Temptation Road by Kimball Lee

walk through the door at that exact moment so
she could pull him down on the dusty floor and make love to him
until he screamed her name.
    “Teddy,” she said, blinking away the image of
her naked body tangled with his brother on the floor and shocked at
her wanton lust, “you know we didn’t talk about money, I have an
idea what building materials will cost, but what about your fee and
your brother’s.”
    “We’re glad for the work, this is an
important project for us as well, and the Mary’s were my father’s
cousins several times removed. They were in their eighties at
least, when we came to live with Pop. They were like aunts to us,
kind of took the place of our mother. We spent a lot of time out
here when we were boys. Pop would tend the garden and gather plants
for his experiments and Fletcher, Quinton and I would play in the
house, we know every nook and cranny. Don’t worry, pay what you
can, our living expenses are low, it’s the work we love and now the
house will come alive again.”
    “Well, I should pay a retainer up front and
what about lumber and supplies?”
    “We have accounts with suppliers, we’ll give
you those bills as they come and no need for an advance, don’t
worry, it will all work out.”
    Fletcher moved through the room, seemingly
oblivious to Rae and Teddy, he’d put on a shirt and he disappeared
up the stairs carrying a ladder over his shoulder.
    “Okay,” Teddy said. “I better get to it, he
wants to get started upstairs now. We’ll get an electrician out
here tomorrow; the whole place needs to be rewired. It’s a big job,
we could do it ourselves, but with plumbing and plaster and
woodwork on top of that it would take a lot longer.”
    “Right, yes. Get it done; I want to move in,
what about the roof?”
    “We’re going up there for a look after
lunch,” he pointed to a longer extension ladder in the back of his
truck. “You should go on out to Builders Supply on the highway,
pick some paint colors and roof shingles. We can rebuild the
cabinets here at the site, and those old soapstone counters will
last forever. All the sinks and bathtubs need resurfacing or you
can pick new ones. The faucets are solid, they’ll need polishing
but they’re sound. If you want fancier fixtures there’s a plumbing
showroom in Asheville, it’s a couple of hours drive each way.”
    “Teddy,” she said as he turned to go, “I hope
I haven’t offended your brother in some way that I’m not aware of,
I would never…”
    “No, no, Fletcher’s not very sociable and I’m
sure you figured out that he doesn’t talk. Don’t mind him he loves
this house and he thinks you’re God’s gift to the mortal world.
He’s been pretty much a fan since that ad with you and the
bullfighter was plastered on a billboard out on the county highway.
Don’t tell him I said so, but when he heard they were taking it
down he climbed up there and peeled off the section with your face.
It’s still hanging on the wall in his room!” He said and smiled his
lopsided smile. “We’ll be here until dark and you might want to
make a wish list, write down your hopes and dreams, for the house I
mean, what’s most important to you, how you want it to turn out.”
Then he clicked up the stairs carrying a giant tool box in his
fingerless hand.
    Has my picture on his wall. She’d
posed for that picture ten years before and Fletcher had saved it
from being destroyed and he thought she was beautiful. Her stomach
and her heart felt strange, good but strange. The way she looked
had only been her meal ticket in the past, now a mouth-wateringly
sexy man who’d never said a word to her harbored a secret crush on
her, it made her beauty suddenly seem worthwhile. She walked
outside, stepped off the porch and heard wood scraping above her.
An upstairs window was being forced open, the old paint catching
and cracking. When it was fully open Teddy leaned out, smiling and
waving.
    “Reagan, your bedroom will be in pretty