| |
The next day started early for Tobey, as usual. He tried to sleep in, but he was too excited to get going, to be doing, to be awake in a world where Emmett wanted to kiss him. By seven he was up at the Death Trap, trying to take it in with fresh eyes. Maybe Emmett’s perspective was rubbing off on him, because this morning he could almost see the charm through the mildew and rot. He’d pulled the rodent-infested couch out into the front yard and was sweeping the threadbare carpet just for something to do with his hands while he contemplated. After the kids had been put in bed and they had finished making out, Tobey had spent a good long while staring at that picture Rhonda had found of her grandmother. Even in the faded black-and-white photograph, he could see the electric lights gleaming upon the guests’ faces. He could almost feel the soft silk of Rhonda’s grandmother’s glove resting upon the spotless stair banister. Tobey could imagine the wallpaper in its former glory, the furniture polished and rich, filled with laughing and dancing guests.
And then Tobey tried to imagine what it might look like in a modern setting. There were two living areas: this large parlor in the front and a smaller, more intimate room with a fireplace back behind the staircase. Emmett’s living room furniture would fit well there, two bookshelves against the long wall with the couch pushed in front of them and the basket of Kate’s toys piled up on the hearth. The hall was long and wide, perfect for pushing a walking toy or roller blading or kicking a soccer ball.
Upstairs was a labyrinth of six rooms and two full bathrooms which must have been quite a luxury when they were installed almost a century ago. The tubs were rusted through now, but they could be replaced with new clawfoots and new fuzzy rugs to protect feet from the beehive pattern of black-and-white tiling. One bathroom even had a window above the tub, and Tobey could easily imagine a summer breeze coming through in the morning while getting ready for work.
Of the six rooms, five were a good size for bedrooms, and the last was probably some kind of gathering place for more intimate guests of the house. It had a wooden floor and a high ceiling, perfect for dancing. Nowadays it would make a great game and movie room. Projector on that far, high wall, and lots of cushions and recliners to watch the action, maybe even a foosball table in the corner with a mini fridge for soda.
And the third floor...right now it was covered in “make love not war” and the like on the walls, and Tobey could almost smell the lingering pot smoked up here. It was smaller than most of the bedrooms below, but it had two skylights that would be perfect for stargazing and sleepovers with friends from school.
Tobey shook his head. This was not going to be the living space for the Trans or the MacLeods, and certainly not for both of them together. No, this was going to be a bed-and-breakfast joint. The five bedrooms and attic would be easily redone with cutesy floral themes for guests, and the butler’s pantry would be full of pastries and mimosas each morning. The cabinets would not be plastered with the artwork of toddlers or scuffed from sports equipment.
A sharp rap on the doorjamb helped pull Tobey completely out of the daydream. “Are you Tobey MacLeod?” the man at the door asked.
“That’s right. And you’re Jesse?”
“Yup, good to meet ya,” Jesse said, coming in and shaking Tobey’s hand with a firm grip. Jesse was also in his thirties, tall and buff in the effortless way of a man who had worked with his hands every day of his life. He had a shadow of a beard and curly, dark hair and a pencil stuck behind his ear.
“Thanks for coming out here,” Tobey said. “I know it’s a ways.”
“No problem, it’s literally my job,” Jesse said. He was already sweeping his eyes across the front hall and the parlor and gave a low whistle. “So this is Jeb Sanderson’s place. Emmett wasn’t exaggerating. Pretty grisly.”
Emmett was the one who had set up this meeting with Jesse Ithamar, claiming that he was the best contractor in the county. “You want a walkthrough?” Tobey asked.
“Let’s take a look at these stairs first,” Jesse said. “Emmett said you might be running out of cash at some point, and I can see why. So we can take the quotes section by section and see which ones you want to get to first.”
“Emmett and I already prioritized a list, and yeah, the stairs are at the top,” Tobey said. “So, um, you know Emmett pretty well, then?”
“Everybody in this town knows everybody else pretty well,” Jesse said. He was already striding over to the stairs and testing them with his boots. “But I guess I know Emmett better than some, yeah. Megan’s my cousin. I mean, was my cousin.”
“Sorry about that. Megan, I mean,” Tobey said.
Jesse shrugged and pulled a tape measure out of his jean pocket. “Don’t worry about it. We all miss her, but it was a while ago. Anyway, these stairs are going to need to be replaced completely.”
“I know,” Tobey said. “I’ve already looked over everything.”
“When do you want me to get started on them?”
“As soon as possible. I only have about eight weeks to get it done.”
“I’ll measure everything today, order supplies if I need anything I don’t already have back at the warehouse. Call up a couple guys to pull all this old stuff out. We can get started tomorrow, probably. Wednesday, latest. Sound good?”
“Perfect,” Tobey said.
Jesse was already kneeling down and measuring the bottom step, his pencil now between his teeth.
Tobey got the feeling that he was a man of action rather than of dialogue. “I’ll leave you to it then. I’ve got stuff to do in the back.”
Jesse just grunted through the pencil.
Tobey went through the kitchen to the back room where Jeb had spent his last few years. He couldn’t ascertain its original function, perhaps a larder or some other storage room. At some point it had been converted into a laundry room, though there were only hookups for both now, no machines. There was also a drying rack that could fold up against the wall that Jeb had been using as a wardrobe, and a metal bed frame and floor-to-ceiling shelving half full of pickled vegetables. There was also a bathroom off to the side, with only a toilet and sink, but with the same hexagonal black-and-white tiles as upstairs. The sink was cracked, and the faucet was crusted with minerals from the tap water. Tobey had checked the day before that the water was still running; it smelled and looked fine, but he needed to check the bacteria levels in the septic tank before he let anybody drink it. That was at the top of his list for today. He had bought a testing kit at the hardware store. Then he would get to work on cleaning out Jeb’s stuff, tearing out the rotten molding, and giving everything a good scrub.
