Bridges - Chapter 3
Bridges
Chapter 3
By Lori Finnegan
2013
Wednesday night was Choir night, so Rachel's mom had no problem getting the keys from the pastor at Church of the Nativity. She apparently knew her daughter well enough not to ask any questions when she deposited the keys into Rachel's hands that afternoon and saw her off with the binoculars.
Rachel and Lira just had to be out of the church by seven when the choir showed up for practice and Rachel could hand off the keys to her mom.
“How is this supposed to work? These windows are all stained glass! How are we supposed to use the binoculars through them?” Lira was standing on a pew and looking through an opaque window. “I don't think this is going to work.”
“You apparently don't go to church. Naughty Lira.” Rachel wagged her finger at Lira. “Let me show you another room.”
“As if you hadn't noticed that there're more churches than people in this town,” Lira mumbled, jumped off the pew, and followed Rachel to the front of the church. They walked up the alter to where Rachel fumbled through the keys until she found one that unlocked a door, and then they entered a back room. It looked like a small wardrobe room with cabinets and drawers. It also had a small sink. On the opposite side was a full set of clear windows facing the old Victorian house.
Rachel smiled at Lira. “See? What did I tell you?”
Lira could feel herself smiling, too. “Brilliant!” she said and walked closer to the windows. “This gives us the perfect view! I can even see into the back yard.” She most definitely could see into the back yard. And this is where she could see that Mr Homeowner had been working hard on painting his fence. He had half of it done. She could tell because half was a peeling gray and the other half was a bright white. “What a relief that he's only painting the fence! I can't wait to tell my aunts!”
“Well, that's all we can see,” Rachel said. “You don't know if he's painting other things inside.”
“Oh, that's true.” Lira sat and watched the yard and house carefully but it was still. Maybe he wasn't home.
“This is boring,” Rachel said after they had been waiting for about ten minutes minutes. “We should have brought snacks or something. Maybe they have some here...”
Lira grabbed the binoculars when Rachel got up and looked through them. Close up, the house was in disrepair. The paint was peeling badly, and the roof was sunken in in some places. If he had just teamed up with the Historical Society, they would have helped him. She didn't know why he had to be so hard headed.
She was just about to turn to see what Rachel was making so much noise over on the other side of the room when the back door to the Victorian house opened and she pointed the binoculars right on them. A man with dark hair emerged in a white t-shirt and jeans. He was carrying a paint brush and moving toward where he had left off at the fence. Lira looked closely at his face. From what she could see, her aunt wasn't kidding, he was horribly handsome. And incredibly hot. She stayed silent and watched him paint the fence.
“These are awful!” Rachel cried. “They taste like cardboard!”
Lira suddenly turned around to see Rachel eating communion wafers. “Those aren't snacks!”
“Yuck!” Rachel stuffed them back in the cabinet. “You're not kidding.”
“I thought you said you went to church,” Lira said. “Shouldn't you know what that is?”
“Well, my mom goes to church.” Rachel came over and snatched the binoculars from Lira. “I stay home. Ohh, he's out of the house! Oh my God, he is so so hot! Lira, maybe I should be the one to go in there, not you.”
Lira took the binoculars back from her. “Absolutely not. My aunt said I had to do it. Besides, you said you would help me.”
Rachel was still staring at him through the binoculars. “I did. Didn't I. Oh, well. I guess some other extremely hot guy will come buy another old house in Cleveland, and then I can go after him.” She gave Lira an irritated look.
“Geez, don't throw a fit over it,” Lira muttered under her breath.
They sat watching him paint the fence for a while until they realized not much was happening. Well, besides his muscles rippling under shirt, for which Rachel mentioned several times and Lira had to practically pry the binoculars out of her grasp to see.
After a while of that, Lira wondered where all this was going. “Okay, so this is all fine and dandy,” she said. “But how exactly am I supposed to befriend him if he's just painting his fence?”
“Hmm.” Rachel put the binoculars on the window sill. “This does present a problem if he's a home body. Well, he eventually needs to leave his house to buy groceries and things. Unless he's planted a garden, which I doubt. Not in a week, anyway!”
