A young man comes of age, and meets his soulmate, thanks to his garage renovation therapy project.

In 3 parts, by Member389. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.






“She could be just the thing.”

Derek was glad that he'd thought of this apartment remodel. It was a project he and his son Luke could work on together. He hoped that it would get Luke to come out of his shell. Ever since his mother passed away a few years ago he'd been closed off and anti-social. Luke gets his handiness from his dad. He loved to work with his hands, and it was not boasting to say that he was pretty good at it too. Fortunately the push, from Derek's dad, to be more took him to state college to study engineering and into a lucrative career afterward. Derek met his wife of 20 years at that college, Theresa was the world to him, and he would have done anything to lay the world at her feet. Fate had a different idea though. Her loss had left a deep scar on their family. It was hard at first, friends and relatives did their best to keep them upbeat and one or two even mentioned that Derek wasn't too old to start again. Those ideas were brushed aside. He would never love anybody like he loved Terri.

Luke took it hard, he was only 14 when Terri found out she had cancer. The doctors did everything they could. Throughout her treatment he would give up being a normal teenager to be home for her when his father couldn't be. She'd get upset with him and tell him to try out for sports at school or join a club, and especially ask a girl that he like out on a date. He'd just brush it off and come home as soon as he could to take care of her. She wasted away before their eyes and in less than a year she was gone. It was a crushing blow to both of them, and as hard as Derek had it, he could tell Luke felt like he was set adrift, and had no guidance. Derek worked, he worked a lot, to keep his mind busy, to keep from thinking about her. Luke just hung around, and kept to himself mostly. He had a few friends but they, for the most part, had moved on after graduation. Luke was accepted to the college where his folks went to and was looking at a similar career to his fathers, no matter how much Derek urged him to do something he wanted. He insisted that he wanted to do what his father does, and build things. He was going to start as a freshman this fall.

Derek, in the interest of keeping Luke from hiding in his room until fall, figured he'd give him a project. They lived in a big house with an large 2 car garage. Above the garage was a space that was large enough to turn into an in-law apartment. He presented Luke with the project to clean it out, and design an apartment. As soon as he had a plan they would build it and rent it out. Thanks to the college there's never any shortage of students looking for off campus apartments. They weren't really close, a few miles, but these days all the kids had cars anyway.

Like anything he put his mind to, Luke had a plan in place pretty quickly. We worked out details for the major demolition and installing plumbing, and electrical etc. He really did his homework, even shopping for materials for finishing like the flooring and appliances. He got it in his head to fully decorate it with the help of some ideas from magazines. What they ended up with was a very nice small 1 bedroom apartment with a nice view over the backyard. Luke had already started school and they didn't think it likely that they'd get a lot of offers right away but they listed the apartment in the paper anyway.

They interviewed a couple students and even a visiting professor who was teaching here for a year, but nobody fit what they had in mind and too many wanted them to come down on the price. There was no way Derek was going to let anybody devalue the work that he and Luke had put into it, the only one who was going to budge on price was going to be Luke. It was his baby.

It was a warm Saturday afternoon when Derek heard a woman's voice call out. He was in the back yard puttering around with a rake. He leaned it against the house and walked around to the front where he saw a lovely blonde haired girl walking towards the other corner of the house heading to the yard. He called out to her and she jumped slightly startled. In only a few moments Derek took in the sight of her. She was very pretty, her blond hair fell around her shoulders. She smiled and held out her hand to shake.

"Hi, I'm Ellie. I was wondering if you've rented the apartment yet?" He let her know that they hadn't yet, and that his son Luke was in charge of that. He went in and got the keys and let her see it, and she marveled. "Who decorated it? They did an awesome job." Dad let her know that the whole place was done by his son, Luke, from design to decoration. He smiled at her shock, when he told her Luke was starting school at the local university this year. "This was done by a teenager?"

"He should be home any minute if you want to hang around. A few of the ground rules that we've placed are that guests please park on the street so as to not block the garage downstairs. Use of the yard and pool are a given so long as you keep it down to a dull roar." He said chuckling. "There's a washer and dryer downstairs in the garage that you can use rather than go to a laundromat. As you probably saw in the ad, utilities are provided including cable and Internet. We can get you telephone if you need it but it's not wired for it up here. We figured most students use cellphones anyway."

"It's perfect. Now I see why you're asking so much for it. Any chance we can haggle on the price?" She cocked her head smiling, her eyes sparkling. Derek chuckled.

"That's up to Luke. This is his baby, start to finish." Derek paused as he heard the garage door opener beneath them start up. "You can ask him yourself in a minute. I'll let him know you're here." He stepped out onto the landing and looked at the door as he closed it. He thought for a moment that they may have found the right person for the apartment. He smiled as he trotted down the stairs and ducked into the garage where Luke was getting out of the car. His hair was mussed from driving with the window down, his shirt was tight over his well-formed chest and arms. The work had leaned him out and toned him up.

"Hey Luke,” Derek greeted his son. “You have someone upstairs looking at the apartment."

"I'll guess by the grin on your face it's a girl." Luke said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Is there anything wrong with a girl renting your place?"

"No; I just want somebody normal and quiet."

Luke passed dad on his way to the stairs and his father put his hand on his shoulder. "I have a good feeling about this one. Trust your instincts." He nodded and made for the stairs taking them two at a time. Luke opened the door and close it behind him, and Derek went back to the yard whistling a little tune; hopeful she could be just the thing.

A short while later, Luke popped around the corner of the garage and slowly wandered through the yard.

"Well?" Derek asked.

"She tried to get me to come down on the price."

"Really?" He smiled trying not to laugh. "How did that go?"

"I asked her how much she could reasonably afford, and I halved the difference. She took it." He smirked.

"How much lower did you go?" Derek was eager to learn.

"A hundred bucks. Non-smoker, no boyfriend and she says she not a partier. She's a senior in culinary arts and nutrition. She offered to cook for us occasionally if we don't mind being her test subjects. Her name is Ellie Love." Luke grinned, but didn't say that he'd thought about dropping two for the pretty coed.

"No shit?" Derek laughed.

Luke just shrugged. "She's calling her folks to let them know she's found a place."

Ellie started moving in the next day. Luke was out in the driveway washing his car, the sound of music filtered down from Ellie's open window as she unpacked. Derek watched Luke from the window for a moment and caught him looking up at the window off and on. He would bet anything she was intentionally wandering back and forth to get a look at him too.

"Hey Luke?" Ellie called down.

"Yea?" He replied.

"Any chance you could take me shopping for some kitchen stuff? There isn't much up here in the way of plates, glasses, silverware, you know."

"Sure, let me know when you're ready."

"Give me 10 minutes and I'll be down."

Ellie went and changed. She knew she was older than him by a couple years. His father mentioned he'd turned 19 last month. Luke was hot with his dark hair and dark brown eyes, but he seemed so quiet and shy. After the wild roommates and crazy party atmosphere of the apartment she shared last year, this was going to be a nice change.<