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That had been a big plus. The rest of the house was so dated but livable.
Liz saw potential and, goddammit, she was filling her life with that after what she’d been through.
“I know,” she said.
“Are you going to let Abby live with you and help with the mortgage payment?”
Her younger sister of seven years didn’t want to stay in her apartment anymore and offered to move in and help with the bills.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t lived alone in a long time. I just need to get there. Abby understands. Besides, she has a few more months left on her lease. I’ll decide before she has to make a decision.”
Her father was walking around her house that she’d moved into a few days ago. He’d help her, but it’s not like she had a ton to move in. Mostly the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house was empty.
She had some second-hand furniture she’d gotten from garage sales and friends in the living room and eat-in kitchen. She’d bought herself a new bed and mattress that was delivered the day she closed because she was sick of sleeping in the old twin at her parents’ house.
Everything else in the house, she owned whether she bought it new or used. Things like towels and minimal kitchen essentials.
The start of her life a year ago, all her possessions were stuffed in her sedan, which wasn’t much at all. When it came time to buy things, it was what she could afford.
It wasn’t beneath her to buy things someone else owned. She was just glad to say she didn’t have anything given to her. That her life wasn’t easy.
Nope. It wasn’t easy years ago growing up here and it wasn’t when she was married regardless of Tanner telling her he made it that way for her.
“I’ll help you if you tell me what you want to do here first,” her father said.
“Dad,” she said. “You’re busy. You started back to work last week and I know you’re going to be working ten- to twelve-hour days. I’m working nights.”
She’d gotten hired at Albany Medical Center fast. When she’d moved out of New York years ago, she’d had her nursing license and had just kept renewing even though she’d been working in Georgia for over six years. She wouldn’t be renewing that license, as she was never going back there.
“I could come here and work when you’re at work,” her father said.
“No,” she said. “You need to go to bed when I’m going to work. Then I’ll be sleeping days.”
“But I could get some work done before you go in and you’re up then,” her father said.
She knew there wasn’t going to be a lot of arguing. “We’ll see.”
“Weekends,” her father said.
She started her shift on Sunday nights and ended them Friday mornings.
“I need a game plan first,” she said. No more riding by the seat of her pants like she had in her youth or early adulthood. That was how she got into this mess. “Dinner is almost done. Do you have a lot of work lined up already?”
Her father owned his own fencing company. It was him and about four guys that worked for him. They did a lot of business in the Capital Region, but her father worked for every dime he had during the nice weather months because once the snow fell, he wasn’t doing much work at all other than repairs as needed.
“I do,” her father said. “I’m ready to dive right back in. It’s too bad you couldn’t have gotten this house months ago when I was slow. Then you could have gotten stuff done because I was bored out of my mind.”
She laughed and flipped the burgers in the pan, then checked the fries in the oven. The old yellow oven that she was shocked still worked. But, hey, they built things to last back then.
“The timing is still off, as I’d be sleeping during the day,” she said.
Her father got the plates out of the old dark wood cabinets. They were in good shape and she wondered if she could paint them or not. The cabinets and counters at least looked to have been updated in the past thirty years, but the wall oven was still the same ugly yellow. The rest of the appliances were white and probably ten years old or more. Nothing matched, but it was functional and that was all she was concerned with.
She just hoped everything lasted until she could tackle the kitchen all at once. It was her first project, but knew she’d have to hire someone and it would take time to get price quotes.
Her father pulled the cheese out of the fridge and placed it on their burgers while she got their forks.
Five minutes later they were sitting down to eat.
