CHAPTER18
LARISA
Istared at the house Tanner had bought with wide eyes, in absolute awe of the majestic place he would be leaving in my hands. The pictures really hadn’t done it justice. I hadn’t even gotten out of my car yet, and I was already itching to get started.
He wasn’t here yet, though, so I couldn’t just go in. Granted, I’d arrived a little early and had gained access to the property using a code he’d sent me to get through the gates, but now I wished that I’d either gotten here on time or that I’d been waiting outside the gates. It was torture to just sit here when I had that to explore.
As I’d driven in, I’d noticed the overgrown garden and the general state of disrepair of the exterior of the building, but I hadn’t really seen it. In my mind’s eye, I was already seeing it all for what it could be. What it would be by the time I got done with it.
The place was so captivating that I didn’t even care about who owned it anymore. So far, my fear about things being weird with Tanner had been unwarranted anyhow. We’d only been communicating over email, which wasn’t unusual for me with clients, and he’d been surprisingly cordial. No jokes, no phone calls, and no mention of our weekend together.
As a result, I’d been keeping things strictly professional as well. He’d hired me to do a job and it was comforting to know he would let me do it without making a big fuss about our brief history together.
Today was the day of our first meeting. I was there to take pictures and get a tour of the house before I started putting together ideas for him. We would also talk about what he wanted that was non-negotiable, and then I had to clarify exactly what he’d meant when he said I would have a lot of creative freedom.
The term meant very different things to different people, and I liked to be absolutely sure of what it meant to every client before I got started. There were certain things we had already discussed, though.
In one of the earlier emails, he’d asked if I could recommend teams for landscaping and repair work to the roof and the façade of the building, and now that I was here, I could see exactly why. Since I’d promised to give him some numbers once I’d seen the place, I picked up my phone, scrolled through my contacts, and put together a list in an email, including names and contact info.
It would be great if I could send it off to him before he even gets here.I operated efficiently, and especially given our shared past, I wanted him to know that I wouldn’t treat him any differently than any other client. He would get my best, just like everyone else who hired me did.
Before I could hit send, my phone buzzed in my hand and an email came in from him. It seemed he was ten minutes out after having gotten stuck in a traffic jam, but the house keys were in a lock box around the side and I was free to go in and look around while I waited.
He might still not have mentioned our weekend, but it was obvious he trusted me since he’d now given me the codes to his gate and his lock box. It felt good to know that I’d made an impression as someone he could count on not to disclose any of those codes.
Since the alternative was having given him the impression that I could be a robber, it might not have been that much, but I was still pleased. At least I’d made some kind of impression, which was more than I’d been thinking I had.
Excitement shot through me when I put those thoughts out of my head and focused on the part where I now had the keys. It gave me ten extra minutes in there—ten minutes alone in there before he even arrived—which meant I’d be in a much better position to make suggestions when we discussed what he wanted.
I climbed out of the car with my phone and the folder containing my notepad in my hands. I found the lock box easily and let myself in like he’d said. As soon as the door swung open, my heart started beating faster.
The air inside was stale and the scent was a little musty, but the house inside was so perfect that the thought of working in here almost brought tears to my eyes. I walked in further, almost drifting as bubbles of joy made their way through my veins.
The front door opened up to a large, stately entrance hall with spacious rooms on either side of it. Since there were clusters of big, rectangular windows everywhere, the natural light inside was incredible.
If he’ll let me knock out a few of these walls to create a more open-concept space, the light throughout the whole bottom story would be to die for.
Possibilities shot into my mind like rapid fire. Each step I took brought new ideas that made me want to squeal in excitement. The place was like the designer’s version of a blank canvas, completely empty but the frame already there.
While I could see what he meant by it needing a complete overhaul, I was glad he wanted to retain the character of it. There was so much I could do while still honoring that instruction, and I was reeling with the thought of it all.
Stopping to take photos as I went, I jotted down notes and took my time making sure I captured every angle and every thought I had while studying the place. Unfortunately, that meant that my ten minutes positively flew by.
It felt like I’d only just walked in when I heard a car door slamming outside. I hadn’t even made it to the stairs yet, never mind gotten time to take a look at what waited for me up there. Too excited to be nervous about seeing him again, I finished writing down the thought I’d had just before I’d heard the door, then raced back to the foyer to meet him.
I couldn’t freaking wait to get back to my tour, and the sooner we got the pleasantries out of the way, the better. When I got there, Tanner was just walking in through the front door I’d left open behind me.
As much as I’d tried to prepare myself for the moment I would see him again, his presence hit me like a ton of bricks. Somehow, he was even more gorgeous than I remembered. I’d forgotten small things about him, like how his hair seemed to be flecked with gold in the right light and how he moved with such effortless purpose that it was easy to see why he’d been such a great athlete.
There was absolutely nothing clumsy or accidental about him. In fact, I was pretty sure that if I’d had a ball on me and I flung it at him right then, even if he was still engrossed in his phone and hadn’t looked up yet, he’d have caught it in one hand without dropping the phone from the other.
In a crisp white button-down shirt, faded blue jeans, and dark sunglasses over his eyes, he looked every inch the sexy famous ball player he was. Memories of feeling that body against mine flooded my mind, and I realized that my little encounter with myself the other night to get him out of my system hadn’t worked. At all.
Despite the sudden surge in my libido, I smiled as he looked up, surprised that I was genuinely happy to see him again. While we probably wouldn’t be spending too much time together with the remodel, it would be nice just to talk to him again—if things would only be as easy between us as they had been those first two days.
Tanner looked up, but instead of a casual smile or a witty comment when he saw me, he froze, his features contorting into a mask of absolute surprise. His chiseled jaw dropped and he seemed even more shocked to see me than he had when I’d shown up at the lake house instead of Brit.
“You,” he said, repeating the same word he’d said to me all those weeks ago. Beautiful sky blue eyes locked on mine, then swept down to take in every inch of me like he was trying to establish if I was really there or if I was standing on a holographic projector of some kind.