“What do we do first?” she asked.
“Ever used a crowbar?”
“No, but if you say I get to use a sledgehammer, I’ll love you forever.”
He grinned, which went a long way to making her feel better about the fact that those words had just come out of hermouth in that order. It was the kind of thing she said to her friends, and it had spilled out without her thinking about the fact that she was talking to a near stranger, especially one that her mind had already labeled as very, very pretty. “No sledgehammer,” he said. “But we do have to take the old boards out. Crowbar will be fastest.”
“Sledgehammer will be faster.”
“But it might break parts of the porch that we don’t want to break, like the supports.”
He put on his safety goggles and handed her a pair too. She put them on, aware they made her look a bit like a frog, but since Jack was looking froggy too, it was fine. They could be froglike in solidarity.
He then showed her how to use the crowbar, which was straightforward: slide it under the wood she wanted to remove and pry the wood out. While she worked to extract the broken pieces, he measured the width of the porch. It was simpler, he explained, to replace the two broken boards than to patch the hole. It would look nicer too, because the wood would weather at the same rate. She liked the way he explained things—he did it all with zero condescension. It was more like a kid showing off his toy dinosaur collection. He seemed happy to teach her, even if he wasn’t sold on her being here.
“How did you learn to do this?” Calisa asked.
“My dad taught me.”
“You said your dad’s the groundskeeper?”
“And the carpenter, plumber, electrician, whatever else needs to get done,” Jack said, pride in his voice. “He can do just about anything. If he were here, he’d already have the porchfixed and be on the roof, fixing those holes.” He measured the width a second time and then marked the board.
“He’s not here?”
“He’s off on a trip,” Jack said. “Picking up supplies for the inn for the summer season. He’s supposed to be back soon, but not, you know, soon enough. Can you hold the other end of the wood? That’ll keep it from breaking before I’ve cut all the way through.”
Leaving the crowbar, she joined him and held the wood. He was going to cut it over the steps up to the porch, to avoid the risk of sawing through anything that wasn’t supposed to be sawed through. “So, it’s just you, while your dad’s away? Anyone else work here? Who cooks? Who cleans? It can’t all be just you.” She hadn’t seen any other staff. Surely Auntie Zee had other employees, didn’t she?
“Just me. Until Dad gets back, I’m in charge of cleaning the guest rooms, washing the towels and sheets and everyone’s laundry, preparing the breakfast trays, helping the guests with whatever they need, and fixing everything that breaks. Also supposed to take care of the grounds, but aside from the vegetable garden, I kind of…haven’t. At all. It’s been busy.”
That…was a lot. How much work had she gotten herself into? Why was there no other staff? There must have been at some point. She was certain she remembered a few from when she’d been here as a kid. Had Auntie Zee fired them all? Or had they quit? Exactly how grouchy was she?
Positioning the blade over a mark he’d made on the wood, Jack began to saw. She held one end steady; he held the other with one hand and one knee as he sheared through the board.
“What’s Auntie Zee like?” Calisa asked.
He paused and glanced at her in wary surprise. “She’s your aunt.”
“Great-aunt. And I haven’t been here since I was a kid. Besides, the last time, I was entirely too distracted by the fact that there was a tower of chocolate-covered strawberries to think about what she’d be like to work for.”
His expression warred with itself for a minute, as if he wanted to stay disapproving but couldn’t help grinning again. He resumed sawing. “A tower of chocolate-covered strawberries?”
“I’m not going to tell you how many I ate.”
“I hope it was a lot,” he said. Even though she was holding it, the end of the board still thumped down on the steps when he sawed through the last bit. “Can’t waste an opportunity likethat.”
“It was absolutely a lot.”
Jack nodded approvingly. “Excellent.”
He measured the second board, then began sawing it. Returning to the key question, she asked, “Auntie Zee? What’s she like?” She also wanted to ask: Did he like working here? How long had he worked at the B&B, and when had it begun to fall apart? Did he know? Was he here full-time? Did he live at the B&B? Did he have a girlfriend? Did he like girls? Did he like her?Whoa, Calisa, no,she told herself.That’s absolutely not why you’re here.
“She’s…Well, I’ve known her since I was a kid.”
“You grew up here?”
“Yeah. Used to live just a few miles away. You’re from New York City?”
