Mallory had her doubts but she wasn’t going to voice them right now.
They climbed from the car and gathered the first round of luggage before trudging up the steps to the house. Neither spoke as they walked through the doors. The house smelled a bit musty and it was still far too quiet for Mallory’s liking, but this was their reality right now.
“I’m going to open some windows,” her mother said as she put her bags down at the foot of the stairs. “You do the upstairs and I’ll do the ones down here.”
They went off in their own directions and it was the perfect way to keep her mind off of the fact that it was only the two of them here now. Sure, Sam would arrive later on today and soon there would be construction crews here repairing the house, but right now it was too damn quiet. By the time they met back up at the bottom of the stairs, Mallory thought the silence was going to make her crazy. She was just about to comment on it when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Susannah said, and Mallory went to walk into the living room when she heard her mother talking to Jake.
Jake? What was he doing here?
When she’d left him earlier after a very sexy romp in the shower, they had agreed they were both going to be very busy for the next several days and they’d see each other when they could–no promises. So why was he already seeking her out?
Walking back to the entryway, she smiled. “Hey.”
“Jake’s already got a crew scheduled to come and work on the house!” her mother said excitedly. “Can you believe it? It’s so fast!”
If Mallory wasn’t mistaken, Jake actually blushed. “It’s not a big deal, Susannah. You know Zeke would have already had people here. Coleman Construction is his baby and everyone was more than willing to come here and make the house a priority.”
Sooo…he wasn’t here for her. He was here on business.
For some reason that bothered her a little more than it should.
“Why don’t you come into the kitchen and we can sit and talk about how this is all going to go?” Susannah suggested, leading the way. Jake followed after giving Mallory a wink and a smile. She still wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do.
Her mother hadn’t questioned her staying out last night–hadn’t even mentioned the possibility of Mallory going to see Jake–and Mallory certainly hadn’t volunteered that information. So now she was unsure if she was supposed to out them or simply let things be and play it cool.
“I am so not good at this sort of thing,” she mumbled to herself as she made her way to the kitchen.
Jake had his tablet out and was sitting next to her mother at the table already. Mallory sat and joined them, listening as Jake explained all about the schedule of work that needed to be done.
“The first priority is tree removal,” he was saying. “Considering half the trees in Magnolia Sound are down, it wasn’t easy to convince a crew to come here. Their first priority is to get all the roadways cleared. But I happened to find a company willing to do it–they wanted to jack up the price on me, but I worked out a deal with them to give them first dibs on any and all upcoming Coleman projects that require tree removal.”
“You can do that?” Mallory asked.
“I can,” he confirmed. “Right now we’re all moving forward as if nothing has changed. Zeke hasn’t been involved in the day-to-day operations for a really long time, but in cases like this we always conferred with him first. Considering this is his home, I’m sure he would have agreed.”
She nodded.
“Once all the trees are removed, we’ll start on the house.” He paused. “Actually, we’ve already tarped off the front of the house and I’ve hung plastic at the doorway to the damaged wing so the elements can’t get through the main part of the house. We’ll do our best to make sure the work on the addition doesn’t interfere with you. We’ll try to keep it as separate and unobtrusive as we can. The first step is to have a crew come in and remove the back deck.”
Both she and her mother nodded.
Jake swiped the tablet screen and showed them a diagram of a deck. “This is what was already here,” he explained. “I think that was completely functional and it was fine for all these years. However…” He swiped the screen again and showed another diagram. “This is something a little more…shall we say…modern. Zeke was all about keeping things simple, but I think we can all agree the house needs to be updated.”
“God, yes,” Susannah said.
Laughing, Jake turned the tablet toward her. “This will have built-in seating and flower boxes. We’ll incorporate a pergola at the far corner so you can have some shading and we’ll widen the stairs going down to the lawn.”
“I love it!” Susannah cried. “But…okay, I know this is going to sound incredibly naïve of me, but…how are we paying for all of this, Jake? We haven’t finished filing claims and we have no idea what’s in Pops’ will…”
“I know what you’re saying, Susannah,” he said calmly, “but I’ll let you in on a little secret. Zeke has a home renovation account he’s been putting money into for years. I’m the only one who knows about it and I’m the co-signer on the account.”
Both Mallory and Susannah gasped in surprise. “What?!”
He nodded. “It’s true. Zeke’s always known this house needed some serious TLC. He just couldn’t bear to watch it be done–unless it was an emergency or it wasn’t too painful, like the summer you and I worked on his office and the boathouse,” he said to Mallory.
“I remember a pipe bursting that summer too and he was sick over the renovations to the bathroom,” she said with a small laugh. “He inspected the bathroom every day for about two weeks after it was done.”
“He was still inspecting it last week,” Susannah said with a sad smile. “We’d been talking a lot about doing work around here, but he never told me about this account.”
“If I know Zeke, he wanted it to happen this way,” Jake said quietly. “Not that he wanted the house to be damaged, but he wanted to make sure the funds were here for you to do the work after he was gone.” They were all silent for a moment. “He and I talked a lot about it–the house–whenever we got together. He would ask what I would do to the outside, what would I change here on the inside…but ultimately, it’s going to be up to you, Susannah.”
Both Mallory and Susannah looked at him oddly. “Well, we don’t know that for sure, Jake,” her mother said. “I’m sure the house is going to be either divided up between all of us or…I don’t know, maybe Pops stated in his will what he wanted done with it.” She paused. “I think we should stick to the basics for now to make the house stable and secure again. We won’t get into anything design-wise until after the funeral.”
Jake nodded, but he had a small smile on his face that told Mallory he knew more than he was saying, but she didn’t want to mention it right now. Maybe later she’d ask him about it.
There was a loud noise outside and they all stood. “Looks like the tree removal crew is here,” he said.
“Already?” Mallory asked, following him to the front door, her mother right behind her. “I didn’t think you meant they would be starting today.