Forever Vows, page 2
I had an apartment. I had a little succulent that I’d had for ages. But I didn’t have a girlfriend and I had a feeling he somehow knew that.
Noah knew everything there was to know about his people. Even those of us who stayed below the radar.
“You’ll be provided an apartment and a car. All expenses covered.”
I didn’t doubt that.
“Why me?”
Noah smiled at me. An older man with silver in his hair, he still held himself tall and straight and could have passed for a much younger man.
In that smile, I could see the charm and persuasiveness that had no doubt helped him obtain the level of success he had achieved.
“Since you’re from there,” he said. “I thought you wouldn’t mind using the opportunity to go back. Spend some time with family.”
Family. I still had a grandmother who lived in Pittsburgh, but my parents had retired to Florida. He would know that, of course.
A little tendril of fear wound its way through me.
“Has someone contacted you about my grandmother?” I asked, fearing the worst. Someone could have contacted me here about her. Not likely, but possible.
I should call her more often. She lived alone and as far as I knew there was no one to look in on her.
“No. No,” Noah said, looking at me with concern now. “But it sounds like maybe you’re thinking you might want to see how she’s doing. If you decide to help me out on this.”
“Of course,” I said, scrubbing my chin. “I’d be happy to help you out.”
“Good,” Noah said. “That’s good.”
“I’ll look in on my grandmother while I’m there.”
Noah laughed.
“I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you. Maggie will get you all the details.”
With that, he stood up and walked back to the window.”
“Is that all you needed, Mr. Worthington?”
“That’s all,” he said. “Thank you for helping out.”
Still reeling from the strange conversation with the big boss, I went in search of Maggie.
My grandmother might be the only official family I had in Pittsburgh, but she wasn’t the only person I had left behind.
Noah had really given me no choice.
I would be spending the next two months in my hometown.
Pittsburgh.
I was going home to Pittsburgh.
Not a big deal, I told myself. I would just take my plant with me. I could leave my car here at the airport in the Skye Travels parking lot.
I had lots of arrangements to make, but I was used to traveling on the fly.
I was a pilot. it’s what I did.
Going back to Pittsburgh, though. That was not something I’d planned on doing.
First things first, I’d call Liam, my friend from college. Last I heard, he still lived in Pittsburgh.
The thought of spending two months there with no one to talk to but my grandmother didn’t sound like something I wanted to do.
Chapter Three
Isabella
I recognized the name of my new client—my first private client—but I didn’t recognize the address or the house.
The house was a large Georgian colonial-style house with what I thought of as a flat front. As an architect, I had a love hate relationship with the style. I loved it because it was iconic and symmetrical. All American.
Two stories. Two windows on either side. Kitchen in the back.
I hated it—too strong a word really—because as an architect, it was difficult to design something in that style that stood out from the crowd.
It was hard to create something different out of a classic design.
The house was freshly washed, letting the pale white brick shine through, belying its age.
Using the thick iron knocker, I knocked on the door and waited. A baby cried in the background and toddler screeched.
Maybe there was more than one Liam Johnson in Pittsburgh. It was more than a little bit possible. Likely.
The blonde woman who opened the front door had hair falling out of her ponytail. She looked harried and stressed, but she smiled at me.
I knew this woman. Somehow. I wasn’t sure yet. But I knew her.
“Hi,” she said and hearing her voice everything fit together and I recognized her.
“Hi.” I smiled. “Melissa?”
“Yes?” With a toddler holding onto her right leg, she frowned at me with a mix of confusion and uncertainty.
“I’m Isabella Ashton,” I said. “You contacted me or maybe your husband did.”
“Isabella.” Her face brightened. “The architect.”
“Yes.”
“Come in.” I stepped inside after she opened the door. “I think… I think I know you.” She watched me intently, trying to figure it out.
“You married Liam Johnson, right?” She nodded. “Your boyfriend was best friends with my… friend Daniel.”
“Oh, of course,” she said. “I have baby brain. I should have put that together.”
“How would you?” I asked, giving her a break. From the looks of her house, she needed one.
“Come back to the kitchen,” she said. “I have beanie weenies on the stove.”
“People still eat those?” I mused.
“Three-year-olds do. I don’t know about people.”
I laughed.
“Have a seat,” she said, picking up a teddy bear from one of the dining room chairs and setting it on top of the table.
As I sat down, she went back to the stove in the center of the island where she was stirring what did indeed smell like beanie weenies.
“I’m actually the one who contacted you.”
“Oh. You work from home?” I tried to imagine Melissa getting any work done from anywhere, especially from here.
Besides the toddler attached to her leg, she had one in a playpen and if I was any judge at all, she had another one on the way.
She disentangled the toddler off her leg and set her in the dining room chair next to me.
