Read Online Building Up to Love by Joanne Jaytanie - Free Book Online

CHAPTER ONE

    Laura stepped backto admire the “help wanted” sign she’d hammered into the front yard of her grandparents’ one-hundred-year-old Victorian home. They signed over the deed to the Victorian months ago, before they moved to a cozy new condo in the Florida Keys. The Victorian was massive; too large for her alone, so she sold her café and began to convert her new home into a bed and breakfast. The B&B would also feature a new café which would offer breakfast and lunch to the public. If the café took off, she might consider a full-blown restaurant. One step at a time, she told herself. She knew she’d dragged her feet for the past few weeks, trying to regroup after the debacle of her help-wanted advertisement on the internet. Now she needed to move forward and turn this beast of a house into a thriving business. In order to do that, she needed some professional help.
    Laura walked into the kitchen, grabbed a fresh cup of coffee and sat down to look at her ‘to do’ list. “Well, at least I can cross off one item on the list. But there’s still one pesky issue I keep pushing to the bottom. Tegan and the other girls will have my head if I don’t at least make an attempt to contact What’s-his-name soon.”
    She’d been in a bit of a dry spell, five months since her last date. She blamed it on her focus to get this business up and running. Over a month ago, she’d drawn the name of a guy she committed to ask out on a date. It really wasn’t fair. Her friends drew names out of the basket and had a general idea of what the guy looked like and where he worked. Not her. She drew someone who only recently moved to Vine Grove. Laura didn’t even know if he was working yet, or where she might bump into him.
    “Makes it rather difficult to ask him out.” That was her excuse and she would stick to it. “Fine,” she mumbled as guilt overtook her. She got up from the table and walked out to the front room, went over to the antique buffet, and pulled out the drawer to search for the piece of paper in question. She found the tiny, crumpled slip and smoothed it out. The front door opened as she read the name…
    “Good morning. My name is Travis Jerome. I happened to be walking by and noticed your sign. What type of help are you looking for?”
    It was all Laura could do to keep from hyperventilating as the name she read on the crinkled slip of paper echoed throughout the room. She cleared her throat, shoved the paper into her jeans pocket and turned toward the voice with her practiced smile.
    “Hello.” Really , was that the best she could do? she thought. But the power of speech left her the moment she turned and fell into his soft grey-blue eyes. His dark blond hair was cut short and casually styled. His chiseled chin was covered with a neat five o’clock shadow. His full lips turned up slightly as she watched, mesmerized.
    “Did you already hire someone?” he asked.
    “What…no. I only just put the sign out,” Laura said, as she tried to avoid babbling like an idiot. “I’m looking for a handyman. If you have building experience it would be a big plus. Would you like an application?” She turned and pawed through several piles, in search of the applications she saw only a minute before.
    “I can’t imagine you’ll get many inquiries with your sign. You might give some thought to an advertisement on the internet.”
    “Puff,” she hissed. “I’ve already gone that route. I got a slew of interest from a bunch of uptight, stuffy, know-it-all architects. Every one of them wanted to gut the place and re-create it in their own image and not a one of them would listen to me. On top of it all, their prices were astronomical. Don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to pay a fair price for a fair job, but I do have a budget.”
    Travis stood there gaping at her. Get a grip , she thought. All he did was offer an idea, he didn’t ask for her life story.
    “I’m so sorry,” she said. She could feel