It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries) (3 page)

“God Molly. You
keep going on and on about this handyman. What’s with you? Have you been erotic
dreams again?” Judging by the color her face went, I’d say I hit the nail on
the head. “I’ll tell you what, if I do hire someone, you can come over and
watch him work.”

“Yeah, well
make sure you do. I need a bit of excitement in my sad life,” said Molly,
sipping her coffee which had just been delivered to our table.

“I thought
you’d sworn off men for a while?”

“Yes, but I’m
not blind. I can enjoy a good look can’t I?”

“Speaking of
men, I plucked up the courage this morning and checked out Cat’s privates. And
he’s definitely all boy,” I grinned.

“Gee, you really
do live an exciting life don’t you?”

“I bet it’s
more action than you’ve had for a while,” I remarked.

Sticking her
tongue out at me, she asked, “Have you given him a name yet?”

“Yes. After
much debate and deliberation I’ve decided his name will be Cat!”

“Wow, I’m
impressed by your creativity.”

“You know, as
much as I didn’t want a pet, he does make the house feel a bit less lonely,” I
replied, choosing to ignore her sarcasm.

“Honestly, I
don’t know how you stayed there last night. I was expecting a knock on my door
about midnight because you got too scared to stay there alone.”

“I wasn’t
scared at all.’ Terrified was probably closer to my actual feelings. Molly just
looked at me, eyes narrowed.

“Yeah? Whatever!”

Chapter
Three

Waking
the next morning, I decided it was time I started on the attic. My mood was
much more positive today after a better night’s sleep with no nightmares and
even though Cat had somehow miraculously opened my locked bedroom door, he did
not sit on me this time demanding food.

Standing in the
attic, making a list of all the things needing to be done, I started to imagine
what it was going to look like when it was finished. It had been an easy
decision to make it my office as it was the smallest of the two bedrooms but to
make it workable the lovely shag pile carpet had to come up, the floral
wallpaper had to be removed and then I needed to paint.

Easy. I could
do this without any help as I had watched many, many TV renovating shows and it
all seemed so simple!

Ok, now this is
the point where I could bore you with all the details of how I attempted to get
the carpet up, but in all honesty, I’m too embarrassed. So let’s just say it
involved several broken nails and a lot of swearing. Two hours later I sat back
and looked at my effort and decided I needed to find help. Fast.

Oh and also
cheap.

I thought back
to my conversation with Molly yesterday, and decided maybe a handyman was just
what I needed.

Going down
stairs, making myself a coffee and grabbing a chocolate biscuit, I remembered
I’d seen a hand written ad on the notice board at the local shop, so I made a
very quick trip back there and got Riley’s’ number. Giving it a call, I found
out I was a lucky girl (you honestly have no idea just how lucky, but I’ll tell
you about Riley soon), as he was in between big jobs at the moment so he could
come over right away and have a look at what needed to be done. I wasn’t
feeling very confident about this “in-between big jobs” bit. After this
morning’s effort, I was thinking I needed him for quite a bit longer than that.
But true to his word, he knocked on my door in no time.

However, in my
hurry to not let him get away, I ran down the stairs. I felt the old rotten
wood creaking under my weight as I took them two at a time in my panic to get
to the front door and remembered about the loose tread just as I was putting my
foot on it.

I felt it slip,
but it was too late for me to do anything about it. I didn’t even have time to
grab the railing as I fell forwards, hands out in front and the wind rushing past
my face. Hitting the ground face first, I felt my body follow, propelling me
forward towards to front door.

Oomph! I heard
the air leave my lungs.

Silence
followed. I could hear the ticking of the clock as I lay very still, mentally
checking myself for injuries. Tears threatened an appearance. I could still
feel my legs and arms, so no spinal injury, that’s a good start. My face was
burning but that was probably from embarrassment and my elbow was killing me. Pulling
myself into sitting position I looked down at the ugly red mark that had
started to appear. Apart from that, all seemed to be intact.

Ok, job number
one – fix stair tread.

Looking towards
the door I could see a silhouette of a man standing patiently on the doorstep
waiting for me to open it. I would have liked to run and hide in a hole for a
while—at least until my cheeks stopped burning—but with Riley
standing just outside the door, I didn’t have time for that.

Ok, deep
breathes. In and out, in and out.