Lira rolled her eyes. “What are you suggesting? I camp out at the grocery store?”
“Don't be silly!”
“We plant a tracking device on his car and then when he goes to the grocery store, I show up?”
Rachel's eyes lit up for a second and and then she shook her head. “No! Of course not! Where do you come up with these things?”
“Then what exactly should we do?”
“I'm thinking!” Rachel said loudly and placed her fingers at her temples.
Lira sighed. This was hopeless. Maybe she should have suggested that Rachel just go up to his front door, work her charms, and maybe Mr Homeowner would just let her in. With Lira's luck, Rachel would probably forget the task at hand and nothing would be accomplished anyway, though.
“Maybe you could pretend to be an interior designer!” Rachel suddenly said.
“No way!” Lira grabbed the binoculars to check on their subject. “You know how bad I am at pretending. Think of something more real.”
“Well, then this is going to take forever. If you want to become friends with him and then get invited in, then it's going to take months for you to get in.”
Lira ignored her and watched Mr Homeowner. He was just finishing up the fence that was closet the house. It looked perfect. If only the rest of the house matched. She envisioned a glorious Victorian house in pristine condition with a beautiful white fence around it. There had to be a way to get inside without looking like a complete moron!
Then it suddenly hit her. “I got it!”
“You got what?” Rachel grabbed the binoculars to see if she had seen something significant. “I don't see anything.”
“No, I figured out how I'm going to get in.”
Rachel put the binoculars down. “How?”
Lira smiled. “Honesty.”
“Honesty?” Rachel's expression was ugly. “Honestly? How's that gonna work?”
Lira had it all figured out. “Well, you know my Aunt Carol. She isn't exactly the most pleasant person to deal with. I have no doubt she should have written Mr Homeowner a letter instead of visiting him in person.”
“Mr Homeowner?”
Lira could feel her face heat up. “That's what I've been calling him to myself. Anyway, if I approach him and explain all the good that the Historical Society can do for his house in a calm, nice, non-Aunt-Carol way, maybe he'll say yes. In the very least he'll give me a tour. Brilliant, yes?”
Rachel was looking at her suspiciously out of the corner of her eye. “I don't know... it sounds really unlike me.”
“That's because I thought of it,” Lira said. “Come on, let's get out of here and give your mom the keys before the Choir people get here.”
*****
Lira spent all of Thursday at her job at the office going over what she was going to say when she arrived at the old Victorian house that afternoon. She even planned what she wanted to wear to make the best impression on Mr Homeowner.
Once she got home, she changed into a blue tank top and a cute frilly, white skirt that fell just above her knees. To top off the look, she slid on a pair of strappy white sandals and grabbed the cutest white purse that had been sitting at the back of her closet. By the time she walked up to his door, she was convinced she looked decidedly cute.
She raised her fist to knock and hesitated. This was it. Was she ready? She took in a breath and let it out. It was now or never. Quickly, she lowered her fist to knock and let it go.
Show time.
*****
Jarred had just returned from a neighboring town that was slightly bigger with some cheap lamps so he could at least have a little light in the place until he called an electrician to get the rest of the house sorted out and sitting on the floor assembling them when he heard a knock on the door. Given his past history with guests in this town, he was hesitant to answer the door, but he decided to check it out anyway, so he stood up, brushed himself off, and looked through the eye hole.
He almost jumped back in surprise. My God. It was the stunning redhead from the bar. He couldn't imagine why she was knocking on his door. Not one single suggestion arose. He pulled the door open to her. “Hi. Can I help you?”
“Hi.” She had a radiant smile and the prettiest sparkling blue eyes. “I'm Lira Montgomery from the Cleveland Historical Society.”
Jarred nodded at her. So they were sending in their big guns, huh? “I've heard of your organization.”
“I know...” She looked a little uncomfortable. “I'm afraid my aunt isn't exactly the most friendly person in the world. I really apologize if she came off as... terrifying.”
He smiled at her. “She wasn't exactly terrifying, but I can see how you might categorize her as unfriendly.”
Lira chuckled. “It's really not her fault. It's just how she is. She doesn't mean to be terrifyingly mean, or unfriendly. That's just... how she is?” She was biting her lip and looking up at him.
