The House That Built Me (Strawberry Inn Book #3)

Chapter 6

CHAZ

“What are you working on now, Chaz?”

“I’m working on not calling up that nursing home and asking if they’ve got a place for my mom to stay.”

Stan chuckled as he hopped onto the forklift and got it started. He probably thinks I’m joking, but he doesn’t even know the beginning of it. Stan’s the owner of the home improvement store in town and might be my best friend at this point, but his wife, Ginny, is best friends with my mom and I’m sure he has heard a different point of view when it comes to this construction project for my mom. 

After all the legal shit that happened with Leland, I couldn’t stay in Sacramento. I wouldn’t say that I was one hundred percent convinced that this was the best move for me, but I was at least with my family now and didn’t have to rely on other people to keep an eye on them for me. Neither Beth Barlow nor Angela Thatcher thinks they need a man to keep an eye on them, but I’ve spent my entire life holding that position and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. My sister’s husband is a great guy, but there is nothing like being in the same town as them, even if it did mean moving to small ass Strawberry.

I didn’t have a lot of free time to make sure the women in my life didn’t go find trouble. My mom convinced me to buy this old farmhouse and since the day we closed on it I’ve been working my fingers to the bone to remodel it. From the sounds of it, the original owners sold it off in a quick sale and the people who moved in after them thought it would make a great investment property. I’m not sure what happened, but they ended up leaving high and dry, the bank foreclosed and it was vacant for something like five years. 

For as long as it sat empty, the quality of the home overall was pretty decent. I would say most credit for that goes to the original builder. The roof was in great condition and the siding was just beginning to show signs of wear and tear. Although the house needed a major update, I didn’t have to do too much demolition to start out. The downstairs bathroom was the worst room, a leak must have happened because there was a lot of mold. That was where I began, tearing it down to the studs and starting over. While I did that, I hired a crew to work on the kitchen, just doing some refinishing of the cabinets, updating appliances, and making sure everything was up to code.

Once those two areas were completed, my mom and I moved in. The upstairs bedrooms and bathroom were decent enough for me to use for now (after a professional deep cleaning) and I would be working on the downstairs bedroom next. I also needed to redo the floors in downstairs because we pulled out all the old carpet. That was the next major project I had planned until my mom came up with this genius idea of having a back porch off her downstairs bedroom. Beth Barlow could never make anything easy, so this job meant not only building a porch from scratch, but also removing the windows and replacing them with French doors, and yes, they had to be French.

Once Stand finished loading the lumber into my truck, we bid farewell until next time, both damn well knowing that I’d probably be back later this afternoon. I wasn’t unfamiliar with spending time at home improvement stores, but the one in Strawberry was so small that I was pretty much guaranteed to see Stan there. He was a good guy though, he also happened to be my sister’s, best friend’s dad. This town was so small there was no way I could separate myself from my family if I wanted to. That was okay though, the longer I was here, the more I was getting used to this type of lifestyle. I couldn’t see myself being here forever, but for now, it worked.

Once I was back at the house, I parked my truck on the side by the garage I converted into my workspace and made my way through the back door into the kitchen. I kicked off my boots in the mudroom, but then stopped in my tracks when I heard a female voice coming from the kitchen that didn’t belong to my mom.