Page 1 of Summer Nights

Chapter One

Ivy

My heart beat in time to the sounds of heavy footsteps on the wood floor as Cooper made his way down the hallway and into the kitchen of the house. "You need me to take a look around?”

I always felt a little breathless when I was with him. "That's right."

He wore the traditional navy-blue Kingston Construction T-shirt with the white stenciled logo, worn jeans, and work boots. There was nothing special about the outfit; it was how he filled them out that was distracting.

With a curt nod, he moved around the kitchen, checking the faucet, then crawled under the sink. I'd gotten into the bad habit of following him around the house. I wanted to learn from him, but I enjoyed being in his presence.

I was leaning against the counter when Cooper emerged from under the sink. He stood up, and he was close. Too close.

Cooper raised a brow. "You always hover around your clients?"

"I'm trying to figure out your secret. How do you find problems when no one else does?" I attempted to infuse confidence into my shaky voice.

Cooper stared at me for a second as if he couldn't quite figure me out. "You can follow me around all you want, but you'll never figure out my secret."

"And why's that?" I asked in a flirty tone to match his energy.

He cocked his head slightly as if he was considering my question. "I have a sense for these things. You'd probably call it intuition. But I can't teach it to you. You either have it or you don't."

"If I hang around long enough, maybe it will rub off on me." I prided myself on always knowing as much as I could about everything that would help my business. I hated depending on anyone, and right now I needed Cooper to do these checks before the sale went through. His advice had saved me in more situations than I cared to admit.

Cooper's eyes flashed with heat, and I wondered if it was my unfortunate choice of the word rub. Then he said, "Good luck with that," before heading down the hallway that led to the bedrooms.

In heels, I followed him at a slower pace. I always dressed professionally when I was working. I wanted to be taken seriously, and I'd found that the right clothes helped. I'd grown up poor, and I never wanted to be mistaken for that person again.

Cooper spent a lot of time inspecting the walls of the guest bathroom, moving items that the previous owners had left behind to get a better look. Finally, he stepped back, and sighed. "There's a water leak."

I moved closer, a little surprised. "No one mentioned anything about a water leak."

"The owners tried to cover it with paint and caulk, but if you remove it, you'd see that there have been multiple leaks." He nodded toward the front of the house. "I suspect it's the pipes leading from the house to the street."

I sucked in a breath. "That wouldn't be covered by homeowners insurance, and it's expensive to fix."

He nodded grimly. "That's why they covered it up. They want to leave this little surprise for the new owners."

Once again, I was impressed. "Can you write up the report for the buyers?"

Cooper nodded. "Of course."

He continued his inspection while I messaged my buyers to give them a heads-up. It would be up to them whether they wanted to force the sellers to fix it, ask for a reduction in price, or walk away from the house altogether. From my experience, the cover-up was a sign that more things could be wrong with this house.

"I'm going to check out the bedrooms." Cooper's voice was closer than I expected, and I teetered on my heels.

He reached out to steady me, his hand on my elbow. The heat of his palm seared my skin.

"You startled me."

"I thought you were supposed to be observing me." His voice had a nice low rumble that settled deep in my chest.

I shrugged. "I wanted to let the buyers know what's going on."

He let go of my elbow, and I immediately missed his touch. "Let's go."

He had a tendency to be abrupt, as if he didn't want to waste time on saying too many words. It only made me more intrigued by him.

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