Rafe pushed his desk chair away from the computer and rubbed his eyes wearily. He’d been looking at the screen for so long, the numbers were starting to blur. Grandpa’s dog, a five-year-old Chihuahua named Cricket, lifted her head from where she lay on the floor near his feet. Cricket didn’t weigh eight pounds soaking wet and looked more like a scruffy, oversized rat than a dog, but she’d been completely devoted to his grandfather, and it was obvious the sweet animal missed him.
“Should we take a break?” Keeley asked, looking over at him from the table they’d set up on Monday afternoon as her temporary workstation. “Or call it a day? It’s nearly five. I could check with the boss, see if he’s okay with us knocking off a bit early for the weekend.”
He grinned at her joke. Keeley had shown up Monday morning at nine on the dot, and the two of them had created a list of job duties, negotiated a salary and benefits, and come up with a job title as well. She was now officially the Marketing Director for Baros Corporation, a small company that consisted of a restaurant, a nightclub, a used bookstore, a flower shop, and three apartment buildings.
There was no rhyme or reason to his grandfather’s ventures. It felt as if all his business decisions were based on impulse buys. He saw something he liked, and he bought it. A workaholic widower, Grandpa had filled his days—and coffers—by acquiring struggling businesses that he’d managed to revive.
Of course, it helped that Grandpa had the Midas touch. Every business he’d bought now operated well within the black, turning huge profits and adding to his fortune.
Or at least they had. Until Grandpa’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent illness. His grandfather had attempted to manage work affairs from his bed the last four months of his life, but pain had distracted him, left his brain too fuzzy to fully concentrate.
So the majority of the day-to-day operations had been handed over to the managers of each business. Without guidance, things had been allowed to slide, slip into disarray. After crunching a few numbers, Rafe was even starting to suspect the manager at Eclectic was skimming money off the top—which was why he’d given Keeley his grandfather’s office there for her marketing work. Not that she spent much time there—yet. Until the hoard was beaten down, she was spending most of her time at the mansion.
He’d asked Keeley to try to get a feel for Rick, the manager, when she did work from that office because she was very good at reading people—something he struggled with—and he trusted her instincts.
Grandpa had been gone six weeks, and it was well past time for him to step up to the helm properly, rather than riding along on a wing and a prayer.
When Rafe first learned he’d inherited the company, he’d felt completely overwhelmed and out of his element. He wouldn’t say his stress was gone, but with Keeley on board, he had someone he trusted to consult, and what had felt like a never-ending pressure on his chest had lessened. In just the last few days, she’d already helped him see past the mounds of work, suggesting ideas for the future and ways to expand Baros Corporation.
Keeley hadn’t looked at the business and seen an obligation. She’d seen potential—and she’d opened his eyes to it as well. He suspected he would have gotten there eventually, but grief and stress had been standing in his way.
“I think the boss could be convinced,” he said, reaching back to rub some of the tension out of his neck. Maybe he should consider getting a massage…or seeing a chiropractor.
“Phew, good. Because while I was ready to offer sexual favors to get my way, I’m feeling a bit grungy from all the dusty boxes.”
Rafe laughed, realizing that was the first time this week she’d reverted back to old Keeley, the one who was a constant, funny flirt. “We’ve made a lot of headway this week. I can’t believe how much, actually. I couldn’t have managed half of this on my own, Kiwi.”
“This probably makes me sound like a lunatic, but I think it’s actually fun work. Every box so far has hidden a golden egg. I can’t wait to go through the rest to see what else we find.”
She wasn’t kidding about the treasure. In addition to the cash they’d pulled out of every single box—which had so far added up to tens of thousands—they’d discovered the title to a house in the Outer Banks, a key to a safe deposit box—which they hadn’t had a chance to go to the bank to open yet—and five hundred shares of original Microsoft stock. Grandpa had attached a handwritten note to the stock, explaining that he’d won it in a bet but considered it worthless because…computers.
Every single box had yielded something fun and valuable.
Rafe looked around his grandfather’s—no, his—office. They’d started working their way through the boxes in here, determined to clear it out so that they would have a decent work space for the two of them. After this room was finished, they were starting on the other three “box rooms,” as they’d begun to call them.
