He’s about to swing the sledge hammer over his head when he stops. Turning, he sees River standing behind me. “Hey.” Charlie looks to me, then River. “I know you, don’t I?” Charlie pulls his ear protection down around his neck and slides his gloves off.
“Yeah, River.” River holds his hand out to Charlie.
Charlie looks at River, staring at him. River slowly lowers his hand. “Oh, that’s right.” Charlie looks to me and lifts his brows. “You two knew each other from school.”
River clicks his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “Yeah, that’s me,” he says slowly.
“If I remember correctly, you two…”
“It’s in the past,” I say interrupting him. “River lives around here, and has come to offer his help. He’s also the electrician who’ll be rewiring the house, and doing all the electrical work.”
Charlie looks to me, then River. “Well then. Now we’ve been introduced, welcome aboard. I need help taking these cabinets out. Whoever put them in, put them in so they’d never move.”
“Sure, I can help.” River takes a pair of gloves out of his back pockets and slides them on.
In the meantime, I grab Charlie’s arm, and lead him away, out of earshot of River. “Be nice,” I warn.
“You know what, Hope? None of my business. What happened with you two, it’s got nothing to do with me. But if he thinks he can come in here and hurt you again, I won’t let that happen.”
“It doesn’t matter, Charlie. The past stays exactly where it belongs. In the damned past. People change.”
“You’re talking like you’re going to give him another chance.”
“I am giving him another chance. But not for us to be together. If I can move on, then so can you. Leave it alone,” I point at Charlie as I warn him.
“I suppose once the house is done, we’ll be gone. Right?”
“Yeah, of course,” I reply. But I don’t actually feel the words I’ve said. I mean, I’m not lying, I’m just so drawn to this house. Something is keeping me here, and I think I’m going to cry when I finally do hand the keys over to whoever buys it. “I’m going upstairs to see what I can do up there.”
“Be careful, eh. It’s not solid up there.”
“Look on the bright side,” I say.
“What?”
“If I fall, you inherit this beautiful renovator’s delight.”
Charlie leans in and says with a sober-straight face. “Rag, gasoline, lighter.” He holds one finger up, then two, then three. “I’ve got work to do. Stop bothering the help,” he yells over his shoulder.
I head upstairs, and look through all the rooms. Two of the four rooms have got these charming bay windows with large benches below them. I can imagine in the house’s heyday, someone would’ve been able to sit on them reading a book as the light streamed into the room. This is the biggest of the rooms, although it’s still boxy and on the small side for a modern bedroom. Looking out of the filthy, cracked window, I see everyone outside working to make the yard navigable.
I look at the ratty, old cushioned bench under the window, and instantly want to get rid of it. I try tugging on it, but it’s as firmly attached as what the kitchen cabinets appeared to be. No use in trying without Charlie’s help.
Or River’s.
Damn it, I’m not really a fan of being confined in a closed space with him. But Charlie needs to keep going with the kitchen renovation. I can do this. I don’t need anyone’s help. I love demo. Not as much as Charlie, but I do love it. I try to rip the cushioned seat again, but there’s no way. I run downstairs to grab my tool belt from the truck. On the way in, River’s coming out holding one of the old cabinets. “You got it out?” I ask.
He eyes my tool belt. “We have. Need a hand?”
No. “Yes.” Shit.
“What are you doing?”
Nothing, you can stay downstairs, a safe distance away from me. “Trying to remove a bench seat under one of the bay windows. But I think Old Roger has made it as impossible to remove as the cabinets were.” Shut the hell up, Hope.
“Ahh, I see. I’ll get Charlie.”
“No need. We can do it together.” I look at him suddenly aware of the connotation of what I said. “I mean, we can pull it out.” Holy shit. Shut up! “I mean, we can hammer,” pause. “It,” another pause. “Out.” Shut the hell up now! And there goes my dignity.
River chuckles. “I get ya. We can…” River stops talking and squints. “Let’s just get this done.”
Can this get any worse? “Yeah, right.” I decide I shouldn’t say anything else, and head up the stairs. River is right behind me. “So it’s this room. I want to get this horrible thing out. What do you think?”
“This?” River points to the manky old cushion. “This is easy. Here, step back.” Oh, he’s trying to show off, is he? Okay then. I step to the side, knowing full well this thing ain’t moving without our combined strength. He looks over to me, puffs his chest out, semi-squats, gets what looks like a firm grip and tugs. His face strains, and he lets out a mighty huge fart. “Crap.”
“I hope not!” I say as I laugh.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
“So you were meant to fart?”
“No! God, no. I’m so sorry. Let me try this again.”
He gets in the same position. “Wait!” I say through laughter. He looks at me sideways. “You’re not going to follow through and shit yourself, are you?”
“Haha, very funny, Hope. Just back away. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“By stinking me out of the room?”
He playfully snarls. “Okay, here goes. One, two, three.” He pulls at the cushion, falling flat on his ass as he farts again.
That’s it for me. I can’t hold back the gales of laughter. Tears well in my eyes, and I can barely stand straight. “You sure you didn’t shit yourself, River?” I bend at the waist trying to calm myself, but I just can’t.
