Rough and Ready, page 5
Rafe missed those weekly dinners more than he could say.
“I’m afraid I’m out on happy hour,” Keeley said, reaching for her oversized purse. “I need to go home and get ready for my date.”
Gio frowned. “Another of your online guys?”
Keeley nodded. “Yep. Although, I think this guy might have potential. We’ve chatted on FaceTime a few times. He’s cute, appears to have a sense of humor, and best of all, he has a real job and an actual apartment—unlike the last two guys, who were still living in their parents’ basements and trying to break out as videogaming stars on Twitch. Plus, my horoscope promised that romance would go beautifully for me today.” She smiled brightly. “All I have to do is communicate openly and honestly.”
“Well, if your horoscope says it, it must be true,” Rafe said dryly. They’d started every single workday this week with Keeley reading his horoscope to him. It was getting to the point even he was starting to take them seriously. His horoscope for today promised vast changes were coming, and he’d spent more than a few minutes wondering what the changes could be. “Where’s he taking you?”
Keeley crinkled her nose. “We’re starting with dinner at Saloon and then—no judgment, please—we’re going to Enigma. He said he likes to dance.”
Gio scoffed. “He likes to cop a feel, is more like it. Why don’t you just do the dinner part tonight and leave the bump and grind for a future date?”
“Wow, Gio. I’ve never heard you manage to channel my brother so perfectly. When did you turn sixty, by the way?” she asked. “I must have missed a few birthdays somewhere.”
“Smart-ass,” Gio said.
“Old man,” Keeley retorted.
“Come on. We’re not starting that shit again,” Rafe said, cutting off their standard name-calling game. “I’m in for happy hour, Gio. And dinner too, if you don’t have any plans. Haven’t had time to hit the grocery store lately, so the cupboards are bare. How about cheesesteaks at Founding Fathers?”
Founding Fathers was a local bar, and a hidden gem as far as Rafe was concerned. He and Gio had spent countless evenings there, watching whatever sport was in season with the other regulars.
“Dinner sounds good.” He turned to Keeley. “You sure you don’t want to jump to the inevitable and give this loser the heave-ho before the date instead of after? I’ll pay for dinner.”
“He’s not a loser. I’ll stick to my plan and continue to hope for the best, since you guys keep rejecting me.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder dramatically. “Besides, Baby is lonely,” she said, pointing downwards, making it clear the nickname was for her vagina. “I don’t put out on the first date,” she added, “but if this guy is cool, I wouldn’t be opposed to setting up a second date that includes heavy petting. I’m getting bored with my vibrator.”
“So the end goal on all this dating is just sex?” Gio asked.
Keeley shook her head. “Of course not. Well, not entirely. I mean, I like a good time as much as the next person—and don’t you guys dare pretend that you’re not the same. I’ve been around long enough to overhear plenty of your locker room talk.”
Gio grinned. “I don’t believe in the double standard, and you know it.”
“Can I tell you guys a secret?” she asked, her voice suddenly more serious than he was used to hearing from her.
Rafe nodded.
“I’m sick of the party scene. I want what Jess and Gianna have. And now Penny. You realize I’ve never had a long-term boyfriend, right? Think about it. My longest relationship was with Herbie Wilson my junior year of high school, and that lasted all of four months. I’m ready for something real.”
Rafe hadn’t put it together until she said it, but she was right. He’d never known a Keeley who wasn’t perpetually single.
Not that his track record was much better.
Actually, he didn’t even have a track record. He didn’t date to change his relationship status. For him, dating was just about sex.
He hadn’t grown up with a stellar role model when it came to love and marriage. Not that his mother didn’t fall in love because she did. A lot. The problem was, she fell fast and hard and too impulsively.
Too many years of helping his mother pick up the pieces after her divorces had left Rafe trigger shy, wondering how the hell someone was supposed to know if it was really love or just a mirage, like the ones his mother chased. In the end, he’d decided the whole thing—love, and the inevitable pain associated with it—was not for him.
