One of the Good Ones (Strawberry Inn Book #1)

Chapter 5

ANGELA

"This is even better than I was imagining," I whispered to myself while I walked into the main building of the inn. It was a gutsy move to purchase it without seeing it in person, but the pictures and the videos were enough for me. Located in the main building were the front desk, a decent-sized conference room, and a hallway with a few offices. I access the rooms you had to enter this area first, that would be great for security purposes. The decor was dated, but I could tell the bones were good. As long as everything was up to code, I don't even think we'd need to do anything construction-wise in this building.

"We have two very different ideas of 'better,' Ang," Chaz grumbled from behind me. He's been in a mood since we left Sacramento but I'm good at ignoring his grumpiness. I've been doing it most of my life. I knew his attitude had very little to do with me anyway. Kayla was not happy that he was here with me this weekend. He wasn't staying like I was, he was just here long enough to help me find a good contractor and go over some plans. I really wanted him to move here to help me with this, but it wasn't in the cards. He did promise me that he'd visit frequently and make sure everything was running smoothly.

"You just don't have the vision. Once we can get plans made up you'll be able to see it too."

"If you say so..."

He walked on ahead of me and towards the door to go into the courtyard. I waited back a bit for my mom and James, the real estate agent that helped me purchase the inn from the bank. He was as fun in person as he was on the phone. He had lived here in Strawberry for all of his fifty-some years and my mom was taking in every single story that he had to tell.

"James, do you know if the rooms are locked right now?"

"For safety purposes, they've been locked, but some of those locks have been broken over the years. Try as they might, it was impossible to keep the teenagers from using this place as a party location."

"We're going to need to figure that issue out right away. How are they getting in?"

"Let's head to the courtyard and I'll show you. There is a side entrance that was used for large items and I assume they were using a ladder to climb over. I guess this is what happens when this town has nothing to offer them for entertainment."

"Idle hands have nothing on bored teenagers," my mom said and James and I both laughed.

"I wasn't that bad, Mom!"

"I kept you busy after all the trouble your brother got into."

"I guess that makes sense. Speaking of Chaz, I'm going to go show him some of the rooms."

The entire inn consisted of twenty rooms, eighteen of them were studio-style hotel rooms that would be perfect for a couple or small family. The other two rooms were suite-style for larger groups of people to stay. While walking through the rooms I made a lot of notes. Besides just rebuilding and remodeling the rooms, I would need to purchase new beds and mattresses. A lot of the furniture that was left looked in good condition and could be reused, but I'd want to make sure the rooms were uniform. I'd probably just sell the pieces I fixed up and sell them for a little bit of extra cash.

The remodel was going to be expensive and it would be nice to get a starting price for everything I needed to do. Chaz said he'd work on finding the right guys for me. I appreciated the effort he was putting in to help me even though he wasn't going to stick around.

"When are you looking at getting this place up and running, Ang?" Chaz asked as we made our way to the back end of the property where the small cottage house was.