At some point, he’d move the operation of the business out of this house—rent or buy proper office space—but for now, it was easier to tackle everything here, since everything was here. While his grandfather had kept an office in every single one of his businesses, he’d always done the lion’s share of work right here from the house.
Keeley rose and walked over to his desk, leaning her hip against it.
“I think we make a good team,” she said.
“We do,” he agreed readily.
Over the past week, he’d learned a lot about Keeley he hadn’t previously known. He’d spent the last decade accepting her proscribed role in his life. She was Kayden’s little sister. She loved to tease and had a fun personality. Her laugh was always the loudest, and her voice was the one he always heard over the din. She flirted with him and Gio because, one, it drove her brother insane—which ranked very high on the list of Keeley’s favorite things to do—and two, it was safe. She could say audacious things, wink, giggle, flip her hair, and generally be her silly self because neither he nor Gio would cross the line.
But since Saturday night, after the party, Keeley had put the flirting away and revealed two new sides to him. That night, the confident woman had revealed a vulnerable side…and it called to him in a way he’d never experienced before. He’d wanted to reach out and hold her that night, just take her in his arms…and never let her go. That was the part that had shaken him. He’d never looked at any woman and felt the slightest inkling of possessiveness.
And throughout this week, she’d shown him her professional side as well. She was seriously smart and creative and driven. Every single day, she’d found a new way to impress him.
When she’d questioned his decision to offer her a job at Penny’s party, he had claimed to need sunshine in his life. He could see now just how true that was. They’d worked side by side for hours this week, and it was the first time in ages that he’d felt… God, the only word he could think to use was happy. Though he wasn’t quite sure what that emotion felt like. He’d always been too serious, a big ball of anxiety since birth. Happiness didn’t come naturally to him.
But with Keeley…
She was easy to be with, and while they’d done nothing but work, it hadn’t felt like that because she’d been there, sharing the load, telling him all her dating stories, singing along to the music she always had playing in the background, and making him laugh with her quick wit and humorous observations about the world going on around them.
He rose, trying to ignore the pain in his back that told him he’d been sitting too long.
Suddenly, his desk slid several inches to the left.
Keeley, who’d still been leaning on it, was caught off guard, her arms flailing as she fought to keep her footing.
He caught her, gripping her waist before she tumbled to the floor. Keeley clenched his upper arms, steadying herself.
“What the hell?” she exclaimed. “I wasn’t even leaning on it that hard.”
Rafe had observed the same thing. More to the point, the desk was heavy as fuck…yet it slid away from her like it weighed practically nothing.
“Strange,” he observed. Then he realized his hands were still on her waist. And she’d lied about being grungy because in truth, she smelled fantastic, like citrus and flowers.
Keeley tilted her face up to his, and for a moment, it felt as if she was inviting him to kiss her. They were standing closer than normal, but they didn’t step away, and he felt her breath on his face. She’d found a stash of his grandfather’s cinnamons, and he could smell that spicy, sugary sweetness as well.
He waited for her to make one of her flirty jokes. Actually, he needed her to make one. Because right now, he was thinking things he shouldn’t be thinking.
He closed the distance a scant inch more, recalling the way Gio had kissed her. How hot he’d gotten from watching the two of them, how much he’d wanted to step forward when Gio stepped away, to steal his own kiss.
Keeley didn’t move, her eyes locked with his, and he realized both of them had stopped breathing.
He lowered his head, his lips just about to touch—
“Hey! You guys in the office?” he heard Gio yell out from the front door. He and Keeley moved apart quickly, but not before Rafe noticed the flush on her cheeks that proved he wasn’t the only one affected by what had just passed between them.
“Sorry,” she whispered hastily, the spell suddenly broken.
“No,” he said. “That was on me.”
Gio’s arrival prompted a flurry of barks from Cricket. Not that the dog would be a bit of help if an intruder ever broke in. Her home security technique consisted of barking her head off until the guest appeared, then dancing around them until they picked her up so she could slather them with sloppy puppy kisses.
