Page 136 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

After lunch,we strolled back to the car, hand in hand, and an open house sign caught my attention.

“Do you want to go inside?” I asked him, biting my lip. My shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I like going to open houses for fun sometimes, just to see how they have everything laid out. It helps me get ideas.”

His mouth curled up into a warm smile. “I remember. Let’s do it.”

Oh, right. I had told him that back at the Juicy Taco night, all those months ago. Before I got to know him.

At the front door, the real estate agent greeted us and handed us a brochure before we wandered through the home.

The house was built in the seventies or eighties. We stepped into the living room and my mind whirred with ideas.

“What do you think?” I murmured to Holden, keeping my voice low so the agent wouldn’t overhear. “Mahogany hardwood? Or something lighter.”

“I think lighter.” He frowned, surveying the room. “Not enough light in the room for a dark wood.”

“Could add a few sky lights.” He snorted and I grinned up at him. “You know I love my sky lights,” I told him.

The second we stepped into the kitchen, I grabbed his arm with wide eyes. “This linoleum has to go,” I whispered, and he nodded at me. The main floor of the house had been divided up into rooms like older homes were, same as the inn.

“Could we remove the wall between the kitchen and living room?” I whispered. “It would open up this space so much.”

He studied the wall. “It doesn’t look like it’s supporting.”

“This kitchen would be amazing with an island right here,” I said, gesturing to the center of the kitchen. “With cool pendant lights, and some shelving storage here.” I pointed at the wall beside the breakfast area.

Holden peered through the sliding glass door to the back yard. “The yard is big enough for a deck.”

“Right. Like at your parents’ place.”

He nodded. His eyes narrowed as he thought it through.

All the worry from earlier in the day bled to the background as we tossed ideas back and forth about how to update this old home.

“Come on.” I beamed at him. My stomach fluttered with excitement. “Let’s look at the bathrooms,” I whispered in a sexy voice.

He wiggled his eyebrows at me, walking over. “Maybe the tiles will bebrown.”

I gasped in faux-horniness. “Don’t get me all turned on in public.”

He snorted and wrapped his arm around my shoulders as we walked down the hallway.

Once we left, I gave his hand a squeeze as we walked down the street. “That was fun.” Flexing my creative muscles and tossing ideas around with Holden had put a bounce in my step.

He nodded and the lines around his eyes crinkled when he smiled down at me. “We’re good at coming up with reno ideas.”

I nodded and gave him another squeeze, bumping him with my shoulder. His gaze lingered on mine and my heart tugged.

On the drive home, the job with Claire trickled into my mind and I chewed my lip while I stared out the window. After spending so much time at the inn, redesigning restaurants and hotel lobbies didn’t seem so spectacular anymore. People didn’t live there, they were just businesses. They weren’t personal like the inn was.

I caught myself. Claire was my mentor. She made everything fun and exciting. She brought passion and purpose to everything she did.

Were restaurants and hotel lobbiesmypassion and purpose, though? Would her enthusiasm be enough for me?

It feels like my purpose,I had said to Willa when telling her about the inn.

I frowned. The inn was almost done. We had finished the floors and the secret library entrance yesterday. I had spent a week scraping wallpaper off the bedroom walls, but I couldn’t bear to fully remove it, even though it was hideous. I left a picture-frame sized square in each room. I’d mount a picture frame over it.

Katherine chose it. I liked that her memory stuck around with that tacky wallpaper. Besides, she would think it was funny.

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