I narrow my eyes in a wince. “With hammers and sledgehammers?”
My eyes have been on Emmett, but beside him, Mattie’s jaw drops. “You’re doing thisnow?!”
I shrug. “After we take out the dishwasher.” But I look to Millie.Are we doing this now?She meets my gaze and bites her lip, shrugging back.
“Can I help?”
We all turn to see Harry standing in the entrance between the kitchen and living room. He’s wearing a wicked smile as he surveys all the perfect white tiles.
Emmett’s gasp collides with Mattie’s outraged“What?!”
“I want to help too!” Emmett shouts, raising a hand and bouncing on his toes. “Pick me! Pick me!
No. No. No. No. No,my voice of reason chants. Visions of lacerations and lawsuits swim through my mind.
Millie is still biting her lip, but there’s a hopeful glint in her eyes.
Jesucristo,hope looks good on her.
“Only if you wear gloves and goggles.”
The boys cheer, though Harry’s sounds more like a roar.
“And promise not to sue me.”
Mattie turns accusingly to her sister, turning up her palms in annoyance? “Really?Really?What about piano?”
That hope disappears just as quickly as it rose, and Millie gives her sister a pleading look. She swings her gaze to mine, eyes hesitant.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She looks torn, and no wonder. By the looks of it, she’s being pulled in three directions all the time.
“Mattie has a piano lesson at five-thirty, and she’s worried about the noise,” she says, apology in her voice.
“We’ll be long gone by then.” I look at Mattie when I say this. “Demo for another hour and then clean up until five.”
The girl presses her lips together, clearly still concerned. “Yeah, but I have about an hour of homework to do before that.”
“You can work in your room,” Millie says, as though this is covered ground.
The teen cocks her jaw, giving her sister an accusing glare. “It’s still noisy even up in my room. Haveyoutried to read about Neoclassicism in the middle of a demolition?”
Millie seems to steel herself before responding, but it looks like it’s going to take whatever’s left of her strength and patience to do it.
And I don’t want to watch that.
“You’re right,” I say, responding before Millie can. All eyes swing back to me. “It’s going to be really loud and throughout the whole house. Construction is loud.”
Mattie shoots her older sister aSee. I told you soglare.
I raise my hand as if I could block it. “But I have noise cancelling headphones in my truck. Would you like to borrow them while you do homework?”
The sisters give me matching looks of surprise and then speak at the same time.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Do they really work?”