“Yeah,” Rafe called out, taking a deep, steadying breath. “Come on back.”
A moment later, Gio walked in. “It’s Friday. Let’s kick this weekend off in style.”
Gio had stopped by a few times this week after work to see how things were going with the hoard, jokingly inquiring about the status on the boat…which was still missing. Rafe wasn’t used to seeing so much of him, and he’d begun to suspect it had something to do with Keeley’s presence in the mansion.
Cricket, now used to him, jumped up on her hind legs, pawing at Gio’s knees until he picked her up so she could lick him to death.
“Cricket,” Rafe said sternly, but Gio waved away his attempts at training the dog.
“Leave her. This is the most action I’ve seen in months,” he joked. “Did you spy any ghosts today, Cricket?”
“She did!” Keeley excitedly proclaimed, pointing to a battered recliner in the corner of the office. “Sat beside Albert’s old recliner for nearly an hour, staring at the same spot the entire time. I swear I think his ghost was sitting there, talking to her. At one point, she rolled over like someone was stroking her belly.”
Then, Keeley’s gaze flew to the desk before lifting to capture Rafe’s, her brows raised. Rafe knew exactly what she was thinking because there was a small part of him that wondered the same thing.
Something had moved the desk—and he was certain it wasn’t Keeley.
But he wasn’t about to fuel that flame because Keeley was way too obsessed with the ghost story, so he shook his head dismissively. “Cricket was a weird dog before Grandpa Albert died. She’s not seeing ghosts,” he insisted, even though he was secretly skeptical. The longer he lived here, the harder it was to hold on to the assertion the place wasn’t haunted. There had been a few too many bumps in the night, creaking floorboards, and things he was certain he’d left in one place, only to find somewhere else later.
“Well, if anyone was going to haunt a house, it would be Grandpa Albert,” Gio said. “Simply because I’m pretty sure he’d take a lot of pleasure in messing with you from the Great Beyond.”
Rafe grimaced. “You’re not wrong about that.”
His relationship with his grandpa had changed after Rafe graduated from college. The old guy—true to his word—did seem to regret his workaholic ways, so for the last decade of his life, the two of them had met up for drinks and dinner every Monday night, talking about everything under the sun. Rafe had shared stories about work and his mom, about his buddies and his high school and college adventures, while Grandpa told him about his own life, about Marta and what his mother was like when she was younger. Grandpa admitted he saw a lot of himself in Rafe, so he’d done a bit of preaching, telling him that while hard work was all well and good, he also needed to stop and smell the roses.
Rafe missed those weekly dinners more than he could say.
“I’m afraid I’m out on happy hour,” Keeley said, reaching for her oversized purse. “I need to go home and get ready for my date.”
Gio frowned. “Another of your online guys?”
Keeley nodded. “Yep. Although, I think this guy might have potential. We’ve chatted on FaceTime a few times. He’s cute, appears to have a sense of humor, and best of all, he has a real job and an actual apartment—unlike the last two guys, who were still living in their parents’ basements and trying to break out as videogaming stars on Twitch. Plus, my horoscope promised that romance would go beautifully for me today.” She smiled brightly. “All I have to do is communicate openly and honestly.”
“Well, if your horoscope says it, it must be true,” Rafe said dryly. They’d started every single workday this week with Keeley reading his horoscope to him. It was getting to the point even he was starting to take them seriously. His horoscope for today promised vast changes were coming, and he’d spent more than a few minutes wondering what the changes could be. “Where’s he taking you?”
Keeley crinkled her nose. “We’re starting with dinner at Saloon and then—no judgment, please—we’re going to Enigma. He said he likes to dance.”
Gio scoffed. “He likes to cop a feel, is more like it. Why don’t you just do the dinner part tonight and leave the bump and grind for a future date?”
“Wow, Gio. I’ve never heard you manage to channel my brother so perfectly. When did you turn sixty, by the way?” she asked. “I must have missed a few birthdays somewhere.”
“Smart-ass,” Gio said.
“Old man,” Keeley retorted.
