The Dealers

Chapter 19 - Lena

When morning rolled around, I barely made it to class on time. After getting home from the club and finishing my paper, it was early morning. Finding only a few hours of real sleep, snoozing my alarm turned into accidentally turning if off which meant rushing to class like a mad woman.

After making it through class without the time for caffeine and running on a few hours of sleep, I finally made it back home where Jacob was waiting for me as planned.

"Rough night?" He teased as I got out my truck like a zombie and headed over to where he leaned against his own truck in my driveway.

"You're a bad influence." I accused him with a laugh. "All of that drinking and I was up until like two a.m finishing my paper."

"That's because you're a perfectionist." He shrugged. "But, apparently also a procrastinator."

I stuck my tongue out at him as I opened the front door of my house and tossed my book bag inside. Jumping into the rickety cab of Jacob's truck, we headed back off towards his new property.

"You have to name it." I told Jacob as we drove alone in the afternoon breeze.

"Name what?" He laughed at me as he peeled his eyes from the road for a split second to look over at me beside him.

"Your new place!" I swatted him. "You mentioned it had a name but it's yours now, so you have to rename it. I can't call it 'Jacob's place' because it's the size of a small hotel."

Jacob thought for a moment but couldn't come up with anything.

"We'll find something." I added as we finally made it back to the old wooden gate and the sprawling property.

Since the day before, some of the construction equipment had moved but otherwise, the area was empty of any workers. It was just Jacob and I. Parking in the driveway that was much less muddy than it was, we got out of the truck and headed up the still unstable porch.

"That's on tomorrow's agenda." Jacob laughed at me as we both noted how wobbly the porch was as we climbed up. "Then I can start some of the modifications. I'll show you the plans. It's wild."

I loved the expression of excitement on his face.

Having only seen the interior through the windows briefly, I was excited to see what the inside was like.

We stepped onto newly installed and much sturdier flooring in the entry way. Carpentry dust coated everything around us and sheets of plastic hung everywhere. Making our way further in, a large parlor stretched off to the left and what looked like a study, will large empty bookshelves, was situated to the right. Straight ahead, a gorgeous staircase with dated wooden carvings on the banisters, sprawled upward a good two stories. At the top, perched on each side of the stairs appeared to be two separate wings of the house.

Staying on the first floor we passed the staircase and saw many more rooms and unfinished space until finding what should be the kitchen, although the appliances were covered in tarps and pushed towards the center of the room. Beside it, a large, formal dining room sat empty aside for some equipment stored there.

"This place is massive." I sighed as I took it all in.

"The upper floors aren't finished yet so we'll stick to level one." Jacob teased. "The basement is cool but it's full of the millions of pieces of furniture this place came with."

"How cool." I smiled as we walked back towards the staircase and I outlined the banister markings with my finger.

"It's a lot of work." Jacob admitted. "But, if I turn it into a bed and breakfast, I could turn a nice profit."