The little girl looked at me as though she had never seen another human before.
“Hi,” I said, getting no response.
“You design work cottages?” she asked, taking a pack of weenies from the refrigerator and proceeding to chop them into bite sized pieces.
“Yes,” I said, gladly turning my attention back to Melissa. “I just—” I bit my tongue as I started to tell her that I had just started.
My mentor’s words rang in my head. “Never let them know that you’re new at what you do. As far as clients know, you are the expert.”
She looked at me questioningly.
“I just wasn’t sure what you all were looking for.” I smiled.
“Liam doesn’t know I contacted you,” she said.
“Oh. I see.” I didn’t, but I would.
She slid the weenies off the cutting board and stirred them in with the beans.
“Liam is an attorney.”
“Right. I remember he studied law.”
“He has an office downtown, but he also does a lot of work from home.” She glanced around. “I think he would do a lot more work at home if it was a little quieter.” She lowered her voice as she neared the end of her sentence.
I glanced at the little girl. She was still watching me in silence.
“Hence the cottage office,” I said. I hadn’t decided for sure what I was going to call my little home office buildings, but right now cottage office seemed to fit.
“Yes,” she said, enthusiastically. “Anything to keep my man at home, you understand?”
“Of course.” Never let them know you’re new and never let them know you didn’t have a man.
She dipped up a spoonful of beanie weenies and put them on a blue plastic plate. Set it in front of the little girl.
“Do you want some beanie weenies?” she asked. “We have plenty.”
“No,” I said quickly, “but thank you.”
Melissa put a scoop of beanie weenies on another saucer and sat down at the table with it.
“Eat,” she told the little girl, then proceeded to do so herself.
“Sorry to eat in front of you,” she said. “But I have a Zoom call in thirty minutes.
“No need to apologize,” I said, fascinated at not only seeing an adult eating beanie weenies, but also that the little girl did as she was told.
Being the youngest of five siblings, I didn’t know a whole lot about children, but Melissa made chaos look easy.
“How much space are you thinking?” I asked, glancing out the back window at what, from here, looked like a massive back yard. Plenty of room to put a cottage office.
“I don’t know,” Melissa said with a little shrug.
I didn’t remember her being so laid back in college. Maybe having two and a half children did that to a person.
“Can you put together some designs? You know. A starting place? And we can go over them from there?”
“Of course. I didn’t bring anything today. I was just hoping to get a general idea of size and scope.”
Melissa finished off her beanie weenies. Took the plate to the sink, rinsed it, and put it in the dishwasher.
“Just think attorney,” she said.
“Will he have clients come here?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Probably. A lot of Zoom calls, but clients might come here.”
I was wondering if maybe she shouldn’t ask him, but she obviously wanted it to be a surprise. I would use what information I had to start with.
“I can pay you by the hour,” she said. “What’s your rate?”
Fortunately, I was prepared to answer that question. I told her my rate.
“Okay,” she said without a blink. I had been afraid that it was a little high. I was asking more per hour than I had made at my corporate job. All at the advice of my cousin in Houston.
“Just text me an invoice. I’ll pay you for today. I really have to get ready for my call. When can you come back?”
I opened up my calendar app. My time was wide open, but I didn’t tell her that. I calculated how much time I would need to put together the first outline of a sketch.
“I have time Friday afternoon,” I said.
“Perfect. Text me if you have any questions between now and then.”
“Do you mind if I use the back door so I can get a feel for the space?”
“Not at all,” she said. “That’s a great idea. There’s a stone walkway that leads around to the front.”
She somehow managed to herd me to the door without it feeling like I was being dismissed, although I was.
“I’ll see you on Friday,” she said.
Feeling like I had just been through a whirlwind, I stood outside the back door of the colonial style house, the door closed behind me and tried to regroup.
So my client was the Liam Johnson I had known from college… or rather his wife.
I hadn’t considered that I would be designing a surprise cottage office for someone. That added a whole different level to things.
Even more levels came from knowing the clients. Or more specifically from knowing them when they were college students.
I wouldn’t let that affect anything though.
I considered the space they had for the building. Imagined the little cottage tucked among the maple trees.
A lot of people would want to cut trees to make a clean area to build. I didn’t believe in that. I would work around the trees. Let them stand.
Maybe even find a way to bring the outdoors inside.
The beauty of it was if the Johnsons didn’t like the design, I could sell it to someone else. And on top of that, I would get paid for putting together the design.
That was unexpected and nice.
I took a few photographs. Some mental measurements. There was plenty of room to work with.
When I came back Friday, I would bring a tape measure and do some actual measurements.
