Page 87 of The Outpost (Jamison Valley 4)
The houses closest to Main Street were older and small. Short yards crowded the homes together on each block. The further we drove, the more the yards started to widen, and though the houses weren’t brand new, they were nicer and larger.
Soon Boone perked up and started whining in excitement as Beau turned down a street full of nice bungalows. Most looked to have been remodeled from their original form, with freshened exteriors, additions and garages built onto their spacious lots. The neighborhood itself had to be at least fifty years old given the height and width of the beautiful trees that lined the streets and shaded the yards.
Beau turned into a long, narrow driveway next to a beautiful shale-gray home with pale-cream trim, gleaming bay windows and an adorable covered porch filled with tan wicker furniture.
“This is your house? I remembered it differently.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. What did you remember?”
“Not this. For some reason, I had it in my head that your house screamed ‘bachelor.’ ” Instead, his home said “take off your shoes before you come inside.”
The exterior landscaping was immaculate, highlighting the brown brick sidewalk that trailed up from the street to four matching steps leading to the sunken front door. The porch itself was deep and wide, running along half of the front but also along the side of the house toward Beau’s attached garage, which was set off the back of the house.
Boone dove out of the truck door the second I had it open only to disappear through a doggy door out the back of the garage. I grabbed a bag from the back seat, then followed Beau up three cement steps and through the interior door to his house.
“Let’s do the tour and then we can unload.” He lifted my bag off my shoulder and set it on his white washing machine while I inspected the laundry room and pantry where we’d come in.
The floor tiles were a rich terra cotta and the walls a blue so deep it was nearly black. The white farmhouse sink in the corner and the hickory cabinets offset the dark walls flawlessly.
“I only take credit for the carpentry,” Beau said as I followed him into an enormous kitchen. “Maisy is obsessed with home-decorating shows so she gets credit for the decorating and paint.”
“Now I really can’t wait to see her motel.” If her rooms were anything like Beau’s house, her motel would rival some of the most stylish in Seattle.
The kitchen and living room were all part of a huge open main floor, only separated by a massive butcher-block island and iron-backed stools. The espresso leather couches and the pale stone fireplace in the living area were the perfect accents to the light hardwood floors.
The best part was that the television wasn’t too big or stacked on top of the mantel. Instead, it was tucked away in a beautiful set of built-in cabinets opposite the picture window that looked into the front yard.
Beau went through the rest of the tour quickly, showing me his office, the guest bedroom and a bathroom on the main floor. Next, he took me to the cool basement that had clearly not been part of Maisy’s scope of work.
“Here’s the bachelor I was looking for.”
He chuckled and turned on the florescent lights. At one end of the long, wide man cave was a home gym. At the other end was a massive sectional aimed at an entertainment unit the size of which I’d never seen before. In it was the enormous TV that I’d expected upstairs.
I shivered as the cold from the cement floors bled through my socks. I peeked inside a storage room full of an extra refrigerator and a chest freezer before following Beau back to the main floor.
“Upstairs is my bedroom and another spare,” Beau said, going back to the garage to unload.
“Wow. I wouldn’t have guessed this place was so big from the outside.”
“This block was the ritzy part of Prescott back in the day. Now all the new construction is done along the river or up in the mountains but I wanted one of these older places. I like that they have character and history. So I bought it and have been slowly making updates.”
“Have you done much work?” I asked, carrying a plastic tub into the laundry room.
“Quite a bit. I tore out a wall upstairs to expand the master bedroom and bathroom. That was my biggest project. Everything else has been mostly cosmetic. New floors. New paint and trim. Better finishes. The people that owned it before me did the hard part by putting on the extension where the kitchen is now.”
“Well, it is not going to be hard for me to stay here, I can tell you that.”
He chuckled, setting down the cooler and taking the tub from my hands. “Good. Why don’t you raid the fridge for dinner and I’ll finish unloading?”
I nodded, standing on my tiptoes so he could give me a soft kiss before going back to the garage. Boone appeared and settled into his doggy bed by the back-patio doors while I made us a late dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.
I had gotten so used to cooking with only an electric stovetop at the outpost that I felt spoiled with Beau’s top-of-the-line gas range and dual convection oven. If all I had to do was hang out inside every day, I was going to get creative with our menu.
No more trail mix, jerky and granola bars for me. I’d had enough of those to last a lifetime.
Beau and I ate at the island, then I tossed in a load of laundry while he loaded the dishwasher. Another positive: no more hand-washing my clothes. I was back in the land of modern-day appliances.
“Do you want to take a shower before bed?” he asked.