“Come on. We’re not starting that shit again,” Rafe said, cutting off their standard name-calling game. “I’m in for happy hour, Gio. And dinner too, if you don’t have any plans. Haven’t had time to hit the grocery store lately, so the cupboards are bare. How about cheesesteaks at Founding Fathers?”
Founding Fathers was a local bar, and a hidden gem as far as Rafe was concerned. He and Gio had spent countless evenings there, watching whatever sport was in season with the other regulars.
“Dinner sounds good.” He turned to Keeley. “You sure you don’t want to jump to the inevitable and give this loser the heave-ho before the date instead of after? I’ll pay for dinner.”
“He’s not a loser. I’ll stick to my plan and continue to hope for the best, since you guys keep rejecting me.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder dramatically. “Besides, Baby is lonely,” she said, pointing downwards, making it clear the nickname was for her vagina. “I don’t put out on the first date,” she added, “but if this guy is cool, I wouldn’t be opposed to setting up a second date that includes heavy petting. I’m getting bored with my vibrator.”
“So the end goal on all this dating is just sex?” Gio asked.
Keeley shook her head. “Of course not. Well, not entirely. I mean, I like a good time as much as the next person—and don’t you guys dare pretend that you’re not the same. I’ve been around long enough to overhear plenty of your locker room talk.”
Gio grinned. “I don’t believe in the double standard, and you know it.”
“Can I tell you guys a secret?” she asked, her voice suddenly more serious than he was used to hearing from her.
Rafe nodded.
“I’m sick of the party scene. I want what Jess and Gianna have. And now Penny. You realize I’ve never had a long-term boyfriend, right? Think about it. My longest relationship was with Herbie Wilson my junior year of high school, and that lasted all of four months. I’m ready for something real.”
Rafe hadn’t put it together until she said it, but she was right. He’d never known a Keeley who wasn’t perpetually single.
Not that his track record was much better.
Actually, he didn’t even have a track record. He didn’t date to change his relationship status. For him, dating was just about sex.
He hadn’t grown up with a stellar role model when it came to love and marriage. Not that his mother didn’t fall in love because she did. A lot. The problem was, she fell fast and hard and too impulsively.
Too many years of helping his mother pick up the pieces after her divorces had left Rafe trigger shy, wondering how the hell someone was supposed to know if it was really love or just a mirage, like the ones his mother chased. In the end, he’d decided the whole thing—love, and the inevitable pain associated with it—was not for him.
“Herbie was a putz,” Gio grumbled.
“Yeah. He was,” Keeley agreed. “But he was cute, with parents who didn’t care if he threw a keg party in the basement every weekend. Underaged drinking and zero parental supervision—it was the equivalent of teenager Heaven. And for four brief, wonderful months, I was the queen bee at the parties.”
“I’m surprised you gave all that up,” Rafe joked. He’d never heard this story, and it appeared Gio hadn’t either.
“So what happened?” Gio asked.
“I caught Megan, a bleached-blonde bitch and captain of the cheer squad, giving him a blow job in the bathroom at one of his parties. Herbie, the witless wonder, couldn’t understand why I was pissed. He didn’t consider blow jobs cheating. Claimed he hadn’t laid a finger on her.”
Gio rubbed his jaw, grinning widely. “How do you always find these idiots?”
“Hell if I know. But I’m not giving up. Onward and upward and all that crap. With any luck, tonight might just be the night I meet my forever guy.”
Rafe wrapped his arm around her shoulder and tugged her close for a side hug, kicking himself for hoping tonight’s date was a dud…because nothing could ever happen between him and Keeley. “Ever the optimist.”
“That’s me. Hey, tell Gio my idea about the inn tonight at dinner,” she added, as Rafe attempted to stifle his wince.
With any luck, perhaps Gio hadn’t heard her. Because he’d already crossed his arms and was hitting Keeley with his most fierce look. “Behave yourself.”
She grinned shamelessly as she shoulder-bumped Gio on her way out. “Nope. Later, gator.”
As was her new habit, Rafe heard her stop at the front door and call out, “Goodbye, Albert! Bye, Marta!”
