Stormy September and Sneak Peek of It’s Always been You and Me

Well, I’m rounding out September with a sneak peek of the last book in the Wedding Planners series! I’m already hard at work on a Regency for my next. It’s a book I started five years ago and became distracted with An Unwavering Trust, so cross your fingers the muse cooperates and I can finish it this time!

I’m hoping to publish this one before the end of the year, but I’ll keep you updated on that. At this time, this chapter has had no editing, so please forgive any big mistakes I’ve missed on my own!

Warning that this post does contain some adult language. Charlie does like her swear words! But you do get a middle chapter! 🙂

If you’re interested in seeing pictures of the house that inspired Jensen’s house, you can find them here. Unfortunately, I cannot put them in the post due to copyright. Sadly, it’s been demolished. I’ll post a link to my Pinterest board once it’s published. I’m kind of afraid it will give too much away if I post it now 😉

Chapter 12

“Mom?” I peeked into the living room where my mother lay on the sofa, watching television. “It’s starting to snow, and I want to get home before the roads get too bad.”

I squeezed a side of my butt on the cushion next to her. When had the bruises on her face ceased to shock me? She’d finally been discharged from the hospital two days ago, which was exactly three weeks from the day she’d been admitted. Between the surgery and her broken leg, she still struggled, but now, at least my father was better able to take care of her. He’d been cleared to drive, and he carried her around the house as if she were his new bride. It was the sweetest thing ever.

“I’m glad you came and prepared Sunday dinner. It was nice that everyone could make it today.” This odd glint appeared in my mother’s eye. “Besides, I never realized you could cook.”

I laughed and pulled the blanket up around Mom’s waist. “You’ve made me help often enough. Did you think I’d failed to pick anything up? Honestly, the worst part was getting up early to come set up the slow cooker. Besides,” I said in a manner similar to hers. “Why would I cook when I have you to do it for me?”

She started to laugh but put a hand to her ribs. “Ow, that still hurts.”

“Sorry.” I winced. She’d always seemed so small in the hospital with all of that equipment around her. Today, she still seemed fragile. I hated that.

“No, I’d rather laugh than cry as you are well aware.” She peered through the window. “The weather is worsening. Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”

I shook my head. “If ice and snow don’t shut everything down, I have a meeting in the morning. I need to get home.”

Her hand grasped mine and squeezed. “Please be careful.”

I kissed her cheek. “I will. I’ll call you when I get home, okay? I love you,” I said as I stood.

She pressed her lips together before she relented. “I love you too.”

After giving Dad a kiss on the cheek, I drove my small car down the gravel road that led to the highway. I passed Jensen’s house. All the lights were off, but that wasn’t surprising. With the severe weather alert, he was probably on duty.

I always despised huge trucks, especially during poor weather. I’d no sooner turned onto the highway than an eighteen-wheeler flew around me, spraying water and ice in a deluge across my windshield.

My wipers quickly cleared the mess but the sleet earlier, combined with rain and now snow had made a slick mush on the road that prevented my tires from gaining traction. I glanced at the temperature readout on my dashboard, which read a few degrees below freezing. The road might be freezing over as well.

I gripped the steering wheel, trying to keep the car aimed in the right direction when an overly large SUV flew around me and once again covered the car with an icy mess.

“Shit!” I yelled to no one while I reached to turn up the windshield wipers. I clicked the lever up as the car started to slide and pull toward the side of the road. I slammed the break and turned the wheel in the opposite direction of the pull, but I kept slipping to the shoulder. Nothing I did made a difference. Damn, I must’ve hit a patch of ice somewhere!

The car spun around before the car slid down the incline on the side of the road. When it halted with a jerk at the bottom, I covered my face with my hands while I shook. The seatbelt had me pulled to the seat like a straightjacket, I had to unbuckle to breathe.

Once I re-fastened the seatbelt, I pressed the gas on the off chance I might be able to make it back up to the road. The wheels whirred but gained no traction as if the car was suspended in the air.

“Shit!” I reached over, grabbed my purse, and pulled my phone from the bottom, unlocking the screen and pressing my brother’s name. I didn’t want to scare Mom and Dad out of their wits.

No sooner had I hit call than the call failed. I tried again but with no success. No bars appeared in the top left corner to indicate I had any sort of cell reception. Had the service been impacted by the weather, or was it that lag in service between towers? We had one of those near here even in impeccable weather.

Well, if my phone served no other purpose, at least I had entertainment until someone found me. My headlights were visible from the road, so I switched on my hazard lights. I relaxed my seat back, unbuckled, and started plugging away at a word scramble app while I waited.

After fifteen minutes, I turned off my engine. My car was relatively warm compared to the outside, so I’d see how long the car kept me from freeze into a human ice sculpture.

