“It’s painted shut,” she argued, crossing her arms. Immune to flattery. Rather than discouraged, Silas liked to think he was narrowing down the best way to connect with her.

He gave her his best concerned male look.

“And I’ll fix it,” she said in exasperation.

“Good girl.” He swung through the last two rooms on the first floor, noting that someone—most likely Energizer Bunny Maggie—had already cleaned up the evidence of Kinship teens’ taste in shitty alcohol in the corner den. “What are you gonna do with all these rooms?”

“I have no freaking clue.” She laughed. “There’s so many of them. Every time I think I narrow down which ones are going to get the budget, I walk into another room and see something worth saving. Another killer view, another piece of trim that somebody carved by hand. Another chunk of history of a family who hasn’t lived here in decades.”

“Hard to walk away, leave things unfinished,” he mused.

She gave him a good glare. “Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing.”

They were back in the rotunda, where the once-grand staircase curved behind her, corkscrewing its way up through two more floors. Waiting to be made grand again. They were standing at the very beginning of something great. And he wondered if she could feel it, too.

“Fine, as long as you don’t think you’re going to get away without hearing my safety lecture.”

“You already checked every possible entry point on the first floor. What are you going to do next? Scale the side of the house and try the second floor?”

“I’m merely going to point out that you should consider being more careful about ending up alone in a house with a man you barely know.”

“You insisted on coming in,” she argued.

“A bad guy would be pretty damn insistent, too.”

“I appreciate your concern, Mr. Wright,” she said, a pretty pink flush working its way over her cheeks. “But I did my research and not just on crime statistics. I looked into you, too. I look into everyone I hire. I’m careful. And just because you don’t see my due diligence happening, it’s always a safe bet that I’ve done it. I don’t make snap decisions. I weigh my options. I do my legwork. So when I decide to do something, you can bet that I know what I’m doing. Second-guessing me is never in your best interests unless you enjoy wasting time. Got it?”

“My mom is going to love you,” he told her.

The look she shot him could have frozen lava into an iceberg. “If your goal is to annoy me, it’s working.”

“I’m just trying to get to know you and look out for you at the same time. I’m multitasking.”

She didn’t look impressed. “Go home, Silas, so I can get back to work.”