Extensive (A Single Dad Box Set) Page 5

  I wasn’t sure how Kayla would take to the house being redecorated, but whether she liked it or not, she needed to start moving forward. Living in her mother’s shadow was definitely not helping either one of us. I couldn’t sell the house, but I could make it look completely different than what it had before. Besides, Kayla’s room was still decorated from when she was five. She would feel better with a completely new room as well, and she could even help in picking out the style she wanted, especially since she was interested in design. Now, all I had to do was figure out the perfect way to bring it up to her so it didn’t sound too businesslike, but still made it look like I was interested in helping her and learn about what she did. I could afford to take a couple days off from work. I hadn’t since Christina had left, and I needed a break before the summer heat hell started and I was in the triple digit weather, working my ass off.

  I put away the liquor and headed up to bed, formulating my plan as I went. This had to work. I was relying on it to be what got me close to Alissa. I figured, even if she turned me down personally, we would end up with a better living situation, so something good would come out of it either way. Hopefully.

  Chapter 8

  Alissa

  It was late in the morning, and I was more than happy to be working out of the home office for the day. The woman with the home she’d bought and wanted redone finally made her mind up and ended up loving what I did with the dining room. She allowed me to go nuts with the rest of the house, as long as I took her thoughts into consideration. The men were there painting the house while I was sitting at my home office, ordering all of the furniture that would be going into the house in just a few weeks. This was the really exciting part, where everything started to slowly come together. After the walls, the floors would be done, and then, I would have all the light fixtures changed. Once that was complete, I got to do my magic. I would sweep through the house with all of the rugs and furniture first, and then I would start hanging all of the accents. When I was done, I loved sitting back and staring at the before and after shots right before the big reveal. It was exhilarating on so many levels.

  I grabbed my coffee and headed down the hall to my office, deciding that working in yoga pants and a t-shirt was more than professional enough. My hair was thrown up on top of my head in a messy bun, and I hadn’t even thought of applying any makeup. I sat down at my desk and opened my computer and notebook, excited to start buying the pieces. Before I could type in the first site, my phone rang, and I looked down to see that Ryan was calling me. I hoped that everything was okay. I wasn’t supposed to be watching Kayla at all this week.

  “Hey, there,” I said with blushed cheeks.

  “Hey, how are you?”

  “Good, just sitting down to do some ordering for a client,” I said. “How is my little monster?”

  “Ha,” he said, snorting adorably. “She is as feisty as ever.”

  “I really wish I could get through to her,” I said, sighing. “I’m starting to think she just doesn’t like me.”

  “It’s not you, I promise,” he said. “She doesn’t like me at all. She has been through so much over the past year, and she is resentful to adults in general right now.”

  “I can understand that,” I said. “Is she at school?”

  “No,” he replied. “It’s spring break, but I enrolled her in this week-long camp program that the school recommended. It’s like therapy with art. She seems to have liked it so far, but she really doesn’t have a choice since she isn’t old enough to stay home by herself.”

  “Yeah, I can’t remember when my mom left me home alone for the first time,” I replied. “Maybe I was like fourteen or so. I know that my older sister babysat me a lot when my mom had to work.”

  “My parents didn’t trust me for a second,” he replied. “When I was old enough to drive, they left me home alone for the first time.”

  “Yeah, my mother didn’t trust my sister, but she trusted me,” I said, laughing. “I’m pretty sure when she was babysitting me, I was really the one making sure the house wasn’t burning down around us. Bella is a bit of a free spirit, and I’m pretty sure I got high by accident when I was about twelve just from hanging out in her room with her and her friends for too long.”

  “I’m pretty sure Kayla is doomed,” he said, laughing. “Between my haphazard brain and her mother’s inability to sit still, she won’t be left alone until she is eighteen, and even then, I might install a nanny cam to watch over her.”

  “Oh my gosh,” I said, laughing. “That poor girl.”

  I set down my pen and concentrated on our conversation. It was surprising to me how easy talking to Ryan had become. I was never big on talking on the phone with anyone, and I was that girl that was super excited when texting became a thing. With him, though, I could totally see myself spending hours talking about nothing in particular with him. He was a lot like me with his sense of humor and ease of words, and I found it almost refreshing. I could tell that flutter in my chest was back, especially when I found myself leaning dreamily forward onto my hand and listening to his deep voice talk about Kayla’s accidents and clumsiness as a baby. I had never been the flighty girl that fell all over herself for a guy, but with Ryan, it was like I couldn’t help myself. I was practically drooling.

  “So, then I went upstairs and found her in a pile of clothes,” he said. “She had gone through all the drawers and taken everything out, building a pile so she could jump off the bed like Superman. Suffice it to say, I was rarely left alone with my own child as a toddler. Luckily, she has a bit more sensibility to herself now, and I can leave her out of sight for more than a few minutes and not worry that she has repainted the house with her finger paints.”