“Okay, okay, I get it.” He was trying not to laugh. “So what brings you over to my corner today?”
Her face reddened. “Well... I was hoping you'd be willing to listen to a little more about the Historical Society from someone who's a bit more friendly.”
And way more attractive, Jarred added. “I think I have some time,” he said and opened the door a little wider. “If you don't mind the mess, you can come in. I don't have many things right now, but what I do have seems to be all over the floor.” He stepped aside so she could walk in.
“I don't mind at all.” She walked past him and then over a few metal rods that were on the floor.
"These are just some lamps that I'm putting together." He pointed to the wreckage on the floor. "The original ones in the house are pretty much shot, so once it gets dark in here, I've been relying on candles. Till now that is."
Lira was looking around at the ceiling and walls. Jarred wasn't sure if she heard him. "Wow," Lira said. "This place looks bigger on the outside than it is on the inside."
"It's actually pretty big." He began walking a little ways through the living room toward the dining room. "It's just that the way it was designed was that there are a lot of little rooms instead of one great room. Not very trendy for people now days, I guess. I like it though."
She followed him into the dining room where he had his laptop and coffee mug on a large table. It still had four out of eight chairs. A bit shabby.
"This is it for the dining room. Needs a bit of work." He moved onto the kitchen but noticed she was still looking. "It's okay. You can take your time." He waited at the doorway and watched her, smiling.
"I just really like the woodwork around the trim of the room," she said and pointed up to the ceiling. "You don't see that on any new houses. Only houses made from this time period. It's really well done. All hand carved too."
"Don't worry, I won't be tearing it down." He went into the kitchen. "Now here's where I'll have to do a lot of work. Everything is completely out of date. I'm afraid to use some things. I'll have to call some guys to look at it. Unfortunately, I'm not very handy myself." When he turned to look at her, it looked like she was giving him a little smile. He smiled back, but he wondered what it meant. To him, it seemed like they were sharing some sort of secret, only he had no idea what it was. "New cabinets, too. The wood looks bad."
Lira opened a cabinet and closed it. "I see. That's a shame."
"I can take you up the back staircase, and then we'll go down the front. I didn't find the back one till after I bought the house. It kind of looks like this one was meant to be a secret. Like the servants were supposed to use this one." He opened up a small door at the back of the kitchen and allowed her to go ahead of him.
It was a steep and narrow staircase that went straight up a half flight, turned on a landing, went up another half flight, stopped on another landing, and then up one more half flight. The wooden steps were painted an ugly shade of pink.
“The paint will have to be changed, of course,” Jarred said once they reached the top.
“I don't know, I think it's kind of charming. Though it might need a fresh coat.” Lira turned around the corner and took a few steps into the upstairs hallway.
Jarred followed her. The wallpaper was peeling a little, and it was ugly. It was leaves and grapes with some sort of red border that completely clashed. It reminded Jarred of being in kindergarten art class when the teacher had books of old wallpaper samples and the kids would use them for their art projects. They were all hideous. It was a matter of picking the least ugly one.
They walked along, and Lira peered into the rooms along the way. There wasn't much in each room. Sometimes there was a discarded piece of furniture, or a lone chair. They were mostly bare save for the master which Jarred was using as his makeshift bedroom till he could get some real furniture in.
“Not much here,” he said. “I need to find a good furniture place in town, I guess. Right now I'm sleeping on an air mattress.”
“Well,” she turned around from where she was standing in the doorway to smile at him. “I actually wanted to talk to you about things like that. Give you some references and stuff.”
He could kind of see where this was headed. Sure, he had let a pretty girl into his house, but in the end, her agenda was the same as that nasty old lady who had come by the week before. Still, he couldn't help but smile back at her. “I'll be happy to look at your references, but no promises.”
“Awesome!” She was grinning now. It looked like he had really made her day. “Once we go downstairs, we can go over some if you want.”
He gestured towards the main staircase. “After you.”
The main staircase was much more grand than the tiny back one. It was wide, and the steps were graceful all the way down to the ground floor where it led out into the main hall where they were back where they started from.