I wiped the
moisture from my lashes, pulled myself to my feet and took a step towards the
door. Feeling my knee ache as I put weight on it I reached out and turned the
door handle.

As I looked out
with a fake smile plastered to my very red face, I blinked. Several times. Just
in case my eyes were playing tricks on me or the fall had actually caused head
injuries and I was hallucinating. I felt my eyes go wide and my lashes flutter
uncontrollably. Tentatively, I reached out my hand and touched his arm—you
know, just to make sure.

Nope, no
tricks. He was real.

OMFG!!

All thoughts of
my aching knee gone, I stared up at a man so good-looking, I thought it was
Adonis himself. Now, I think I should tell you I’m not very eloquent around
good-looking men. Add that to my fall and embarrassment, my brain felt like it
couldn’t cope. So it packed up and went on holiday.

“Oh…um…hi,” was
the best I could do.

“Hi, I’m Riley.
Would you be Lizzie, by any chance?” He had the most amazing voice. It was
gentle even though it was deep, smooth and extremely sexy. His voice pretty
much matched the rest of him. He stood very tall—I’d guess about 6’3”—looked
to be about my age, with blond hair, and the most amazing blue eyes I had ever
seen. Think of the sky on a really brilliant day. But what had me all aflutter was
his eyelashes. They weren’t overly long, but they were dark and thick. Slowly
lowering my gaze, my mouth hanging open very unattractively, I noticed he was
wearing a white t-shirt over jeans and, from what I could tell, had a pretty
damn good torso underneath.

Oh…he was
looking at me expectantly. Shit, what did he just ask me?

“Lizzie?” He
extended his hand for me to shake.

“Um…. Yes. I’m
Lizzie!” I shook his hand, noticing my voice sounding remarkably like one of
the chipmunks. Wow, his hand felt amazing. It was strong and kind of rough, not
like Scott, whose hands were really baby-soft. I actually never liked that about
Scott. I always felt his hands were kind of girly, which is not a good thing to
think about your boyfriend’s hands.

“Are you okay? It
looked like you fell down the stairs.” Damn, he noticed that did he?.

“Oh, ha ha ha. Yes.
I’m fine thank you. Just took the express route down,” I laughed
self-consciously. God, I sound like a moron. I saw his left eyebrow rise but he
continued on.

“You were
saying on the phone you need some help getting this place livable again. Like I
said to you before, I’m in between jobs at the moment, so I would be able to
give you a few weeks to get most of the bigger jobs underway,” he smiled.

Oh, Wow! Great
smile, too. That was really important in a man. I mean who wants to look at
someone’s face for the rest of your life if they have a crappy smile? I was, at
present, giving him my very best sexy smile. But honestly, if you asked me what
he was talking about, I couldn’t tell you. I hadn’t actually heard a word of
it. Right now the only things my brain was receiving were his gorgeous blue
eyes and his super white smile.

“Maybe you
should show me around,” he suggested helpfully, giving me a kind, yet
sympathetic look, almost as if he trying to weigh up if I was sane or not.

“Hmm? Oh, show
you around. Yes…that would be…umm...great. Maybe we should start in the bedroom.”
I giggled, thoughts still not quite coming together in my brain.

I watched his
eyebrows disappear into his hairline.

Oops. That
didn’t sound right.

“I mean that’s
the room I want to start work in,” I stammered. Oh my, what did I say that for?
He must be thinking I’m a nymphomaniac who just wants to get him into bed. Although
that wasn’t such a bad idea.

Riley stepped
inside the door and closed it behind him. I started to walk up the stairs.

Bad move. Now I
had Riley behind me and all he could see was my backside.

This certainly
wasn’t my best attribute. Today I’d thrown on an old pair of jeans that were
slightly on the tight side and made by backside look three times bigger... like
it needed that sort of help. Maybe if I found that broken stair tread I could
hide underneath it.

Looking over my
shoulder, I could see Riley making mental notes as he walked towards the
bedroom. I thought the look of
my God,
what the hell have I got myself into?
crossed his face, but I couldn’t be
sure. I was just hoping I’d remembered to make my bed this morning.

“In this room I
want to take up the carpet. As you can see it’s really awful. I can live with
the wallpaper for now, but I think the carpet is causing my nightmares,” I
blabbered, tugging at the neck of my t-shirt. I was feeling quite flushed all
of a sudden. It felt like all the air was being sucked out of the room. Funny,
this room never felt this small before. Maybe it was the shock from the fall.

