The Perfectly Simple Complicated Life of Maggie Halloran by Trish Morey

Author:Trish Morey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781958686683
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2022-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

‘I was surprised to hear from you,’ Mitch said at four the next afternoon. The air in the cluttered loft was musty, tainted by age and dust and whatever had stained the boards that lined the steeply angled ceiling. ‘I thought you were opposed to doing anything with the loft space.’

‘Not opposed, I just didn’t think it necessary, until both my daughter and my mother decided to move into both my bedrooms and squeeze me into the snug.’

His eyebrows shot up and he looked downstairs in disbelief. ‘They both live here with you?’

‘Along with my daughter’s puppy and an impending grandchild.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Really, don’t ask. But thank you for fitting me in so quickly, I really appreciate it.’

‘No worries,’ he said, adding his trademark grin. ‘So it sounds like you need this job done pretty quickly.’

‘Any chance of that? You thought I could do something special with this place.’

He was dodging furniture as he was moving around the A-framed space with the tape measure, writing down numbers on a sketch he’d made, ducking his head where the steep roof angled in. ‘You’re not talking getting plumbing up here, are you, because that would be seriously expensive and take a lot longer?’

‘No, no time for that. I just need some space to sleep and get away from everyone.’

He smiled at that. Why did he always smile? There was nothing funny about what was going on downstairs.

‘Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re in luck. Someone a long time ago clearly did the heavy lifting in getting the loft conversion approvals and your stairs are good, floorboards are solid and you’ve already got a window—so it shouldn’t take long to get this space cleaned up.’

He gestured towards the crappy plasterboard that was stained and peeling off in places. ‘Rather than replace this same for same, and paint it, you could line all this with whitewashed timber,’ he said. ‘That would look a whole lot more special. Maybe take the paint off the wall at the end and expose the bricks.’ He stopped at the existing dormer window and peered out. ‘This is the best view. You can see over the rooftops to Smeaton’s Pier and the lighthouse and the harbour. You could sit here and watch the tide come in and empty out. Come and look.’

She drew near and he shifted back to let her in front. The view was definitely the best one in the house. But it was the warmth emanating from the man behind her that made her mouth go dry. Did he always stand that close behind his clients or was he just wanting to check out the view over her shoulder?

‘What do you think?’ he said, and she felt the puff of his breath on her hair and her scalp tingled. Wow.

‘Nice,’ she said, not really talking about the view.

‘Build in a window seat,’ he said, moving away to wave his hand at a level while measuring the view with his eyes,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.