Using the stone walkway to make my way around front, I considered that they already had a built-in entrance for clients. Clients wouldn’t even have to go inside the main house. I imagined a little sign out front with Liam’s name, instructed them to follow an understated arrow.
Considering the chaos created by children in there, that was most definitely a good thing.
This was good.
A very good challenge.
Chapter Four
Daniel
The thing about men was that they could be best friends and not talk to each other for thirty years. Just pick right back up where they left off like they’d seen each other yesterday.
It hadn’t been that long since I’d seen Liam, but the concept still applied. It applied even though he now had two children and one on the way.
“You know you can always stay with us,” Liam said as I climbed inside his brand new BMW sedan. Solid white with dark leather seats.
“Thanks,” I said. “But no thanks. Nice car.” It had that new car smell and even though he had those two children, no one would ever know it. No car seat in the back. I would bet money that the little ones didn’t ride in the BMW. Either that or he had a really good detailing service.
“Thanks. You don’t like children, do you?”
“I can honestly say I know very little about the little people.”
Liam laughed.
“You would learn,” he said. “You would learn quickly, but that’s okay. I’ll break you in slowly.”
I looked at him sideways. I had not considered that my best friend from college would have two children and one on the way. I had also not considered that he would feel compelled to indoctrinate me into his world of fatherhood.
He pulled out onto the freeway, driving me toward my apartment which just so happened to be only a few miles from Liam’s house.
Convenient, but Liam would have picked me up anyway and driven me across town if need be. That’s how guys were.
“Do you have a flight Friday?”
“I don’t have my schedule yet.” Maybe that was for the best.
“So if you don’t have a flight, come by Friday afternoon. We’ll grill some steaks.”
“I’ll let you know,” I said. “Thanks.” I reminded myself that I was the one who had contacted Liam. I was the one who didn’t want to spend two months by myself.
“How’s your grandmother?”
“I’m going by tomorrow to check on her.”
“Yeah. I can’t believe your parents just up and moved to Florida. Left her here.”
“From what I hear, she didn’t want to go. Too hot.”
Liam laughed.
“Isn’t that why old people move to Florida?”
“Hell if I know.”
“I can’t wait for you to meet my kids,” Liam said. “I’d spend more time at home, but you know, it’s a catch-22. Too much noise to get work done.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
“Yeah, with number three on the way, I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”
“How’s Melissa in all this?”
“I swear the woman has no stress.”
“That’s not how I remember her.”
“I know. Right? She’s like a natural born mother.”
“I think my apartment is right up there,” I said, keeping an eye on my GPS.
“Call me if you need anything at all.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “You’re my closest known neighbor.”
He pulled up to the door. “I’m glad you’re here. We’ll have a beer and catch up.”
“I can’t wait,” I said. “Thanks for the ride.”
I piled out of the car, grabbed my luggage from the trunk, and headed for the apartment office. Everything was supposed to be taken care of. I even had a key already, but apparently there was something I had to sign.
An adventure. It was going to be an adventure.
And besides just work, I had some things I needed to take care of while I was here.
One of them was visiting my grandmother.
The other one was far more complicated.
And I wasn’t ready for it yet.
Chapter Five
Isabella
Bent over my drafting table, I captured the outline of my idea.
The light was just right. Coming in through the window, splashing across my drafting paper.
My pencil moved quickly over the paper, trying to keep up with my brain.
I measured. Considered. Measured some more.
Sitting back, I put my pencil in my mouth and turned my paper around.
I had found a way to incorporate the maple trees, making a little courtyard in the middle of the office cottage. It would be a good place for a child to play in the mid-day sunshine. Or a great place for a cat. Add some flowers to attract butterflies. Add a normal cat named Fluffy and it was perfect.
For Liam Johnson, I imagined a toddler laughing and chasing after a puppy while he worked at his desk overlooking the courtyard.
There would only be one door leading out to the courtyard, so even if Liam got engrossed in his work, he didn’t have to worry about his child running off out of sight.
I didn’t know much about children, but I imagined it was a really good design. I’d incorporated both the maple trees and their children’s safety and I was only getting started.
Someone drove up and parked at the back door. One of my brothers.
I glanced at the big clock on the wall behind me.
Time had gotten away from me.
I stood up and stretched. Realized I had been having fun. It was fun to design what I wanted to design. To focus on the needs of my client and come up with something unique just for them. Their needs. Their space.
It was time to stop for dinner. I might come back in a little while and do some more work on the design, but right now it was time for dinner and my stomach was growling.
I put my rulers and pencil away in the antique desk and pulled a dried leaf off the yellow daffodil in a vase in the middle of the desk.
As I headed downstairs thinking about what the little office cottage might look like on the inside and thinking about how I might decorate it, it occurred to me that my sister Charlotte would be perfect for that part of the job.
