Brian walked up the pebble path and added that to his to do list on the house. What kind of house didn’t have pavers? He had been at the house for a little less than a month rehabbing it, but it was moving along nicely. The workers had finished on time and under budget, which was a first, and Hannah was arriving soon to start the decorating and making the house a home. The city had asked that a family from the area be offered the chance at the home before they went down their list and had specifically asked that it be a noted member of the police force. Hannah had interviewed the family and offered them the home. The officer who had been injured and was in a wheelchair had accepted. It threw a wrench in the plans though because now the house had to be restyled to be more accessible to the officer. He fumbled in his pocket for his key and then looked up at the door when he noticed the basket on his porch. It was stocked with goodies and had a big green bow on it that reminded him of Bell’s eyes. Even after a week he still hadn’t been able to prevent his mind from wandering to the memory of her curvy frame and piercing eyes. As he laid alone on the mattress in the bedroom he chose it was a comfort to him that someday he would get to rehab his own house and have someone with him. Maybe she would have the green eyes of a woman who worked in sales. Brian picked up the basket and fingered the card before taking it inside the house and setting on the card table that was his dinning table.
He read the card and he experienced a moment of acute shock. The card said, “Thank you for the ride. Hope this helps you feel better. –Bell.” Inside the basket was Egyptian cotton sheets, a bottle of Nyquil, menthol cough drops and variety of fruits and veggies with a recipe for chicken soup. “Wow.” Brian was surprised and a little shocked that the married Bell would send him a personal gift. A thank you card would have been fine. Women were hard to understand. Brian left it on the card table and went to work on his pet project; the kitchen.
His team had turned out to be little superstitious and no one had wanted to take on the kitchen. Brian had been happy to do it himself, he usually took on the rooms were the most tragedy had happened. Brian loved building houses and had subcontracted under a lot of great contractors and some really horrible ones. It was when he was remodeling Hannah’s bathroom that she had approached him about working for Changers. At the time it is was just her and she was bringing in a different contractor for each project and they all had tried to take advantage of her. She offered him her then current project if he would just be honest with her about how much it would cost so she could do the fundraising. When he got to the house to check it out the house had pieces of the wall ripped out of it and fire damage in two rooms not to mention that the stench was horrible. Changers had bought the house, which had been on the market for three years to transform it into a home, and it took him 9 months to get the house ready for her to come in and decorate. Sometimes Changers bought houses sometimes, like this house; agencies came in and asked them to do it. Hannah not only decorated she and her best friend approached companies and independents to donate the money for the construction and then negotiated with banks on behalf of the new owners to get them a fair lender to pay for the remainder of the mortgage. Hannah also offered ongoing support groups for what she called the New Loves, most of whom were first time homeowners, to help them deal with the process of maintaining a home. She had convinced him to teach a few classes on how to do easy fix it things and if they have a bigger problem he usually recommended the men who worked on the house originally, he liked to think of the houses as being taken care of by the people who had saved it and he also liked to throw work back to the guys who helped build it. Changers had started out as one house every four to five months and had grown to having several projects running at once. Brian would start out living in each house, to see the house from someone who would live in it and then build the plans from what needed changing. Once the house was fifty percent done he would move to the next house and get it started. Hannah had offered him a partnership after his third house for her when she had started being overwhelmed by the growth rate of business and had realized that construction was as much work as her fundraising. Brian had taken the offer and enjoyed helping Hannah build the business into a very successful non-profit.
He heard the only other key to the house in the lock and jogged into the entry way to meet Hannah who had come to take measurements of the finished rooms and get a feel for what rooms would be what. “Hey Lazy.” Hannah smiled and embraced him as she walked in. “Just because I have a team of shoppers doesn’t make me lazy, it makes me practical. How’s she coming?” Hannah winced as she stepped over the blood stain in the entryway. “The floors get ripped up tomorrow and the hard wood guy will be here in the afternoon to install the new floors. It had to be done after the majority of the work was complete Han.”
“I know it just bothers me to look at it. The wife wants to have it blessed by a priest before they move in to make sure that no demons remain.”
Brian nodded “Could be worse.” They had had homeowners ask for much odder things, including one woman who had brought in an ‘evil sniffing’ dog. The dog had seemed more interested in one of the workers sandwiches than any potential evil but it had made the woman feel safe about the home. “I know I was almost happy until I saw the bloodstain. When will they be able to do their first walk through?” Brian squinted one eye and looked upto the ceiling with the other one while his mouth scrunched up mentally reviewing his schedule, “five days the floors should be done and the only thing left will be the kitchen.” Hannah laughed at that, “Still installing cabinets? You always take on the challenging projects yourself.” Since the other team had come in under budget he had redirected the money into the kitchen and expanded it out. What was supposed to have been done a week ago was almost halfway though. “I couldn’t resist, I like the idea of them having home cooked meals and a table to eat at as a family.” Hannah smiled sympathetically at Brian she knew that he was ready to build a house of his own and hoping from one house to another for work wasn’t helping his two story in the country get built. “This is the last one before the wet season. Maybe it is time to take on an assistant.” She was hesitant to offer because Brian was excellent at this. He loved each one of the houses but he really needed to start his own life he was thirty three and she had been keeping him too busy to date or even look sideways at a woman.
“Maybe after this one. The wet season will give me a chance to interview contractors and look hard at the guys we have been working with to see if one of them could step up. It isn’t an easy job and I wouldn’t want a guy who had a family to do this.” Hannah had been walking through the house while they talked seeing how the house was developing. As she walked into what was going to be the dinning area she saw the gift basket and walked over to it and looked at the card. “Hope you feel better. Bell?” Maybe Brian did have time to date. “Do not think about matchmaking Hannah, she is married. I gave her a ride to the airport a week ago while I was sick, and she is just thanking me.”
“Sheets this nice do not come from a happily married woman.” Hannah untied the bow that held the cellophane together then pushed it down with a crinkle and dug deeper into the basket. “Why hadn’t you opened it? Ooo there are some nice things in here.” As she began removing stuff from the basket a wonderful scent wafted out to greet her. The smell of orange peel and allspice filled her nostrils and reminded her of Brian and she understood why the mysterious Bell had chosen the potpourri that was at the bottom of the basket. “Yum Brave Soldier hand cream. Nice Egyptian cotton, little jealous there. Hmm what is this, oh nice throw!” Hannah pulled out a blue and tan throw with a cream tag attached that said, “For the sofa.” Hannah looked at the beat up leather recliner, the only thing that could even loosely be defined as a couch, that was the only piece of furniture that traveled with Brian, mostly because it fit in the back of his truck, and laughed at putting this beautiful thing on that beat up ‘couch’. “You should call her and tell her thank you. This is the gift of someone who wants you to get in touch.”
Brian raised one eyebrow and reminded Hannah, “She’s married.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t be friends”
“That woman is too beautiful for me to think of her as a friend for very long. She is temptation in a short jean skirt.”
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