THE HOUSE WAS coming along, but the way Cassie figured it they were still behind. The Fourth of July was looming, and she needed to ask the team to give up their holiday to work in order to meet the deadline.
A familiar truck pulled up in front of the house, and she groaned and wished that she could start the day over. Bad enough that it had started to rain and she’d had to leave Evie in the mudroom by herself. And they’d run out of coffee beans yesterday, and she’d forgotten to pick up more before coming to the house that morning. The caffeine withdrawal headache throbbed as she went to the front door and opened it to greet Mr. Clemens.
“Are you sure you want to inspect the plumbing under the house today in this rain?” she asked, although she already knew his answer.
“I’m tight for time, Ms. Lowman. I don’t have any to waste on doing what I want to do, but only on what I have to do.” He glanced at the bare living room that still didn’t have drywall. “I’ll check around here before going down in the crawl space.”
“Give me a warning before you get to the mudroom.”
He eyed her and frowned. She was tempted to give him a salute, but she tamped down her sarcastic tendencies and focused on checking the electrical socket that she had to rewire. Mr. Clemens passed by her to examine the pipes in the bathroom and muttered under his breath before marking things off on his clipboard.
She heard him in the kitchen next. He wouldn’t open the door to the mudroom before letting her know, would he? The bark and the yelp that followed told her he had. She sprinted into the kitchen to find him backed into a corner while Evie tried to sniff him and make friends. “I told you to warn me before going in there.”
He pointed a shaking finger at the dog. “Get that thing away from me.”
Cassie smiled and gave Evie a good rub. “She’s only trying to say hello.” Evie panted, and it seemed to Cassie that she almost smiled at the fussy plumbing inspector who still looked anxious before her. “How about I hold her while you check the mudroom?”
He gave a short nod as Cassie held on to Evie’s collar. When the dog tried to follow the inspector, Cassie crouched by her and rubbed behind her ears. “You wouldn’t hurt the inspector, would you?”
The dog made a noise as if to say she’d never think of doing that. Mr. Clemens stepped softly out of the mudroom and took the long route to the front door.
“Come on. Back to the mudroom for now. Once my tools are out of your way, you can have full rein of the house. Okay, girl?”
Evie barked her agreement and Cassie shut the door. “Only another fifteen minutes, and then you can come back out.”
A few moments later, a knock on the front door announced the return of Mr. Clemens. Cassie invited him in, but he opted to stay on the porch. “Plumbing’s fine. Someone will be out to inspect again once the fixtures are in place.”
“You won’t be coming back?”
The man seemed to pale even more. “I’ll have an associate of mine take over this particular project.” Then he practically ran next door.
SATURDAY WAS ANOTHER WORKDAY. Not that John minded. He didn’t have much else happening outside of his work on the house at the moment. He’d thrown his entire self into the project like he always did whenever he was involved in a new car design. Maybe some things didn’t change even if the object of his efforts had.
Since they’d passed the electrical inspection, they could now start to hang drywall. Although he’d never done anything like this, he rather enjoyed holding up the walls while one of the brothers secured them into place. Then it was his job to mud the seams. With the walls going up, the house was starting to take shape. Tiny said that once the mud over the seams was dry, they would sand the walls and prep them for paint.
Someone called his name from the living room. Seeing the Tanner family standing at the entryway, John held up his hand in welcome. “Donny, Jo, come to see the house?”
Jo said, “I couldn’t wait. My parents have the boys for the day, so we figured, why not? I know you said it was a mess, but I just had to see it.”
Cassie entered from the kitchen, stopped short and smiled. “Anxious to see what we’ve done for you? Want the nickel tour?”
John stood back and Cassie took over. She pointed out the details that had been completed and how they fit with those that were still to come. Jo especially loved the picture window in the living room. In the kitchen, they had to imagine a lot of what would be there since it was still a work in progress. Cassie showed them paint chips as well as samples for the tile backsplash and pulled out one of the square tiles that would eventually cover the floor.
John led the tour when it came to the bedrooms. Jo nodded as he talked about the garage concept for the boys’ rooms. “They’re going to love it.”
The one thing he didn’t share was his idea for building a wooden ramp along one wall with a connecting tunnel between the rooms that the boys could use to zoom their cars around. He figured that would be one surprise for the final reveal. He guided them into the guest room and sensed Donny’s hesitation. “You don’t want a guest room?”
