Page 1 of The Handy Men
1
Paige Richards was still awake at 5:00 a.m. It was the witching hour when the monkeys in her brain would start to fling bananas at her until she worked herself up into a panic attack that would leave her sobbing and gasping to breathe. Giving up on sleep, she flung the covers back and stumbled down to the large kitchen of her bed and breakfast to make coffee.
Pushing aside the Keurig, she pulled out the coffee bean grinder. She needed the big guns to survive this. As she ground the beans, she inhaled the rich, earthy scent. Aromatherapy at its finest. While the coffee was percolating, she paced the kitchen, making a mental list of things for Jack and Dean to do today so she could be ready for the inn's grand opening next month. All ten of her rooms were booked, and some of them still needed a little TLC to be perfect.
The thought of it made her sit down at the table and take deep, calming breaths. She couldn’t fail. It just wasn’t an option. If she failed, she’d have nothing and her parents would never let her live it down.
After she drained her 401K and most of her savings, Paige had sold her house on Long Island to cover the costs of buying the Nutmeg Inn. It was a "fixer upper" on Hamlet Island off the Connecticut shoreline, just past the Thimble Islands. She didn't own a boat, but there was a daily ferry that went to and from the mainland. Being a bit of a recluse had appealed to her, but she needed to expand her comfort zone and decided to become an innkeeper after her marriage, and her life, fell apart. Unfortunately, she hadn't budgeted for zero income coming in for the last year while repairs were being done. She was in dire straits financially. Her parents reluctantly gave her a loan, but the cost of that check was more than monetary.
"You're not smart enough to do this."
"You're going to make a fool out of yourself."
Paige could have been more careful with budgeting, but after her ex signed over their house to her before the divorce was finalized, she didn’t stop to think. She had wanted nothing to do with her old life.
Her parents, though, thought she should have made more of an effort to save her marriage. Fred was the son her father always wanted, and her mother approved of him because he was wealthy and successful. It didn't hurt that he always remembered to send her mother flowers on her birthday. Too bad, more often than not, he forgot Paige’s.
While her parents oozed with disappointment at her failed life, they saw a great real estate investment. Paige had seen something more in the Nutmeg Inn: her future on her own terms. For the first time in a long while, she was the captain of her destiny.
Until she fucked it up, like everyone was expecting.
Ugh. The monkeys slipped their leashes. Only they sounded like her ex-husband, Fred. She forced the impending feeling of doom away as her breathing started to get choppy.
Not today.
The smell of brewing coffee soothed her as she rubbed the gritty lack of sleep from her eyes. Grimacing, she poured herself a cup of coffee and then opened her laptop. Maybe her perfect sister had finally taken her turn in Words With Friends. Janice's husband was a lawyer and they had three perfect kids and they lived in a perfect house in the Hamptons. But Janice sucked at Words With Friends.
QUIZ on a double word tile. 44 points, beyotch!
Paige smiled for the first time this morning.
The online Scrabble game was one of her weaknesses, and she had six games going on at once with different people. By the time she finished taking her turns, she was finally feeling tired. Not enough to go back to bed, but enough that a late morning nap might not be out of the question. It was weird, but when Dean and Jack worked on the inn during the day, the sound of it put her to sleep like a lullaby.
She made the mistake of looking at her email. Crap. A message from Fred from came in last night around ten.
She debated opening it. They had nothing to say to each other. The divorce had been finalized over three months ago. Before that, they had been separated for more than a year. The dissolution of her marriage and her dream of a happily ever after had been handled in a civilized, sterile manner by their lawyers. Fred had been very generous. Well, he had to be after she caught him literally with his pants down with a woman named Barbie. Janice’s husband, the perfect attorney, had been a shark. For a moment, she felt a pang over playing QUIZ, but the feeling quickly passed.
Against her better judgment, she clicked the email open.
Paige, have you lost your mind? it began.
She should have hit the delete button right then and there. But she read on instead.
You can't sell our house. It's prime real estate in Long Island.
"My house, shithead," she said in the empty kitchen.
I made sure you had a roof over your head, so I didn’t have to worry about you.
"No longer your job." Paige hated that her voice shook. That it still hurt that no one had any confidence in her ability to survive without a husband or a father to look after her.
But if you've got your heart set on this foolishness, I can't stop you.
"Got that right, buster."
I must insist that you give me the right of first refusal. I will make you a generous offer.
"Too late."
