Going for Broke: Oakland Hills Friends to Lovers Romantic Comedy (Friends with Benefits) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of weeds, cardboard boxes, plastic tubs, a tangled web of rusty bicycles, and the ruins of a broken swing set, now slanted at a forty-five degree angle and overrun with ivy. “It’s huge for up here. And level. Most of the houses along here don’t have nearly so much usable land.”
    “She used it, all right. As a landfill.” Her voice was bleak.
    “No big deal. One debris box and some muscle, and it’ll be beautiful.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Take a break outside and I’ll go through the rest of the house.”
    “What? No, I’m fine. I was just wishing…” She put a hand over his and leaned against him. “I wish I could’ve done this while she was alive. Now she won’t be able to appreciate it. It’s too late—” Her voice cracked, and she fell silent.
    “Come on.” He grasped her arm and led her out of the house to the sunny front step, where bright flowers were spilling out of a dozen small pots. The front of the house, unlike the back, was clean, happy, and tidy.
    “Deep breath,” he said, inhaling one himself. “It’s toxic in there.”
    “Which is why I can’t subject you to it another second.” She pulled her hand free and turned to go back into the house. “I’ll get your ladder and your bag, and you can go. I’m so sorry to put you—”
    “I’m having a great time,” he said, and it was true. The thought of cleaning out the decrepit old house filled him with an excitement he hadn’t felt since he’d landed his first multimillion-dollar investor. “Don’t worry about me.”
    She stared at him. “Really?”
    “This place is going to be beautiful when I’m done with it.”
    “When you ’re done with it?” She laughed and tore the mask off her head, shaking off bits of debris. Some remained in her hair, which bothered him, and he had to fight the urge to run his fingers through each strand and make it as glossy and voluminous as it had been before.
    He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You don’t want my help?”
    “Ian, you’ve got a company to run. You don’t have time to fix up my grandmother’s house.”
    “I have plenty of time.”
    “I was grateful you came today just to eyeball the place. That’s more than enough.”
    “Hardly. You can’t do this by yourself,” he said.
    “I’ve got my sister.”
    “I bet Jane works longer hours than anyone I know. And that’s saying something.”
    The white dust mask cupped her chin, emphasizing her rosy cheeks. Her brow was furrowed. “You can’t mean it. You’ve seen what it’s like in there,” she said. “We haven’t even looked at the outside yet. Jane’s worried about the roof.”
    He reached past her and tapped his knuckles on the drainpipe. It was solid, and he didn’t see any sign of soil erosion along the house below the gutter. The exterior windows were clean, too, and the sycamore arching over the front had been recently trimmed. The mulch around the shrubs and perennials was freshly raked and weed-free. “I suspect you’ll find that most of the repairs will be on the interior.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “Look around,” he said, gesturing at the garden, the clean steps, the shining glass windows. “Did you or your sister or your dad have the trees trimmed?”
    “Trees?” She frowned up at the branches.
    “If your grandmother was afraid of heights, I doubt she was the one who climbed up there.”
    “Not to mention she was on oxygen and needed her walker. If she’d climbed up there, I would’ve been right down here making a video.”
    “There you go. She must’ve hired somebody,” he said.
    “So what if she did?”
    “Then she probably hired people for the roof, too.” He took out his phone and pulled up his note-taking to-do app. “I’ll call for a pest inspection. And I know an electrician who can check out the wiring.” He began jotting down a checklist.
    “Ian.”
    He continued to type. Lorna must know some strong guys at school who’d like to make a few bucks