The man shrugged. “I guess it’s fine.”
“If you want to change things, now is the time to say so.”
Donny winced. “I guess I don’t see the need for a guest room. We don’t have many that sleep over since everyone’s local.”
Cassie asked, “What would you like to use this room for?”
Jo gave Donny an encouraging bob of her head. “We don’t need an office since my work is with cars at the garage and Jo’s at the library part-time. And like I said, I doubt we would use a guest room. But we’d love to have a TV room.” He spread his hands along where a wall would be. “Big-screen TV here. A comfy couch that the family could sink into while we watch our favorite shows and movies.”
“Instead of in the living room?” John wanted to verify.
Donny nodded. “It’d be nice to have the living room be for conversation rather than having our eyes glued to a television.”
Cassie looked at John, who had to agree. “No problem. We’ll make the change.” He already had ideas percolating about how to repurpose the space and use the technology package the foundation had provided.
Tour completed, they strolled into the backyard and checked out the garage that housed most of the construction supplies. “Don’t worry. This will all be out of here before you move in.” Cassie shifted a couple of cans of paint out of their path. “It will hold one car, plus have plenty of space for storage. Bikes, a lawn mower, garbage cans.”
Jo loved the huge maple tree in the backyard. “I can imagine the boys climbing this when they get a bit older.” She pointed to a patch of ground where John had turned over the soil and transplanted a few tomato plants. “A garden?”
“One of the neighbors talked about how she used to grow some of their food. I wondered if that’s something you would be interested in.”
“I never thought of it before, and I have no experience.”
“Would you be willing to learn?”
She shrugged and laughed. “Why not? This is a gift I didn’t expect. The boys might like to help me weed and water it.”
“You’ll be moving in after the growing season, but I thought I could prepare it for next spring’s planting. I could come back to help you. It’s something I’m just learning about myself.”
Jo held out her hand to John and they shook on it. “Deal.”
They returned to the living room. Donny put his arm around his wife’s shoulders, and they looked out the large window at their new neighborhood. They didn’t say anything for a long while, but when Jo turned back to look at Cassie and John, she had tears in her eyes. “I can’t thank you enough for the work you’re putting into this house. Even in this state, I can see the potential and know that you’ll make it amazing.”
Cassie put her hand on Jo’s shoulder and rubbed it. “It’s our honor. And you’re welcome to stop by anytime.”
“I think we’d like to keep the rest a surprise,” Donny said, smiling. “Thank you for the tour. We’ll let you get back to your work.”
After the Tanners left, John felt as if he’d been reenergized. Even though he’d had a long week of work, he felt as if he could put in another twelve-hour day and still feel good. The Tanners’ visit reminded him of why he had agreed to do the contest in the first place. Part of it was to prove that he could use his designs in a new arena, but now the bigger part had come to mean giving back to the community. And more specifically, to provide the dream home to the Tanners, who deserved the blessing.
THE BUTTUCCIS HAD a potential job to bid on after this one was completed, so they left early. It was just herself and John at the house. Without the brothers’ help, Cassie had to depend on John when she needed strong arms to hold up a slab of drywall as she fastened it to the wood frame. She called his name, but he didn’t respond. She went looking for him and found him in the newly designated TV room. He had his sketchpad on his knees as he sat on the floor, drawing. He looked up as she stood in the doorway. “Sorry. Did you need me?”
“It can wait.” She peered over his shoulder at the sketch. “Talk about throwing us a twist, huh?”
He mumbled something since his focus was on the picture and not on her. She watched as he transformed what they had planned to be a plain wall to hang artwork into a row of unique built-in bookcases. He added the requested comfy couch and two smaller beanbags that she assumed were for the boys. “Nice.”
He held the sketch up for her to see. “I think I got it.” He rose to his feet. “You said something about help?”
He followed her into the kitchen where she pointed at the drywall. “I need you to hold that in place while I nail it to the wall.”
He hefted the slab and positioned it to where she indicated. She stood on the ladder and used her nail gun to secure it into place. “One down. Three more to go.”
He let go of the drywall as she came down the ladder and pointed to another, ready to be installed. He stood so close to her that she could smell the soap he’d used. She tried to ignore the odd way it made her heart trip. They repeated the process until they were done and stood back to admire their work. “It’s coming along.”
“But not as quickly as you’d hoped,” he said.
“I’m thinking of hiring some extra help to get the last of the drywall finished. We’ll never make the deadline at this rate.”