Gio chuckled, then dropped down in Grandpa’s recliner. “She’s a piece of work.”
“She is. It’s been nice having her around this week. She’s completely professional, a hard worker.”
Gio observed, “Yeah. I can see that.”
“She’s been a godsend,” Rafe continued. He leaned on the desk for a split second, then straightened up, still curious about why the thing had moved. “I mean, I always knew she was bright, but I don’t think I realized just how creative she was. She’s always thinking, always brainstorming ideas to improve each of the businesses, and her suggestions are good. Really good.”
Gio looked around the office. “You guys cleared this room out quickly. I didn’t realize it was this big.”
“It was hard to tell with all those damn boxes. Felt like the walls were closing in.”
Gio rose and walked around the room, running his finger along the dusty bookshelves that were newly revealed. “You know this house is incredible, right? I can’t wait to see what else you uncover. Are you planning to live here, make it your home?”
Rafe had been trying to decide. He owned his own townhouse, but since Grandpa’s passing, he’d stayed here to save himself commuting back and forth. It allowed him to work until late, or rise early when the overwhelming pressure of just how much there was to do kept him from sleeping.
With Keeley’s help, he was feeling a bit less stressed about his never-ending to-do list. Plus, she’d yelled at him on Wednesday when she discovered he was up until midnight, going through boxes without her. She informed him he was “stealing her fun.” So, now when he woke up in the dead of night, he forced himself to remain in bed and ride out the anxiety he felt until he could fall back to sleep.
“I can’t decide if I want to stay here or not,” Rafe said in response to Gio’s question. “Right now, I feel like I’m living in a dusty old museum. The house isn’t comfortable and some of the rooms aren’t even livable. Besides, I’m not like you. I have absolutely no vision for the place and spent the better part of yesterday wondering if I’d be better off to raze the entire thing to the ground and just start over.”
Gio scowled. “Erase that from your head right now. This house is over two hundred years old and demolishing it would be a tragedy.”
Rafe raised his hands. “I know. I know. It’s a cool old house, but it’s too fucking big for just me. Shit, it’s too big for a family of twelve.”
“Yeah,” Gio agreed, still strolling around the room, studying the ornate wainscoting of the chair rail.
“Plus, it needs a major overhaul. The hardwood floors need to be refinished; every room needs a fresh coat of paint. The kitchen looks like something right out of the nineteen seventies. It would be a huge undertaking and definitely not worth the effort or expense, considering it’s just me living here.”
“I get what you’re saying, but the carpenter in me is itching to get my hands on this room, to show you just how amazing the whole house could look with a little bit of tender loving care.”
Gio was part owner in a restorations business with his brothers, Tony, Luca, and Joey. The brothers were so good at what they did, they were hired for jobs not just in Philadelphia but all along the East Coast. After being featured on a couple of home renovation shows on HGTV, Joey had actually landed his own show, ManPower, and he was traveling the country currently filming the first season.
Rafe didn’t doubt for a moment that Gio could bring this house back to life. And he’d certainly given it some thought ever since…
“What was Keeley saying about an inn?” Gio asked.
Fuck. He’d heard.
“It was just something she said Tuesday, and now, because it’s Keeley, she’s like a dog with a bone.”
“What did she say?”
“She said this place would make an amazing inn.”
Gio’s eyes widened. “Damn. She’s right. It would.”
Rafe hadn’t intended to have this conversation. “But I have zero time to take on a new project.”
Gio, perhaps the only person as impulsive as Rafe’s grandpa and mom, responded exactly the way he knew he would, which was why he hadn’t mentioned the idea. “I have time.”
“Seriously, Gio. While the bones of this house are good, it’s fallen into disrepair. Like I said, it’s too big a house for one man, so Grandpa closed off huge sections…for years. No, more like decades.”
“The bones are the most important part. Everything else can be fixed. We rebuilt Pat’s Pub in Baltimore and it was little more than a burned-out shell after the fire,” Gio said, not bothering to mask his excitement. Not that he could if he wanted to. Rafe had learned a long time ago, if Gio felt any emotion—no matter what it was—everyone around him knew about it.
