“Da best kind!” he said enthusiastically. “Save some for later because they have a short season. Not all year, you know.”
“You’ve already been making jam this morning?”
“Peeled the things last night and cooked the stuff this morning. Feel ‘em. Still warm.”
She held a jar in her hand. “But it’s Christmas morning. You didn’t have anything else better to do?”
“We knew you came from so far away, and we figured you might be a little lonely. We had a bumper crop of pomegranates, so we brought you some.” His cheerful expression wrinkled into worry. “Maybe not so good as a welcome gift. Probably shoulda put a ribbon.”
“No, it’s great! I’m just surprised to meet someone so early. Thank you very much.” She stepped back from the door to let him in. “I have tea, if you’d like some?”
Felix looked at the walls and flicked light switches up and down as they went to the kitchen. When she handed him a mug of tea, he seemed to take up a position against the countertop as though it was his preferred place. Not knowing what to do with him, Gina started on her toast again.
“Do you work here at the estate, Felix?”
“Didn’t Millie say anything to you?”
“She dropped me off, told me to learn my way around the estate, and left. Why?”
“I’m the head caretaker of the gardens. Have been for many years. Now you’re my boss.” He scratched his head in thought. “I’ve never had a boss before. Come to think of it, I’ve never had employees.”
“Either have I.”
“You’re so young. How long have you been a landscaper?”
Gina poured both of them more tea water. “It might be time to share some secrets. This is my first real job in landscape, so I might be relying on you for a lot of help.”
That didn’t seem to faze him. “What other jobs you have before landscape?”
“I was a police officer.”
That renewed his smile. “Lady cop! For how long?”
“Not too long.”
“Didn’t like it?” he asked.
“Not enough to stick with it. I’m hoping I like landscaping and gardens better.”
He mimicked shooting a gun with his free hand. “Ever shoot a bad guy?”
Gina took her dishes to the sink. “No, but I almost shot a priest.”
“Priest?”
“Yep. The priest for my parish, as a matter of fact. But I missed him and shot the Virgin Mary instead.”
The color seemed to go out of Felix’s face as he muttered something in Filipino and crossed himself several times.
“It’s okay, Felix. As my sister says, it was only a flesh wound. The Virgin survived.”
He set his tea mug aside. “Okay, maybe better to talk about something else. What colors do you want for wall paint?”
“I need walls before they can be painted,” Gina said.
“I’ll be putting up the wall paneling this week. What colors do you like?”
“It’s supposed to be historically accurate, so you better talk to Millie about that.”
“I doubt they care. If they don’t like what we pick out, they can repaint the place,” Felix said. “I have brushes and rollers. We just need to get the paint.”
“I know nothing about painting walls. Millie gave me a credit card to use at the store. I just don’t know how to find the neighborhood hardware store.”
“Not too far, but a long trip on the bus.” He smiled again. “I’ll bring everything I have tomorrow.”
Gina found the list of things in the house that weren’t working properly. “Maybe before putting paint on walls, a few other things can be fixed? The toilet doesn’t work so well, and I’ve noticed some of the outlets don’t have electricity to them. Can anything be done about that?”
Felix scratched his head. “We just replaced all the wiring. I’ll double check that. But the toilet has to stay.”
Gina’s hope deflated. “Why?”
“The family wants to get this place listed as a historical site, and they need to keep everything as historical as possible. “That’s why the bathroom and kitchen fixtures are sort of, well…”
“Old?”
He nodded.
“I don’t care what the outside of the toilet looks like, but can all the other stuff that makes it work be replaced with something from the Twenty-First Century? Or at least from the second half of the Twentieth?”
Felix got a little notepad from his pocket and made some notes. “I’ll fix it on Monday.”
It wasn’t much, but having a proper pot to use would make a difference. With that in mind, she showed him her list of what needed to be fixed. At least he was cheerful about it and hadn’t come on to her. In fact, he was like a big brother she’d never had.
“But I thought you were responsible for the garden work crew? Will you have time to work on the house?” she asked.
He nodded again. “Plenty of them to work on the gardens. I’ll be helping with the house. Any other problems with the house, and you come straight to me, okay?”
“Only if I can make dinner for you and your wife tomorrow night?”
“No need for that,” he said. “She’ll probably send something in a basket for you.”
Felix seemed ready to leave, now that they had an agreement ironed out. She showed him to the front door.
“Felix, do you know why the stove takes so long to get hot? Do I need to put in a new fuse or something?”
He looked worried. “Don’t change the fuses! The stove is 220, but the plug is only 110. Only half the electricity, so it gets only half the hot. To boil water, just use one burner at a time.”
“I can’t just put in a bigger fuse?”
“Only if you want to burn down the house. That would make the Tanizawa family mad.”
“I would think so.” She watched as he slipped his feet into old rubber slippers he’d left on the porch. “Do you know when I’m supposed to get a new roof?”
“Before the next time it rains.”
Gina was charmed, or maybe amazed, with how easily Felix was
