Flipped! (Spinning Hills Romance 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman had the looks, not the attitude.
    “Johnny said you might know the original colors of the house?” he asked when she gestured for him to sit.
    “The original colors were described as a rich combination of cream, fawn, and centennial red accents. If you decide to use those colors, I have good ideas as to how you can combine them.”
    He looked around at her beige and olive-green color scheme. She seemed to have a good head for colors. “What else do you know?” He settled into the chair and waited for her to pull a binder out from a shelf behind her desk.
    “One of the original owners was a lawyer, and he had a huge collection of law books. The room that is now the formal dining room was originally a private law library.”
    Dan preferred reading and writing about the law to actually practicing it, so the idea of the private law library appealed to him. But the house wasn’t for him. He’d have to take a good look at the floor plan to see whether the room would stay a formal dining room or if it would become a home office.
    “Here’s a sketch of the original blueprint.” She slid the binder over to him. “I’ve always thought the law library–turned–dining room would make a great home office, and that the dining room should be where it originally was—in front of the kitchen—where the family room now is.” Enthusiasm crept into her voice, her eyes blazed, and she inched to the edge of her seat. “The wall that closes that area off now was added later, to make a downstairs bedroom. That bedroom would make a great family room. If the wall were taken down, the kitchen, dining room, and family room would be an open space!”
    Dan’s eyes widened. In the space of a few sentences, she’d turned into a zealot. “You’ve been in the house?” he asked.
    “I visit every house that’s for sale. I like old houses.”
    “Do you know who the original owners were?” he asked next.
    “Nathaniel and Miranda McDowell built the house in nineteen thirteen, and they sold it after only two months. I found the advertisement. That’s how I know the original colors,” she explained.
    “Do you know why they sold so fast?”
    Holly studied him. “You’re curious?”
    He shrugged and she looked back down at her binder. “I’ve wondered the same thing, but I don’t think I’ll ever find out,” she said, flipping through the pages. “This is all I have on that house, but I think it’s pretty amazing. It doesn’t look like it belongs because it was the first house built on that street. Their neighbor, John Olmstead, was a journalist for the Dayton Times . He was so taken by the house’s architectural details that he wrote an article about it.”
    “An old article about the Craftsman?” Dan leaned in, interested.
    “Yes! He detailed both the inside and outside of the house, explaining how all the wood, glass, and metalwork was locally hand-crafted. The wood was a light mahogany, it’s too bad someone painted it white. Only the house’s colors were missing from the article, and I found those in the ad I told you about.”
    She handed him the binder, but drew it back when he reached out. She eyed him, bit her lip, sighed, and then handed it to him again. When he grabbed it, she tugged it back again, a reflex. It felt like she was giving up. But she had to, didn’t she? His eyes widened. Finally, she let it go and he almost dropped it.
     
    Dan shot up, before the woman decided to play tug-of-war again. “There’s a copy machine in the library next door. Fifteen cents a copy,” she said, her manner now crisp and detached. She got up and left, the sweet scent of her perfume lingering a moment longer. He paused, the scent familiar, but he couldn’t place it and it didn’t matter.
    He followed her out, just as she flipped the sign on her front door to OPEN. He looked around. “You sell perfumes?”
    “I’m what experts refer to as a ‘nose’.”
    Dan somehow managed to keep a straight face.