“There's another room off to the left,” Jarred said and opened a rickety old door that was falling off it's hinges. It looks like it had been being used as a bedroom but it doesn't seem quite right.”
They both stood and peered inside the room. A shell of a twin bed frame was pushed into the corner. Next to it was a little nightstand with the drawers open like someone was looking through it in a hurry.
“It's not traditionally a bedroom at the front of a house like this,” she said. “Usually this is where they would bring guests in to wait for the lady of the house to come down to greet them.”
“Oh.” Jarred stepped inside the room and looked out the picture window where he could see out the front of the house. It was now a busy street, but he imagined what it must have been like a long time ago. “Learn something new every day, I guess.”
They walked back through the main hall and into the dining room where Lira spread out several brochures she had in her purse out onto the table. After they had both taken a seat, she began going over each reference, explaining to him that each business was tied to the historical society and could give him deep discounts if he were looking to preserve and restore the house according to how it stood originally.
Once they were done going through each one, Lira looked over at Jarred and smiled at him. “Maybe we can work with one another?”
Jarred looked back down at the brochures. “These are all really nice, and I appreciate you explaining them to me. But I'm not here to restore a house. I'm here to work on my music.”
Her expression showed that she was taken aback. “But...” she started but didn't finish. “Okay. Well, I'll leave all these things here with you, and if you change your mind or have any questions, feel free to call us. Or me.” She scribbled her name and number on the top of the Historical Society brochure. “I know you probably don't want to talk to my Aunt Carol.”
He smiled at her again. “Thanks. I really do appreciate you showing me these things. It gives me a lot of ideas of what I can do to the place. I love this house, but I don't have the time or energy to put that kind of effort into it right now.”
She went to get up from the table. “Please keep in mind that the Historical society can help you with all those things in the future if you do change your mind.”
He walked her around around the lamp parts and toward the door. “I will. Thanks again.” He opened the door.
“You're welcome. Maybe I'll see you around.” She turned around and smiled at him.
“Maybe.” He smiled back. “Have a nice day, Ms Montgomery.”
Chapter 4
Bridges Index
Chapter 3
By Lori Finnegan
2013
Wednesday night was Choir night, so Rachel's mom had no problem getting the keys from the pastor at Church of the Nativity. She apparently knew her daughter well enough not to ask any questions when she deposited the keys into Rachel's hands that afternoon and saw her off with the binoculars.
Rachel and Lira just had to be out of the church by seven when the choir showed up for practice and Rachel could hand off the keys to her mom.
“How is this supposed to work? These windows are all stained glass! How are we supposed to use the binoculars through them?” Lira was standing on a pew and looking through an opaque window. “I don't think this is going to work.”
“You apparently don't go to church. Naughty Lira.” Rachel wagged her finger at Lira. “Let me show you another room.”
“As if you hadn't noticed that there're more churches than people in this town,” Lira mumbled, jumped off the pew, and followed Rachel to the front of the church. They walked up the alter to where Rachel fumbled through the keys until she found one that unlocked a door, and then they entered a back room. It looked like a small wardrobe room with cabinets and drawers. It also had a small sink. On the opposite side was a full set of clear windows facing the old Victorian house.
Rachel smiled at Lira. “See? What did I tell you?”
Lira could feel herself smiling, too. “Brilliant!” she said and walked closer to the windows. “This gives us the perfect view! I can even see into the back yard.” She most definitely could see into the back yard. And this is where she could see that Mr Homeowner had been working hard on painting his fence. He had half of it done. She could tell because half was a peeling gray and the other half was a bright white. “What a relief that he's only painting the fence! I can't wait to tell my aunts!”
“Well, that's all we can see,” Rachel said. “You don't know if he's painting other things inside.”
“Oh, that's true.” Lira sat and watched the yard and house carefully but it was still. Maybe he wasn't home.
“This is boring,” Rachel said after they had been waiting for about ten minutes minutes. “We should have brought snacks or something. Maybe they have some here...”
Lira grabbed the binoculars when Rachel got up and looked through them. Close up, the house was in disrepair. The paint was peeling badly, and the roof was sunken in in some places. If he had just teamed up with the Historical Society, they would have helped him. She didn't know why he had to be so hard headed.