  “Oh, my gosh.” I laughed loudly. “Being the youngest, I never got to see those things, but from my mother’s stories, my sister used to do the same thing. Mom told me that she came upstairs once and found me and my sister in the bathtub sliding around. Bella had taken the vegetable shortening from the cabinet and lathered us up completely, and we made our own slip and slide. I can’t even imagine how hard that was to get off the walls.”

  “Your poor mother,” he said, laughing. “Hey, I did have a question.”

  “Okay, shoot,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes.

  “What is your work schedule like?”

  “Um, like today?” I was a little confused. “I’m working from home today and then spending the week managing the guys putting in floors at a client’s house. What’s up? You need me to watch Kayla?”

  “No, no, nothing like that,” he said. “I was sitting around in the kitchen a few nights ago and started to really look around the house. I was thinking that a change in décor and the whole feel of the house might help Kayla and myself be able to move forward a bit easier. Christina was completely in charge of decorating the house, and it’s been pretty hard on Kayla, especially, to move on when the fact that Christina left is shoved in our faces every time we come home. I know she isn’t going to love the idea, but I think it is what is best for her at this point, something new and fresh.”

  “Oh,” I said, smiling. “That makes sense.”

  “I know it’s a lot, but I figured with your expertise, it could be a really great house,” he said. “Otherwise, it might end up looking like a ski lodge if I’m left alone with the reins.”

  “Oh, god, we don’t want that.” I laughed. “Kayla is sweet, but a giant moose on the wall may just give her nightmares. It might actually give me nightmares whenever I come over there. Besides, it’s really hard to find overstuffed brown leather couches unless you are going for vintage. And by vintage, I mean thrift store.”

  “See, this is why I need you,” he said with an awkward pause. “To decorate the house, I mean. Thrift stores are cool and everything, but I don’t want to lay down on a couch someone else’s leg skin has stuck to on a hot summer day.”

  “That is disgusting,” I groaned.

  “And of course,
I would be more than happy to pay you your customary fees,” he said. “I would never imagine taking that much time out of your work schedule for this place. It’s a bit eclectic which I think might be the opposite of what it needs to be.”

  “Yeah, I mean your ex-wife definitely had an artistic vibe to her, which was not something I would have guessed when I met her that one time,” I said.

  “Honestly, she read a bunch of magazines and like, copied rooms from them,” he replied. “I think all of the magazines are stacked in boxes in the garage still. I’ll probably use it for kindling for the fireplace this winter.”

  “Waste not, want not,” I replied. “But yes, that is definitely something I can do, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I have a pretty stacked week this upcoming one, but after that, I can definitely put you in on my schedule. I’ll be honest, it’s a bad habit of mine to dissect everyone’s house when I go into it, so after watching Kayla for so long, I have already put quite a bit of thought into what I would do if I could redecorate your house.”

  “Uh oh.” He laughed. “I hope you weren’t miserable with the giant paintings hanging on the walls.”

  “No.” I laughed. “But you will definitely be able to sell them for some good money. They are pretty reputable artists. The art itself may not be my taste, but the painters behind them bring in a pretty penny in the big cities. I’ll do some research on it and see where I can submit them to.”

  “That would be awesome because I don’t need any more junk in my garage,” he gruffed.

  “Okay, tell me what some of your ideas are,” I said, interested in hearing what he thought.

  “Seriously, you don’t want me to put my two cents in.” He chuckled. “I have no idea other than different than what it is. Besides, I don’t want to make you biased toward anything. I fear that bringing up the ski lodge was even a bad choice.”

  “No.” I laughed. “Trust me. There will be no ski lodge influence in the décor of your home. I’m sorry, but I can’t allow it.”

  “All right, it’s a deal.” He laughed. “Well, I gotta get to work, and I don’t want to hold you up. Just let me know later this week when you want to start, and I’ll make sure to be around.”

  “Sounds good,” I said happily. “And tell Kayla I said hi.”

  “I will,” he said before hanging up.

  I set the phone down on the desk and smiled. It was really awesome that I could do this for them, especially since I would be helping both of them feel more comfortable in their home. It wasn’t very often that I could use my skill set to really help someone, so this was exciting. In fact, I was a little bit more excited than I should be about redecorating Ryan’s place. I wasn’t going to lie. It was going to feel good to get rid of that bitch’s fingerprints in their home. There was a certain amount of satisfaction I could already feel in getting rid of the gaudy new age décor she had hanging on the walls. On another note, I would get to spend a little more time with Ryan, something that had constantly been on my mind, but I wasn’t sure what I should do about.

  I put my hand to my cheek and could feel the warmth swarming my face. He made me feel all kinds of different ways, and I still wasn’t sure if that was okay or not. I really wanted to talk about it with someone, but the idea of talking that way about my stepbrother still seemed too taboo, even for my free-spirited family. I would wait and see how this new venture went, hoping that it calmed whatever emotions I had going on in my stomach.

  Chapter 9

  Ryan

  It had been a week since I had talked to Alissa about redecorating the house, and she was on her way over to get started. I took the day off from work so that I could be there to go through her ideas with her, hoping that what she had come up with was more like a total transformation. We really needed the change in the house, and I was thinking this was going to help Kayla out a lot.

