AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ahh. That’s Styrofoam. They use it as a base for the crown molding, and then they cover it with plaster.”
Based on her facial expression, she was backpedaling on her earlier assessment that everything on my phone was exciting.
“What’s that?”
“Plumbing.” I pointed to the blue tube in between the studs. “See how it connects to this part? That’s where they’ll put the kitchen sink.”
“This is your other house?”
I nodded. “They send me updates every week.”
She handed the phone back. “How come you don’t go back there?”
“Gee, thanks.” I tickled her on her side. “You trying to get rid of me?”
“No,” she giggled.
Ford ran past us, whooping loudly as he did a cannonball into the pool. When he resurfaced, he was blinking water out of his eyes. “Did I get you wet?”
“Not even close, half-pint.” I jerked my chin to Felicia. “If she gets off my lap, I’ll show you how to do a real cannonball.”
I tossed my niece into the pool first, then jumped with knees tucked up toward my chest, to their delighted screams.
When I swam back to the side, Tansy had joined us. She picked up my phone and was scrolling slowly herself.
“Who said you could look at that?” I asked.
“They’re making a lot of progress,” she said.
I grunted. The twins started playing Marco Polo, and I splashed water at Ford when he got too close. “Wrong way, dude.”
“She text you pictures every day?” Tansy asked.
Giving her a sideways glance, I tried to decipher if there was sisterly subtext in the question, but if there was, she was doing a damn good job of hiding it.
“No.”
And look at that—I managed to hide my slight irritation in my answer.
I didn’t need to be in Michigan.
The big decisions had been made, and while they spent their time getting walls and plumbing and electric wiring ready to make it an actual, habitable home, I was sitting by a pool and doing the thing I had said I wanted to do in the first place.
And I was bored out of my fucking mind.
“When you going back?” she asked, still scrolling. She’d stop and study something, then scroll again. “Ooh, who’s that?”
“Who?”
She whistled, turning the phone so I could see. Charlotte had snapped a photo of William holding up a large beam as they fixed the framing in the upstairs bedroom.
“The builder.”
“He iscute.” She pinched her fingers on the screen to zoom in on the picture and grinned.
“Stop ogling him.”
“Did you see his arms?”
