Nathan was glad he’d been a senior in high school when all the shit hit the fan. When everyone’s life went from slightly abnormal to completely dysfunctional. Going into the service was the easiest decision he could have made to get the hell away.

  “It shouldn’t be,” Ruby said. “Do you have time for me to run and take pictures of your house now to get it listed? I know you’ve got to go into work tonight. Sorry I couldn’t schedule this yesterday before your week started.”

  “No worries. I’ll get a nap in before work.” It was only ten now, he could lie down around one, get a few hours in and go to work.

  “I can do it another day if you want. I’m sure when you get out tomorrow you’ll be sleeping.”

  He always crashed the morning after his first night shift. Then he could get into a routine for a few days until his four twelve-hours shifts were done.

  “If you don’t mind,” he said. “Why don’t you follow me there now. I’ll let you in, then go over to the new place and change out the locks. That’s probably the only thing I’m going to do today. Hell, I won’t get back there for a few days and nothing will get done until I’m off this weekend.”

  “That works for me.”

  She followed him to his house in Latham which was only about fifteen minutes from Paradise Place. They pulled into the small driveway of the one-car garage home. This was an older small home. It wasn’t in a development but rather on a side street and about sixty years old.

  “This will be a great starter home for some couple,” she said.

  “That or an older couple that wants to downsize,” he said. “I’ve got a bedroom and full bath on the first floor. Two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs too.”

  “Really?” she asked. “It doesn’t look like it has an upstairs.”

  “I put a dormer on and configured the attic for the two rooms and full bath with tub. I figured kids could be up. The downstairs had two bedrooms and the full bath originally,” he said. “I converted it into a nice master with the bath being accessed from the hall or the bedroom.”

  “You know what you’re doing,” she said. “You’ve ticked all the boxes to make this a good home for the mass market.”

  He’d been doing this long enough to know that too. “It’s only about fifteen hundred square feet. I couldn’t do much more than what I did.” He opened the front door that led right into the living room.

  “It’s nice and open,” she said. “Did you knock down walls?”

  “Yeah. I wanted to make it look bigger. There was no dining room, just an eat-in kitchen, so I moved things around, put the island in with some seating and then there is space for a dining room table between the kitchen and living room if someone wants it.”

  He had a small table there himself to stage it as best as he could. His furnishings were minimal to the basics. Living room furniture, bedroom, table, bar stools. Not much more.

  “It flows great,” she said, taking out her camera.

  “Are you okay if I leave?” he asked. “You can lock up when you’re done.”

  “Yep, I’m good. I’ve got your email with everything I need for the listing. I’ll get it up by tomorrow if I can.”

  “Let me know if you think I’m asking too much when you’re done,” he said, going into the garage to get a few tools. He didn’t park his SUV in there, as he needed the storage. The house in Paradise Place had the first double garage he’d been in so that would be nice for a change. Not only that, but there was a shed in the back.

  “I can tell already you might be a bit low, but I’ll let you know for sure.”

  “More is better,” he said, “but I don’t want to price myself out. I’d rather move it.”

  “I think you will.”

  He left a few minutes after that and went to the hardware store to get all the locks he needed. When they’d done the final walk through before the closing he’d made a note of what to purchase.

  The minute he pulled his SUV in the garage of his new place and walked into the mudroom he actually felt somewhat of a calm come over him.

  He’d felt it with the walk through and brushed it off, but now he couldn’t.

  The place needed to be completely gutted. He knew it right away, but he was itching to get to work too. If he could get the kitchen and one bath and bedroom done in the next month he should be able to move in. He couldn’t see closing on his current house any sooner than that even if he got an offer right away.

  He was just finishing up the last lock when his phone rang. He looked down to see his father calling.

  “Hey, Dad.”

  “Nathan. Did you close?”

  “I’m here right now changing the locks, then I’m going to go home and get some sleep before work.”

  “Do you need some help this weekend? Dylan and I can come down. We haven’t seen you in a few months.”

  He wanted to say no, that he knew why they wanted to come to town, but the truth was he couldn’t tell them that. Everyone’s lives had changed fourteen years ago and his father did his best to keep the family together even when his mother self-destructed and wanted to take everyone with her.

  “Sure. I could use some help. Some of the guys wanted to come over for demo day on Saturday, but if you and Dylan want to stop down on Sunday I could use some help figuring things out.”

  “We’ve love to,” his father said. “Neither of us is working, but Dylan’s last day this week is Saturday.”

  His father was a captain for the Glens Falls Police Department. He could have retired five years ago but his work was all he had. Dylan was also a state trooper out of Troop G but stationed in Queensbury. The hour distance wasn’t a lot but enough for him.

  Nathan was the oldest and couldn’t stay around where he grew up. Not with the risk of running into his mother in town. His father didn’t care, as far as he knew. Dylan was torn, but it was a choice of being stationed there or further away and he’d always been the homebody of the family.

