“Store-bought cupcakes!”
“Handywomen,” Corinthia said, “don’t need cupcakes.”
“No,” Stevie said, waggling her eyebrows, “but I need a handywoman.”
“Is that all you can think about?Your love life?”
“What else is there?”Stevie cried, spinning around and throwing her arms in the air.
Corinthia considered.Up until a few days previous, she would have thought that the most satisfying life required only air-conditioning, books, dogs, chocolate, and friendship.
But strange things were happening, and now nothing was quite the same.
12
EvenbeforeCorinthiasawthe contents of the bed of Drew’s truck, she could smell the cut wood, the gasoline in a bright red plastic canister, and the lingering smell of exhaust around the chainsaw.“You came prepared,” Corinthia said.
“Yup,” Drew said, dropping the tailgate with a controlledbang.
Stevie’s eyes widened.
“Would you like some help carrying all that?”Corinthia asked, secretly hoping the answer would be “No.”
Drew raised one eyebrow and smirked.“You two, with your soft hands?Nah, I got this.”
Stevie held her hands out.“Mine aren’ttoosoft, are they?”
Drew looked them over with a professional eye, and then not-so-professionally took one of Stevie’s hands and gave it a long, slow, up-close look.“They’re just right,” she said.
Stevie giggled.
Corinthia rolled her eyes.“Maybe we should get out of the way and let Drew get to work.”
“That’s what you’re paying me for,” Drew agreed cheerfully, and began hauling pieces of lumber out of the truck.
Stevie elbowed Corinthia solidly in the ribs when Drew had walked off bearing half a tree’s worth of wood.“I wasgettingsomewhere.”
“Yes, but my fence wasn’t.”
“Spoilsport.”
“Coquette.”
“Who evenuseswords like that?”
“I do,” Corinthia said, a lifetime’s use of five-dollar words giving her a blithe serenity about it.“Besides, you can get back to it when you serve the refreshments.”
They retreated to the kitchen, where Beaufort had taken up a post by the back door to watch the goings-on.His gaze followed Drew back and forth almost as much as Stevie’s did, only Stevie didn’t occasionally let out an observant howl or two to mark the occasion.
Corinthia had done the research and determined that to get her homeowner’s insurance company involved would be more trouble than it was worth.They might replace the broken fence—but they might also cancel the policy at the end of year, as a lesson to all homeowners who might dare to make a claim on the insurance they paid thousands of dollars for.
So Corinthia hired Drew to prop it up, safely—until the day, presumably far in the future, when Corinthia had enough cash to pay for a full repair or replacement.
Stevie fussed with the snacks: opening and closing the cupcake box, checking Corinthia’s supply of ice, rearranging bottles of water and soda, popping open the bag of chips, tucking the wrapped sub sandwich sections into a real basket lined with red-checked cloth.
“I’ll have to fix my fence more often,” Corinthia said, “if you’re going to lay out a spread like this.”
Beaufort, temporarily distracted by the scent of Genoa salami, tavern ham, and capicola, turned his head, but then resumed his close observation of the new stranger in the backyard.