“Okay, okay. Maybe this time you can help.”
It takes me a good minute to calm enough to be able to harness my strength instead of my laughter. “You ready?” I ask when we both have a grip?
“Yep. One, two, three.” I let go, and River takes another stumble back, this time ripping the material before falling to his ass.
I can’t even. Nope, this is such a funny thing. “Thankfully you didn’t fart this time.”
“You let go!” Standing, he comes over to the bench. “Are you going to help this time?”
“Let’s not try pulling it off. Let’s try prying it up.” Again, my mind is going where it shouldn’t. Judging by River’s reaction, his is too. “You know what I mean.” He grabs his hammer, and I grab mine. We find the smallest lip, and start banging at it. “God, I’m an idiot. I need the sledge hammer.”
“I’ll go get it,” River says as he’s already disappearing out of the room. I chuckle with an instant replay of him falling on his butt. River’s back within a minute carrying one of the sledge hammers. “Stand back.”
I stand back, as he starts laying into the bench seat. The box beneath breaks on the fifth hit of the hammer, then he maneuvers and wiggles the seating, managing to lift it completely off.
River throws it to the side.
“Hey, what’s this?” I ask as I see an old tin box. Leaning down, I lift it, and pop the lid open. Inside, there’s a silver pocket watch, a man’s white shirt neatly folded, and a handkerchief. I unfold the shirt, and from inside falls a green velvet jewelry box and a sealed envelope. Lifting the objects out of the box, I’m surprised by their pristine condition.
“What is it?” River asks.
“Looks like it’s a gift of some kind.” I look around the room, and sit with my back up against the wall. River sits beside me. I hand him the gift, and I open the envelope. “It’s a love letter,” I say as I look at him.
River opens the small box, and inside is a pair of diamond and emerald drop earrings. “Wow,” River says.
“Oh! Th
ey’re so pretty. I wonder who they were for?” I wet my lips before I start reading the letter. The cursive writing is beautiful, and fluid. My heart skips a beat when I read the first line. “To my darling angel.” Looking at River, I smile before I continue with the letter.
To my darling angel,
I hate having to keep our love a secret, but for now it’s the only thing we can do. Every time I see you, my heart leaps with joy, then sadness fills me because I cannot hold you in my arms the way I desperately want. You are the most beautiful woman my eyes have ever had the pleasure of seeing. When I lay in bed at night, I often imagine you lying beside me. I crave the taste of your sweet lips, the touch of your tender skin, the love of your pure heart.
When the moon is in full view of my window, I wonder if you’re looking up and watching it with me. Are you, my love? Soon we’ll be able to scream our love from the highest of mountains, and we’ll be able to be together. But until the moment I can make you mine, I give you a small token of the love in my heart for you.
When I saw these earrings, I knew I had to buy them for you. The green reminds me of the time we snuck out and had a picnic under the oak tree. We were caught in the rain, and the rolling hills glistened, making the grass smell like summer and look like precious emeralds.
I can’t wait for us to be together.
You are my love. You have my heart. Until we can be together.
X
I sit staring at the letter. “Wow,” I say.
“Yeah, wow,” River echoes my words.
I look down at the letter, and re-read it silently. My left hand lifts and I place it over my heart. So beautiful. “I wonder who this was intended for?”
“I have no idea. But who’d hide this? And look, there’s an inscription on the back of the watch. It reads, my heart belongs to you.”
“Old Roger built this house, so it has to have been him. Maybe this was for his wife who died? May told me she died from cancer. Maybe her death was so painful he hid this, hoping to forget.”
“I don’t know.”
“This is a beautiful vibrant green. I think I’m going to use it as inspiration for the house.” I take the earrings out of River’s hands. “These belong to someone who doesn’t even know they were supposed to get them.”
“Or they got them, and rejected them,” River says.
“Wow, yes. It’s a heartbreaking possibility. But I have a gut feeling, they never received the earrings, or the letter.” I take several deep breaths, letting the words sink into my heart.
“I can see the look in your eyes.”
“What look?” I give River a sideways glance.
“The one that says, ‘I’m going to find who these belong to.’”
“My mind’s spinning so fast. Part of me wants to give these to the rightful owner. But another part of me is urging me to leave it in the past, because if these were hidden, perhaps there’s a painful reason why they never made it out of this room.” I fold the letter carefully, and close the case the earrings are in. Standing, I place them into the box and set the box to the side. “But for now, I have a house to renovate. I’ll figure out what to do with those.”
River stands, and goes over to the window seat where we found the letter and earrings. He looks in the cavity, double and triple checking. “Do you find a lot of things in the houses you flip?” he asks as he gets to work destroying what’s left of the seat.
“Once I found two thousand dollars. And another time I found a small quantity of drugs. But mostly it’s trash, dead animals, termites, and mice. And loads of clothes. But nothing as intimate as those earrings and the letter.”
“Do you enjoy doing what you do?”
