The sun shone bright, and unlike most Mondays Liz didn’t have back-to-back meetings, but she was up and ready to face the day.
After she’d gotten the inspection report and estimates from Matt yesterday, she’d rerun the numbers and even added in some buffer to the project for any new problems they might stumble upon.
Even the inspection she’d paid eight hundred dollars for when she bought her house in Charlotte hadn’t been this in-depth. He’d even included pictures. That had been helpful too, because it had been too dark to get a good picture of anything the day she was there with him. Maybe that was for the best.
After carefully working through the entire package, she had no questions at all. He’d left no stone unturned, and there were complete details and hypotheses about all of the elements in the house, along with cost analyses and prioritization of the proposed projects.
Of course, he had no idea what she’d paid for the place, except that it was more than he’d bid.
Even with the additional buffer she’d added to the projected spend, it came in just under her declared budget. Squeaky tight, but it passed the go/no-go gate.
Excited by the possibilities, she exhaled a long sigh of contentment.
I’m going to do this.
She speed-dialed a contact in her phone. “Peggy, thanks for talking me off the ledge the other day.”
“What was that all about anyway? I’ve never known you to balk at a challenge.”
“I don’t know. I guess there’s a first for everything. Believe me, if you’d been here with me when I walked inside, you’d understand.”
“That bad?”
“Gutted. Left for dead.” And that didn’t feel like an exaggeration, but she was here to resuscitate the old place now. “I know we said we’d talk about leave after the holiday, but I wanted you to be thinking about it too. I’m going to request a six-month leave of absence to work on this.”
“I’m not surprised. Folks are going to feel like the world is caving in when they hear about it, but they’ll get over it. Don’t worry. I’ll handle things here.”
“I know.” She hesitated. Peggy knew the whole story, but she still needed to say it. “You know I might not come back at the end of that sabbatical, right?”
“Fully aware, my friend, but that’s between us for now. If anything changes, you’ll have a job to come back to.”
“Thank you, Peggy.” She let the last of her concerns drift away. “I’ve got it all planned out, right to the weather according to the Farmers’ Almanac.”
“No surprise.” There was a trace of laughter in Peggy’s voice.
“If all goes according to plan I’ll have guests at peak season for the leaves to be changing. The only other dependency is on my house selling by July. If it doesn’t I’ll have to look at renting it out, which I’d rather not do.”
“Hire a property manager if you do. You’re too nice to chase down late rent.”
“You know that’s right, but when I spoke to Missy she seemed to think it will sell fast, so I’m not going to worry about it. Worst thing that could happen is I’d have to cancel my trip out to California to see my parents in the fall, but I’ve been out to see them the last three years. Maybe under the circumstances they’d like to come back to North Carolina and see the inn.”
“Wouldn’t that be great? I bet they’d love it as much as you do,” Peggy said. “Call me when things get moving. I’d love to come and see it. Until then, you still owe me a picture of the sunrise.”
“You got it. I took one this morning. I’m forwarding it now. Thanks for everything, Peggy.”
“You’re welcome. I’m looking forward to being one of your first guests.”
“I’m penciling you in for the first weekend of October,” Liz said before hanging up the phone.
She liked the idea of the family being together at Angel’s Rest again. She immediately dialed her parents, and her mom picked up after the first ring.
“Liz,” her mother answered. “Your father and I were just saying we needed to check in with you.”
“Hi, Mom. How are y’all doing?”
“We’re good,” her mother said. “We spent Thanksgiving with friends on their boat, and they’d like us to join them down in San Diego for the holidays.”
“I’m sure you’ll enjoy that” was the best she could come up with, because it would have been nice to spend the holidays together in North Carolina for a change.
“You know you’re always welcome no matter where we go. Your father says hello. I’m putting you on speaker.”
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, Lizzie,” he said. “So, what’s going on?”
It was true. She rarely called unless she had something going on or to share. “Well, I bought something.”
“A new car?” Dad sounded excited. A die-hard Ford fanatic, he hadn’t been a fan of her buying the Range Rover.
“No. Something bigger.” She’d planned to draw it out, be suspenseful, but she couldn’t hold back. “I bought the inn.”
“What inn?”
“Gram and Pop’s.” The absence of a reaction from them kind of dumbfounded her. “Angel’s Rest up in Antler Creek.”
“Why on earth would you do that?” both of them said at the same time.
“Because it’s the happiest place on earth?”
“Hardly,” her mother said. “That place is an hour from anything.”
“That’s exactly what I’ve always loved about it. Everyone loved Angel’s Rest.”
“That was a long time ago, Liz. What were you thinking?” Mom asked. “Don’t you remember how much work that place was for Pop and Gram?”
“I remember how much fun it was. They loved it there, and their love for that town is what brought people to it. I’ve always wanted to carry that on. You know that’s been my dream.”
“A childhood dream. I never thought you were serious,” Mom said. “You have an excellent job.”
“Your grandparents loved each other more than any two people I’ve ever met,” Dad said. “It didn’t matter where they were. They’d have been happy.”
Mom let out an audible sigh. “How will you ever meet someone in that tiny little town? And why would you leave your job behind?”
“I’m not the least bit worried about finding a husband, and I’d leave my job behind because I can. I’ve worked hard to be in a position to do this. It’s been my dream forever.” She knew Angel’s Rest had something to do with how special her grandparents’ relationship was. That place had always made her feel different too.
“Goodness gracious. I thought you’d outgrow that fairy tale,” Mom said.
And what’s so wrong with a fairy tale? Isn’t marrying a prince a fairy tale too?
“Liz, that place has to be falling apart by now.”
She wasn’t about to tell them it had been gutted. “It’ll need some work but I have an RFP drawn up and it’ll be in the paper tomorrow.” Liz hoped she’d get a good response on the request for proposal she’d run in the Antler Creek Chronicle this week. All she needed was a few good craftsmen to get this ball rolling. She purposely kept the list short and succinct.
She could add on to the project later, but right now she just needed to get people lined up so that as soon as she closed on the property she’d be ready to get started.
“Good luck with that,” Dad said, as if it were a joke. She could almost picture them scoffing at her over the phone line. Mom was probably twirling her long manicured Christmas-red-nailed fingers around in circles on the side of her head, indicating that Liz was crazy.
“Mom, do you remember a boy named Matt Hardy from when we used to go to the mountains to go fishing with Pop? He’s about my age.”
“I remember a lot of kids hanging around and participating in those outdoor activities, but no one in particular comes to mind. Why? Is he working on the property for you?”
“He did the inspection. I don’t remember him at all, but he seems to remember me.”
“Isn’t that cute. Honey, it’s not like you were ever there for very long. I’m not surprised you don’t remember any of the kids that were around. Your grandparents were quite popular at the church and lots of the kids used to come and help around the place to earn spending money, or to work off the cost to fish or hike.”
“I do kind of remember there were always a lot of people around.”
“Your grandparents loved entertaining.”
“They were always so happy.”
“They really were,” Mom said. “I hope you find that one day, dear. But if you’re going to find love you’re going to have to do something besides work. Especially with that no-dating-anyone-from-work policy.”
“Squirreling away in the mountains isn’t going to increase those odds either,” Dad said. “Especially if you want a husband who wears sleeves.”
“Dad!”
Her father said, “Nothing wrong with just having fun. Don’t go marrying the first redneck you meet either. Maybe you can flip the place and make a profit. That’s trendy right now.”
This wasn’t going the way she’d hoped. Talk about bursting a bubble. “I just wanted to share my news. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.”
“You do that. Bye now.”
She hung up aggravated with them, and feeling more anxious to get the project going if for no other reason than to prove them wrong.