She was just about to turn to see what Rachel was making so much noise over on the other side of the room when the back door to the Victorian house opened and she pointed the binoculars right on them. A man with dark hair emerged in a white t-shirt and jeans. He was carrying a paint brush and moving toward where he had left off at the fence. Lira looked closely at his face. From what she could see, her aunt wasn't kidding, he was horribly handsome. And incredibly hot. She stayed silent and watched him paint the fence.
“These are awful!” Rachel cried. “They taste like cardboard!”
Lira suddenly turned around to see Rachel eating communion wafers. “Those aren't snacks!”
“Yuck!” Rachel stuffed them back in the cabinet. “You're not kidding.”
“I thought you said you went to church,” Lira said. “Shouldn't you know what that is?”
“Well, my mom goes to church.” Rachel came over and snatched the binoculars from Lira. “I stay home. Ohh, he's out of the house! Oh my God, he is so so hot! Lira, maybe I should be the one to go in there, not you.”
Lira took the binoculars back from her. “Absolutely not. My aunt said I had to do it. Besides, you said you would help me.”
Rachel was still staring at him through the binoculars. “I did. Didn't I. Oh, well. I guess some other extremely hot guy will come buy another old house in Cleveland, and then I can go after him.” She gave Lira an irritated look.
“Geez, don't throw a fit over it,” Lira muttered under her breath.
They sat watching him paint the fence for a while until they realized not much was happening. Well, besides his muscles rippling under shirt, for which Rachel mentioned several times and Lira had to practically pry the binoculars out of her grasp to see.
After a while of that, Lira wondered where all this was going. “Okay, so this is all fine and dandy,” she said. “But how exactly am I supposed to befriend him if he's just painting his fence?”
“Hmm.” Rachel put the binoculars on the window sill. “This does present a problem if he's a home body. Well, he eventually needs to leave his house to buy groceries and things. Unless he's planted a garden, which I doubt. Not in a week, anyway!”
Lira rolled her eyes. “What are you suggesting? I camp out at the grocery store?”
“Don't be silly!”
“We plant a tracking device on his car and then when he goes to the grocery store, I show up?”
Rachel's eyes lit up for a second and and then she shook her head. “No! Of course not! Where do you come up with these things?”
“Then what exactly should we do?”
“I'm thinking!” Rachel said loudly and placed her fingers at her temples.
Lira sighed. This was hopeless. Maybe she should have suggested that Rachel just go up to his front door, work her charms, and maybe Mr Homeowner would just let her in. With Lira's luck, Rachel would probably forget the task at hand and nothing would be accomplished anyway, though.
“Maybe you could pretend to be an interior designer!” Rachel suddenly said.
“No way!” Lira grabbed the binoculars to check on their subject. “You know how bad I am at pretending. Think of something more real.”
“Well, then this is going to take forever. If you want to become friends with him and then get invited in, then it's going to take months for you to get in.”
Lira ignored her and watched Mr Homeowner. He was just finishing up the fence that was closet the house. It looked perfect. If only the rest of the house matched. She envisioned a glorious Victorian house in pristine condition with a beautiful white fence around it. There had to be a way to get inside without looking like a complete moron!
Then it suddenly hit her. “I got it!”
“You got what?” Rachel grabbed the binoculars to see if she had seen something significant. “I don't see anything.”
“No, I figured out how I'm going to get in.”
Rachel put the binoculars down. “How?”
Lira smiled. “Honesty.”
“Honesty?” Rachel's expression was ugly. “Honestly? How's that gonna work?”
Lira had it all figured out. “Well, you know my Aunt Carol. She isn't exactly the most pleasant person to deal with. I have no doubt she should have written Mr Homeowner a letter instead of visiting him in person.”
“Mr Homeowner?”
Lira could feel her face heat up. “That's what I've been calling him to myself. Anyway, if I approach him and explain all the good that the Historical Society can do for his house in a calm, nice, non-Aunt-Carol way, maybe he'll say yes. In the very least he'll give me a tour. Brilliant, yes?”
