Read Online Leaving Annalise (Katie & Annalise Book 2) by Pamela Fagan Hutchins - Free Book Online Page B

like an enchantment. Adding Nick to the chemistry with Annalise was magical so far.
    I steered him left. “Office, with great views.” We went to the south window to look out on the stone ruins of the sugar mill for a few minutes until I led him out the other side of the office to the next room, a half bath. “Company potty, sans actual potty.”
    “Details,” Nick said, and winked. We walked back to the master bedroom, painted a cool mud-mask green. He grinned. “I recognize this room.” It was the most completed room in the house, except for the kitchen. Nick marveled at the compact bathroom. “What a good use of space.”
    “I couldn’t move the walls, so I did the best I could with the footprint I had,” I said, standing with my hands on the edge of my beloved six-foot-long claw-footed jet tub. “The tub was too expensive and takes up too much space, but I love it, so I left everything really open to make up for it.”
    “I think it was a great purchase. Full of possibilities.”
    I could think of a few myself, possibilities that had never occurred to me with Bart. But Nick? Hubba hubba.
    “Come see my closet,” I said, and took him by the hand.
    I had made a dressing room and closet out of a long rectangular space that, oddly, was open to windows all along one side. I’d install curtains soon. I didn’t know what the original builder had planned to do with it, but I liked the idea of choosing my clothes in natural light.
    “What’s this hole?” he asked, pointing to the base of a corner.
    I knelt down to look. A five-inch-square hole three inches deep marred the surface of the wall. It looked like someone had chiseled it out with a screwdriver. “How strange. I have no idea. I’ll have to ask Crazy.”
    I stood and brushed the concrete dust off my knees. We left the master suite, and I walked to the center of the great room and tried to paint a picture of the original Annalise for him. “Except for the tongue-in-groove cypress and mahogany ceilings, it was all concrete. And really dirty. Imagine a whole lot of poo. Horse, bat, insect, you name it.”
    “I can’t believe you came in here, much less bought her.”
    I laughed. “It has been difficult at times.”
    He looked over my shoulder into the kitchen, then walked in and grabbed a box of Clorox Wipes off the brown and green granite countertop. “I knew I’d find these somewhere in here, Helen,” he said.
    Helen, as in Helen of Troy. My heart felt like it would explode with happy.
    “Busted,” I said, then, “Good morning,” to the three men installing my new stainless steel appliances. In the islands, it’s customary to call out a greeting upon entering a room, or even just a building.
    “Good morning, miss,” they rang back in chorus.
    “You sound like an island girl,” Nick said.
    “Yah mon,” I replied. “Except that Rashidi and Ava would beg to differ.” I stood in the center of the action in the kitchen admiring the subzero refrigerator. “Looks great, guys,” I said.
    “Thanks, miss. We working hard, so tell Crazy, now,” one said.
    “I will, Egg.” I really liked Egbert. He’d been the only bright spot of working with my original contractor, Junior, whom I’d had to fire after less than a week. Luckily, Crazy picked up Egg for his crew. Unluckily, Junior still claimed I owed him money. I disagreed.
    Nick turned around in a circle, taking in the details of the cherry cabinetry and the gaps where appliances would soon be installed. He stopped. “I want to get my hands on her. I want to be part of this.”
    Jealousy tugged at me when I realized he was referring to Annalise. “We want to let you.” I was referring to her and me. “She was abandoned, you know. The old owner is in prison. I think she likes all the attention now.”
    I showed Nick my music room next, a smallish room in the front corner of the house off the kitchen. It was the perfect size for my grandmother’s piano and a few more instruments, a