He heard voices from the front of the house. “Hello?” he called. “Emmett?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Emmett called back.
Tobey jogged down the hall and stopped an awkward two steps from Emmett. He wanted to grab him and kiss him, but he figured that Emmett wouldn’t appreciate that with Jesse in the room. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Emmett said, smiling. “I have brought your son, as your Post-it requested. You could have woken me up and asked, you know.”
“I know you were up late working,” Tobey said. “I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Get a room, you two,” Cosmo muttered, already hunched over Jesse’s calculations and barely paying attention to Tobey and Emmett.
Emmett shook his head, as if to warn Tobey to let it go. “I need to drop off the girls and get to work, but can I, uh, talk to you a sec?”
“Sure,” Tobey said. “What’s up?”
Emmett took a few steps down the hall, and Tobey followed him. He took a deep breath.
“Uh, Emmett, what’s wrong?” Tobey asked, suddenly worried.
“It’s not wrong, exactly,” Emmett said. “Cosmo and I had an, um, uncomfortable situation at the house this morning. I won’t, uh, go into details, I’ll just point out that he is a teenage boy.”
“Ah.”
“So, uh, I uh, really like having you at the house, I really do, but...Cosmo needs his own space. He can’t keep sharing a room with Benny. You know?”
“Yeah.”
“And I know Cosmo won’t say anything about it, because he wants to make you happy—”
“Make me happy? Have you met Cosmo?” Tobey snorted.
“Yeah, I have. And you’re too close to the situation to see how much he admires you and wants to make you proud of him. But he’s stretching really thin, and he’s going to snap if you keep shoving him into the nooks of your life instead of giving him the space he needs.”
Tobey shook his head, but not because he was rejecting what Emmett had said. “You’re saying we need to go back to the motel.”
“I’m not saying that I want you to leave,” Emmett said.
“It’s fine, Em, I get it. We’ll go back to the motel tonight. No more staying over too late and falling asleep on random couches.”
“Okay, if you think that’s the solution,” Emmett said. “Well, I’ve done what you needed from me. I guess I’ll go...” He looked around the hallway. “Do I just, say bye? I feel like I need something more.”
“Something more, like this?” Tobey pecked him on the cheek. “Or something more, like this?” And he kissed him on the lips.
“Either works,” Emmett said.
“Great, bye, see you later.” Tobey kissed him one more time, much more quickly than he would have liked.
Emmett smiled.
Tobey watched him go. He had surprisingly nice shoulders for a guy who hunched over a screen all day.
“Bye, Jesse, good to see you,” Emmett said, waving on his way out.
“Oh, hey, Emmett, I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Jesse said, pulling his pencil out of his mouth.
“Yeah?”
“Abby wants me to apologize for not making it to Kate’s birthday party. She’s been working every weekend lately. So she wants to invite you and Benny for dinner sometime this week or next week.”
“Uh, okay,” Emmett said. “Can you have her text me? I have to get to Rhonda’s.”
Jesse nodded. “Tell Aunt Rhonda hi for me.”
“Sure,” Emmett said, and then he was gone.
Tobey cleared his throat. “Cos, come help me in the back.”
Cosmo pretended not to hear.
“Cosmo Timothy MacLeod.”
“I think you better listen to your dad,” Jesse commented calmly.
Cosmo sullenly swaggered over to Tobey. “What.”
“Come on,” Tobey said. He led Cosmo to the back room.
Cosmo sat down on the sad excuse of a bed.
“I’m sorry I fell asleep at Emmett’s last night, and then took off this morning.”
Cosmo didn’t speak.
“I know you’re still mad at me about Emmett, and I’m sorry you automatically get dragged into my personal life,” Tobey said. “I just wanted you to know that we’re going back to the motel tonight. I’ll stop forcing you to find someplace to sleep at Emmett’s house.”
“Did Emmett tell you about...” Cosmo started, his ears turning red.
“Maybe,” Tobey said. “But he’s right, their house is too small. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Cosmo mumbled. “I’m just not used to having other people around all the time.”
“Me either, kid,” Tobey said. “You were right, when you reminded me that it’s you and me. And I promise that you’ve still got me. But sometimes it might be nice to have somebody else around that we can count on.”
“Can you count on Emmett?”
“I think so.”
Cosmo sighed and seemed to be contemplating what Tobey had said. Then he patted the thin mattress. “You can stay with Emmett, I guess, if you really like him. I could just sleep out here. It’ll be like camping.”
“If you think this counts as camping, you really are a city boy,” Tobey said. “And are you sure you want to sleep there? I think that’s where they found Jeb’s body.”
Cosmo jumped off the bed with a yelp. “What? Gross!”
Tobey laughed. “I thought you weren’t scared of ghosts.”
“Germs, Tobey! I’m scared of dead body germs!”
“Let’s get to work cleaning out those dead body germs. Come on, I’ve got all the cleaning supplies in the truck.”
“When I asked you to take us back to Ohio, I didn’t mean so I could be your maid,” Cosmo said.
“Today on Ghost Hunters, Cosmo MacLeod cleanses the spirits from his old man’s house. Which will be more effective, bleach or ammonia? Find out after the commercial break.”
Cosmo groaned.