As Leo eased out his car from the parking lot, he looked to the tiny slip of the girl sitting cross-legged on his passenger's seat. Her drab grey uniform and the shapeless fur-trimmed jacket that she had donned did nothing to compliment her figure and her flame-colored hair stood out in sharper contrast to her drab outfit. Her legs were supple, her ankles slim. A runner's body. Not bad at all. He couldn't determine what shade her eyes looked in the dark, as she was determinedly turned away from him.

From the impatient tapping of her fingers on the window sill, she conveyed her irritation at being stuck in the car with him. She had had a hushed argument with Drew before getting into his car, but Leo had been smug with the knowledge that Drew wouldn't be seen near Holden House anytime soon. He hated snakes with a passion. 

Seeing her so withdrawn made Leo feel a pang of remorse. He had been an ass to her right from the beginning.

He was a favorite with the ladies, but so far his legendary charm deserted him when it came to this girl. When he flirted, she parried. And not charmingly. It would be quite off-putting for someone with less confidence in his abilities. Thankfully, that wasn't him.

The only reason he had volunteered to drive her up to her home was to get a chance for him to make a better second impression. Because of vanity and the fact that he got kicks out of charming pretty young girls. OK, he hadn't realized that he thought of this girl with the boyish name actually pretty. She was quite unconventional. Not that he was interested the least bit in her.

He cleared his throat. "How did you come to live at Holden House?"

After an interminable minute, in which he was sure that she would ignore him and spend the ride in silence, she let out a small sigh.

"My aunt passed away in September. She left a will. This house had been in her mother's family for some time. She didn't have kids so she passed it on to me."

"She must've really cared for you then."

Andy let out a small snort and turned to him. Damn, but was he forever supposed to see her features in the dark. Her pert nose and impudent chin aside, he wanted to see what color her eyes were. For aesthetic purposes only. He was just trying to see if they were as mismatched as her flaming red hair. She had layered liner around her eyes, maybe in an effort to appear older. Females were contradictory that way. He preferred her fresh out of the bed look of the morning. Not that she had allowed him to gaze into her eyes then.

Honestly, he didn't care what color her eyes were. Not at all.

"I thought she was going to roast me on a spit. Hated me, she did!" Andy pursed her mouth as if smothering a smile. 

The smile was another thing he wouldn't mind to see on her. Not that he cared. At all.

"Now the will is read and she leaves all her stuff to me! I was as surprised as the lawyer."

"If she did leave her stuff to you, she liked you. Why do you think she hated you?"

"Well," a slender finger with a stubby nail tapped her lip in contemplation. "It was maybe because I dropped out of school and became a waitress. She had big dreams for me. I guess everyone aspired me to be something they never were." The last part contained more than a hint of bitterness.

"What about your parents?" Andy peered at him as if seeing him for the first time. As if she couldn't believe she had confided in him.

"Why were you at the lake this morning? Were you so drunk that you lost your way?"

Oh, so this was how it was going to be. She had never struck him as a blabber-mouth.

A wistful smile gathered on his face as he focused on the poorly lit dirt road. 

"I came back home when my Paps suffered a stroke. He never took Ma's death well. I moved back home as he would ask for me everyday." He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. "I was out drinking with my friends yesterday, a welcome home party if you will, and if Emily had seen me so drunk she would kick me out, so I was dunking in the lake to sober up."

He chanced a look at Andy. He saw compassion and then, surprisingly, hurt. "Is your girlfriend OK with you driving me home?" The accusation was clear.

Leo smiled. "Emily's married to my brother, Mark. They have taken Paps in and I'm crashing at their guest house." He turned to Andy with a wry smile. "I don't have a girlfriend."

Her face closed off and she crossed her arms. "Big surprise!"

Leo almost smiled. The girl still hated his guts. They traveled in silence for a bit until Andy broke the silence. "I'm sorry about your mom. How did she....? If you don't mind my asking."

Leo found himself biting his lower lip. No one, besides his family, knew the truth.

"Heart attack." The car pulling into the dirt road swallowed the small "Sorry" he heard.

"So, why do they call you Nightingale?"

Leo grinned, glad for the topic change. "It's not Nightingale, it's Knightingale, with a K. So it contains Knight, my last name. It's actually very manly!"

Andy laughed and Leo caught sight of a dimple in the left cheek. "But why Knightingale of all things?"

"I dunno, I guess boys are stupid in high-school. They end up nicknaming folks anyways, so I thought this name sounded cool and made the guys call me Knightingale. It sounds pretty lame now, I guess." Was he stuttering?

Andy smiled at him again, but it was a quick one. "Well, I think it's pretty cool."

Leo pulled up in front of the scary-looking Holden House. In the dark, it resembled a set from a zombie movie. He could easily imagine a few lurking in the dark shadows. 

"Here we are! So, we are good now, right?" Leo tried to keep a most earnest expression on his face.

"Yeah, I guess. I'll steer clear of the lake if you decide to skinny-dip again." Andy gave him a saucy wink and jumped out of the car before Leo could help her out. He walked with her to the door.

"No need, I never skinny-dip when sober and the last hangover has made me swear off drinking for a long time."

"That bad, huh?"

"Like someone's been throwing rocks at my head." Leo saw Andy smile and was ridiculously pleased with the fact that he had made her smile.

As they neared the house, the light on the porch flickered. He saw Andy bite her lip. He pitied the girl, he would definitely not want to come here alone either.

The porch was clean, and that was the best thing he could say about it. The stairs were rickety and the paint had peeled off long back.

