"How much work are we talking about?" Bea asked.

"Mostly spring cleaning kind of stuff. Minor repairs. Maybe a little painting. Can you guys help?"

"I painted my whole house by myself once," Bea said. "Just give me a roller."

"And I'll ask my father to help, too," Alison said, then turned to Heather. "Can you and Tony help?"

"Yeah, sure," Heather said in a deadpan tone. "Sign us up."

They reached Bea's car. "Just let me know when we're getting together for a work day."

"Will do," Alison said.

As Bea drove away, Heather turned to Alison, her fist on her hip. "Brandon's house? Really?"

"Don't worry. You'll be there the whole time to protect me from his evil ways."

Heather twisted her mouth with irritation.

"Look. If we don't get another house, and fast, we're screwed."

Finally Heather sighed. "Well, I guess we are under the gun. Do you think he'll agree to let us use it?"

"I guess we won't know until I ask, will we?"

Chapter 14.

As Brandon listened to Alison's proposal, he decided he needed to stop answering his door if she was on the other side. Every time he let her in, she told him things he didn't want to hear.

"So you want me to open up my house to a bunch of strangers?" he said.

She smiled. "More or less."

"Hell, no."

She drew back. "What do you mean, hell no? You haven't even thought about it."

"I don't need to think about it. Strangers traipsing through my house? No, thanks."

"Just pretend you're selling it, and they're prospective buyers. You used to do that all the time, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I didn't live in those houses."

"It's not that big a deal. One day. That's it."

"I thought tour homes were supposed to be all pretty and perfect. Mine isn't."

"It could be. I know it's a little rough around the edges, but the architecture is wonderful, and a lot of the furniture is from the same period. I have a few people who have volunteered to do whatever we need to do to make it presentable."

"Let me get this straight," Brandon said. "Not only will I have people wandering through here for hours on tour day, I'll also have a bunch of people in my house banging around getting it ready?"

"But think what that's worth. Cleaning, minor repairs, maybe a little painting-what would you have to pay for that?"

Brandon didn't really care about the condition of the house. Let the First Baptist Church worry about that when he left town and it took possession.

"There's too much work that needs to be done," he told her. "It'll take more effort than you and your friends want to put in."

"We just need it to look good on the surface. It won't be all that hard."

"No, Alison. I just really rather not."

"But it would be good PR for your business. Feel free to hand out your business cards. The more you integrate yourself into the community, the stronger your business will be."

If only she knew that was the last thing he wanted to do for the long haul. "I haven't had business cards designed yet."

"That'll cost you...hmm. Say, a box of Godiva?"

"I still don't get that."

"Trust me-you don't want to know."

"Truthfully, I have about all the business I can handle already."

"Uh...thanks to whom? Is her name...Alison Carter?"

"Hey, I comped your matchmaking fee, so we're even on that."

"You still owe me."

"Yeah? How do I still owe you?"

"You set me up with a felon, remember?"

He rolled his eyes. "I thought we put that to rest."

"But I suffered psychological damage."

"Oh, you did not."

"No. I did. It's just a delayed reaction. One of these days I'm going to be standing in the grocery store or something and suddenly start crying uncontrollably, and it'll be your fault."

"You are so full of crap."

"Oh-did I mention this is for a good cause? The East Plano Preservation League. We do all kinds of good things for the preservation of history in East Plano."

"Such as?"

"I'll get you a copy of our mission statement. It spells it all out. Trust me-it's a doozy."

Brandon shook his head. "I really don't think it's a good idea."

"But-"

"No."

The smile melted away from Alison's face, and she let out a disappointed sigh. "Oh. Okay. I understand." She dropped her eyes, studying her shoes for a moment, then brought them back up to stare at him, looking like a homeless kitten in the rain. There was something about those big brown eyes staring up at him that made him lose his train of thought. Then that train hopped to another track, and he started wondering what such a sweet, innocent woman would look like in a tangle of sheets with morning sun streaming through the window.

And then it struck him.

She wasn't nearly as innocent as those eyes made her seem. In fact, she was downright calculating.

Hey, stupid. Wake up. She's playing you!

"Will you stop that?" Brandon said.

"Stop what?"

"Begging."

"I didn't say a word."

"You didn't have to. Your eyes are doing all the talking."

She tilted her head, adding a layer of lost little girl to the homeless kitten thing.

"Will you stop that? God, you're relentless."

And still she stared at him.

Brandon closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. "You're not going to get off this, are you?"

"Nope."

"And you're going to make me feel like crap if I say no, aren't you?"

"Oh, yeah."

Say no, say no, say no. But still she was looking at him. He was going to regret this. He just knew it.

"Fine," he said glumly. "You can use my house."

"Yes!" Alison said, clasping her hands together. "You're the best! Thank you!"

Brandon couldn't believe how the silliest things made Alison so happy. Yeah, he didn't much like the idea of opening up his house to strangers, but he didn't hate the expression of pure joy she wore right now.

"Wait a minute. When is the tour?"

"It's not until the second week of October, but that'll be here before we know it. I'd like to get the big stuff done around here in the next couple of weeks. Then we can come back a day or two before to do a final sprucing up. Will that be all right?"

Brandon pulled up a mental calendar, wondering if he'd even still be around by then, but he realized he most likely would. They had until December to exercise the option, and while business was really picking up, he expected he'd need almost all of that time to get the money together he needed.

"Okay," she said. "Can I take a quick tour through the house and see what needs to be done? I'll need to report back to the board."

"Yeah. Sure. I've already thrown myself on your mercy. Why stop now?" He circled his gaze around the living room. "This place could use a complete renovation. Just how much do you think is necessary to bring it up to par for the tour?"

"I'm thinking just cosmetics. That's it."

They went through the entry hall and the living room in short order. Nothing but cleaning and rearranging in there. Then they went into the dining room. Ditto. And the whole time Alison kept telling him how wonderful the woodwork was, and the crown moldings, and the light fixtures. Brandon had always had plenty of vision for renovating houses and seeing profit in the most dilapidated properties, but he would never consider living in a house like this if he had a choice. Alison, on the other hand, talked about it as if she'd stepped into Buckingham Palace.

They went into the kitchen. "Okay, this room needs a paint job. But we can handle that." She looked down. "The floor shows lots of wear, but I know where I can get a rug to put over it. If we can't fix it, we'll hide it."

Then they went out to the back patio.

"The stone is cracked in a lot of places," Alison said. "But if we trim the grass coming up through the cracks, it'll hardly be noticeable. And I know I can get Simpson's Nursery to donate a few big clay pots and some flowers to put in them. It doesn't have to look perfect. Just pretty."

"Sounds fine."

"Otherwise everything looks-oh, boy."

"What?"

She pointed to the magnolia. "That tree. It doesn't look as if it's been trimmed in twenty years. One bad thunderstorm with enough wind and one of those big branches will pop off and go right through your roof."

"Hmm. Maybe I can rent a chain saw. Trim it up."

"Have you ever used a chain saw?"

"Uh...no."

"You cut your finger on the air-conditioning unit. I don't have a big enough BandAid if you lose a limb."

"Tree trimming is probably pretty expensive."

"You won't know until you get an estimate."

Then Brandon remembered the guy in his grandmother's files who did landscaping work. Yeah, he looked an ex-con, but he wouldn't be hiring him for his handsome face.

"There's a guy who was a client of my grandmother's who owns a landscaping business. I'll see if he can drop by the day everybody comes to work on the house. But I'm warning you. If it's going to be a lot of money, I'll just have to hope thunderstorm season is mild this year."

"It'll probably be cheaper than you think."