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“It’s way too crowded,” Sage was saying as he came to the top of the stairs. “I shouldn’t have bought the second chair.”
“They’re so perfect as a set.” It was Melissa’s voice answering.
“Maybe if we put the sofa against the other wall,” Sage said.
“Then you can’t fit the coffee table.”
TJ came to the open doorway to find the two women standing among a clutter of new furniture. “What’s going on?”
“I measured,” Sage said to him, her voice defensive.
“It’s a tight squeeze,” Melissa said.
He looked around, taking in the elements of the apparent chaos. “Please tell me you’re not moving furniture yourselves.”
“We’re just trying something out,” Sage said.
“The room’s too small.” He pointed out the obvious.
“The furniture’s too big,” she said.
“We can fix it,” he said, walking inside to look at things from various angles.
“I don’t want to take it all back,” she moaned. “Do you know how long it took to pick this stuff out?”
“You should have let me hire a decorator.” TJ reminded her of his offer, which still stood.
“I’m not ready to give up,” Melissa said, giving an armchair a shove.
“Don’t hurt yourself,” TJ quickly told her. He could see moving it a few inches wasn’t going to help the overall problem. “We should take down this wall.”
Sage drew back in surprise, but Melissa smiled.
“And that one,” he said, pointing to the wall that separated the bedroom from the hallway. “We can open up the two middle bedrooms and incorporate the hallway. That’ll give plenty of room.”
There was astonishment in Sage’s voice. “Your solution is to tear down a wall?”
“I’ll call Noah,” Melissa said.
“Wait a minute.” Sage held up her hand.
“What’s the problem?” TJ could picture it already.
“It’s a nearly new house.”
“We’ll still have plenty of rooms left up here. Eli’s bedroom at one end, yours at the other, and the main bath and the extra bedroom on the street side.”
“A sitting room in the middle will tie it together,” Melissa said, putting her phone to her ear. “Noah’s great at this.”
“You can’t just…” Sage’s voice trailed off.
“Hey, honey,” Melissa chirped into the phone. “Can you come by TJ’s this afternoon? He’s looking to renovate the second floor.”
She paused for a moment.
Then she laughed. “Like you’re ever really going to be finished at our house.”
“Who’s downstairs with Eli?” TJ asked Sage.
She looked puzzled. “You can’t make a big decision this fast.”
“Why not? I should have thought of it earlier. I want you to be comfortable up here, to have your own space. You want a kitchenette?”
“No, I don’t want a kitchenette.”
“Noah’s coming over,” Melissa said, enthusiasm clear in her tone. “He’s working on our house today, but that’s a perennial project. He can take some time to do this instead.”
TJ was glad to hear it. There was nobody he’d rather hire as a carpenter than Noah. “Who are the kids downstairs?” he asked Sage again.
“They’re from the Little League team. How is this happening?” She looked helplessly around the room.
Melissa gave her shoulders a squeeze. “This is going to be great.”
TJ felt a tiny spurt of jealousy. He wished he was free to touch Sage. He could still remember last week, out on the deck, the incredible feel of her wrapped in his arms. It had been so long since he’d held a woman, so long since Lauren.
He was a healthy, normal man, and he missed lovemaking. But what he truly missed was making love to Lauren, and it wasn’t fair to project those feelings onto Sage just because she was here, and just because she was so beautiful.
He gave his head a little shake to clear the wayward thoughts.
Sage’s cell phone rang.
“We should really get a decorator,” he said. “We’ll need to paint and change the carpets and the light fixtures. This is a bigger job than we’d planned.”
“No kidding,” Sage said as she put the phone to her ear.
TJ couldn’t help but grin at her mock indignation.
“Hello?” she said into the phone, pausing. “Yes, it is.”
Her expression sobered, and her posture slumped. “Oh, no.”
“Eli?” TJ quickly asked.
His son had been back for a checkup and blood tests two days ago.