“That won’t
take long.” I watched him as he walked around the room taking notes. I actually
loved this room. It’s an exact copy of the living room underneath it. It’s the
length of the house and has a big bay window in the front. On a clear day I
would be able to see the river from here.

“I notice you
don’t have any wardrobe space.”

Yeah, that was
pretty obvious by the mountain of boxes scattered around the room. I had
absolutely nowhere to put my clothes so leaving them in their boxes seemed like
the best idea. Now I just felt embarrassed by the mess.

“Yeah, a
wardrobe is also on my To Do list.” This list just keeps getting longer. I let
out a very long sigh.

“Old houses are
a lot of work,” smiled Riley, looking at me through those incredible lashes. “But
they are worth the effort. This one is something special.”

I felt myself
blush. I don’t really know why, but it felt like Riley was paying me a
compliment. I mean, that’s what I’d thought when I bought it, right? It was
something special.

“So I’m not as
stupid as everyone keeps telling me then?” I saw the puzzled look cross his
face.

“No, you’re not
stupid at all. I wanted to come to the auction and put a bid in myself but got
called away at the last minute. I was hoping it got passed in so I could make
an offer later. According to the agent a lovely young lady bought it before I
had the chance.” Now I really did blush. “Looks like he was right.”

Oh boy
. The temperature in here must have risen
about a hundred degrees judging be how hot I was feeling.

“I could get this
started tomorrow if you like,” Riley continued. If he noticed how red I had
gone, he thankfully didn’t mention it.

“That would be
great,” I smiled. “But really my priority is in the attic. I have to start work
up there in less than two weeks and right now, it’s a mess.”

Once again he
followed me up the stairs and once again I felt like my backside had grown to
about three times its actual size. Right now I felt like my backside was so big,
I would fill the gap between the walls and I’d be stuck, wedged in with no way
out until Riley left and it deflated again. Gratefully reaching the top of the
stairs, I stepped back and allowed Riley to enter the room first. His eyes
immediately dropped to the carpet and I could see the look of amusement cross
his face.

“What happened
here?” he asked, smiling at the mess I had made of the carpet.

I am such an
idiot. With all the blood rushed to my face, it’s a wonder I hadn’t passed out.
Absolutely no other body part was receiving oxygen right about now.

“As you can see
I have no idea what I’m doing,” I said. “I’m thinking my mother was right. I
have bitten off more than I can chew.” I hated admitting my mother was right. Riley
looked at me and gave me an absolute killer of a smile. It was so amazing I
actually felt brain cells die as I basked in its glow.

 
“It’s okay. That’s what I’m here for.” Oh,
shit he’s talking again. I’d better listen so he doesn’t think I’m an idiot. “How
about I go home and get some tools and come back here after lunch. I can have
the bedroom carpet out in an hour or so and then I can get started in this room
in the morning.”

“Really? That
would be fantastic,” I said gratefully, my brain rejoining the conversation. “Oh,
and if it’s not too much trouble, could you change the lock on my bedroom door?
Every night I lock it, but I wake up every morning to the door wide open.”

After lunch
Riley came back and headed upstairs to my bedroom. I followed him this time and
must say the view was spectacular. He fitted those jeans really well. Even
before I’d seen the quality of his work, I knew he was more than worth the
money I was paying him!

“I’ll have to
move the bed out to the hallway for a while. Is it okay if you give me a hand
moving it?” he asked. Just the thought of him touching my bed had me
hyperventilating.

“Sure,” I said
breathlessly. Hopefully he thought I had asthma, but then again, maybe he’s
used to having women losing their breath around him.

We had the bed
and various boxes out in no time and as I left him to get the carpet up, my
doorbell rang. It sounded more like someone was standing on the cat but as Cat
was sleeping on the stairs, I knew he was safe. Cat had settled in with me
pretty damn quickly, I must say. Running down the stairs—this time
skillfully avoiding the broken tread—I opened the front door.

Standing there
on the doorstep was my boyfriend Scott.

Oops, with
Riley around I’d actually forgotten about Scott.

“I thought I’d
come over and see your new house,” he announced, handing me a bottle of wine
with a small frown between his eyes.
That
bottles not going to be near big enough
, I thought looking at it. “Well,
are you going to invite me in, or am I just going to stand out here?” he asked,
sounding a bit annoyed.