“Herbie was a putz,” Gio grumbled.
“Yeah. He was,” Keeley agreed. “But he was cute, with parents who didn’t care if he threw a keg party in the basement every weekend. Underaged drinking and zero parental supervision—it was the equivalent of teenager Heaven. And for four brief, wonderful months, I was the queen bee at the parties.”
“I’m surprised you gave all that up,” Rafe joked. He’d never heard this story, and it appeared Gio hadn’t either.
“So what happened?” Gio asked.
“I caught Megan, a bleached-blonde bitch and captain of the cheer squad, giving him a blow job in the bathroom at one of his parties. Herbie, the witless wonder, couldn’t understand why I was pissed. He didn’t consider blow jobs cheating. Claimed he hadn’t laid a finger on her.”
Gio rubbed his jaw, grinning widely. “How do you always find these idiots?”
“Hell if I know. But I’m not giving up. Onward and upward and all that crap. With any luck, tonight might just be the night I meet my forever guy.”
Rafe wrapped his arm around her shoulder and tugged her close for a side hug, kicking himself for hoping tonight’s date was a dud…because nothing could ever happen between him and Keeley. “Ever the optimist.”
“That’s me. Hey, tell Gio my idea about the inn tonight at dinner,” she added, as Rafe attempted to stifle his wince.
With any luck, perhaps Gio hadn’t heard her. Because he’d already crossed his arms and was hitting Keeley with his most fierce look. “Behave yourself.”
She grinned shamelessly as she shoulder-bumped Gio on her way out. “Nope. Later, gator.”
As was her new habit, Rafe heard her stop at the front door and call out, “Goodbye, Albert! Bye, Marta!”
Gio chuckled, then dropped down in Grandpa’s recliner. “She’s a piece of work.”
“She is. It’s been nice having her around this week. She’s completely professional, a hard worker.”
Gio observed, “Yeah. I can see that.”
“She’s been a godsend,” Rafe continued. He leaned on the desk for a split second, then straightened up, still curious about why the thing had moved. “I mean, I always knew she was bright, but I don’t think I realized just how creative she was. She’s always thinking, always brainstorming ideas to improve each of the businesses, and her suggestions are good. Really good.”
Gio looked around the office. “You guys cleared this room out quickly. I didn’t realize it was this big.”
“It was hard to tell with all those damn boxes. Felt like the walls were closing in.”
Gio rose and walked around the room, running his finger along the dusty bookshelves that were newly revealed. “You know this house is incredible, right? I can’t wait to see what else you uncover. Are you planning to live here, make it your home?”
Rafe had been trying to decide. He owned his own townhouse, but since Grandpa’s passing, he’d stayed here to save himself commuting back and forth. It allowed him to work until late, or rise early when the overwhelming pressure of just how much there was to do kept him from sleeping.
With Keeley’s help, he was feeling a bit less stressed about his never-ending to-do list. Plus, she’d yelled at him on Wednesday when she discovered he was up until midnight, going through boxes without her. She informed him he was “stealing her fun.” So, now when he woke up in the dead of night, he forced himself to remain in bed and ride out the anxiety he felt until he could fall back to sleep.
“I can’t decide if I want to stay here or not,” Rafe said in response to Gio’s question. “Right now, I feel like I’m living in a dusty old museum. The house isn’t comfortable and some of the rooms aren’t even livable. Besides, I’m not like you. I have absolutely no vision for the place and spent the better part of yesterday wondering if I’d be better off to raze the entire thing to the ground and just start over.”
Gio scowled. “Erase that from your head right now. This house is over two hundred years old and demolishing it would be a tragedy.”
Rafe raised his hands. “I know. I know. It’s a cool old house, but it’s too fucking big for just me. Shit, it’s too big for a family of twelve.”
“Yeah,” Gio agreed, still strolling around the room, studying the ornate wainscoting of the chair rail.
“Plus, it needs a major overhaul. The hardwood floors need to be refinished; every room needs a fresh coat of paint. The kitchen looks like something right out of the nineteen seventies. It would be a huge undertaking and definitely not worth the effort or expense, considering it’s just me living here.”
