“Where’s he?” I asked, as if I didn’t already know.
She looked down at the ground, kicking at the gravel. “Back home, probably drunk off his ass on a bar stool.”
The way she said it, it didn’t sound like she was resentful, only sad that he was a drunk. It pulled me in, made me want to hold her and tell her it was alright. “I’m sorry,” I said sincerely.
She shrugged. “You can’t change people, right?”
“I guess not.” Though, I had no experience with drunk parents. Mine were awesome, so I had no idea what it was like to have parents that didn’t give a shit.
“So, what’s with the car?”
“We started fixing it up together a long time ago, but…things happened and that was it. So, when I moved out here, I drove home and had the car brought out here. I thought…”
I frowned at her. “You thought what?”
“I thought that he would care, that he would try to stop me, but he was too drunk to care.” She laughed humorlessly, staring at the old car. “He asked how much I could give him for it. He really needed a drink.”
Oh, she was good. I had to hand it to her, she was pulling on my heartstrings and making me want to go to her and hold her. She really knew how to play a man.
“Sorry,” she smiled brightly. “You didn’t come all the way out here to hear my sob story.”
“It’s alright.”
“So, you were serious about helping me?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’m willing to try.”
She stared at me for a moment, like she was trying to figure out if I was real or not. She was assessing me like I was assessing her.
“That’s very sweet of you.”
I grinned, because that’s what I did. “Well, what can I say? I’m a regular charmer.”
She laughed, shaking her head slightly. “I bet you are. Come on, I’ll show you inside.”
I let her walk past me, because there was no way in hell I was going to turn my back to her. I would probably get an axe in the back. I followed her up the steps of the porch, noticing how rotted the wood was. I stepped where she stepped, not wanting to injure myself. I already had to watch myself enough as it was. When she shoved the door open, I heard the sounds of Eric’s crew working somewhere toward the back of the house.
Looking around, I wondered why she bought the place. “Wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier to tear it down and start over?” I wondered out loud.
“Probably,” she said, following my gaze. “But I liked this old house. I didn’t want it to get thrown away just because it was damaged. Besides, the bones are still good.”
I took in the old house and wondered if that was true. Off to the left was what I assumed was a living room, though it was hard to tell with how worn down it was. I walked into it, noting the creaks in the floor. Lorelei walked up beside me and chuckled.
“I know it doesn’t look like much, but I can see how it’ll look when it’s all done. The fire will be going,” she said, pointing to the fireplace that was basically a pile of rubble. “And I want to restore the built-in bookcases…”
“And replace the floor,” I laughed.
“Well, that too. I talked to your brother about that. They basically need to be replaced all over the house.”
“And I think you need to replace your windows. It’s gonna get awfully cold in here.”
“I know,” she shivered. “I can already feel the winter weather creeping into the house. The furnace is on its last leg. I need that replaced before it gets too cold.”
“Are you sleeping here?”
She nodded. “It’s my home now.”
“Now that your husband died,” I hedged.
She looked at me sharply, her eyes narrowing. “Who told you?”
I swallowed hard. Shit, I forgot that she hadn’t told me yet. “My brother. I was asking about you. He told me your husband had recently died.”
She snorted. “So, that’s why you’re here? You think I’m the poor widow that needs help?”
“What? No. I just…I just meant that you had to find a place of your own, starting over and all.”
She eyed me for a second and then nodded with a sigh. “Well, I didn’t want to go home, so I literally pointed to the map and made a decision.”
“And your old house?”
“It’s wrapped up in paperwork right now. Besides, his kids hated me. I didn’t want to stay there.”
“His kids,” I said, trying to sound surprised. “You didn’t get custody?”
“They’re older, adults. My husband was twenty years older than me.”
“Oh.” I hoped that didn’t come out as judgmental. “Well, you can’t help who you fall in love with.”
She shrugged in response. “So, you really want to help me out?”
“Sure, why not? I mean, I can’t guarantee that everything won’t turn out beige, but what the hell?”
She smiled up at me and grabbed my arm. “Stay right here. Don’t move, okay? I’ll be right back with samples.”
I nodded and watched as she ran out of the room. Glancing around again, I just couldn’t believe that she was fixing this old place up. The place had been empty for something like ten years, but it was already falling into disrepair long before the old man died. To be fair, he did keep the place up as best he could, but repairs cost money, and a place like this would already cost a fortune. From what I knew from the brothers, their father had hit some kind of financial crisis and they had been riding it out since