An hour later, I tossed my phone in the passenger seat. I’d grabbed my hoodie out of the back and pulled it on between my clothes and my coat. Maybe I should turn the engine back on long enough to warm the car?

The car roared to life, and I quickly pressed the button for the heater and defrost. I turned on my windshield wipers to clear whatever snow had collected on the glass. Didn’t I have workout gloves somewhere in here?

I opened the center console, but they weren’t in there. The glove compartment didn’t have them either. I pulled my knees into the seat to check the back when a bang on the window made me flinch back and hit the horn with my ass.

“Mother trucker!” I yelled, my hand covering my pounding heart.

I dropped into the seat and stared at my savior. Of all the luck! Why did it have to be Jensen?

When I opened the door, he pulled it the rest of the way. “Charlotte Taylor! What the hell are you doing out in this weather?”

What did I do to deserve that? What an asshole! “I was at Mom and Dad’s but needed to get home. I have a meeting in the morning.”

“With this ice and snow, no one is going anywhere in the morning. The entire state will be shut down. No one from this part of the country knows how to drive in this weather, and it’s not like we have snow plows.”

I blew out a breath in an effort not to bite his head off. “Look, I needed to go home, and I hit a patch of ice. If you could take me to my parents’ house, I’d appreciate it. I’ll have the car towed out when the weather clears.”

He held out a hand. “Did you think I was going to leave you here overnight?” As he pulled me to my feet, he shook his head. “Come on. Get whatever you need from your car and let’s go. I want to get home. The roads are awful.”

“Yet, you’re driving on them.”

“Daphne is waiting on me at home. I can’t just not show up for twenty-four hours.”

I shut my door and locked it up before making the trek up the slope to Jensen’s squad car. Where had he gotten chains for his tires?

“Thankfully,” he said, “I had some chains stored away that I had put on my car before the storm hit.”

The warmth hit me when I climbed inside the passenger seat. Once Jensen buckled in, he carefully pulled from the shoulder and started down the highway. After a half-mile, he pulled onto a country road but not toward my parents’ house.

“Where are we going?”

“I own a house out here. It’s pretty run down which was why your parents let me use the rental property. Otherwise, I’d have had to rent a place, and Daphne made that difficult—Jack Russells are rather notorious for destroying things. Anyway, as soon as I finished my bedroom, a bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen so it was habitable, I moved in. I didn’t want to take advantage of your parents’ generosity. The rest of the house will just take some time.”

“I requested to go to my parents’ house, you know.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, but this is a lot closer. I’m not going to take any chances with the roads and the weather.”

We pulled onto a gravel drive, passed through some trees, and into a clearing of some size. I just couldn’t make out much around us. As we drove a bit more, the old brick house began to appear through the wind and snow.

The French style home stood proudly at the end of the drive with its columned wrap-around porch, mansard roof, and balcony on the upper floor. It had to be old. “When was it built?”

“Eighteen-eighty-four. It’s been hidden pretty well back here for a while. I’m working on the outside, but I’m more worried about cleaning it out and renovating the interior first. I’ve replaced all of the bad wood on the front and re-painted the trim, but the sides and back aren’t done so be careful if you explore. It’s going to take me a while to finish the whole thing. It’s been abandoned for decades and in terrible shape. I’m taking it one room at a time.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks,” he said as he parked right in front of the steps. We hurried up to the front porch, Jensen unlocked the dark stained oak door, and pressed me ahead of him into the foyer. My feet tread carefully along the antique black and white tile. Was that Victorian or some other style I was unfamiliar with? My eyes traced up along the dark stained wood paneling to the peeling blue and white wallpaper and finally to the decorative moldings and similarly peeling ceiling. A beautiful wood staircase rose proudly up one wall as a tarnished chandelier hung from the ceiling.

“I’ve strictly worked on the rooms I needed to live here. I do plan on tackling this one next. It’s not a huge job but the kitchen and my bathroom were, so I had to put this room off for later.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t know this was back here. You’d be amazed how many brides find these old homes and want to be married on the grounds.”

He stood beside me, his cologne teasing my nose and prompting me to take a step to the door frame where I ran my hand along the wood. “The gate had a padlock as well as about five “No Trespassing” signs that might’ve acted as a deterrent. I had to move a few fallen trees to even make my way up the driveway.”

“How did you find this place?”

“Would you believe I inherited it?”

My head whipped around, and I must’ve looked at him like he was insane because he laughed. “I’m serious. My grandparents owned it. My mother’s parents to be more specific. After my mother ran off, I never saw my grandfather. He wasn’t exactly in the best of health and had been moved into a care home in Charleston. My father refused to take me to visit. Eventually, he told me one night while he was drunk that my grandfather had died, though that turned out to be a lie.”

“How did you find out your dad had lied?” My voice was oddly soft.

