by Lynn Galli
“Is Monday morning soon enough?” she asked.
“Monday is great.” Surprising, actually. I figured she’d want some time off before jumping headfirst into her new venture.
“We’ll see you then.” She indicated Miguel.
My whole being brightened at the news. Miguel was leaving Cal’s crew with her. Fantastic. Not only would I get one competent reliable contractor to work this project and probably any future project, I’d get another construction worker who knew as much and worked as hard.
I watched them head off to their table to start an impromptu celebration. No doubt Glory had organized the whole thing. She tended to gather large groups quickly and efficiently when she wanted. When I turned back to my dinner mate, she was beaming.
“Pretty hot is right. She looks like that British actress.” Molly’s eyes were still on the group as they sat at their table.
I glanced discreetly over my shoulder at Natalie again. Her hair was styled tonight, some product giving body and muss to the four inch strands, and she had bangs that reached past her right eyebrow. With the hats she wore to work, I’d never noticed her bangs before. Molly was right about her being pretty hot. “Which British actress?”
“The one in all those movies.” Molly tended to gloss over details.
“That’s specific.”
She looked over and laughed. “That one. Damn, I can’t think of her name. Now it’s going to bug me all night.”
“Emma Thompson?”
“What? Do you need glasses? She doesn’t look anything like Emma Thompson.”
“I know, but she’s a British actress in a lot of movies.”
“But she looks nothing like her. Okay, wait, I’ll think of her.” Her brown eyes squinted. “Something with a K.”
That was about as specific as she’d get. “Kate Winslet?”
“Nope.”
“Kate Beckinsale? Cate Blanchett?”
“Now you’re just naming Kates, and that last one is with a C and Australian.” She laughed, and I joined her.
“There are an inordinate number of actresses named Kate.”
“I can’t think of her. It’ll come to me tonight, and I’ll call you. The point is she’s pretty hot. I didn’t know you went for that type, Viv. If short hair is your thing, look no farther, baby.”
I laughed again. Molly had an intensity to her that was laser tight. We’d never work as a couple, but I always enjoyed her flirty nature.
10 Natalie
All throughout breakfast, I couldn’t stop glancing down at my new shirt. My company name and logo, created by Glory’s graphic designer friend, stood out against the fern green background color. I’d been glowing with pride from the moment I pulled them out of the box. One week out of Cal’s grasp, Miguel and I would finally look unified on the jobsite.
My pride dimmed a touch when my roommate’s girlfriend came into the kitchen dressed in Trent’s shirt and nothing else. She was the fakest person I’d ever met. Trent kept falling for her fake pout, fake giggle, fake orgasms—no one screamed and went on like that every single time—and fake blond hair because he liked her fake double D boobs. I wasn’t a fan of her or her fake boobies, but Bambi was becoming a permanent fixture around here. I wondered what she’d do if I brought a woman home with blonder hair and faker boobs, then paraded her through the kitchen in nothing but my shirt. One of my new, snazzy company shirts. I couldn’t help but smile—about the shirt, not bringing home a Bambi clone. So not my type.
“Did you use the last of the milk?” She shot me an accusing look.
“It’s my milk.” Which she knew along with the fact that Trent and I didn’t share food. Yet she still stole my milk, sometimes my cereal, and always my coffee every morning.
Her lower lip popped out and quivered.
Pfft. Give me a break.
“Baby? Bring the coffee in here, c’mon,” Trent called from his bedroom.
We used to be good friends. Her manipulation had put an end to that. Now we were just roommates, and I was getting the impression she’d like that to end as soon as possible. I didn’t want to think about trying to find another place. The affordable one bedrooms were more than forty minutes away. Maybe someone was advertising for a roommate online. Yeah, that’d be safe.
Bambi scowled at me, grabbed the coffee pot filled with my coffee, and poured two mugs. When I didn’t confront her, as usual, she smiled smugly and sauntered away.
My cellphone buzzed. I checked the display. A text from my sister-in-law.
The alien hates me again.
I smiled. It was her way of asking for help with my nephew. Not that I was much help these days. At fourteen and a half, Seth knew everything, listened to no one, back talked, did what he wanted, and basically ruled the kingdom of surly. Claire was at her tolerance level most days.
When my brother was alive, Claire and I had always been cordial, sometimes friendly, but never really friends. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of me. Brad liked me, so she had to, but my parents didn’t, which confused any good daughter-in-law trying to win their favor. She’d been reaching out to me more since Seth had started with his attitude. Now that she had moved to Aspen, I planned to solidify my place in his life.
Punching the right button, I rang through to her cell. I knew she’d have more to say.
“He hates me, Nat. Am I a bad mother for moving here?”
“No.” Even if I thought the timing was bad, she wasn’t a bad mom because she wanted to move. She wasn’t even a bad mom because she wanted to move in with her boyfriend when he’d had to relocate for his job. “He’s at that age.” And he’s thinking you’ve betrayed his dad even if his dad is dead. But she didn’t need to hear that.
