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Soon, they were seated at the table with Piper between them in her highchair, everyone being fed their nightly meal. It was always quite the ordeal when Piper ate. Their daughter loved food. In fact, Lacy had yet to find any kind of food that the child didn’t squeal with absolute glee over. Peas, carrots, mashed broccoli, even finely diced Brussels sprouts, Piper loved it all. And that night was no exception.
They spooned food into her mouth, the baby babbling happy with every single bite. When everyone was done, Derek stood up and kissed Lacy on the forehead.
“I’ll do her bath and put her down to bed,” he said. “I know you have some stuff you want to work on.”
She nodded, smiling up at him fondly while he took their daughter out of her highchair and disappeared up the stairs to begin running her bath. She and Derek had cleaned most of the dishes as they cooked, so all that was left was the plates and silverware they had used to eat, and then to wipe off Piper’s highchair, all of which Lacy was able to do quickly.
Satisfied with her nightly cleaning routine, Lacy shuffled through the house toward the downstairs home office. As she passed the staircase, she heard light splashing and giggles floating down to her from the bathroom, and she smiled. Lacy flicked on the light to the office, walking around the desk and seating herself before the computer. It took it a second to come to life, but when it did, she began pulling up her email and her calendar.
The night of the annual holiday party at St. Nick’s Place was fast approaching, and while Lacy absolutely adored the party and this time of year in general, she now knew that she wanted to work hard and make it extra special this year. She did, after all, have a movie star to impress. And Lacy didn’t have any time to waste.
* * *
Clark stood in the center of what he assumed was the living room of the foreclosed home, but without any furniture it was a little hard to tell. He turned around in a circle, taking it all in as Derek relayed to him what Matthew had planned not only for this room, but for all the others.
Clark nodded slowly, as his friend spoke, making a mental note of everything they would need to turn this vision into a reality.
“We’re adding a bathroom onto the primary bedroom, that way Jeff and Margaret can have their own space. The kids can share the other bathroom on the second floor, allowing the first-floor bathroom to only really be for guest use,” Derek continued to explain, pointing up to the ceiling.
Clark knew the primary bedroom sat right above where they stood, and he closed his eyes to envision exactly what it was Derek was describing to him. Slowly, the picture of what the house could be began to come alive in his mind’s eye.
He could see it all, the way they would take a house that had looked more than a little forlorn and turn it into something beautiful, something the Hilton family would be able to grow and prosper in. Which would be a good thing for them, especially in the face of such adversity.
“I think it’s really going to be something,” Clark mused, opening his eyes and glancing back at his friend, who acknowledged his words with a swift nod.
Derek looked around them, noting the work that needed to be done before turning his attention back to Clark. “Want to start getting everything unloaded and in the house?”
Clark agreed, and the two men walked out the front door. In the driveway sat Derek’s SUV, and right beside it was Clark’s truck, the bed of which was loaded with supplies for the house, and all of it had been covered with a tarp to protect it from any snow that might have fallen while they were transporting or in the house. But thankfully, no new snow had fallen since the initial large storm, and everything had remained dry, albeit more than a little cold.
He reached forward, pulling the tarp off with a grand flourish revealing everything within. Gallons of spackle, sledgehammers, toolboxes, tins of nails, staple guns, wood for the new framing of the new entryways to each room, and more. it all had to go inside so the volunteers could begin work later that evening.
Derek let out a low, impressed whistle. “This is even more than what you showed me the other day.”
“I found some more stuff I could spare in the back,” Clark explained. “And I ordered some more. I’ll be able to get the rest once I know for sure everything that we’re doing and the dimensions.”
They didn’t say anything else as they reached forward and began hoisting supplies out of the back of the truck, loading up their arms with supplies until they couldn’t hold anything else and then trudging through the snow toward the house.
“So that Valerie Bernard has Lacy in a tizzy,” Derek said on their third trip out to the truck. He grunted with effort as he gave the large beam of wood he was lifting a tug, pulling it onto his shoulder so that it was steady enough for him to start making his way back toward the house.
“Is that so?” Clark mused, trying not to show how much just the woman’s name made his heart beat a little faster. He kept his eyes focused on the two toolboxes he was pulling out from his truck bed, knowing that his friend would have no trouble noticing the way a blush crept into Clark’s cheeks as he thought of the movie star.
“Yes,” Derek continued, the two men falling into step with one another on the way back into the house.
Sweat dotted along Clark’s brow, the warmth of his skin caused by the effort of unloading the supplies directly at odds with the biting cold of the outside air. Clark was thankful when they stepped inside the house and set the wood down for a little bit of a reprieve. There was only one more load to go.
“I guess Colette and Sarah actually met her, had coffee with her and everything at Sweet Thing,” Derek said as they made their way back to the truck. “Colette called Lacy immediately after. I guess they sat and talked for quite a while.”
“I bet Colette was beside herself.” Clark glanced over his shoulder as he pulled a container of nails and screws and a gallon of paint out of the truck bed. It wasn’t hard for him to imagine how Colette had reacted. For as long as he had known her, Derek’s cousin had been easily excitable. It was one of Clark’s favorite things about her.
“Oh, she absolutely was. And Lacy can barely talk about anything else. She keeps saying she hopes she runs into her.”
The conversation lulled as the two men set down the things they had been carrying in the living room of the house. Clark reached his arms over his head, stretching out his back as he turned his attention back to his friend.
“I’m not sure if I get the hype though,” Derek said, clearly still talking about Valerie.
It took all the effort that Clark had not to allow the shock he felt at Derek’s words to show on his face.
“Why is that?” he asked, and Derek shrugged one shoulder.