Rachel was looking at her suspiciously out of the corner of her eye. “I don't know... it sounds really unlike me.”
“That's because I thought of it,” Lira said. “Come on, let's get out of here and give your mom the keys before the Choir people get here.”
*****
Lira spent all of Thursday at her job at the office going over what she was going to say when she arrived at the old Victorian house that afternoon. She even planned what she wanted to wear to make the best impression on Mr Homeowner.
Once she got home, she changed into a blue tank top and a cute frilly, white skirt that fell just above her knees. To top off the look, she slid on a pair of strappy white sandals and grabbed the cutest white purse that had been sitting at the back of her closet. By the time she walked up to his door, she was convinced she looked decidedly cute.
She raised her fist to knock and hesitated. This was it. Was she ready? She took in a breath and let it out. It was now or never. Quickly, she lowered her fist to knock and let it go.
Show time.
*****
Jarred had just returned from a neighboring town that was slightly bigger with some cheap lamps so he could at least have a little light in the place until he called an electrician to get the rest of the house sorted out and sitting on the floor assembling them when he heard a knock on the door. Given his past history with guests in this town, he was hesitant to answer the door, but he decided to check it out anyway, so he stood up, brushed himself off, and looked through the eye hole.
He almost jumped back in surprise. My God. It was the stunning redhead from the bar. He couldn't imagine why she was knocking on his door. Not one single suggestion arose. He pulled the door open to her. “Hi. Can I help you?”
“Hi.” She had a radiant smile and the prettiest sparkling blue eyes. “I'm Lira Montgomery from the Cleveland Historical Society.”
Jarred nodded at her. So they were sending in their big guns, huh? “I've heard of your organization.”
“I know...” She looked a little uncomfortable. “I'm afraid my aunt isn't exactly the most friendly person in the world. I really apologize if she came off as... terrifying.”
He smiled at her. “She wasn't exactly terrifying, but I can see how you might categorize her as unfriendly.”
Lira chuckled. “It's really not her fault. It's just how she is. She doesn't mean to be terrifyingly mean, or unfriendly. That's just... how she is?” She was biting her lip and looking up at him.
“Okay, okay, I get it.” He was trying not to laugh. “So what brings you over to my corner today?”
Her face reddened. “Well... I was hoping you'd be willing to listen to a little more about the Historical Society from someone who's a bit more friendly.”
And way more attractive, Jarred added. “I think I have some time,” he said and opened the door a little wider. “If you don't mind the mess, you can come in. I don't have many things right now, but what I do have seems to be all over the floor.” He stepped aside so she could walk in.
“I don't mind at all.” She walked past him and then over a few metal rods that were on the floor.
"These are just some lamps that I'm putting together." He pointed to the wreckage on the floor. "The original ones in the house are pretty much shot, so once it gets dark in here, I've been relying on candles. Till now that is."
Lira was looking around at the ceiling and walls. Jarred wasn't sure if she heard him. "Wow," Lira said. "This place looks bigger on the outside than it is on the inside."
"It's actually pretty big." He began walking a little ways through the living room toward the dining room. "It's just that the way it was designed was that there are a lot of little rooms instead of one great room. Not very trendy for people now days, I guess. I like it though."
She followed him into the dining room where he had his laptop and coffee mug on a large table. It still had four out of eight chairs. A bit shabby.
"This is it for the dining room. Needs a bit of work." He moved onto the kitchen but noticed she was still looking. "It's okay. You can take your time." He waited at the doorway and watched her, smiling.
"I just really like the woodwork around the trim of the room," she said and pointed up to the ceiling. "You don't see that on any new houses. Only houses made from this time period. It's really well done. All hand carved too."
"Don't worry, I won't be tearing it down." He went into the kitchen. "Now here's where I'll have to do a lot of work. Everything is completely out of date. I'm afraid to use some things. I'll have to call some guys to look at it. Unfortunately, I'm not very handy myself." When he turned to look at her, it looked like she was giving him a little smile. He smiled back, but he wondered what it meant. To him, it seemed like they were sharing some sort of secret, only he had no idea what it was. "New cabinets, too. The wood looks bad."
