Free Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper

working order immediately so that she would have some indoor potting and workspace. Deacon had taken a break to give his input. Nina found the timing a little suspicious, since Deacon mentioned that he was supposed to be on an international conference call involving Guam that morning. Yet there he was, making suggestions on usingthe UV-treated glass in the panes to create the most growth-friendly environment for Nina’s seedlings.
    “Really, a regular old greenhouse will be fine,” she assured Deacon. “These methods have worked for centuries. If it isn’t broken, there’s no reason to fix it.”
    “Well, with that sort of thinking, we would still be playing Atari and telling people how we feel face-to-face instead of posting it to our EyeDee status,” Deacon teased her. “In which case, I wouldn’t have any money, and you wouldn’t be here with me right now, so . . . there.”
    Nina snorted. “All right, all right, order your fancy-schmancy glass.”
    “You’re a very open-minded Luddite,” he told her, in a tone he clearly meant as a compliment.
    “I am not a Luddite!”
    “The brick-sized phone you’re carrying around says otherwise.”
    Nina lightly smacked his arm, which made Deacon throw his head back and laugh. And suddenly, Anthony found a reason to walk around the greenhouse, giving them a moment alone.
    Deacon cleared his throat. “Cindy says you two have been watching movies on her laptop every night. If you want, you could use my office in the house. I have a flat-screen installed, and there’s a generator in there to power it. It would probably be more comfortable than crouching around a computer.”
    Nina gave him a brilliant smile. “That’s so sweet of you! But we couldn’t use your office. That wouldn’t be—”
    “Deacon!” Jake yelled, rounding the greenhouse withCindy nipping at his heels. “Will you tell this woman that the crews will finish the wall treatments in the ballroom when they finish them and not before?”
    Deacon and Nina groaned in unison. Nina adored Cindy, she really did, but she wished that her favorite organizer would pull some sort of naked revenge on Jake and get it over with. The rising sexual tension was starting to become disruptive. Also, her standing wager with Anthony had them sleeping together by the end of the month or she lost thirty bucks.
    “I have buffing and polishing the ballroom floor on my timeline for this week, Rumson. It’s one of my crew’s first major interior jobs. I can’t help it if you didn’t coordinate with my schedule when you pulled Anthony’s guys out of the ballroom and reassigned them to the kitchen. I have a schedule to keep!”
    “A part of the rear kitchen wall was on the verge of collapse from water damage!” Jake exclaimed. “We just found the problem on Wednesday. What was I supposed to do, ask Anthony to ignore it so the crew could keep painting the ballroom?”
    “Well, I didn’t know that, because you didn’t bring it up at the morning meeting,” Cindy shot back.
    “Because you don’t ever talk to me at the morning meetings!”
    Cindy frowned. “Well, that is a valid point . . . But a better alternative might have been to hire more people to work on the kitchen and the ballroom simultaneously, so we don’t fall behind.” Cindy looked to Deacon. “If you’re OK with more people being hired, that is.”
    Deacon shrugged. “As long as they pass the security checks.”
    “Well, that is a valid point, too,” Jake agreed, his tone stiff and reluctant. “And something I probably should have done anyway.”
    Cindy’s eyes rolled just a tiny bit as she huffed, “And I will start talking to you at morning meetings, so we can avoid situations like this in the future.”
    Jake pursed his lips, as if he was considering the offer. “That would be nice.”
    Cindy nodded. “So we’re good?”
    Jake stuck his hand out for a shake. “Yes.”
    Cindy’s blond eyebrows rose. “Don’t push