“Let’s go see the rooms, okay?” Charlie took over and turned the camera the other way.
I walked to the first door and opened it. “We think this could be Tristan’s because it’s the closest to the stairs,” I said as Charlie panned in.
“It’s really dirty!” Tristan yelled, scandalized.
Charlie chuckled. “It won’t be once we’re done with it.”
“It’s a bit smaller than the others,”—because it had been a nursery once but I didn’t say that out loud—“but we can make it really nice.”
We showed the rest of the rooms and somehow Harper wanted the middle one, while Marlie would get the bigger one at the other end of the hall. They were so damn excited, that eventually we had to get Law on the call.
Once he got them settled a bit, Charlie told them our agenda.
“So here’s the thing. We’re going to get your rooms ready for when you arrive, but we need some things from you. Oak?”
“Right, so Harper, can you get a pen and paper and write this down?” I asked, and she vanished from view.
Law smiled slightly, and again, it got to me how good looking he was.
“Okay, I’m back!”
“Okay. You three, and Daddy too, need to decide a few things. First of all, what color do you want your room to be?”
She diligently wrote that down while Law’s smile grew. He seemed to be in good spirits, but I could tell he looked tired, too. It must’ve been rough, having so much change in a short time, even if that change was good. Not that I knew if the divorce thing was good or not, but from what I’d gathered, he and the ex-wife were good friends so that had to be a plus?
“What else?” Harper asked, snapping me out of staring at her dad through the small screen.
“Next, we need some things you like. We know Marlie likes dogs, for example. We need more things like that. Favorite colors, books, and songs.”
Law’s eyebrows scrunched a little, but he stayed silent.
Charlie, who was sitting right next to me, noticed it, too. “We’ll handle it, Law. You just get yourself and the kids and whatever things you want from there safely to our neck of the woods.”
Sighing, Law nodded and relaxed. I could immediately tell he was relieved that someone else was doing some of the work.
“Now, that’s most of what Uncle Charlie and I need, but then there’s another thing; Auntie Dana wants to know all you guys’ favorite foods, so Harper, if you can make a list and then when Auntie Dana calls you, you have it ready?”
“I will!”
“Hooligans, disassemble,” Law told them, making me snicker.
Harper told her siblings to follow her to make the lists, and their babbling faded into the background.
“Guys….” Law peered at us through the screen.
“Don’t you even,” Charlie answered.
I grinned. “What he said.”
“I don’t want you to—”
“No, but we will anyway,” Charlie interrupted. “We have time. We’ll spruce up the house to a point where you can be comfortable and still do a lot of the renovations yourself. Now, do you have good beds for them, or should we get them new ones?”
I didn’t need to be here for that, so I wandered downstairs and into the main bedroom, looking around. There was an old bed frame that I thought was kind of neat. There were tall posts in each corner, and some vines carved into the wood. If we got Law a new mattress, it would be nice.
We were going to put new carpet in the kids’ rooms, but Charlie said that we should see what was under the old one in Law’s bedroom just to see if it was hardwood. If it was, we could give him the hardwood floor of his dreams, or something like that. Apparently it was all about the rugs.
I agreed, I would’ve actually liked to have a hardwood floor in a bedroom like this. I’d paint it some deeper shade of green to make it a bit cave-like, and yeah… it was a great space.