“I get what you’re saying, but the carpenter in me is itching to get my hands on this room, to show you just how amazing the whole house could look with a little bit of tender loving care.”
Gio was part owner in a restorations business with his brothers, Tony, Luca, and Joey. The brothers were so good at what they did, they were hired for jobs not just in Philadelphia but all along the East Coast. After being featured on a couple of home renovation shows on HGTV, Joey had actually landed his own show, ManPower, and he was traveling the country currently filming the first season.
Rafe didn’t doubt for a moment that Gio could bring this house back to life. And he’d certainly given it some thought ever since…
“What was Keeley saying about an inn?” Gio asked.
Fuck. He’d heard.
“It was just something she said Tuesday, and now, because it’s Keeley, she’s like a dog with a bone.”
“What did she say?”
“She said this place would make an amazing inn.”
Gio’s eyes widened. “Damn. She’s right. It would.”
Rafe hadn’t intended to have this conversation. “But I have zero time to take on a new project.”
Gio, perhaps the only person as impulsive as Rafe’s grandpa and mom, responded exactly the way he knew he would, which was why he hadn’t mentioned the idea. “I have time.”
“Seriously, Gio. While the bones of this house are good, it’s fallen into disrepair. Like I said, it’s too big a house for one man, so Grandpa closed off huge sections…for years. No, more like decades.”
“The bones are the most important part. Everything else can be fixed. We rebuilt Pat’s Pub in Baltimore and it was little more than a burned-out shell after the fire,” Gio said, not bothering to mask his excitement. Not that he could if he wanted to. Rafe had learned a long time ago, if Gio felt any emotion—no matter what it was—everyone around him knew about it.
“What are you saying, Gio?”
Gio paused for a moment to think. But only for a moment. Then Rafe saw the gleam that was all too familiar. Because it was the same gleam his grandpa got when he saw a business he wanted to buy, or his mom got whenever she met a man she was certain was “the one.”
“A partnership,” Gio said. “Fifty-fifty. We get the house appraised, I come up with a quote of what I think it would take to renovate it from haunted mansion to haunted inn, and then we go from there.” Gio began his trek around the room again. “I’ve been feeling stagnant lately, bored even. I mean, Moretti Brothers is doing well. Really well. But the business has grown to a place where we’ve got a lot of employees doing most of the heavy lifting. I’ve been saving up to buy my own house, but with the housing market the way it is…I definitely have enough to invest.”
He was thinking aloud, so Rafe let him work through it on his own, aware he couldn’t stem this tide if he wanted to.
“The idea of using that money for this, taking on a project that would be all my own, away from my brothers…”
“Gio,” he started, but the man was on a roll.
“I’m being serious, Rafe. This house is full of character, history, and ghosts,” he added, laughing. “We could build it into something really amazing.”
“Do you know how much work you’re talking about taking on?”
“It doesn’t feel like work when it’s yours and it’s something you love, something you believe in,” Gio countered.
Rafe considered that. He and Gio had been best friends for seventeen years, and Rafe could count on one hand—with fingers left over—the number of fights they’d had. While they were very different people, those differences were what seemed to make their friendship so strong. Even so, going into business together…
“We’ve never worked together,” he pointed out.
Gio frowned and tilted his head. “You don’t really think we can’t work together, do you?”
In all honesty, no. Rafe suspected they’d make a really good team. “No. I don’t think that. But…you think it could be a success?” Rafe asked, hating that Gio’s enthusiasm was becoming contagious.
“A huge success. We build it, and then hire someone to run it for us. Didn’t Gianna major in hotel and hospitality?”
Gio nodded.
“And we’ve got Keeley to do the marketing.”
“Jesus,” Rafe muttered. “You’re already figuring out who can run the thing after it opens?”
Gio chuckled. “Say yes, Rafe. I can see it in your eyes. I know you want to.”