“What are you saying, Gio?”
Gio paused for a moment to think. But only for a moment. Then Rafe saw the gleam that was all too familiar. Because it was the same gleam his grandpa got when he saw a business he wanted to buy, or his mom got whenever she met a man she was certain was “the one.”
“A partnership,” Gio said. “Fifty-fifty. We get the house appraised, I come up with a quote of what I think it would take to renovate it from haunted mansion to haunted inn, and then we go from there.” Gio began his trek around the room again. “I’ve been feeling stagnant lately, bored even. I mean, Moretti Brothers is doing well. Really well. But the business has grown to a place where we’ve got a lot of employees doing most of the heavy lifting. I’ve been saving up to buy my own house, but with the housing market the way it is…I definitely have enough to invest.”
He was thinking aloud, so Rafe let him work through it on his own, aware he couldn’t stem this tide if he wanted to.
“The idea of using that money for this, taking on a project that would be all my own, away from my brothers…”
“Gio,” he started, but the man was on a roll.
“I’m being serious, Rafe. This house is full of character, history, and ghosts,” he added, laughing. “We could build it into something really amazing.”
“Do you know how much work you’re talking about taking on?”
“It doesn’t feel like work when it’s yours and it’s something you love, something you believe in,” Gio countered.
Rafe considered that. He and Gio had been best friends for seventeen years, and Rafe could count on one hand—with fingers left over—the number of fights they’d had. While they were very different people, those differences were what seemed to make their friendship so strong. Even so, going into business together…
“We’ve never worked together,” he pointed out.
Gio frowned and tilted his head. “You don’t really think we can’t work together, do you?”
In all honesty, no. Rafe suspected they’d make a really good team. “No. I don’t think that. But…you think it could be a success?” Rafe asked, hating that Gio’s enthusiasm was becoming contagious.
“A huge success. We build it, and then hire someone to run it for us. Didn’t Gianna major in hotel and hospitality?”
Gio nodded.
“And we’ve got Keeley to do the marketing.”
“Jesus,” Rafe muttered. “You’re already figuring out who can run the thing after it opens?”
Gio chuckled. “Say yes, Rafe. I can see it in your eyes. I know you want to.”
Rafe sighed because Gio wasn’t wrong. He loved the sound of bringing the old place back to life, now that he was talking to Gio.
No, that wasn’t true. Keeley had been talking him into the idea since Tuesday, dropping some of her “plans” for the inn into countless conversations.
“Shit. Maybe I’m more like Grandpa Albert than I thought. He was always looking for the next big venture too, impulsively snatching up whatever businesses caught his eye. But this would be insane, considering I’m still struggling to figure out how to run Baros Corp. I don’t have a grip on the businesses I already own.”
“You’re the smartest guy I know, Rafe. Stop beating yourself up and give yourself a little time. It’s only been six weeks, for God’s sake. You won’t fail because you’re the hardest worker I’ve ever met. You’ve got this,” Gio said with a confidence that bolstered Rafe. “Besides, it’s not like we’d be opening the place tomorrow. We’re talking about a huge renovation project. By the time the inn is ready to open, you’ll have the other shit so under control, you’ll be bored.”
Rafe looked around the office. “You really think you can bring this place back to life?”
“I know I can.” Gio kept walking around the room as he spoke. “I mean, I still have my work with Moretti Brothers, but we can work on the house on evenings and weekends. You’re good with a paintbrush, and it wouldn’t hurt you to get away from the computer for a little while and do some manual labor. You’re getting soft around the middle.”
Rafe narrowed his eyes. “I’m as fit as I’ve ever been, and you know it.”
Gio, the muscular, sporting-an-eight-pack bastard, ignored him. “We could start in this office, then move on to the bedrooms and the kitchen. That would give you and Keeley time to declutter the other rooms.”
“That’s a good plan. But…” Rafe figured if he was going in, he might as well go all in. “What if you moved in here while we worked on it? You’d have even more money to invest if you weren’t renting another place. Like you said, the project will take some time, considering we’ll both be working our full-time jobs as well. I’m not sure we’re talking just months. Could be a year or even longer.”
