Page 9 of Always My Love

The longer the sisters stayed in the two-bedroom one-bath cabin, the more it started to feel like a real home, something they’d never had before.

In the past six years, they’d hopped from hotel rooms to small furnished apartments to rooms they rented on a weekly or monthly basis. Once, in Arizona, they even lived in a homeless shelter.

Neither of them had ever bought furniture before or held jobs for more than a few months. Every day that passed by without something bad happening to them caused both of them to be a little more relaxed.

Whenever she or Hailey had time off, they spent it on fixing up the place as best as they could.

So far, they had cleaned, sanded, and stained the hardwood floors in each room. The old tile floors in the kitchen and the shared bathroom had been cleaned and recaulked.

All of the walls had been painted. She had chosen a soft teal green for her room, while Hailey had gone with a darker sky blue, colors that had been on sale at the hardware store.

They had found a soft cream color for the kitchen, dining area, and bathroom walls. Since the walls of the living room had wood paneling on them, they couldn’t paint in that room, but they had cleaned the paneling several times and oiled it until it shined like new.

The most money they had spent on the home to date was on the roof and the fireplace. They’d patched the roof themselves after purchasing shingles that matched at the local hardware store.

Since neither sister had ever dealt with a fireplace before, they’d hired a local man, Parker Clark, to come clean out the flue and reconnect a few of the pipes that had broken loose. Parker had also offered to help patch and repair the wood porch since it needed some serious work. They would do that whenever they could afford it. Until then, they avoided the loose boards.

Even though the rooms were still mostly bare of furniture, the place was feeling more and more like home.

Harper had recently started hanging up pictures that she’d taken of the local scenery on the walls. She loved using the old camera she’d found in her uncle’s closet. She’d never imagined being able to own something so nice in her life or that she’d enjoy taking pictures so much. She’d never had a camera before and had to learn how to use the older camera from videos she’d watched on the library’s computer or her old cell phone.

Of course, finding film for the camera and learning how to develop it herself had been a big task. But she’d been eager to learn.

Now, she used a small room off the covered carport as her dark room. She’d blown up the best of the images she’d taken and hung them in cheap frames around the house.

Her favorite picture, of a gray crane sitting on the Pride dock at sunset, hung in the living room right next to the fireplace.

Every image that she hung spoke to her in different ways, whether it was a green leaf in the shape of a heart resting on a pile of dead leaves or an image of an old couple holding hands on the beach at sunset.

She loved each one.

Hailey seemed to appreciate her work as well and never complained when Harper hung another picture. She was almost running out of space on the walls in the small cabin.

After Nick had dropped her and the puppy off, she’d tried to get some more work done. She was in the process of sanding and painting a large desk that had been left in the home.

However, the puppy had other ideas and wanted to play or chew on her shoes. When she didn’t give the little girl enough attention, she chewed on a stack of magazines, spreading tiny pieces of paper everywhere in the house.

She stopped her work on the desk, figuring her time was better spent cleaning up after the puppy and training her. Dr. Stevens had shown her a few tricks the puppy’s parents knew, and Harper was determined to have the little girl follow in their footsteps.

By the time her sister got home from work, the little girl knew how to sit, stay, and lie down. However, they were still having issues with going potty in the house.

She’d temporarily given Yellow a new name that Harper couldn’t say in polite company or in public. However, when the little girl curled up and fell asleep in her lap after playing for two straight hours, her heart melted and she once again changed the puppy’s name.

“What is that?” Hailey asked, seeing the small mound in her arms.

“This is Lucy,” Harper said with a smile.

“Lucy?” Hailey asked. The small dog woke up and, seeing the newcomer, instantly went into full puppy charm mode.

Hailey laughed and took the small thing from Harper’s arms and hugged it as Lucy rained kisses over her sister’s face.

“Where did you get her?” Hailey asked.

“Dr. Stevens.” She wondered if she should tell her sister that she’d gone with Nick or not.

“Why Lucy?” she asked, sitting down on the floor to let the dog rush around. Immediately, Lucy peed on the floor.

“Lucy!” both of them yelled at the same time.