“He’s refusing to let me take him to school this morning, but we have to meet with the principal and pick up his schedule. He made a lot of alien noises that sounded like he wanted to have his leader beam me back to his planet for experimentation.”
I laughed. I could just imagine the alien noises she was talking about.
“I put my foot down, Nat, told him I was driving him whether he liked it or not.”
“So, I’m driving him?” I guessed.
She laughed this time. “Do you mind? He said he wouldn’t completely throw up his breakfast and have me marked for teleportation if you drove him.”
I checked my watch. If I left now, I should have time to take him to school before work. I told her I’d be over soon, crossing my fingers that Seth was in a better mood than he’d been on Friday night after they first arrived in town.
By the time I got there, Seth looked ready to commit a crime just to get the hell out of the house. Greg was clearly trying to establish some authority now that they were living under his roof, and Claire looked like she might crumble under the tension. Seeing me, Seth vaulted out of his seat at the breakfast table, grabbed his backpack, and stomped outside before I’d finished greeting everyone. I shrugged at Claire, said goodbye, and went to meet him outside.
Without a parka, hat, or boots, Seth didn’t make it four steps before whining about how f-ing cold it was in this s-town where he didn’t want to g-d live but f-ing had to thanks to his stupid mom and her even more stupid boyfriend. Yep, this was going to be so nice having my sweet nephew living so close by now.
I unlocked the passenger door for him without commenting. He scoffed and looked over at me through shaggy bangs. He’d grown two inches since my last visit with him in Denver. He now stood eye to eye with me. His hair was too long, probably to bug his mom. If it were shorter, he’d look just like Brad had at this age.
“Your truck’s an old piece of shit.” His attitude, however, wasn’t like Brad’s.
“Thanks, Seth, that’s nice of you to say.” I slid onto the driver’s seat, waiting on him to join me. Defensiveness did nothing to deflate his surliness. He’d usually drop the attitude after enough of my cheery responses, realizing it didn’t bug me like it did his mother. “And please don�
��t swear.”
He snorted in response, but it wasn’t long before his knee started jackhammering. He was nervous, and I couldn’t blame him. Angry, and I completely understood. “School blows chunks.”
I looked over at him as I got us on the highway. “It’s necessary, bud.”
“Whatever,” he said. Again. That was pretty much his response for everything since becoming an alien. “You can’t tell me I don’t have a reason to be pissed.”
I studied him again. “You’re right.”
His head swung around with large brown eyes. I knew I was the first person to acknowledge his anger. “Yeah, I’m right.”
“Starting at a new school mid-semester sucks. Moving sucks. Not knowing anyone here sucks. So does living in someone else’s house and having to share someone else’s room. But mostly it sucks that your dad died, and that’s what this is really all about.”
He turned his gaze back to the road. He wouldn’t say anything because he’d probably start crying, and he was too old to cry according to him. He’d lost his dad at an age when his dad was still his best friend, before he could get embarrassed by him or angry at him. It was sad and unfair.
I knew I couldn’t be a substitute for his dad, but I could let him vent and remind him of the good times we all had together. Seth was it for my family now, even if he was an alien.
*
Sanding sounds came from Lena’s garage as I walked up her drive after dropping my nephew off. Miguel’s truck wasn’t here yet and the door was closed, so I wasn’t sure who was using our makeshift carpentry center.
“Good morning, Natalie,” Lena’s grandmother greeted. She and her husband arrived two days ago on a stopover before heading off to their family vacation home in Hawaii.
“Morning, Tamiko. What’s going on in the garage?”
Her head turned in that direction. It was hard to believe this woman with her mostly black hair and still unlined face was in her eighties. “That’s Owen. Woodworking is his hobby. I told him he should ask to use your sander first, but it’s in good hands, dear. He’s been doing this as long as I can remember.”
My eyes grew wide. It was rare to hear someone use the term woodworking. Carpentry, yes, but woodworking implied craftsmanship. I was eager to see what he had going on.
“Morning, Owen.” I called out to the man bent over my portable worktable as I stepped into the garage.
He looked up from his project, a light coating of sawdust covered most of his shirt and reached up to the dark brown skin on his neck. Owen’s face showed many of his eighty plus years, but his smiling eyes always erased a couple of decades. “Hi, Nat. Hope you don’t mind. I couldn’t resist your toys.”
I’d yelled at the guys on Cal’s crew for less because they often broke or lost my tools. Looking at how Owen was handling the sander, I didn’t worry that he’d mistreat anything. “Not at all. What do you have going here?”
“Vivian was telling me about ordering frames for the mirrors in the bathrooms. I thought I could put something together with your scrap lumber.”
I eyed his work. The frame was already assembled and not a nail mark in sight. He’d used dovetail notches instead. Old school, but the very thing that made for expensive furniture. “Looks a beauty, Owen. You’re more than a hobbyist.”
“I was going to talk you into letting me build that desk Vivian wanted to put in the sitting room area.”