  Nathan had never been sure he’d come back to the area after the service but found he’d been gone long enough. There wasn’t enough running he could do from his memories so he figured he might as well come home and follow into the family career like everyone thought.

  He was doing both. Law enforcement with his father, construction with his grandfather.

  Dylan was handy but not disciplined as much as Nathan to pull off both careers. Dylan would rather go out with his friends and party or switch women up. He didn’t like to be alone.

  That never bothered Nathan one bit.

  At least he never thought it did.

  “This is my biggest project yet,” Nathan said. “Not just the size of the house but the amount of work. The profit I could make is through the roof though.”

  “Dylan told me he heard some rumblings about you and an investigator position?”

  He should have known Dylan would have heard that. “There’s a possibility. I’m not sure yet. I guess it’s all going to depend what unit and where I’d end up. I like where I am.”

  “You’d have more time for a life if you had a day schedule,” his father said.

  He snorted. “I’ve got a life. A busy one.”

  “A personal life,” his father said. “You’re the oldest. I thought you’d be settled down by now.”

  “I’m happy the way I am,” he argued.

  “Don’t hold what your mother did to me against all women.”

  He ground his teeth. “I’m not.”

  “We all dealt with Cassie in our own way.”

  “Dad, I don’t want to talk about this.”

  “And you’re running like you always did. It’s always going to be there and you know it.”

  His father was right. “That doesn’t mean Mom had to sleep with every man to ease her pain. I don’t buy it. It wasn’t the first time she’d stepped out on you. You thought we didn’t know when we were younger, but we weren’t stupid.”

  “It’s my business,” his father said.

  “Yep, you’re right. I never judged you.” Not to his face at least. “But you didn’t deserve it then and you sure the hell didn’t after Cassie.”

  “No. None of us did. But Cassie’s birthday is on Saturday and well...”

  “And you like us all to be together as best we can,” he said. “I know.”

  “I miss her.”

  “We all do, Dad.”

  “Even your mother.”

  “She didn’t do a good job of honoring Cassie with her behavior.”

  “No, she didn’t. That’s her life and she has to live with it.”

  “As long as she lives it far enough from me,” he said back.

  There was silence on the other end. He didn’t expect his father to respond. “We’ll see you on Sunday.”

  “Bye,” he said, hanging up the phone. He finished up what he was doing, locked the house, and left.

  When he got back to his house he undressed, pulled the blackout curtains shut, and climbed into bed hoping to get some uninterrupted sleep.

  That included dreams of his little sister that was no longer with him.

  6

  No Comment

  Brina waited at the stop sign for the motorcycle to pass by, then a Mercedes, followed by an Audi. She finally made her turn on the way to Blair’s house where she and Hannah were going to meet to go over some wedding plans.

  She was just getting ready to make another turn to Blair’s house when she noticed the motorcycle that had passed her parked in the driveway next to a dumpster and a tall muscular man pulling his helmet off. She’d always been a sucker for a man on a motorcycle.

  Whoa, was that Nathan? Something in her made her slow down and pull over to the side of the road. Why? Who the hell knew and who cared when someone looked like him? Jeans that looked damn fine, a fitted navy T-shirt showing off some rather large biceps that had been hidden under his uniform.

  Since she knew he was a flipper on the side, she was going to assume he got his build from manual work rather than a gym.

  “Fancy seeing you here,” she said. Looked like his latest house was in Paradise Place.

  He put his helmet on his bike, then walked toward her on the side of the road. Strutted was more like it. Cocky, just like she’d thought before. No smile though...still.

  “Do you live in Paradise Place?” he asked, leaning on the frame of her open window.

  “No. My cousin lives a street over. I’m on my way there to do some wedding planning with my sister. So your newest flip?” she asked, nodding her head.

  “Rob told you why I was there? Isn’t that confidential information?”

  Her good mood was dropping fast. “He did. I didn’t ask. He thought you and I were friends since we were talking in the hall and just assumed. I didn’t ask details either or I’d know you were on this street.”

  His lips curved a little. She couldn’t figure out if he’d been joking or not with that statement. “No worries. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Then why did you make it out to be?”

  “To see if it ruffled your feathers.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You seem to enjoy doing that, don’t you?”

  “Whatever works,” he said. “But in this case, I’ll apologize. Here you pulled over to say hi and be friendly.”

  “Apology accepted. Looks like you might be throwing some stuff out.”

  “Would you like to see the nastiness inside or are you in a hurry? I’ve got time before the crew gets here.”

  “Crew?” she asked, turning her car off. She’d love to walk through the house that looked way too big for one person. But he was a flipper she had to remind herself so it wasn’t as if it’d be for him.

  “A couple of the guys are coming. Demo day brings them out in droves.”

  Oh man. Men swinging sledgehammers. Why was she weak over the little things? And she’d always kept that to herself too. Too many people insisted she was jaded now...and she was. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate some of the finer things in life.

  Like hot sweaty men.

  She got out of her SUV and followed him up the driveway. “Nice bike. Kind of hard to bring tools over that way though isn’t it?”