“You sure you don’t just want me here to protect you from the ghosts?” Gio teased.
Rafe shrugged. “You joke about that now, but I gotta admit, there’s a lot of shit that’s hard to explain. The place creaks nonstop, stuff moves around, doors close on their own, and I swear to God, I’ve heard footsteps upstairs in rooms I know are empty. I go to bed every night wondering if this will be the night Jacob Marley starts rattling his chains.”
“Is that your attempt at convincing me to live here? Because, dude, you’re falling short.”
“Be serious for a minute. Please,” Rafe said, trying to decide if he was really about to commit to this. “Are we actually going to do this?”
“The inn—hell yeah. And if you really want me to move in here with you…”
“I do. It seems smart, considering you’ve just said you’d be here weekends and after work.”
“Okay. So here’s the next move. We crunch some numbers, get a lawyer, and if it all looks good and we agree, we sign some paperwork so it’s legal, and then…you’ve got yourself a partner.”
“And a roommate,” Rafe added, Gio’s excitement rubbing off on him. “I took my grandfather’s room, but there are a couple of large guest suites that he kept nice for company. You could have your pick of one of those until we start making some headway on the renovations. Then, if you want, you can have one wing of the house, and I’ll take the other until we finish the project. I know neither one of us is used to having a roommate, but this mausoleum is big enough that we could go frickin’ days without running into each other.”
Gio rubbed his hands together, and Rafe could practically see the wheels spinning.
“Some of the bedrooms are small. We could knock down walls to create larger suites. And I’ve already got a few ideas for this office. I think we could preserve the history and architecture of this place and still give it a more modern feel. I bet we could even incorporate some green construction, lower the house’s carbon footprint and—” He paused mid-sentence. “Getting carried away, aren’t I?” Gio asked.
“A little.” Actually, a lot. Gio’s grab-the-bull-by-the-horns approach to life was in direct counterpoint to the way Rafe lived. Rafe was much more conservative, a thinker by nature who took very few risks. If left to his own devices, Rafe would never get a damn thing done in this house because he’d spend way too much time simply trying to choose a paint color.
“Okay,” Rafe said at last. “I’m in. Operation Haunted Inn is underway.”
“Hot damn! We gotta work the ghosts into the name of the place.”
Rafe grinned. “Keeley insisted that would be the biggest selling feature. The thing that would have folks lining up for a stay.”
“She’s not wrong,” Gio said, reaching out to shake his hand. “Partner.”
Rafe shook his hand, but when he started to pull back, Gio tightened his grip. “I know you’re overwhelmed, Rafe. I can see you’re stressed out, running on fumes. And I know this inn feels like one more obligation to you right now…but I really would like to do the heavy lifting on the project. At least until you get your sea legs under you on the rest.”
Rafe was unaware of exactly how tense his shoulders had been until Gio found the right thing to say to loosen the muscles just a bit. “Maybe even after that. I trust your talent. I’ve seen your work. Thanks for saying that though. It helps. Hell, now I’m starting to get excited. You and Keeley are becoming a bad influence on me—getting me fired up about things that are ultimately more work,” he joked.
Gio released him. “We’re coming up with ways to make you richer, and you know it. Tony just bought this cool AR that I can use. It’ll help draw up the designs, give you a chance to see what I’ve got in mind before we pull out the tools. Sound good?” Gio radiated enthusiasm, and Rafe suspected his best friend was only just barely restraining himself from grabbing a hammer out of his truck and starting work on the place tonight.
Rafe had always admired Gio’s what-you-see-is-what-you-get attitude. No one ever questioned where Gio stood on an issue because he so readily expressed all the emotions—anger, joy, sadness—and when he wanted something, he went for it, all in with no reservations.
His personality was one of the main things that had drawn Rafe to him in high school. Gio, a sophomore at the time, was the first person to reach out to him, offer to help him find his locker and his classrooms. He’d confided that his family had just returned to Philadelphia the previous year, so he knew what it felt like to be the new kid.