  Kayla was back at school since spring break ended, and I was glad she wasn’t there to see us pick apart everything that her mother had done to decorate the house. The last thing I wanted was for Kayla to get hurt feelings over the entire thing. She needed to understand that life was moving forward without her mother, and that, although I would never pressure her to forget her mom, I wanted her to be healthy and happy at the same time.

  “Hey,” Alissa said, walking in the kitchen door. “How are you?”

  “Good,” I said, hugging her gently. “I am ready to get this started.”

  “Awesome,” she replied, putting her bag down and pulling out a large notebook.

  I stood there, very aware of Alissa standing so close to me. There was definitely something different about how it felt to be close to her when Kayla wasn’t around. There was an attraction that was almost palpable between the two of us, and I could feel my heart begin to beat faster and faster the closer we got. Our arms brushed against each other, and goosebumps ran up my spine. I glanced over as Alissa attempted to hide the blush on her cheeks. She was definitely feeling the same thing that I was.

  “Okay,” she said, clearing her throat awkwardly. “Since we are in the kitchen, we can start here. I am going to give you the full rundown, and then we can change and not change anything you want. I tried to work around your current appliances so that you wouldn’t have to replace them. They are relatively new. In here, I would say let’s lighten it up. You spend most of your time in this kitchen, and the last thing you want is to walk into a dark space like this. We should be able to strip and re-stain the cabinets a lighter color, then replace the granite with a white pearl granite and change the color of the walls from dark gray to a neutral, happier tone. It will keep the aesthetic look of the place but not turn it into a country home.”

  “I like that,” I said, nodding. “What about the table?”

  “Nothing a good wood stain can’t take care of.” She smiled. “Now, let’s move into the living room, the space you should be spending more of your time in. This is the main area that will undergo renovations, not counting the bedrooms. All the art, gone, the paint, an earthy neutral color. We bring in a large sectional couch, but one of the comfy ones that Kayla will actually want to sit on. To the left and right of the sectional, we pick out some sleek but comfortable chairs. This rug, gone. That entertainment center is way too nineties for my taste, so we bring in a deep chestnut to make the space feel warm. We redo the fireplace and take all that tile off, reclaiming what we can and fixing the rest with outside stone.”

  “Wow.” I laughed. “That’s definitely different and sounds incredibly comfortable.”

  “Basically, what I’m trying to do here is soften the entire area,” she said, looking around. “Bring warmth where there is supposed to be and shut out the dark corners. Christina’s style was dark, eclectic, and admittedly more artistic, but it felt more like a museum than a home, and Kayla and you need a home.”

  I followed her through the dining room and up the stairs, stopping at Kayla’s bathroom and listening to her talk about whitewashing the space and bringing in bright pops of color, exactly what a soon to be pre-teen would love. As she walked out of the space, she turned to me and stopped, something floating through her mind. She looked almost embarrassed, and her cheeks turned bright red as her eyes darted to the floor.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “For what?” I chuckled slightly but could tell she was serious, so I straightened my face. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “I just, I went a little nuts with all of this,” she said. “When you didn’t give me any ideas, I just pictured the home as just that, a home, and went from there. I’m starting to realize that I may have given it a bit more of a feminized ideal than you might have wanted. I have to admit, when I was designing, I thought of Kayla more than I thought of you, only because when I was growing up, there was a certain comfort about being home, wrapped in a fleece blanket, curled up on the comfortable couch, and watching movies. I wanted to give Kayla a space where she could completely relax and feel at home. I didn’t rea
lly think about your needs.”

  She was really sweet, and I could tell she felt genuinely bad for designing the house for a family instead of a man with a daughter. But that was what Kayla and I were: a family, just smaller than most. We still had dinner together every night, and we still had breakfast together every morning. There was just two of us instead of three. I grabbed her by the wrist and walked her into my room.

  “What about this space?” I asked. “This is my bedroom.”

  “Well, for your room, I pictured lighter walls, a blue and white pinstriped comforter, a different bedframe, maybe a platform bed,” she said shyly. “I was thinking dark cherry furniture for your clothes and track lighting that aimed either toward or away from a new large screen television. On the walls, I thought about a nautical theme, but not your normal paintings: more like enlarged photographs hung like a gallery from the ceiling.”

  I stood there, imagining what she was talking about, every single inch of the space. She had really put a lot of thought and care into this design, and there was no way that I could take a home away from Kayla. I wanted her to feel a sanctuary there, and I loved the idea of completely changing my bedroom. Christina and I had shared this space since we were married, and I still hated going to sleep in it every night. I smiled and turned to Alissa, who was staring out the window across the room.

  “I think that Kayla would love every inch of this space the way you have described it,” I said carefully. “I love your ideas for the bedroom. It was actually always a dream of mine to have a nautically-inspired bedroom, but Christina shot that down really fast. And I love that you want to create a space for Kayla more than me. She is the one that needs his change more than I do. It is enough to me that the house will look completely different than what Christina decorated it with. Honestly, I’d take pink cotton candy walls if it meant I didn’t have to continue to live with her painful memory every day.”