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CHAPTER 17
Hank
“Alright, old man. It’s been fun.” I pulled up my baby brother’s driveway and cut the engine.
Sherlock lifted his head and stretched out his neck. I sighed as I patted him on the head. I was going to miss the big goofball.
When Jimmy texted yesterday saying that they’d be back in town late last night and they’d pick Sherlock up, I offered to bring him home today. I told him that it was because I’d be asleep by the time they got back in town. But the truth was, I hadn’t wanted to give him back just yet. I’d bought myself another day. He’d slept in my bed one more night and I’d brought him to the job site again today and he’d hung out in the trailer with me.
These past couple of days had made me see what my life was missing. I’d spent my evenings over at Skylar’s working on projects to make her house safe and habitable.
We had dinner together, all four of us. Luna and Sherlock were inseparable. They were joined at the hip. Sherlock had joined me in reading Luna her bedtime stories. Which was great until it was time to sneak out of her room to let her sleep and he ignored my command to come. It took a very stern look to let him know that I meant business.
I wished he could stay with me a little longer, but it was time for him to go home.
I was getting out of the truck when my phone rang. I pulled it out hoping that it was Skylar. She hadn’t called me yet, but that didn’t stop my heart from hoping.
When I looked down, I saw that it was Melody. It was the third time she’d called. She was averaging once every three to four days. The last time had been right before Skylar and I talked out in the sunroom and I ignored the call.
I’d had several takeaways from that conversation. Skylar was even stronger than I’d thought she was. I was even more grateful that she and Luna had moved to Firefly. And all the screens and the subfloor needed to be replaced in the sunroom.
I’d already started on the subfloors and I was going to finish that project over the weekend. Then I was going to start on the plumbing. Thankfully the house’s knob and tube wiring had already been replaced. There were a few leaks, but they’d been relatively easy to find and repair thanks to the crawl space access.
The good news was that once I’d gone under the house and seen that the issues with the flooring were not structural. I didn’t need to shore up any joists. All of the warping in the hardwood were either from wear and tear or water damage from the leaking ceiling. Once I replaced the damaged boards then stripped, sanded and sealed them all, they’d be good as new.
I had a few other things on my list of repairs and renovations. I was going to reface the kitchen cabinets. And since the house had no central air, I ordered ceiling fans for the front room, sunroom, and Skylar and Luna’s bedrooms. I was also going to install recessed lighting.
The bathroom tile was in good shape, but I was going to put in a new vanity and mirror that I had left over from another build.
That was basically it for the interior of the house.
On the exterior, now that the roof was in good shape, I’d noticed some siding that needed to be replaced but the project was the porch. It was in bad shape. My plan was to tear it down and build a new one since there was so much damage to the wood it wasn’t worth patching.
And then there was the security system. That was going in tonight if I could get a key from Skylar.
I’d been keeping her in the dark for most of my plans because I knew that she’d try to talk me out of them. Also, I couldn’t explain to her why I was doing what I was doing when she asked. So that was another reason I was keeping it to myself. But it was getting to the point that I was going to need her okay on some things, also I was thinking of asking if I could get a key because her shifts were in the evenings and that was when I was available to work on the house.
She was working her first shift tonight and I planned on stopping by.
My phone dinged and I saw that Melody left another message. She’d left two so far. The first one I’d listened to on repeat, and then the last one I’d only listened to twice before deleting it. Basically the message said the same thing that the first one had.
I pressed play on the third.
“Hi, Hank. It’s me, again, Melody. I hope you’re getting these. Or maybe I should hope that you’re not because if you are then that means you’re ignoring me.” She let out a laugh that I could tell was nervous. “Anyway, I know it’s been a long time but I just really want to check in and see how you’re doing. I don’t think we ever got…I don’t know, closure, I guess.”
Closure. She dumped me and moved a thousand miles away. I would say that left things pretty damn closed.
“I think there are definitely things to say. Call me. Please. I miss you.”
This time, instead of listening to it again or twenty times I just pressed the delete button. I didn’t see the point of keeping them on my phone and I had no intention of returning her call.
“Let’s go.” I patted my leg and Sherlock lazily got up and jumped out of the truck.
I knocked on the screen door and my brother shouted, “It’s open.”
I pulled on the screen door and before I could take a step inside Sherlock shot past me and jumped on my brother who was lounging on the couch.
“Hey, big guy!” Jimmy enthused as he embraced the slobbery beast. “I missed you!”
