meet you,” he rumbled in the deepest, sexiest voice I’d ever heard. I tried my best not to flinch at his use of the word baby, but nine months with my ex-had taught me a couple of things like the fact men used the word baby for girls to basically land them by making them feel special when, in actuality, it was so they didn't mess up their name or have to remember it. He caught my flinch and frowned and I could see the question in his eyes, but I powered through it.
"Uh hey, Ren. Great to meet you both too and thanks for letting me look at your homes,” I said trying to pull myself back to being professional and remembering exactly why I was here.
"That's okay, gorgeous. We were just talking about how Ren's left his wood bare for too long and how it's at risk of rotting now,” Cole’s voice sounded from behind Ren. I couldn't help but take a step away from Ren and shoot a quick glance down at his crotch. Well, that's a damn shame.
"Jesus Christ, Cole. Shut the fuck up,” Ren snarled, scowling at his brother. "FYI there is absolutely nothing wrong with my wood nor have I ever left it bare. This guy is just a little bitch.”
Well, I felt better knowing that his wood wasn't rotting off, not that it would make a difference to me because I was going nowhere near Ren's wood. God, why is this all so dirty all of a sudden? Houses Maya - walls, decorating, wood…….no steer clear of the wood thoughts.
I felt my cheeks heating and was relieved when Colette interrupted. ”Both of you shut up. I swear I brought them up better than this, Maya. It’s their father’s genes that I sadly thought were sexy beyond belief, and still do, that he's passed down to our sons," she scolded with her hands on her hips.
"Sorry, Ma,” Cole said casting his mom an innocent look that I bet worked on every female on the receiving end of it.
"Sorry, Ma,” Ren grumbled from beside me, still shooting Cole dirty looks.
3
____
Maya
"Right, uh shall we go to the first house you want me to look at?" I asked Colette. No doubt the boys would be heading back out on the ranch, so thankfully it would just be the two of us. I didn't know if I would be able to concentrate with Ren Townsend near me, especially if we were near a sofa, or a table, or bed…
"Sure, there are five in total as I told you when we spoke. Ren and Cole's, then Brett's, Tom’s, and finally my daughter Layla's. Since his has been ugly the longest, why don't we look at Ren's first?" Colette was watching her boys with narrowed eyes, just daring them to make an innuendo. It seemed like this was perfectly normal for her, and I didn't doubt that it most likely was.
I went to say bye to the men, but Ren put his hand on the base of my spine and murmured in my ear, "This way, baby,” making me to do a mini flinch again. Here I was mooning over the guy and he probably couldn’t even remember my name - just fucking great.
"So Maya, why did you move to Piersville?" Cole asked from my other side. “And where’s your accent from? I thought you were a Montgomery?”
"My father's a diplomat so once I finished college and handed in my notice to a designer I worked for in the city, I decided to move near my family. Also, my sister's under seven hours away from here so I can see her too,” I explained trying to keep it brief.
"You have family near here, honey?" Ren asked, calling me yet another pet name but sounding very interested in the answer for some reason.
"Yeah, George Montgomery is my uncle on my mom’s side,” I answered feeling awkward because let's face it, we weren’t here for my life story.
"No shit!" Cole said from my left side, and I felt Ren flinch this time and turned to look at him.
"So that makes Luke, Mark and Adam your cousins?" Ren queried, pointing out the obvious and making me wonder what the issue with them being my cousins could be?
“Yup, is that a problem?" I asked when he didn't comment any further and still looked uncomfortable. I could hear Cole sniggering beside me as well which made me wonder what the hell was going on?
"No, no problem, just making the association and all that,” Ren was looking anywhere but at my face with a red flush on his cheeks.
I turned to look at Cole, and he whispered, "He's played around with them before,” and winked.
What did he mean played around with? Like kids playing? Why would that be awkward? As I was mulling all of this over, I saw the look of pure rage that Ren gave Cole and Cole's shit-eating grin, and then all of the dots started to add up…
"Oh my God, my cousins are gay? You've slept with my cousins? Wait, that means you're gay too? Holy shit — you’re gay!" I rambled wincing when the last bit was shouted out catching Colette's attention
and making her turn around.
"Who's gay?”
Cole, who by this point was bent over holding his knees and gasping for air, stuttered out, “R....R...Ren!" and promptly fell onto his knees losing the battle with his joints as he curled into a little ball and howled.
"I'm not fuckin gay! What the actual fuck? Why would you think that?" Ren shouted with his hands on his hips, glaring at me.
"But Cole said you'd played around with my cousins?" I looked at Colette who looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her.
"Yeah, with chicks!" He snapped back at me. Then it hit me, and I felt my stomach fall through my body. I was surprised that I managed to stay upright at the devastation that went through me as it sank in — he had shared girls with my cousins; like at the same time. These were the guys that my cousins had warned me about - the ‘Town Cats’ as they called them.
I turned to Colette, who was now looking at Ren with a look of shock and disgust that only a mother would wear. She looked at me, and her expression turned into worry.
"Right, so which house is it?” I asked in the calmest voice I could, looking anywhere apart from at Ren and Cole. I wouldn't let Ren see how upset I was at the reality that the guy who had been stuck in my head for the last three days was, in fact, worse than my ex in his slutdom. You didn't come here for a man, Maya, I scolded myself, and followed Colette toward the massive house furthest away from the main house.
"Maya..." Ren whispered behind me.
"Have you got an idea what you want done with the place then?" I interrupted, determined now that our conversation would only be about my job.
"Not really,” he grumbled back.
