Page 47 of Kicking it with my Fake Fiancé
Epilogue - Six Months Later
Jared
“Well,it’sdefinitelyafixer-upper,” Jake, one of Levi’s newest construction foremen said, rubbing the back of his neck as he surveyed the run-down mid-eighteen hundreds Victorian house we were standing in.
“But is it fixable?”
Matty squeezed my hand. “Vennen, if it’s not fixable, we’ll find something else, ja?”
“Yeah, but—”
Jake held his hand up to stop us. “It’s fixable. Good bones. Probably take us a while if we’re doing it on a budget though.”
“We don’t mind slow.” I looked at Matty. “Right?”
Matty shook his head, but before he could respond, Jake spoke again. “Slow makes us sound like we don’t know what we’re doing.”
“That’s not what I meant. Just that we’re taking our time to do it right.”
“Better,” he muttered.
Matty looked around slowly, skepticism clear on his face. The house was practically falling down around us. “What exactly needs to be done?”
“Give me a sec.” Jake meandered around the main room of the house, making notes on his tablet. Once he finished in there, he made his way into the kitchen, and then into the bathrooms and bedrooms. The back door slammed as he went into the yard, and eventually, Jake reappeared through the front door.
I cleared my throat nervously. “What’s the damage?”
“Pretty much everything. This house has been neglected for so long there’s not much left to save. Siding, windows, doors, roof. Foundation looks solid, luckily. Inside, you’ll need to refinish the floors and repair the walls, put in new insulation, and the plumbing and electrical will need to be updated. Plus, you’ll want to install central air and heat. This one was built before all that.”
I let out a low whistle. “Is there anything that doesn’t need fixing?”
Jake consulted his notes once again and sighed. “Like I said, the foundation looks solid. Rafters are probably good to go. Framing looks like it only needs small repairs. Good bones. Won’t know anything for sure until we have a certified inspector come in, but I’ve been doing this a while. I think you’ve got a good place here.”
I turned to Matty for his opinion, and he nodded. “Let’s do it,” I murmured. “I know it’s a lot, but we’re good with our hands and we both have too much free time and it’s just… I don’t know, it’s beautiful.”
Matty nodded again. “Ja. I like it.”
We turned back to Jake, who had politely pretended to study his tablet while we were discussing. “If you think you can fix it up, we’re in.”
Jake grunted. “If Ithink…” he muttered, shaking his head. “IknowI can fix it up.”
“Then I’ll text the real estate agent right now,” I said, pulling out my phone. “Thanks, Jake. Tell Levi we said thanks too.”
“Will do.” He gave us a nod and headed for his truck, leaving us alone in the house we hoped to call our own.
After firing off a quick text to Davis, our real estate agent, telling him we wanted to make an offer on the old house, I tucked my phone back into my pocket. “Now what?”
Matty glanced at the watch he was wearing. “Well, I suppose if we don’t leave soon, we’ll be late for your kickball game.”
A flash of adrenaline rushed through me. “Oh shit. We’d better haul ass.”
We hurried to the car and to the field. By the time we’d parked, my phone was buzzing with an incoming text.
Davis: Your offer is in. Now we just have to wait for the seller to respond.
Jared: How long will that take?
Davis: Maybe an hour, maybe a few days. We gave them until noon Monday.