Lira opened a cabinet and closed it. "I see. That's a shame."
"I can take you up the back staircase, and then we'll go down the front. I didn't find the back one till after I bought the house. It kind of looks like this one was meant to be a secret. Like the servants were supposed to use this one." He opened up a small door at the back of the kitchen and allowed her to go ahead of him.
It was a steep and narrow staircase that went straight up a half flight, turned on a landing, went up another half flight, stopped on another landing, and then up one more half flight. The wooden steps were painted an ugly shade of pink.
“The paint will have to be changed, of course,” Jarred said once they reached the top.
“I don't know, I think it's kind of charming. Though it might need a fresh coat.” Lira turned around the corner and took a few steps into the upstairs hallway.
Jarred followed her. The wallpaper was peeling a little, and it was ugly. It was leaves and grapes with some sort of red border that completely clashed. It reminded Jarred of being in kindergarten art class when the teacher had books of old wallpaper samples and the kids would use them for their art projects. They were all hideous. It was a matter of picking the least ugly one.
They walked along, and Lira peered into the rooms along the way. There wasn't much in each room. Sometimes there was a discarded piece of furniture, or a lone chair. They were mostly bare save for the master which Jarred was using as his makeshift bedroom till he could get some real furniture in.
“Not much here,” he said. “I need to find a good furniture place in town, I guess. Right now I'm sleeping on an air mattress.”
“Well,” she turned around from where she was standing in the doorway to smile at him. “I actually wanted to talk to you about things like that. Give you some references and stuff.”
He could kind of see where this was headed. Sure, he had let a pretty girl into his house, but in the end, her agenda was the same as that nasty old lady who had come by the week before. Still, he couldn't help but smile back at her. “I'll be happy to look at your references, but no promises.”
“Awesome!” She was grinning now. It looked like he had really made her day. “Once we go downstairs, we can go over some if you want.”
He gestured towards the main staircase. “After you.”
The main staircase was much more grand than the tiny back one. It was wide, and the steps were graceful all the way down to the ground floor where it led out into the main hall where they were back where they started from.
“There's another room off to the left,” Jarred said and opened a rickety old door that was falling off it's hinges. It looks like it had been being used as a bedroom but it doesn't seem quite right.”
They both stood and peered inside the room. A shell of a twin bed frame was pushed into the corner. Next to it was a little nightstand with the drawers open like someone was looking through it in a hurry.
“It's not traditionally a bedroom at the front of a house like this,” she said. “Usually this is where they would bring guests in to wait for the lady of the house to come down to greet them.”
“Oh.” Jarred stepped inside the room and looked out the picture window where he could see out the front of the house. It was now a busy street, but he imagined what it must have been like a long time ago. “Learn something new every day, I guess.”
They walked back through the main hall and into the dining room where Lira spread out several brochures she had in her purse out onto the table. After they had both taken a seat, she began going over each reference, explaining to him that each business was tied to the historical society and could give him deep discounts if he were looking to preserve and restore the house according to how it stood originally.
Once they were done going through each one, Lira looked over at Jarred and smiled at him. “Maybe we can work with one another?”
Jarred looked back down at the brochures. “These are all really nice, and I appreciate you explaining them to me. But I'm not here to restore a house. I'm here to work on my music.”
Her expression showed that she was taken aback. “But...” she started but didn't finish. “Okay. Well, I'll leave all these things here with you, and if you change your mind or have any questions, feel free to call us. Or me.” She scribbled her name and number on the top of the Historical Society brochure. “I know you probably don't want to talk to my Aunt Carol.”
He smiled at her again. “Thanks. I really do appreciate you showing me these things. It gives me a lot of ideas of what I can do to the place. I love this house, but I don't have the time or energy to put that kind of effort into it right now.”
She went to get up from the table. “Please keep in mind that the Historical society can help you with all those things in the future if you do change your mind.”
He walked her around around the lamp parts and toward the door. “I will. Thanks again.” He opened the door.
“You're welcome. Maybe I'll see you around.” She turned around and smiled at him.
“Maybe.” He smiled back. “Have a nice day, Ms Montgomery.”
Chapter 4
Bridges Index