"Okay, let’s see what we're working with then,” I was determined to play the part of the chipper, non-affected professional that I was.
I followed Colette up the steps onto the porch and frowned at the bare space. There wasn't a chair, a swing, a table, nothing and it was right in the sun. I couldn't imagine having this view and not having a way to sit outside and enjoy it when I wasn't working. Colette caught my eye nodded like she agreed with what was going through my head. I had noticed that there was more than one porch around her house and that all of them had furniture; so it must be a bone of contention for her that Ren didn't have this.
Inside, it was all open plan. The living room was huge and all that was in it was a couch that had seen better days, two Lazyboys, a marked wooden table and the biggest flat screen that I had ever seen in my life mounted on the wall. To the right was the dining area, with the kitchen at the back of the house.
The kitchen had white cabinets and white tiles and was full of new looking stainless steel appliances. I could see some dirty dishes, a toaster, a microwave, a kettle and some protein shake powder on the side and that was all. This place seriously needed some personality. Looking at the walls, I noticed it was white primer and looked at Ren with a raised eyebrow, but he was too busy staring into space with a frown on his face. Alrighty then!
I followed behind Colette as she went to the back of the house pointing out the office, which had another huge TV in it, the mudroom and the utility room; everything just looked so bare, like all he'd done is dump furniture and that was it. Did he actually live here? Judging by the mudroom I'd say he did, but there was no evidence of...well...anything in his home.
As we walked around, I took notes to remind myself and already had ideas brewing in my head. Colette led us up a beautiful staircase with a glass banister running around it, but the steps hadn't been made out of the same beautiful oak boards that the floor had, so obviously the intent had been for these to be covered. In my mind, I pictured the beautiful slate that I'd seen used in a similar project in England covering the stairs and offsetting the slight tint of green that the glass that ran along the outside of the stairs had. With the stain I had in mind to put on the floorboards and the injections of color and basic humanity that I envisioned putting into the place, it would be stunning.
As we got upstairs, I realized how close Ren was to my back and that he would have had my ass in his face on the stairs — thank God I hadn't realized that before otherwise I probably would have tripped and made a fool of myself.
"Okay, this is one of the spare rooms,” Colette said at the first door upstairs. It was a plain room with a pine bed in the middle and an ensuite. "All of the rooms on this floor look like this apart from the room that Ren hasn't decided what to do with still,” she continued looking around disappointedly.
I was taking notes but looked up at that comment. “Even the master suite?”
Ren was staring at me again with his hands in his pockets until he caught himself and looked around the room with a blank expression on his face.
"That's not on this floor,” Cole said from the doorway with a grin on his face.
I turned back to Colette, who made me the least uncomfortable of the three. Regardless of where I was, though, I could still feel where Ren was the whole time which was disconcerting.
I followed Colette through another two massive rooms all sparsely decorated like the first, and when we hit the back of the top floor, I saw another set of stairs leading up to the attic. Behind the stairs was the last room which was double the size of the others and had nothing in it furniture wise.
"What did you plan for this room?" I asked Ren, who was looking around with his hands in his pockets and replied with shrug.
"A nursery,” Colette whispered with a huge grin on her face. I gave an obligatory laugh at her statement, even though the thought of Ren one day filling this room with his babies made my gut ache. I had no intentions of thinking on why, though; at least not yet and not here.
"What are you aiming for — twins?” I joked to Ren, who rubbed the back of his neck and looked even more uncomfortable.
I walked through to the ensuite to see that it only had a bath in it, not the bath and shower that the others had in theirs. That fit perfectly with the theory that he did intend for this to be the nursery.
"Okay, so I take it that the master bedroom is upstairs then?" I used a falsely bright and upbeat tone when all I wanted to do was eat some Ben and Jerry’s.
“Yup,” Ren said looking me straight in the eyes.
I couldn't figure out what the expression on his face meant, but he stood holding my eyes until Colette cleared her throat, clapped her hands, and breezed out of the room to the stairs. “This way, darling."
I followed her making sure that no one saw the eagerness in my eyes to see where Ren slept. Dammit Maya, he’s a well-known man whore that you've been warned about and who not an hour ago was telling you that he'd shared women with your cousins for fuck sake. That helped dampen the feelings I had going on but made my stomach hurt even worse.
I was aware of Ren following right behind me, but this time, the realization that he was getting an eyeful of my ass made me walk carefully to make sure I didn't fall flat on my face and embarrass the shit out of myself.
"Here we go, isn't it beautiful?" Colette said turning around in the biggest master suite I had ever seen, and I had seen many during my internship and job in Tampa.
Holy shit, it was beautiful and almost spanned the length and width of the entire house. There was a plain bed in the corner and windows in the roof throughout the room making it seem bright and open. At both ends of the room were huge balconies with floor to ceiling sliding windows adding even more light. All too often, attic rooms seem dark and dank because of the lack of light, but not here — it was an architectural marvel!
On the far right side was another massive tv and some Lazyboys, and on the opposite side of the room to the bed was what I assumed was an ensuite. The furniture was functional and bland, and again there wasn't any decoration aside from some photos on the walls.
Walking into the ensuite, I froze. There were massive slate tiles on the floors, a rectangular ceramic tub like I'd drooled over for so many years, a huge shower that had a glass wall that was left open at the end like a
wet room and there were eight shower heads - eight! I recounted imagining what it would be like to be hit by all of them at once and then noticed that there was a series of dials and buttons on different panels on the walls. Holy shit, this bathroom was a dream.
Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1) Page 2