“Right before I graduated college, an attorney contacted me. He was the trustee of my grandfather’s estate, which consisted of this house and money set aside specifically for its restoration. The Navy still held more interest to me than returning here, so I let the property sit. I considered selling it, but my mother was raised in this house. Something in me couldn’t get rid of that.”

Jensen cleared his throat and motioned for me to follow him through the door at the end of the hall. I had to blink when I walked inside. A significant amount of work had been done when you compared it to the foyer. When he turned on the light, dark wood floors gleamed, freshly painted ivory walls made the bright white moldings and trim pop, and a large open doorway led to a modernized kitchen.

I removed my coat while I surveyed the room. “It’s beautiful.”

“Fortunately, there wasn’t much structural damage. It’s simply been repair work, but the kitchen was costly. My grandfather left me a significant amount, but I don’t know if it will cover everything. I’ve been doing as much as I can myself in the hopes I can finish.”

A high-pitched bellow echoed through the house. He shook his head. “Daphne’s realized I’m home. I better let her out. If she comes up to you, don’t pet her until she’s come back in. She’ll get too excited and piss all over the floor.”

I chuckled and put up my hand, palm out. “I promise.”

While I walked around the living room, the pitter patter of little claws across tile came from the kitchen until a door opened and shut again. I set my hand on the back of a grey sectional that could’ve still graced a showroom floor. Had he even sat on it?

Two sets of large windows sat directly opposite the front door, which were framed in matching dove grey curtains. Through the clean glass, I watched the white mess of a storm going on outside for a moment before I stepped around the large sofa. An antique buffet graced the space between the two windows, having been repurposed as a fancy television stand. In one direction, the sectional faced the television, but from the other, it faced a brick trimmed fireplace with a bright white painted mantel. To the left, a grey and white wing backed chair faced out from the corner with a built-in, framed bookcase behind it. Who knew Jensen could decorate?

A blur of white and brown rushed into the room, startling me. I bent over to the little dog, who jumped up and down at my feet. “How are you, Daphne?”

“You haven’t looked at the kitchen yet?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I suppose I was inspecting everything. The mix of antique and modern furniture works. Did you hire a decorator?”

He laughed as he leaned against the wide door frame to the kitchen. “Furniture was stashed around the house and in the attics when I first went through the place. I’ve had most of the pieces in here refinished. The buffet was in excellent condition in the attic, so it didn’t need work.”

He remained where he was as I gradually made my way into the kitchen. “I enlarged the doorway and kept it open. I want to do that more through the house instead of all the doors closing it up.”

I turned in a circle, taking in the stained wood beams across the ceiling that matched the floors and the island, the pristine white cabinets, and the great glass pendant chandeliers hanging over a white granite island. The backsplash was in a floral designed white and black tile.

“I knocked out a wall there.” He pointed to one end where a farm style table with ivory fabric chairs took up part of the open space. “There were just too many living rooms. The back room was also two smaller rooms.” He pointed to a door off the kitchen. “There’s a small mudroom and a laundry room I had built off the back. It was easier than to add plumbing to the existing structure. When I get to it, a dining room will be through there.” His finger was aimed at a door near the kitchen table.”

“It’s amazing. I can’t believe you did this yourself.”

One side of his lip quirked up into a devastating half-smile. “I can’t claim I did it all myself. Ellie’s husband gave me advice about which walls I could knock out and offered a few ideas. Some of his guys didn’t mind working on a weekend here and there to earn a little extra money and built the mudroom and laundry room.”

I nodded while I peeked into the mudroom. “William is great with remodeling old homes. He’s working on the upstairs at the office right now.”

“Yeah, he told me. He asked if he could make a few alterations to make the house greener. His crew managed to finish the roof before the storm, thank goodness. They also installed several small turbines, and I had new insulation put in the rooms I’ve remodeled. It wasn’t cheap, but I’m hoping it will save enough money in the long run to pay for itself.”

“If the entire house turns out like the living room and kitchen, it’ll be amazing when you’re finished.”

His face reddened a little as he glanced at Daphne who lapped noisily from her water bowl. “I hope so. I remember my mom mentioning this place when I was young. She loved growing up here. I think she’d be sad to know it fell into such disrepair.” He cleared his throat. “Are you hungry? I do have food. I went shopping this morning before work.”

“Not right now. I made Sunday dinner at my parents.”

“So, you ate about one or two o’clock?” He checked his watch. “It’s barely five.”

“Did you have anything to do tonight?” I asked. “I could help you.”

“I’m going to work on the foyer next, but I found a bunch of boxes and clutter under the stairs. My plan for tonight is to sort through as much of it as I can. I doubt you want to do that. It’s going to be dusty and grimy as hell.”

I don’t know what made me start shaking my head, even the words that flew out of my mouth surprised me. “I don’t mind. It’ll be fun.”

Tell me what you think!!