“Love it so much. Giving something old a new life. Most houses I’ve done aren’t this old, but most have been neglected. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a family moving into a house I’ve renovated. I know the quality of work we put into them means the houses will last at least another hundred years.” I look to River, who’s stopped working and is smiling at me. “What?”
“When you talk about renovating houses, you glow. I mean, something about it sings to your heart. I can see exactly how much you love it.” He smiles. For a brief second, not even that long, he and I connect. Maybe it’s the letter, maybe it’s the mutual love of working on houses. Whatever it is, it’s dangerous. We can’t go there again. “I’ll go and see if Charlie needs any more help,” he says, obviously feeling this awkwardness.
“Yeah, good idea.”
I take my phone out, and dial Elle’s number. “Hey, I’ll be there shortly after eleven. Had to call in the cavalry,” she says. She sounds short of breath, like she’s rushing around.
“Great, thank you.”
“Wait, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. I’m good. Anyway, see you soon.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.”
Heading downstairs, I find Charlie taking a wheelbarrow full of trash out to the dumpster. “Hey, can you give me a hand? We need to set up a makeshift table; I’ve got lunch coming for everyone.”
“Yeah. Um, let me see what lumber we have lying around.” Charlie goes and finds a few old planks of wood that were lying in the overgrown yard. “How do you want to do this?” he asks.
“Back your truck up to mine, and we’ll put the tailgates down, and lay the planks out across them.”
“Great idea.” He looks down at my hands. “What’s that?”
“Something River and I found upstairs. I’ll show you tonight.” I open my truck, and place the tin box in the glove compartment. Charlie turns his truck around, and reverses it so its tail end backs up to my truck. He gets out, flicks the tail gates down, then places the planks of wood between them, essentially making a table.
I can’t get my mind to focus on anything else other than the letter and the earrings. They mean something to someone, and I think in time I’ll find out who they should have gone to.
Being consumed by the tin box, but more specifically the letter, has stopped me from thinking straight. It’s not until I get a tap on the shoulder, that I’m able to pull away from my thoughts. “Elle!” I say as I turn to see her standing behind me. I give her a quick hug. Although she’s smiling, she looks frazzled. “Are you okay?”
“Next time give me more than two hours’ notice. Where am I setting up?” She looks around, trying to find the table. I point to the two trucks with the old wood reaching between both. “Resourceful. I like it.”
“Do you need help?” I ask.
“Ah, yes.” As we walk back to her car, I see May’s truck approaching. “Oh good. She made it.”
“You asked May for help?”
“May’s helping, but so is Tabitha. You know she’s a chef, right?” Elle asks.
“What? No, I had no idea.”
“Yeah, she’s a chef. Good one, too.”
May pulls up in front of Elle’s vehicle, gets out and opens the back door. Tabitha is right beside her in seconds. “Wow,” I say, still surprised by how altruistic the people in this town are.
“Food’s ready, Hope. Want me to call them in?” May asks.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll do it.” I help finish setting up all the meals Elle, May, and Tabitha have prepared. First, I need Charlie here so we can both thank everyone for helping. I run through the cleared front yard, up to the house and find both Charlie and River inside. “Do you both want to come out?”
“Food?” Charlie asks with enthusiasm.
“Yeah, food,” I confirm. Charlie’s out the door without a moment’s hesitation, leaving River and me in the nearly bare kitchen. “There’s food outside,” I say again trying to break the awkward silence between us.
River takes his gloves off and places them on the skeleton of the old counter. He walks past me, stops, turns, and pushes me up against the wall. His mouth covers mine, greedily kissing me. I’m not even sure what’s happening, but I like it. The heat between us is causing my head to spin. It feels like
it used to. Easy, steamy, right.
My skin tingles as he runs his hand down my arm and he grips my wrist. My heart is beating erratically and I hook a leg over his hip. Wait, what am I doing?
“Stop,” I say breathlessly. My breath quickens as I close my eyes. Jesus, what was that?
River pulls away slowly. He leans his forehead against mine, then places a kiss to my nose. “I had to know, Hope. I had to know if you still feel the way I do.” Leaving me panting, he lowers his head, offers me a small smile, and walks out of the room.
My head is spinning. What just happened? I hate feeling so overwhelmed when I’m around River.
No, I can’t fall for him again. I can’t live through this, not again.
Past
Pacing outside the movies I keep looking around for River. If he stands me up on our first date, I’m going to be completely humiliated. But he won’t get away with it so easily, either. If I’m humiliated, he will be too.
I check my phone, and see it’s just after six. He’s late by a few minutes, and I’m beginning to panic. I don’t want to be made to look like a fool.
My shoulders slump forward, as my chest deflates. Damn it. I really liked River. Like, really like him. For weeks, we’ve had this back and forth between us, and I thought he liked me too, which is why I agreed to go on a date with him.
I look at my phone again, and there’s a message from River. Running late, I’ll be there in 10. It was sent two minutes ago.
He’s got eight minutes, and if he’s not here in eight minutes, I’m calling Charlie to come get me.
I can feel my eyes prickling with tears, but I’m not going to let him get the better of me. No way. Nope.
“Hey, I’m sorry I’m late,” I hear from behind me.
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