“I’m committed to do whatever we have to.”
“I know. I appreciate that.”
He reached over and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She swallowed and kept her gaze on his before he looked away, scanning the kitchen. “So, what’s next?”
Her stomach growled and she put a hand to it with a grimace. Checking her watch, she groaned. “Is it really after five already?”
“Why? Do you have a date?”
“Hard to remember what those are since it’s been so long.” She noticed the corners of his mouth twitch, that he appeared happy at her words. “How about you?” she asked.
“My fiancée broke up with me when I got laid off. Seems that being out of work wasn’t part of her plan for our life.”
“Ouch.”
He sounded casual about it, as if it didn’t matter, but she could see what it had cost him. Probably had hit his ego as much as losing his job had.
“Do you mind if we bring dinner in and keep working? I’d like to get a little more finished here before calling it a night.”
“I’ll do you one better. Let’s work another two hours, then I’ll treat you to dinner out at a place with actual tables and chairs.”
That sounded amazing. A real dinner that didn’t come out of a box or wrapper? She looked down at her T-shirt, which was marked with some of the mud she’d used earlier that day. At her jeans, which had a large hole on one knee and a rip along her calf. “I’m not exactly dressed for going out to dinner.”
“We can go home, shower and change and then meet at the restaurant. How does the Lotus sound?”
Man, he was really trying hard to get her to go out with him. The Lotus served her favorite Chinese food, though she tended to get carryout instead. Besides, going to a restaurant with John felt like a date. Tempting... “As good as that sounds, I’d rather eat here and then keep working. Okay? I don’t want to lose our momentum.”
“I’ll bring Lotus here then. What’s your poison?”
She gave him her order, and he called it in. A half hour later, they sat on the steps in the backyard to eat their dinners, Evie at their feet waiting for any morsels that might fall. She pulled out a pair of wooden chopsticks as well as her carton of sesame chicken and dug into it. They must have both been hungry since they ate without words for a while, the chirp of crickets the only soundtrack for their summer evening.
Finally, she broke the silence. “Thank you for dinner. This really hits the spot.” He nodded as he continued eating his lo mein. She put her carton beside her on the step and leaned back. “This is really a nice place. Almost better than any restaurant with linen tablecloths and crystal goblets.”
“You enjoy the simple things.”
She gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Some things.”
“Most things. I don’t know any other woman who is more content to be covered in sawdust.”
“It’s what I grew up with.”
“So did your sister, but only you followed in your father’s footsteps.”
What he said was true, but she didn’t want to dwell on it just then. She stuck the chopsticks into her carton, her appetite gone. “I wanted to be just like him, but the man I thought I knew might be a crook. It’s hard. And has hurt my family badly.” She looked over at him. “Can we change the subject?”
“Why does this contest really mean so much to you? Is it just to redeem your family name?”
It had been at first. She had wanted nothing more than to prove that a Lowman could be honest and full of integrity. Could create a beautiful living space. That she was a good person as well as a fantastic builder. “I feel like my life was put on hold when my father’s supposed crimes came to light. His company had to cease and desist while the investigators sifted through its records. This meant I had no job. And that job was my whole life, so I had nothing. The contest was announced at the right time. I thought if I could win it, then I could find a life outside of my father. Work that meant something, which in turn would mean I was worth something, too.” She stared out into the backyard. “Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Sounds about right. Switch your dad with my employer, and we’re in the same exact place.” He sighed and stretched out. “I needed purpose, and the contest seems to provide that.”
“What if we don’t win?”
“We can’t think that way. We have to focus on being the best and proving to them all that we’re just as good as they are.”
She rested her hand on his. “You are good. Better than good. You blow me away with your ideas and how positive you are. It’s been my privilege to work with you.”
He reached out and touched her cheek. “The privilege has been all mine.”
She dropped her gaze from his, aware of how vulnerable she’d made herself to him. Wondering if he would accept her words, accept her. And why did it matter so much that he would?
“Cass,” he breathed her name before he pressed his lips against hers.
She closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of his kiss. Pressed into him, deepening the embrace and thrusting her hands into his curly hair. It was soft when she’d expected coarse. Her hands moved to his broad shoulders, and she tugged him closer until he held her just as tightly.
She could have sat on the back step and kissed him forever, but they had work to do if they wanted to win.
And they both had good, complicated reasons to do just that.