A jolt hit me. Was he not expecting me? Did he not know who he’d been emailing with recently?
I sucked my lips into my mouth, fear shooting through me that he was going to refuse to let me renovate the place now that he knew who I was.
“Me,” I said lightly, moving my arms up at my sides and forcing the smile to stay on my face while I prayed that he’d keep me on. “Surprise?”
“You can say that again.” He stared at me, glanced down at his phone, and then brought his gaze back up to mine. “You’re L. Ford from L. Ford Designs?”
I shrugged. “Larisa Ford, at your service. You really didn’t know?”
“Didn’t have a clue.” He shut the door behind him and slid his phone into his pocket, even though I could hear it still buzzing with incoming messages. Just as he’d done that first afternoon at the lake, he ignored it and gave me his full attention. “Your website only has pictures of the houses you’ve worked on. There aren’t any of you.”
Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle came together in my head. “We’ve only communicated using my business email and my signature just says L. Ford. You never knew my last name, did you?”
He shook his head, the strangest expression creeping onto his face as he kept staring at me. “No, I didn’t know your last name. You also neglected to tell me what you do for a living. You, Ms. Ford, were a much bigger mystery to me than you may have realized. Did you honestly think I’d have hired you without saying anything about it if I’d known who you were?”
My stomach sank, and it was like I could see my dream project being yanked away before my very eyes. Taking with it the opportunity of spending time with him again and of ever seeing him again at all.