Rafe sighed because Gio wasn’t wrong. He loved the sound of bringing the old place back to life, now that he was talking to Gio.
No, that wasn’t true. Keeley had been talking him into the idea since Tuesday, dropping some of her “plans” for the inn into countless conversations.
“Shit. Maybe I’m more like Grandpa Albert than I thought. He was always looking for the next big venture too, impulsively snatching up whatever businesses caught his eye. But this would be insane, considering I’m still struggling to figure out how to run Baros Corp. I don’t have a grip on the businesses I already own.”
“You’re the smartest guy I know, Rafe. Stop beating yourself up and give yourself a little time. It’s only been six weeks, for God’s sake. You won’t fail because you’re the hardest worker I’ve ever met. You’ve got this,” Gio said with a confidence that bolstered Rafe. “Besides, it’s not like we’d be opening the place tomorrow. We’re talking about a huge renovation project. By the time the inn is ready to open, you’ll have the other shit so under control, you’ll be bored.”
Rafe looked around the office. “You really think you can bring this place back to life?”
“I know I can.” Gio kept walking around the room as he spoke. “I mean, I still have my work with Moretti Brothers, but we can work on the house on evenings and weekends. You’re good with a paintbrush, and it wouldn’t hurt you to get away from the computer for a little while and do some manual labor. You’re getting soft around the middle.”
Rafe narrowed his eyes. “I’m as fit as I’ve ever been, and you know it.”
Gio, the muscular, sporting-an-eight-pack bastard, ignored him. “We could start in this office, then move on to the bedrooms and the kitchen. That would give you and Keeley time to declutter the other rooms.”
“That’s a good plan. But…” Rafe figured if he was going in, he might as well go all in. “What if you moved in here while we worked on it? You’d have even more money to invest if you weren’t renting another place. Like you said, the project will take some time, considering we’ll both be working our full-time jobs as well. I’m not sure we’re talking just months. Could be a year or even longer.”
“You sure you don’t just want me here to protect you from the ghosts?” Gio teased.
Rafe shrugged. “You joke about that now, but I gotta admit, there’s a lot of shit that’s hard to explain. The place creaks nonstop, stuff moves around, doors close on their own, and I swear to God, I’ve heard footsteps upstairs in rooms I know are empty. I go to bed every night wondering if this will be the night Jacob Marley starts rattling his chains.”
“Is that your attempt at convincing me to live here? Because, dude, you’re falling short.”
“Be serious for a minute. Please,” Rafe said, trying to decide if he was really about to commit to this. “Are we actually going to do this?”
“The inn—hell yeah. And if you really want me to move in here with you…”
“I do. It seems smart, considering you’ve just said you’d be here weekends and after work.”
“Okay. So here’s the next move. We crunch some numbers, get a lawyer, and if it all looks good and we agree, we sign some paperwork so it’s legal, and then…you’ve got yourself a partner.”
“And a roommate,” Rafe added, Gio’s excitement rubbing off on him. “I took my grandfather’s room, but there are a couple of large guest suites that he kept nice for company. You could have your pick of one of those until we start making some headway on the renovations. Then, if you want, you can have one wing of the house, and I’ll take the other until we finish the project. I know neither one of us is used to having a roommate, but this mausoleum is big enough that we could go frickin’ days without running into each other.”
Gio rubbed his hands together, and Rafe could practically see the wheels spinning.
“Some of the bedrooms are small. We could knock down walls to create larger suites. And I’ve already got a few ideas for this office. I think we could preserve the history and architecture of this place and still give it a more modern feel. I bet we could even incorporate some green construction, lower the house’s carbon footprint and—” He paused mid-sentence. “Getting carried away, aren’t I?” Gio asked.
“A little.” Actually, a lot. Gio’s grab-the-bull-by-the-horns approach to life was in direct counterpoint to the way Rafe lived. Rafe was much more conservative, a thinker by nature who took very few risks. If left to his own devices, Rafe would never get a damn thing done in this house because he’d spend way too much time simply trying to choose a paint color.
