Page 24 of Bastain

“Can you lend me fifty grand?” He said that he could. “Just like that, you don’t even want to know what for?”

“I trust you. I believe you’ve found a house that you want to flip and are coming to me before the bank so that you don’t have to pay interest.” He said that was right. “Will that be enough? I mean, I know that flipping is doing well for the two of you, but I don’t want you to be halfway through the project before you find out you need more money.”

“The house is one of the ones that the city is selling for a buck to get them off their books. All we have to do is make fifty percent of the repairs in two years, and we’ll own it. I think that with the two of us doing it right now, we can do that in half the time. It’s a grand old house, too. I’ve been wanting to renovate it since we started doing this.” He asked if he was talking about the Marshall house. “Yes, that’s the one. I’m surprised that more people didn’t want to do it, but I’m happy too. I’ve always loved that old house, and so does Zavier. We’re going to make a killing off of it when we’re finished with it.”

“Good for you. Anytime you’re around, come over, and we’ll work out the details. Like I said before, if you need more, just ask.” He said that they were thinking that they’d only need about thirty grand to do the job, but didn’t want to have to cut corners because the bank would put stipulations on things. “Yeah, I can see them wanting a return on their money fast.”

After setting up a time to go to the bank tomorrow to put the money in a checking account for the house, they decided to have dinner together. He’d not been able to take Trinity out and was looking forward to it. Even if it was only pizza that they could have at home. He wanted to show her off to everyone. He really did love her that much.

The two of them talked for a while before Callen showed up. He was happy and glad that he was going to lend him the money. He had all the confidence in the world in his two brothers. They’d been flipping houses since they were sixteen, and Mom had loaned them the money for the first house. They were that good at it.

Pizza was good, and he enjoyed taking Trinity out with his brother. She teased him a bit about dating, and the two of them talked about him getting married. Since it was never mentioned that the two of them should be married, he thought about it now. He was going to get her the biggest diamond there was, just so she’d have something that would proclaim his love for her. Bastain was getting sappy in his love and didn’t care one bit. He was as happy as he’d ever been and was glad that Trinity had taught him a lesson in loving someone. He was also glad that she wasn’t going to sign the prenup. He decided that he wasn’t even going to bring it up. He loved her and trusted her that much.

After they left for home, he carried her to the bedroom. He was going to sleep with her tonight and was thrilled to death to be able to hold her close. As soon as she was ready to sleep, he kissed her goodnight and left her there. He had a little work to be done before he went to sleep, and looking for a ring was high on his priority list. Smiling to himself, he decided that once he had the ring, he was going to marry her as quickly as he could. Bastain wanted to spend the rest of his life with his wife and was going to start as soon as possible.

~*~

Abbott looked over the plans for the house. He decided that he was going to build now that he had the land, and the place was going to be opened up too. He wanted to see into the living room when he was in the kitchen and walk just a few steps to the dining room. He had plans. Laughing to himself, he pushed away the plans that the architect gave him and looked through the book again. There had to be something that he could fall in love with. He was ready to give up when he found it.

“That one is a nice big family home. I thought you said you were planning to live alone.” He said he liked the openness of the house, as that had been what he’d been looking for. “Well, this one has it. The entire first floor is open to the point that it’s a large square. The bedrooms are large enough to accommodate the family that would be living in them. Six bedrooms with seven baths. The dining area alone could hold as many as twenty people with the right table in it.”

“I have the table in mind now.” He knew that Bastain had a table and chairs set that could hold eighteen people. No one had taken it because there wasn’t enough room in their homes. But it would be perfect for him. “I have enough furniture right now to fill it out. Including the bedrooms. I’m going to hit my brother up and see what sort of deal he can make me.”

“Well, the house is perfect for you then. When do you want to start on it?” He told him right away, as he was already sick of living in a condo. “I lived in one of those for about a year. Never liked it. Too many kids around. Not that I don’t like kids, I have five of my own, but the walls were paper-thin, and there was no yard but mine and theirs that they played in. It got to be hard on my nerves. Now it probably wouldn’t bother me. But then…well, it was hard.”

They talked about time schedules and how long it would take. He’d told him eight months with the foundation needing to be done. Abbott thought that if it was taking too long, he’d hire himself another crew to work on the outside or something. He knew it was possible. He wanted to live in it right now. After leaving the building, he headed to his new home.

Abbott hadn’t been able to move all his furniture out of the funeral home, but he’d gotten most of it. There were still a few larger pieces that he couldn’t wait to get out of storage as well. He’d been collecting things for as long as he’d had money. And that had been since he’d turned eighteen.