Rafe’s mom had moved them in with stepdad four, Douchebag, right after the wedding, and the change in address put Rafe in a different school district. So he started high school as the new kid, all his friends from elementary and middle school attending another school across the city.
Gio had been the first friend he’d ever confided in regarding his mother’s relationship record. When he was younger, he’d been embarrassed by his mother’s marriage and divorce routine, but Gio had helped him find a way to deal with it. Typically with humor.
Mom had surprisingly managed to move past her hurt over the will, and she’d texted him just this week to assure Rafe she wasn’t mad. Because he was her only child, Mom tended to rely on him for pretty much everything, but only when she was single. Once she met a new man and made that trip down the aisle, he was relegated to white noise in the background until the next divorce.
She’d confided yesterday that stepdad number five, Rodney, was still pissed off about the will and talking to a lawyer. Rafe wasn’t surprised, since Rodney was a lot like Douchebag. The two of them had only been married about a year. No doubt Rodney had learned she was the daughter of a wealthy, elderly, ailing man and had taken that trip down the aisle not with hearts in his eyes but dollar signs.
Grandpa’s lawyer—now Rafe’s—had assured him this morning that the will was airtight.
Mom was still hung up in the honeymoon phase, so she defended Rodney, certain he’d calm down soon enough. Then she mentioned that she’d booked a long weekend for the two of them in New York City because she was sure getting away for a little while would help. Rafe had been tempted to ask how she was paying for the trip, but he’d held his tongue, perfectly aware it was going on her credit card…and equally aware that at some point, he was going to have to decide if he would continue to bail her out the same way Grandpa always had.
Worrying about her and Rodney, the stepdick, was just one more thing adding to his stress, his sleepless nights, and his stiff neck.
Gio pulled him from those heavy thoughts, thrilled about their plans. “You know, if everything works out, I could move in pretty much immediately. I’ve lived in my apartment so long, I’m on a month-to-month lease. Once we sign on the dotted line, I’ll give the landlord notice and start packing my stuff.”
“That sounds great.” In truth, it did. Gio, like Keeley, never failed to find joy in life. With Keeley here during the day to lighten his load and make him laugh, and Gio here on the weekends and evenings, Rafe hoped the loneliness that had settled over him since Grandpa’s death would lift. “I hope this all works out,” he said sincerely.
“Me too. Now let’s go eat. I’m starving.” Gio placed his hand on Rafe’s shoulder, guiding him toward the door, when something obviously caught his eye. He turned his back to Rafe as he walked over to Keeley’s workstation. “That’s weird.”
“What’s weird?” Rafe asked.
“I swear to God I walked by this table three times and never saw this.” Gio turned around, holding up Keeley’s phone. “I can’t believe she hasn’t come back for it.”
“She probably thinks it’s in that gargantuan bag of hers.”
“Yeah. You know…it seems to me a big decision like going into business together calls for a celebration, something fancier than a cheesesteak at Founding Fathers. What do you say we go celebrate our new living situation with a couple real steaks? Saloon’s got good food.”
Rafe tilted his head. “Keeley will kill us if we show up there.”
“Maybe so, but you know she’d want this.” Gio paused, then added, “And I want to check the guy out.”
There was no way Rafe would argue with either reason for going. The idea of Keeley out on a date with a guy who was basically a stranger, without her phone, bothered him a lot.
“We’re just dropping off the phone and leaving,” Rafe stressed.
“We’ll see,” Gio said, more seriously than Rafe expected.
He sighed. “She’s gonna kill us if we crash her date,” he repeated.
Gio put a friendly hand on his shoulder, his grin firmly back in place. “Think Albert and Marta would share this house with us if she does?”
Rafe didn’t reply, too many things fighting for dominance at the moment.
Somehow, the guy who’d never done an impulsive thing in his life had quit his job, taken over a company, hired his friend’s little sister—a woman he was more attracted to than he cared to admit—moved into a haunted mansion he was now renovating into an inn, and acquired a roommate.
Those vast changes weren’t coming anymore. They’d already arrived.
He wasn’t sure, but for a moment, he could almost imagine he heard Grandpa Albert laughing.