Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
“How are you?” I asked in return.
“I’m fantastic.” He smiled, gesturing for me to go ahead of him alongside the house. “Welcome to our kinky mansion. It ain’t much at the moment, but it should be less of a deathtrap in a few months. First stage of renovations begins next week.”
“What’s the first step?” I asked curiously. Yikes, I sidestepped a big mud puddle.
“Oh, you know. Make sure it stands.”
That was a good first goal. Yes.
We reached the other side, and it was like being transported to what’d once been a gorgeous garden. It was big too. Past the empty pool—which probably needed more than a little tender loving—the lawn slanted down until you reached a forest.
This place had been beautiful once. An old French bistro chair was tipped over in the grass, having lost most of its white paint. Now it was mainly rusty brown.
“Watch your step here.” Reese climbed up the step to an ancient veranda. “We’re gonna replace all this. Wood’s rotten.”
Great!
I was careful to walk in his exact footsteps, and I followed him inside the house through a door that had a big crack in the window.
Oh, musty. Musty, musty smell.
“Here, we’ll want big sliding doors eventually,” he continued.
Whoa. I looked around the ginormous room and was once more pulled back in time. Wallpaper was peeling off the walls, an old chandelier hung in the high ceiling—and one probably shouldn’t walk below it—and the wooden floors were cracked in places or missing completely. Someone had yellow-taped a narrow path through the room, so hopefully it was safe to cross there.
“What’s that over there?” I pointed to a set of doors on the other side of the room, and that whole structure looked all weird. Like, they were interior rooms without windows…?
“Yeah, uh…we don’t really understand what the previous owners had in mind here,” Reese chuckled. “This used to be completely open, like a big ballroom. We’ll probably use those areas for storage. River guessed one of them was a cigar room, but there’s one upstairs too, so…” He shrugged.
Fair enough.
“Come on. I’ll introduce you to our resident fixer,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. “River and I are leaning toward throwing money at every problem and letting a contractor take over, but Greer believes we can fix this up ourselves once the major work is done.”
“Define major,” I mumbled and followed him. Not one step outside the yellow tape.
Reese let out a low laugh. “In short, we ain’t taking on any load-bearing structures on our own.”
Good call.
We survived the trek across the room, and then we ended up in a grand foyer or hallway—it used to be grand, anyway—and sure enough, there was the huge hole in the floor.
The big staircase was still beautiful, though.
Everything here just needed love.
I could totally picture myself spending weekends here to give this estate a new golden era.
We walked down another hall, and I heard voices. I heard Lucas, in particular. And Reese slowed down when we reached a very wide doorway leading to the kitchen.
Oh boy. Big kitchen and big, big Marine.
“Hello, Macklin.” Lucas smiled at me.
“Hi, Sir.” I smiled back. Where was River lurking?
“So this is the young whippersnapper,” Reese said. “Macklin, Greer. Greer, Macklin.”
We met halfway and shook hands.
“Good to meet’chu, kid.” Holy crap, did he have a firm handshake. “I hear you wanna board our crazy train.”
I grinned. “Fingers crossed.”
“We’re only hesitant because he’s too young to already be stressed out,” Lucas explained. “Not only is he in school, but he works full time—”
“Actually, it’s more like 75%,” I corrected. “You shouldn’t always listen to what my Master says.”
“Even so,” he hedged. “You have a lot on your plate, Macklin. Walker wasn’t exaggerating about that.”
Greer folded his arms over his chest and glanced between Lucas and me. “Can he vote?”
“Of course I can,” I said. “I’m twenty-one.”
He shrugged. “Then you can make your own decisions.”
I really liked Greer.
“Plus, we need the manpower,” Reese added. He looked to me. “We want you to meet Lucian. Lucas and I are having dinner with him in a couple of weeks to discuss some details. We think he’ll join us once he has a better idea of our plan. You and Walker could tag along.”
“I’ll be there,” I was quick to say. And damn it, I was going to convince Master to make time.
Reese was about to say something else, but the second Tenley waltzed in with his eyes glued to his phone.
“Did you get lost, brother?” Reese asked.
“If I did, it was on purpose,” River muttered, lifting his gaze to the others. Not me yet. He hadn’t spotted me. “Lucas, do you have some news you wanna share?”
Lucas tilted his head. “News…?”
“I mean, we kinda knew somethin’ was goin’ on,” River continued. “The few times you’ve met someone, you haven’t been able to keep your trap shut for a second.” He held up his phone. “Yet, you haven’t told us anythin’ about this Air Force guy you’re apparently in a relationship with.”