After stopping off at his condo, he headed to Bastain’s home. He knew that he’d be welcome and wasn’t surprised when they looked happy to see him. Giving his brother a hug, he got one in return, too. Hugging Trin had him holding back. She was such a tiny thing that he was fearful of breaking her. Not delicate or anything like that, but just small. Like she probably didn’t weigh much more than a hundred and thirty pounds.

“You looked exhausted.” She laughed at him, and he felt his face heat up. “I’m sorry. I tend to say what’s on my mind.”

“You’re fine, and I am exhausted. I just got back from physical therapy. They’re working on my legs to keep them strong. I’ve been learning to walk with crutches, too. Not as easy a feat as you’d think.” He said he’d been on crutches once and nearly broken his other leg when he fell again. “I try my best to be careful. But sometimes I’ll get going too fast, and I can’t slow down. That’s kind of scary for me.”

“I would bet.” They talked about lunch, and he had not realized how late it was. “I’ve been to the architect in town. Billy Jamison is going to build my house for me.”

“Congratulations. Have you found a house blueprint yet?” He told them all about the house that he’d found. “That’s a lot of bedrooms, buddy. Are you thinking of filling them with homeless people? Remember when you were little? You said that was your plan. I remember Dad having to have a talk to you about inviting people home to live with us. God, that was fun times. I’ve never seen Mom so frustrated with you.”

“I remember that. Yes, I said I was going to take care of every homeless person in the world. But I was going to start in our own town. If I remember correctly, none of them wanted to live with us either. They said there were too many rules.” He laughed, remembering the thought like it was just yesterday. “Mom made me collect cans for a year so that I could give the money to someone who fed them. I remember thinking that it was the worst kind of punishment. But then I was able to save up nearly four thousand dollars’ worth of cans that year. I did it for the next two years so that I could save my money up for a car. It was easy work once I got over the punishment part.”

After having lunch with his favorite people, he headed home again. He had things to do, so he could move into his home as soon as it was finished. That meant living out of boxes most of the time, but it was something he was willing to do in order to have his own home. The first thing he was going to do was cook him some curry chicken. And hoped that the smell lingered for weeks.

Laughing at himself, Abbott laid down on his bed. He’d been taking a nap daily since moving in, and it was working out well for him. He wasn’t lazy by any means, but he felt like he’d lost a lot of sleep while running the funeral home. Probably not as much as he thought, but he had to be up at all hours talking to people who had just lost a loved one. It had been the worst part of his job. Talking to people when they were at their worst.

He was just waking up when his phone rang. He nearly didn’t answer it; he couldn’t find it in his mess of boxes, but he was glad to see his mom’s picture there when he finally found it. Saying how much he loved her in a way of answering his phone, he could tell that she thought it was wonderful, by the way she laughed with him.

“I was just thinking about you. How about we have dinner out somewhere nice? I was thinking seafood, but I remembered that you don’t much care for it. How about we get ourselves a nice steak and potato? Then perhaps see a movie?” He told her that he loved that idea. “You won’t have to worry about getting a call now that you’ve sold the home, and the two of us can stay out late.”

“Perfect. We can go see that new movie that came out on Friday. I’ve been dying to see it. It’s supposed to be really good.” She said that she’d been thinking the same thing. “Good. I’ll pick you up at five, and we’ll take our time eating, then have us a good time with lots of salt on our popcorn.”

“Butter too. Let’s not forget the butter.” He said never, and she laughed again. “It’s going on three now, so I have to get ready. I’m not dressing up too much, just so you know. A skirt and blouse.”

“I’ll wear some jeans and a shirt and tie.” Mom told him that would be perfect. After hanging up with her, he decided to take another shower and get dressed. It was still a couple of hours away, but he could stretch that out so that he would pick her up on time.

Once or twice a month, Mom would call one of them to go to the movies with her. She and Dad used to do it all the time. Go see a new movie that had just come out and tell them about it. Not giving away the plot, but giving them enough information that they’d want to go see it too. Sometimes the movie wouldn’t be what they wanted, and they’d tell them that. He’d discovered that his tastes in movies were similar to his mom’s. What she liked, he usually did as well. He couldn’t wait until he picked up his mom.

Abbott knew he was going to have to get him a job sooner rather than later. Right now, he was enjoying being unemployed. But it wouldn’t be long before he needed something else to take up his time, and he would need to have a paycheck coming in. Not that he needed the money, but he never touched his savings account or anything in his stocks and bonds. He didn’t become a wealthy man by spending all his hard-earned cash at once. He would work a job for the money coming in and have fun with it. Abbott was what his brothers called stingy. He called himself frugal.