Page 60 of Finding Hayes
. . .
Savannah
I’d spentthe morning out at the farmhouse, overseeing the renovations and filming online content. My social media was blowing up, and I’d even gotten messages from a few interior design firms asking if I was interested in coming to work for them.
I’d spent hours at the tile store last week, choosing just the right tiles for the kitchen and bathrooms. I wanted to keep the character of the older home but modernize it at the same time.
I called this aesthetic coastal-farmhouse-chic, and my hashtag had even gone viral.
Abe would have gotten a kick out of the fact that I was making a name for myself while renovating his and Lily’s house.
Everything would be light and airy, as opposed to all the dark woods and finishes that they’d had. I was maximizing every single penny, as I only had a deposit to give to King and Nash, but they didn’t seem concerned at all. But they also didn’t know that my inheritance was dependent upon my marriage, which they didn’t know was fake.
In their eyes, I was Hayes’s wife, and they’d do anything for me.
So, I’d saved all the cabinets that we’d torn out during demolition, and I’d listed them online, along with the old appliances and some of the furnishings. They weren’t selling for a lot of money, but a couple hundred bucks here and there would help.
King and Nash had brought a crew out to sand down the original floors throughout the home and stain them in a lighter color. Salvaging the floors had saved us a ton of money, and the lighter stain brightened the whole place up.
I’d told them that I had to get home, and they’d both teased me about the fact that I was getting Hayes to throw a party tonight for the guys at the firehouse.
Saylor, Demi, Ruby, Emerson, and Peyton had offered to come over and help me decorate the house. It was Saturday, so it was really generous that they were willing to help me on their day off.
When I arrived at the house, Hayes was in the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of gray joggers. His back was to me, and I took in the Ride or Die tattoo inked across his chiseled muscles. My eyes trailed down his wide-set shoulders to his narrow waist. The man was thick and strong, and my mouth watered at the sight of him.
“You going to speak or just stand there staring, Shortcake?” His voice was gruff and sleepy, which didn’t surprise me, seeing as he’d just gotten home from the firehouse.
“How was your shift?”
He turned around, crossing his legs at the ankles, and his chest was on full display.
“Long. We had a few medical calls, and then we had to go out to the Kramer house because Sally put banana bread in theoven to warm up and surprise her mom, but she forgot about it. She also forgot to take off the wrapping, and the paper caught on fire and set off all the smoke detectors. They were able to get the fire out, but it did some damage to the kitchen.”
The Kramers were the sweetest family, and their ten-year-old daughter, Sally, was hilarious. I’d run into them a few times at Magnolia Beans, and that little girl was definitely going to take over the world someday with her drive and determination.
“I’m glad everything was okay.”
“Yeah, me, too. How was your night?” he asked, even though we’d texted several times before I’d gone to sleep.
“Good. Uneventful. I just met King and Nash out at the house, and things are really progressing,” I said, moving to the counter to pour myself a cup of coffee. “Is it going to make it hard to sleep if the girls are here to help me start setting up for the party? I know you need to sleep.”
“Nah. Not at all. I can sleep through anything. The guys are all excited to come over tonight. Apparently, most of them have never been invited over. I’ve never been much of a party thrower.”
“You don’t say?” I chuckled.
“It’s definitely not my thing.”
“That’s what your wife is for.” I waggled my brows.
His tongue swiped out and moved along his bottom lip, as his eyes slowly raked over me from my head down to my toes. I squeezed my thighs together in response.
Why does my fake husband have to be so sexy?
“You’re really going all out for this, huh?” he asked, as his gaze moved to the pile of bags and boxes filled with décor that I’d ordered for tonight. “Kimber’s going to shit herself if your party is better than hers.”
“It isn’t hard to compete with Kimber. Her party was horribly boring. We’ve got karaoke, two food trucks, dancing, andthe best part of all…” I said, moving to stand in front of him, because when Hayes was around, I wanted to be close to him. Touching him. Breathing him in. “It’s just the firefighters and their significant others. We aren’t inviting people and asking for money. It’s a party. It should be fun.”
“You never do anything half-assed, do you?” he asked, as the corners of his lips turned up.
