Divided Interests (Southern Bride 3)

He looked around, a stunned expression on his face. “Where’s all your stuff?”

“Fresh start, Milo. On everything.”

“Okay, but this house belonged to his grandfather. You don’t think he’s going to want to keep it?”

I laughed mockingly. “Please. He’ll want to be rid of it simply because I’m a part of it now.”

He frowned. “I don’t think so, Paige. He has asked about you a number of times in the past. Either to me or Jen.”

I stared at him. Jen had never once mentioned Lucas asking about me. I decided to ignore him and keep talking. I’d have to deal with that bit of information later.

“I intend on bringing this house back to its glory days. When William told me he had a storage unit outside of town filled with furniture, I knew he wanted it to be put back the way it was when he was little.”

“When did he tell you that?”

With a shrug, I said, “When I would visit him, he would talk about how the house used to be. And, he wrote it in a letter for me, telling me about the storage shed.”

Milo looked around the house. “But there is already furniture in this place. And he has a storage shed full of it?”

I nodded. “Maybe his parents’ furniture? Things he and May wanted to keep over the years. I haven’t made it over there yet to look at it.”

“Does Lucas own part of it, as well?”

With a smile that might have been a little snarky, I replied, “Nope. Just me.”

Needless to say, when Lou told me William had left me fifty percent of his home here in Johnson City, I thought he was kidding. Then he handed me the letter William had written, and my heart nearly exploded. I felt in my pocket and smiled when I touched the faint outline of the folded-up paper that mentioned the storage shed and its contents being all mine.

“What did he say in the letter?” Milo asked, standing behind me as I stood on the stepladder.

“Just that he knew how much this house meant to me, how I had always dreamed of owning it. He wanted to make that dream come true.”

“Okay, so where does Lucas fit in with all of this? Not to mention his hotter-than-fuck girlfriend?”

I rolled my eyes, then stepped off the stepladder, only to have Milo hold onto my hips and look at me with a funny expression.

“Thanks, I’m good,” I said. He dropped his hold and took a step back.

“Sorry, force of habit.”

I shrugged, not thinking anything of it.

“The way I look at it, William felt obligated to leave Lucas half the house. He is, after all, his grandson. They were very close.”

Milo rubbed his chin. “And you think Lucas won’t want to move in here?”

This time I laughed for real. “Oh please, Milo. He lives in Austin in a mansion of an apartment with his…what did you call her? Hotter-than-hot girlfriend. I seriously doubt he wants to move her back to the country. I’m positive Bianca doesn’t want to live here.”

“I said hotter than fuck.”

I scowled.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I can’t see that. Betty said Bianca does nothing but bitch whenever they stay there.”

“Why don’t they stay at Carl and Lynn’s place?”

Milo’s cheeks went red. “Well, according to Betty, Bianca is a screamer when they have sex.”

I crinkled my nose. “Gross. I didn’t need to know that.”

He shrugged. “Plus Lynn can’t stand Bianca, and she knows it. Lucas told me his mom has slipped a few times and called her Paige.”

Gasping, I covered my mouth. “She has not!”

Milo laughed. “She has, and Lucas said she does it on purpose, to piss off Bianca.”

With my lips pressed together, I smiled. I always loved Lynn.

It was time to change the subject. “When do you think you can get a crew here to paint?”

“You don’t even want to know how much it’s going to cost, Paige.” He folded up his notebook and slid it into his bag.

“Of course, I do, but I know you’re not going to rake me over the coals, right?”

He winked, and I couldn’t help but give him one back. Milo had always been good looking. Not as handsome as Lucas, but good looking. It was nice to have a man do something as simple as wink at me. He’d recently divorced the woman he’d met in college. Brought her home to Johnson City and thought she loved it. She loved it alright; she loved screwing the high school’s assistant football coach—who happened to be Milo’s brother. They were currently living together, which was a huge scandal for the small town of Johnson City.

The divorce was final about six months ago, or at least that was what Jen told me.

We started walking back to the front door. “I’ll get you a quote in the next day or two. Once you narrow down the colors for the inside, I’ll have a better price.”