She would do this, would go for it, because winning the competition would propel her company to new levels and give her a new platform. The thought had excitement pulsing through her again. But the project would be a lot smoother if Cole, her right-hand guy, was on board.

Dunn & Lowell was doing well, always had a lineup of projects, the vast majority of which were remodels of historical buildings. They received most of their business through word of mouth because Sierra personally did everything possible to ensure her customers’ complete satisfaction, and she employed an excellent crew with remarkably little turnover.

She was blessed in so many ways—to have inherited the business from her grandpa, Roger Dunn, to have learned the industry from him, one of the best in the field, and to genuinely love what she did for a living.

Beyond the basics of carpentry and construction, her grandpa had instilled in her a passion for uncovering and bringing out an old building’s soul. Quality and authenticity were valued above shortcuts and cheap solutions, and his tenets were what she continued to build the company’s reputation on. But lately she’d been thinking a lot about how to make the business even more.

She was at a crossroads, where she could either decide this was the pinnacle of Dunn & Lowell or she could work on taking it even higher. Her vote was for pushing it higher. The timing of this opportunity couldn’t be more perfect.

“What would this entail?” Cole asked, tapping his flat pencil on the table.

She lowered her legs, sat up straighter, and referenced the bullet items in her notebook even though she knew them by heart. “There are three stages, and at each stage, the field of competitors narrows. Application, interview, and the final one is a full-blown, in-depth, multimedia proposal for the mansion.”

“It’s a circus parade just to get to the proposal stage,” Cole said, tapping away.

“That’s the spirit of TV, I guess.”

Truth be told, Sierra would thrive on the chance to be in the spotlight. She wasn’t shy, and she knew her stuff. Being a woman in a man’s field had always been an uphill battle, and she continually had to prove herself and then prove herself again. Making it past any of the contest rounds and appearing on Eldridge’s network would increase her credibility as an expert and show that women could run a renovation company just as well as a man—and better.

“So the prize is the job?”