"It's not much to look at, but I'm gonna fix it up and then it would look great." It was the first time Andy seemed uncertain.

"How?" The question was reasonable. With the skewed windows and the twisted shingles, Leo estimated that the house needed more than a few grand to make it inhabitable.

Andy stiffened. She reminded him of a cat on a tin roof, wary and watching him. "Well, good night then."

Leo buried his hands in his coat. It seemed cruel to abandon Andy here. She met his gaze defiantly with a cheery smile, but her tight jaw hinted at her vulnerability.

"Good night, Red."

***********

Andy hadn't an answer to Leo's question. She debated it all night and during her morning run around the lake which was mercifully Leo-free. How? How was she going to make enough money to get the house in shape so she could put it on the market? She wasn't exactly rolling in dough. Should she take a loan out to fix up the place? Would the bank even give her a loan?

She prided herself as unconventional. She thought she would be OK and knew she would always land on her feet. She hadn't ever considered laying down roots. She knew that she wouldn't marry, so she was more than ready to take care of herself. She had never considered taking care of anything else, let alone her house.

Her mom and Aunt Noelene had been close. Mom had made  Aunt Noelene promise to take care of Andy and then conveniently overdosed on her sleeping pills. Andy had mourned her, but Aunt Noelene had stepped in. She was hard on Andy and Andy had ended up resenting her. One day, Noelene had snapped. 

"If you're not careful, young lady, you'll end up all alone like me!" Frankly, there were worst things than ending up all alone. You could end up in a hospital and wish you were dead. Her outlook on life was colored with her less than savory life experiences. She shrugged away her melancholy. She was going to take care of things. She always did, anyway. 

So, she started making a plan. If she was to get anywhere close to selling off the house, she needed to get a rough estimate of the costs. She needed to get fresh paints, tools and of course, learn how to use them. Maybe even hire someone to do the heavy lifting.

The next few days, Andy made inquiries around the town. Mark Knight, none other than Leo's brother, was a well-respected owner of a construction business in Prescott. Andy found herself in his office at early morning on Wednesday. He had been highly recommended by Mr. Stern and she really hoped that he would give her a fair deal.

The office was simply decorated with a small receiving room and a single office with a frosted door. The receiving room had a well-stuffed sofa and some potted plants. Seeing that there was no one in the receiving room, Andy tentatively knocked on the office door.

"Come in!" A cheery female voice called out.

Andy let herself in to find a red-cheeked petite young woman poring through some books seated behind a small desk. She was bobbing an infant on her lap who was bald and red-cheeked, bearing a startling resemblance to his mother.

"Have a seat, I'm Emily. Mark's not available right now, but I'll be happy to help you." Oh, so this sweet harmless-looking woman was the same Emily who had made Leo dip in the freezing lake. Andy hadn't seen Leo for nearly a week, not that she was looking for him or anything.

"Hi, I'm Andy. I wanted someone to look through my house. I needed to fix it up and make it marketable."

"Andy? Are you new in town, honey?" 

"Yes, my Aunt left me Holden House."

Emily's eyebrows shot up. So, she had heard of Holden House. "Wow, I never knew that place was habitable. Are you living there?"

When Andy nodded, Emily looked sympathetic. "Are you sure there isn't anywhere you can put yourself up? The last I saw the place it was languishing for years of neglect."

"Oh no, I don't have any trouble staying there," Andy said with false bravado. "But I would like to fix up the place and put it on the market."

Emily looked more than a little taken aback. "Oh, you do know it's pretty far from the town center?"

"Yes, of course, I'm sure that won't be a problem. Some people like to live far from the town."

"Oh yes, yes, of course!" Emily gave her a genial smile. "Of course, Prescott is a much busier town now."

Was Prescott busy? Could any town be any duller?

Emily suddenly got up. She bounced the gurgling baby on her shoulder than suddenly handed him to Andy. She ignored the wide-eyed look Andy would surely have given her and plopped the infant down in her lap. The kid just gurgled and started sucking a tight fist.

"Hold Zack, I have a few pamphlets I can give you. It would also contain some estimates, rough, of course."

As Emily shuffled towards the bookcase behind Andy's chair, Andy was frozen with fear. Never before had she held a small child in her arms before. The kid stared at her curiously, maybe sensing her fear. What if she made a sudden movement and the kid dropped out of her lap?

Thankfully, after a few minutes search, Emily dumped a few pamphlets on the desk in front of Andy and retrieved her baby. Andy sagged with relief. The infant happily cooed at his mom and went back to sucking his fist.

She collected the glossy pamphlets and studied them. "Is there any chance that you can send someone over to my place to get a look-see? I would like to do a survey of the place to determine how much I must do. I'm on a really tight budget, you see?"

"Yes, of course, why would you want to waste unnecessary money on a property that you want to put on the market anyways." Emily started bobbing Zack on her hip. The infant gurgled, excited. "The only problem is that Mark is working on a property out of Prescott. He's taken most of the handymen, it could be a couple of weeks or maybe a month before anyone could get around to your place. Is that fine?"

Andy groaned. At this rate, she would be stuck in Prescott forever. "Isn't there anyone available?"

Emily narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Well," she said, "There is someone. Leo, my brother-in-law was apprenticed many years back. He was complaining of boredom since coming back, but I don't know...."

"Oh, I know Leo, we are friends." Andy blurted out and immediately regretted it as Emily leveled an assessing gaze at her.

"Great, so you should ask him. He's very fair, you guys can work out a deal between yourself."

"Yeah, yeah, of course, I will." Andy said with false bravado. 

Time to rustle up her non-existent charm.