Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 54742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
She decided to go for a drive, perhaps visit Trey. Neither she or Alice were at home and she cursed herself for not calling ahead. Giving him a ring, he told her he was finishing up at an open house and would be home in about an hour. She decided to use the time to go for a walk and the wind took her to the one place it knew she wanted to go. Her own house was within walking distance and she made her way toward it.
The street was just as enigmatic as ever. The house glowered at her with its usual silent challenge. But today, she felt too tired and sad to respond. She had forgotten to bring the key, so she couldn't go in, wasn’t sure she even wanted to go in.
In any case, Trey had said something about changing the locks. She leaned on the wall of the little house across the road and contemplated the tough red brick and her sexy black paintwork and her long narrow window panes. She would never live there. Saul had been right the first time she met him. It was not a house for one person on their own.
She was preparing to drag herself back to Trey's when the shutter suddenly opened, and Paul came out. He saw her standing there, let out a shout, bounded across the road and grabbed her. She started to scream.
“Just the person I wanted to see,” he said giddily, dragging her toward the house.
“Paul, let go of me right now.”
“No. I have something to show you.”
“No! I don’t want to go in there. I can’t go in there,” she whined.
“Settle down. You’re going to love this.”
He practically dragged her into the house, despite her protests. Looking around, she found herself forgetting that she might be in danger and gasping at what she was seeing all around her.
“I heard you were getting married. I decided the demolition work was an excellent wedding present.
Jo looked all around. There was nothing left. The walls and doors and floors had all disappeared. There was nothing left but the structure of beams and rafters. And space, amazing space, right up to the roof.
"Sit down," he said, "make yourself at home."
He gestured to the back of the house, where the workers had left behind a plastic table and chairs. Everything was filthy. She sat down cautiously. Paul handed her a can of beer and she began to laugh.
"My God, this is so white trash!”
"You could always have the wedding reception here. When are you getting married?"
"As soon as we can,” she found herself saying, still marveling at what he had done. She should be mad that he had undone what she and Trey had done previously, but she couldn’t be. It looked much better like this.
“I’ve got other news too. I know one of the people in the building permit office, and you have an appointment with him in two weeks. He agreed to give you the go-ahead the same day, provided everything's in order, so I lined up a firm to start filling in the quarries on the next day. Saul has a contact at the Quarry Administration, which oversees the work, so that should move things along."
Jo felt confused. One minute, Paul was the bad guy and then he was the good guy. What was she missing here? What was the catch with all of this? She was going to have to talk to King about it. More importantly, she was going to have to exit here graciously.
“That’s great news. I can hardly wait,” she told him. “Listen, I have to get going. Trey is expecting me back at his house and he gets antsy if I’m late.”
“Okay. I think my work is done here, anyway. Trey can take over from here.”
He didn’t seem to be concerned with her leaving. Yet, for all purposes, he had broken into her house and paid for renovations she had not authorized. Who does that, besides a crazy person? She was anxious to get out. There were bad memories here and stripping out the place didn’t change that, no matter how much it improved the layout.
Jo hurried back out and down the block toward Trey’s, waiting until she was out of earshot to call King. He answered on the third ring.
“I found Paul,” she told him.
“What? Where?”
“He was in my house. King, he’s paid people to come in and begin renovations. He says it is a wedding present to us.”
“Are you still there with him,” he asked, a tone of worry in his voice.
“No. I’m on my way back to Trey’s,” she was in the process of saying when the phone was suddenly snatched from her hands and thrown to one side.
“You didn’t really think I’d let you leave after all the trouble you’ve caused me, did you?” Paul growled at her, pulling her back to the house.