  “My tools are here. I brought everything over in my truck this week. My current house is up for sale and I needed to get my bike out of the garage. I’ll keep it here now.”

  “And how will you get back home to...”

  He turned to look at her. “Curious or more?”

  “Just conversation. I’m an attorney. I like to talk. Don’t you know that by now?”

  “I should have known. I live in Latham for the moment. Once I sell it, I’ll be living here during the construction. I’ve already gotten an offer on my house so I’ve got thirty days to get this livable.”

  They walked in through the garage, passing a lot of tools he’d talked about. “These floors are kind of...dirty.”

  The linoleum might have been white at one point but now it looked more like dirty snow a dog left in its wake.

  “The floors in the whole house are coming up. Every inch of it. The carpets upstairs are even more disgusting.”

  “Someone was living here?”

  “Yeah. The husband got sick and the house just got lost in the shuffle. The wife was going to lose it to the bank if they didn’t sell it fast. I came in and took it before it was listed for her asking price.”

  “You could have negotiated for less, I’m sure,” she said.

  “Why? The realtor is a friend of mine. She brought me in before it listed, took a percentage off her commission if I could get it at listing to save the owner from being negotiated down. In the end she got to square off her mortgage, pay her fees, and walk away with a few grand. If it was listed she might not have gotten that. It was a great deal either way.”

  Interesting that he was more concerned about the previous owner than his wallet. “She could have made more with a bidding war too.”

  “I’m sure, but then she might not have gotten her fast closing either. She needed to put this life behind her. I was under the impression that you weren’t out for money yourself.”

  They’d been standing there in the mudroom going back and forth. She snorted. “Rob told you that, didn’t he?”

  “He did. Again, he thought we were friends.”

  “What else did he say? That I didn’t play the game of you wash my back and I’ll wash yours?”

  “Something like that. And before you get all defensive, those are the things I hate about lawyers, so to hear you weren’t like that was nice.”

  “Nice?” she asked. “Why would you care?”

  “I don’t know. Why did you pull over to say hi to me?”

  He had her there. For once she had no comment.

  Nathan knew right away it was Brina he’d passed at the stop sign before he pulled into his driveway. That she stopped to say hi was just icing on his sweet cake of the day.

  He didn’t normally play with someone like he was doing with her and wasn’t sure what possessed him to do it now.

  She’d been eying his house like she wanted to see it so he figured it wouldn’t hurt to invite her in. And the more they talked the more he realized that maybe she was as interested in him as he was becoming with her.

  He hadn’t missed her eyes traveling over his arms, then the rest of his body.

  “Why do you think I stopped?” she asked.

  “Because you’re more interested than nosy,” he threw out there.

  She hesitated a bit more. “I’m interested in all sorts of things in life. Right now I’m interested in this house you’re going to gut. Why don’t you show me around?”

  “We can do that,” he said. “Laundry room and half bath here. Again, keep in mind all baths and the kitchen are getting ripped down to the studs.”

  “It needs it,” she said. “Nice space though.”

  “That was one of the things that drew me in.”

  “What was the other?” she asked.

  “The location. My buddy Josh lives a few blocks over.”

  “Josh that you introduced me to at the courthouse?”

  “Good memory. Yes. His fiancée is the realtor I told you about that’s a friend.”

  “This kitchen is huge,” she said. “Nasty but huge. Are you keeping the flow like this?”

  “No,” he said of the L-shaped counters. “I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet, but definitely an island with seating. Most people want that now. I’m taking some walls down too.”

  “Nice family room back there. It’s already opened up too.”

  “Yeah. That needs a facelift more than anything. I’m doing hardwood floors throughout the whole house. Even upstairs in the bedrooms.”

  “Hardwood is nice,” she said. “Throw rugs can warm it up or decorate either way. Nice and versatile.”

  He’d always thought so. “You must have hardwood.”

  “I live in an apartment with cheap laminate floors. It looks good, but it’s not the real deal.”

  He nodded and moved her to the front of the house. “Formal living room here, small office over there.”

  “Not a lot of work other than the floors and paint there. Oops, leak on the ceiling,” she said looking up.

  “The pipes in the master above. They’d shut the water off to that room. I’ll figure it out when I open the walls up. Looks like superficial damage, which is good. Hopefully there isn’t a ton of mold in there. Speaking of mold, how did your case go the other day?”

  “What case?”

  “The slumlord one.”

  “Oh. No mold there. Not that we could see. That was lead paint, broken windows, and leaking pipes. We won. He’s got a month to get it all fixed or start paying fines.”

  “I’m sure he’ll do it if he’s smart.”

  “Yep,” she said. “He wanted to settle out of court and I wouldn’t. I wanted to make sure it was done. He owns a lot of properties in the city and I plan on going after them all once word gets out.”

  He laughed. He shouldn’t be surprised she was a do-gooder by the sounds of it. “I’m assuming your clients have no money for legal representation. Why not go through the Legal Aid Society?”