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So she had a sister. This was the first I was hearing of it.

“Do you just have one sister?” I asked, hoping this was her chance to open up.

Lacey nodded. “One sister that I’ve barely spoken to in years.”

Ouch.

“And now I’ve completely ruined the mood,” she said, putting her fork down and rubbing her face.

“No, you haven’t,” I said, reaching out and touching her arm. “You haven’t.”

“Do you want a drink?” she asked, getting up from her stool.

“Yeah, absolutely,” I said. She grabbed two beers from the fridge and popped the tops with a bottle opener from her pocket.

“Sorry it’s not a mimosa,” she said.

“This is better.”

We moved to the extremely beige couch and sat next to each other.

“How would you stage this house, if you were selling it?” she asked.

“Firstly, I’d bring in some bright pillows and art and get rid of those awful curtains. They’re so bad,” I said, cringing at them. They had a pattern that was supposed to look like woven rope and it was just awful.

“And there’s nothing wrong with classic white. You can overdo it, but just changing the curtains to white panels would help so much,” I said. If I let myself, I’d go around the whole house and mentally stage it.

“Anyway,” I said, shrugging. “I could turn this place upside down if I had the right resources.” My fingers itched to start walking around and taking notes and pictures.

“I’ll refer your services to the owner,” she said. “They’ve been having trouble selling it, which is why they decided to rent it out in the meantime.”

“Really?” I asked. “Well, the price is their first hurdle, and the bathroom issue is the second, but there’s a lot you can do to make a property sing.”

Lacey smiled at me. “You’ve got that look in your eye. I kind of want to sit back and watch you work your magic on this place.”

Why was that so fucking hot?

“You haven’t even seen me finish a house yet,” I pointed out.

Lacey put her arm on the back of the couch behind us. Her arm brushed the back of my neck.

“I have full faith in your abilities, Gwen,” she said, and my breath caught in my lungs for a moment.

“Can I get that in writing for my website?” I asked and she tilted her head back and laughed.

“Sure, you can use that for your website,” she said, her face shining with a smile that was so beautiful and so devastating at the same time.

This attraction to her had never been worse and if I wasn’t careful, she was going to figure it out and then things were going to be weird and then I wasn’t going to get that glowing testimonial from her.

Her phone went off, interrupting my thoughts, which was a good thing.

“Fucking hell,” she said under her breath as she read the message and then typed a reply and glared at her phone. Another message came in and she responded. Her anger was palpable.

“Everything okay?” I asked when there was a pause between the exchange of messages.

“Everything is fine,” she said through clenched teeth before she put the phone screen-side down on the coffee table next to a few of her hats.

“Remember that amazing advice I gave you last night about not having to carry all this on your own?” I said, and she snorted.