Page 34 of Pretty Relentless

He gives me two prices for double-paned window styles and says he’s already emailed me images I can show Ava. He also shares the current cost of shingles and metal for the squarefootage I’m looking for, which is the final pieces I need to figure her quotes. “Thanks, man. Appreciate it.”

“Let me know what you want me to order. Both of those windows are in stock, so I can have it here in forty-eight hours.”

“Perfect. I’ll be in touch,” I inform him, hanging up and grabbing my laptop.

“You need anything else, boss?” Max asks, making sure our equipment is picked up and put away in one of our trucks.

“All good. I’m going to input these numbers and go meet with the client. Tomorrow we’ll start at the Henderson place, and then probably be back over here after lunch.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he replies before hopping in his truck and heading back to the shop to unload.

I spend the next few minutes updating the numbers in the quotes I had already drafted and shared with Ava on Saturday. Now, I have more concrete numbers to present so she can make her decision.

When I’m ready, I take my laptop, notepad, and phone and head for her front door. She hasn’t been able to use it since the roof fell Friday night, and I’m sure she’ll feel much better about having the eyesore gone from the front of her house.

Before I can knock, she opens the door and gives me a smile. “Hi. Hello. Come on in,” she rambles, seeming a little flustered.

“Thanks. I heard from Logan and have numbers for you,” I tell her, stopping inside the living room to take off my boots.

“You don’t have to do that,” she insists, but again, I take them off anyway. No way am I walking on her carpet with wet boots.

With my boots off and set aside, I join her in the living room and open my laptop. “I’ll send these to your email, but I wanted you to see them now so we can go over them and I can answer any questions you may have. There are severaldifferent options. The first is for the window replacement. Logan recommended two different windows, both double-paned for better insulation.” I pull out my phone and retrieve the pictures he sent to me. “Here are the two options. The first one is a double hung window, which means both top and bottom pieces slide up and down. The second option is a sliding window, and that one opens from side to side. I didn’t have him price them with grids, or grilles as some call them, because none of your other windows have them. I should have asked your preference, but if you’re not looking into replacing windows anytime soon, I thought you’d want them to be more uniform.”

“I do,” she quickly replies, taking my phone and looking over the two options. “I’m not looking to replace windows right now, especially if I have to redo the roof, so I don’t want the grids.” She looks over at the old window that’s boarded up before turning to the one on the south side of the room. “I think the ones I have must be single pane.”

“Yes, they are. Single pane is an option, but there are several advantages to a double hung. Cleaning and venting are a huge plus to this window. They’re very easy to use.”

She looks them both over again before saying, “I think I like the double hung more than the sliding option.”

“All right, I’ll have Logan get that ordered. He said it’ll be in in about forty-eight hours, so if he can get it ordered today, we should have the window sometime Wednesday.”

“Wow, that’s fast.”

“Now, let’s talk roof.”

We spend the next several minutes going over all the different options. Between deciding on how much of a porch to rebuild and if she wants to redo the entire roof now or wait, plus the cost difference between shingled or metal roof, she has big decisions to make. “If you want to take a day or two to think about it, that’s fine. We put a thick piece of plastic over the roofwhere the old lean-to porch was attached, just to ensure you don’t get snow down in there, but it should be okay for a few days. I wouldn’t leave the exposed part open too long though. We still have a lot of winter left, and sometimes Mother Nature isn’t very nice to us up here,” I say with a smile. She’s lived here her entire life too. She knows we can get snow all the way through March, often into April.

She sighs. “I talked to my dad yesterday afternoon after we had lunch. Your ballpark numbers aren’t too far off from what we discussed. I think it would be best to go ahead and just do it all now. Roof and porch, as you drew up.”

“Okay, sounds good. Shingles or metal?” I ask.

Ava sighs and closes her eyes. I enjoy a few seconds and take in her appearance. She’s wearing thick leggings and an oversized crewneck sweatshirt. It hangs off one shoulder, but her skin is covered by an undershirt. She has thick, fuzzy socks on her feet, and I can tell she’s the type of woman who prefers coziness over style. She’s casual and comfortable in her space, with her hair pulled up in a ponytail at the top of her head. Frankly, I prefer this laid-back version of this woman more than the gussied up one. Yes, those dresses were very nice, but this is the Ava I want to get to know.

“I think I want to do the metal roof. As long as you promise it’s not going to look bad.”

Chuckling, I lean forward and reach for my phone. Our fingers touch as I do, and a shock wave of lust bolts through my veins. I don’t need to wonder if she felt it too, because her reaction to the touch says it all. Her beautiful brown eyes widen, her mouth falls open, and she jerks back as if she’s been zapped.

It takes the patience of a saint not to reach for her right here and now.

But I don’t. I set my phone back down on the coffee table beside my laptop and pretend that touch didn’t just send all theblood in my body to one concentrated area south of my belt. “I think you’ll like the end results of the charcoal roof you looked at.”

She nods. “I believe you. It’s just so much money not to like it.”

“I totally agree, Ava. You have to be able to live with this purchase for a long time, and just know, if it were me looking to replace my roof—which I will probably have to do in the next five to seven years—I’d be going with the metal one. The longevity and durability of the product is a huge selling point for me.”

Exhaling, she sags back in her seat. “Let’s do it.”

“Okay. I’ll get the material ordered. It should be in within a week or so. Logan said that’s a pretty popular color, so availability is always good. He’s got the material for the new porch in stock, so I’ll have that delivered tomorrow, and Max and I will start tomorrow afternoon.”

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