Should’ve Known It’s You (Not You Again #7)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

KENNEDY

A few days after Winrey had been discharged from the hospital, Austin and I were back at the abandoned mansion with a cleaning crew. My sister was doing well, recovering at home with strict instructions to avoid anything even remotely stressful, but the doctors had assured us that both she and the baby were healthy. Taking it easy was just a precaution.

Benji was keeping a watchful eye on her between his shifts at work. Since they both knew I could be there at the drop of a hat if they needed me, I was keeping my phone close, but outside of that, I was back to focusing on the hotel.

We’d received the necessary approval from the city to continue and we were now officially on the clock—and in a time crunch to clean the place out before we could have it inspected to make sure it was safe to host a party there. That was the first hurdle we had to get over. It had to be completed before we could finally have the events crew come in to decorate the place according to my vision.

“Am I the only one who feels like an astronaut?” I asked, standing next to Austin in the grand foyer.

Both of us were dressed in plastic suits with respirators on, a suggestion from the industrial cleaning company just in case there was a lot of dust as we moved the debris out. The professionals fanned out around us, clearly knowing what to do much better than we did.

Austin chuckled and turned to give me a pointed onceover. “You look like an astronaut too. A poorly equipped one, to be fair, but an astronaut nonetheless.”

I rolled my eyes at him and laughed. “You’re wearing the exact same suit I am, smart ass.”

“Yeah, but I definitely wear it better.” He lifted his arms, flexing his biceps under the plastic and waggling his eyebrows behind the protective eye-gear he had on. “Enjoy the gun show today, Ms. Sweet. It’s going to be a good one.”

My eyebrows arched. “Says the guy who works behind a desk in an office all day.”

“Hey, I still have the strength of a farmer in here somewhere and I fully plan on showing it off today. These muscles were built over decades of working in the fields and?—”

“Yeah. Yeah. Keep telling yourself that,” I teased, planting my hands on my hips and turning to get a good look at what lay ahead.

There was broken old furniture that would need to be moved out and examined to see if any of it was salvageable, drywall that had fallen from the ceiling, lots of clutter, and garbage left behind by teens and squatters. We had our work cut out for us, but as I looked it all over again, I felt that same energetic surge of excitement from before.

Since the cleaners had gone upstairs and to the back rooms to get started, I motioned toward the kitchen. “I saw quite a bit of garbage in there the other day. It seems like as good a place as any for us to start.”

Grabbing a roll of trash bags from the crate of cleaning supplies beside me, I tore one off and shook it open. Then I glanced at Austin again. “You coming, farmer boy?”

He laughed. “You’re mean when you’re working, but sure. Let’s do this thing.”

I led the way and came to a standstill in the center of the kitchen. It was clear that this had been a place where people—probably teenagers—had come together to play drinking games around the table.

Empty liquor bottles were scattered around it, shards of glass and rusted old beer cans on the floor underneath. The wooden tabletop might’ve been beautiful once, but it now had scorch marks burned into the surface, residue of heaven only knew what smeared into the grain, as well as a multitude of initials and curse words carved into it. I sighed, a pang of sadness shooting through me at seeing a table that had probably hosted so many family dinners destroyed.

“Do you think we can rescue it?” I asked as I looked it over.

Austin came to stand next to me, squeezing my shoulder as he shook his head. “We can try to sand it down, but I suspect you’d still be able to see some of the holes left by the carving and the burns. It’s probably better off as firewood at this point.”

“Want to help me carry it out back?” I asked. “I’ll chop it up to use in the fireplace at the fundraiser. You’re sure we can’t use it for anything else?”

He shrugged, suddenly smirking as he looked at me. “There are probably too many people around for this right now, but it’s a good height. I can think of a few things we could use it for before you chop it up.”

I reached out to smack his shoulder, the moment suddenly lighter again as I laughed. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Merrick. We’ve got work to do.”

The encounter set the tone for the day, though. We were goofy and playful with each other while we worked, laughing a lot and continuously getting in the way of the cleaning crew.

I nearly tripped over someone on my way up the stairs, but Austin caught me, sending an apologetic look to the guy who had been scraping chunks of something off the banister. “Sorry, man.”

“Austin, look.” I pointed at an antique hutch standing at the top of the stairs. Someone must’ve moved it out from wherever it had been, and the sight of it made my heart beat faster. I glanced at the guy on stairs. “I’m so sorry. I saw that and I was so excited about it that I forgot to look where I was going.”

“That’s okay, ma’am,” he mumbled. “You’re the one who nearly fell. I’m fine. Are you alright?”

“I’m wonderful,” I breathed as I stared at the hutch.

The guy frowned, glanced at Austin, but then shrugged and went back to his scraping as I continued up the stairs. The hutch really was gorgeous, the doors of the storage space below ornately carved and the shelves above still sturdy, inlaid with some kind of golden thread that gave it the look of something that had belonged to nobility. “I want to keep that for the lobby. It needs a bit of TLC, but don’t you think it’s amazing?”

“It’s beautiful,” he said. “That might be a hidden gem, too.” He pointed over the banister at the dining set below. “It would have to be reupholstered, but furniture like that is rare nowadays.”

As I leaned over to peer down at it, I realized he was right. “It looks like something the Knights of the Round Table would’ve gathered around.”

“Exactly.”

“Let’s keep it,” I said immediately, reaching the landing and crossing over to the hutch. “You go ahead. I just want to take this downstairs to add to the collection of stuff we’re keeping before it gets tossed by mistake.”

He blinked at me. “You want to take that downstairs? By yourself?”

“Yes.”

He chuckled. “You’re a force to be reckoned with, Kenny Sweet. I’m pretty sure that’s too heavy for you to carry down all these stairs by yourself, though. You’re going to end up crushed at the bottom underneath it.”

“Challenge accepted.” I grinned and walked around it once to ascertain how best to lift it before I got a good grip on the sides.

Austin watched me closely, amusement in his eyes as he showed me his hands as if to say “go ahead, but I’m here if you need me.” As I picked it up, I nearly crumbled under the weight, but I was too stubborn to ask for help after I’d only just told him that I could do it.

Halfway to the stairs, however, I realized he might’ve had a point. This thing was going to crush me.

“Fine,” I grumbled, setting it down and peeking at him around the back of it. “You can help.”

“It’s adorable that you think you can move all this heavy stuff by yourself,” he said playfully, striding over and sizing up the hutch before he motioned at the top edge. “Okay, I’m going to tip it toward you. Grab that and I’ll get the bottom.”

“I’m not adorable,” I protested before I yelped and grabbed the top shelf when he tipped it over. “Jeez. A little warning next time?”

He chuckled, but as I looked over at him, I suddenly fell silent, noticing how strong he was under all the big city polish. The farmer in him definitely wasn’t all gone. It was just refined.

Bearing the weight of the heaviest part of the hutch as if it weighed nothing, he helped me get it down and offered me a high-five. I smacked my palm into his, but now that I’d noticed his strength, I couldn’t help but to keep ogling him as the day went on.

Not only that, but we were having so much fun together, working hard, joking around, and flirting even while we grunted and moved heavy things out of the way to clean behind or underneath them. I was totally charmed by Austin Merrick somehow, and it was getting worse and worse the more time we spent together.

“How’s Winrey doing?” he asked as I swept bits of drywall into a large dustpan. “No more sudden spikes?”

I shook my head. “She’s all good for now, but we got guilted into a family dinner at my parents’ place this Sunday. I have no doubt that they only invited us so they could give us lectures.”

It was also only two weeks before the Thanksgiving event and I’d been planning on working every minute of every hour until then, but once my sister had agreed to dinner, I knew I would have to take at least a couple of hours off.

Austin frowned. “So just don’t go?”

“I have to. I debated telling them I didn’t have time right now, but Winrey wants to give them the chance to apologize and I won’t make her go alone.” I drew in a breath and smiled. “It’ll be fine. How’s your family doing?”

“They’re fine. I’m under a bit of pressure to go home for Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure yet how the chips are going to fall, so we’ll see.”

“You have to go home,” I insisted. “It’s Thanksgiving. Of course, you should be with your family. They’re a real blessing.”

He looked over at me, his eyebrows lifting a little bit. Those dark eyes latched on mine, and his head cocked, making it look like he was contemplating something before he suddenly spoke again. “You should come with me.”

I nearly fell over in surprise. “You want me to come home with you for Thanksgiving?”

He nodded. “Why not? My family would love to see you.”

“Even your dad?” I joked.

Austin laughed. “Well, maybe not him so much, but he’ll come around.”

As surprised as I was by the invitation, I was even more surprised by how eager I was to say yes. “I’d love to, but…”

“But what?”

“We couldn’t participate in the parade and make it to Merrick Meadows that same night.”

“Leave that to me. We’ll figure something out.” A slow grin broke out across his face, but before he could respond, a member of the cleaning crew came up to him, handing over a sheet of paper. “We’re almost done, sir. Our final invoice. As agreed, it needs to be paid before we leave.”

“Of course,” he said, and I moved over to his side, getting a glimpse of the total dollar figure at the bottom just before he snapped it toward his chest. “This is mine.”

“Technically, it’s mine,” I said. “At least let me split it with you.”

“Nope, it’s mine. Consider it my contribution to helping you get your dream off the ground.”

As I stared at him, I knew that I should just say thank you. With the amount owed, I wouldn’t have been able to afford the rest of my rent for the month if I’d helped pay it. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to repay you for everything you’re doing for me, but thank you. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

“Don’t be grateful,” he said, grinning at me. “Just come to Merrick Meadows for Thanksgiving if I can sort it out with my family, and promise me the new year isn’t going to come with a new dream.”

Professionally, it wouldn’t, but on a personal level, I couldn’t say the same thing. I was starting to hope that I would keep seeing a lot of him even after he’d helped me start my business, but I knew that wasn’t what he was referring to.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Merrick,” I said. “And a date. We’d better just hope your dad doesn’t mind it when you bring trouble home with you.”

He laughed. “I’ll tell him to lock up the tractor.”