We must be on the same wavelength. I’d made the same offer to Vivian when the project began, but with the delay in the timeline, I knew I wouldn’t have time to build it myself. “If you’ll let me help so I can see how you do some of this edging.” My fingers ran along the design he’d worked into the frame.
His smile was as bright as his mood and catching. I found myself whistling as I went back into the house and down to what would become their new home. We should finish the tiling in their bathroom today.
“You just tell him if he gets in your way out there,” Tamiko said as I drifted past the kitchen where she was already making something for lunch. She’d treated us to the best work lunches I’d ever had on any jobsite and seemed to enjoy doing it.
“He’s very good. I may have to hire him.”
She laughed, sounding very much like Lena. I’d instantly liked them both. I could see why Lena would want them to move in permanently.
By the time we stopped for lunch, my knees were aching. Even with pads, my thirty-eight year old bones couldn’t take kneeling all day to set floor tile. I would have to stop by the hardware store today and get one of those kneeling pads that landscapers use to add extra padding.
Tamiko had a nice spread of Japanese food ready when we surfaced from the back room to a surprisingly crowded dining area. Glory had brought several people I’d gotten to know while building her house: her parents, Dana and Henry, her best friend, Mei, Mei’s fiancé, Spencer, and her other business partner, Brooke. Lena and Vivian were following Tamiko to the table with platters of teriyaki chicken and tempura. Apparently no one in town liked missing Tamiko’s food. Miguel and I had been instructed not to bring lunches for the two weeks she was stopping over. I’d felt guilty for the first two bites, but the taste erased my guilt.
Everyone shared greetings as we sat. I sat between Vivian and Owen, who’d changed his shirt and cleaned off all the sawdust from his woodshop in the garage.
I shot Vivian a look that said I knew she wasn’t due back here until late afternoon. “Found some extra time in your day?”
“There are Michelin star restaurants that aren’t this good. Besides, I don’t have to worry about checking in at this site, do I? Not with you running things.”
She smiled sweetly, but I could hear the taunting in her voice. Tempting me to challenge her. It usually preceded—yep, she’d just snagged the first gyoza I placed on my plate. This was a common habit of hers; taking a chip from the bag I was holding or grabbing a carrot stick from my container. She would slowly pull it toward her, like she was waiting for me to yell at her for swiping my food. I didn’t mind at all. It gave me an excuse to stare at her and watch her mouth work. I shouldn’t be fanning the fires of my little crush on her, but dammit she was fine and exciting.
“Like your shirt,” she said after finishing the bite she’d taken from my plate.
My shoulders pulled back automatically. “Thanks. Brooke’s husband designed the logo.” I nodded at Brooke, but she was too busy eating Tamiko’s excellent yakisoba to comment.
“Know the best part about it?”
“That it doesn’t have Cal’s name on it?” I guessed with a smile, still thrilled that I no longer had to answer to him.
She gave me a happy grin and leaned closer, lowering her voice. “And it fits. Cal’s shirts were always two sizes too big. Clearly he’d never hired a woman before.”
I would have found her comment funny if I didn’t catch her eyes slipping down my torso briefly. Warmth flared in my chest. I swallowed, trying to shake the heady feeling I got from her approval. For a second, I pictured Vivian as the woman I brought home to parade through my kitchen, wearing only my company shirt. Oh my.
She wasn’t a Bambi clone. She was a thousand times better. And as the woman mostly responsible for doling out work to my new company, I probably shouldn’t be picturing her like that.
11 Vivian
Knocking sounded at my front door, then the doorbell, then more knocking. It made me smile. My nephews, no doubt.
“Hi, fellas,” I greeted when I opened the door.
Bright little boy faces grinned widely. At six, Teddy was a head taller than his five-year-old brother, Mason. He looked like a blond version of my brother, and Mase looked more like a brunette version of his mom. They were rambunctious but absolutely adored me, and the feeling was mutual.
“Aunt Viv, we’re going boarding. You have to come!” Mason demanded, tugging on my hand.
Seeing as the last time we went, they spent the majority of the day on their little behinds, it was
n’t high on my list of priorities for a Sunday. It was hard to say no to these two, though.
I looked up at my brother, and the usual surge of pride ran through me. My little brother, younger by fifteen months, had been my best friend my entire life. Now he was the father of two wonderful boys and a husband to a really great woman.
“We’re not letting you work today, Viv,” Zach told me, wearing Teddy’s smile.
“Come inside, guys.” I stepped back and let them into my cabin.
They stayed in the entryway, not wanting to get snow all over my floors. “You gotta come, Aunty. Ya got to,” Mason said.
How could I argue with that reasoning? Especially coming from this cutie pie. “Half day?” I looked at Zach for my answer.
“Absolutely,” he whispered to me.
“I’m in,” I told them. Both boys began hopping with excitement. For some reason they absolutely loved when I joined them for anything. I didn’t think I was particularly great with kids, but they didn’t seem to mind. It was probably because I gave almost every ounce of attention to them when I was with them.
They grabbed my snowboard and dashed outside to strap it to the back of their dad’s Gator. I’d meet them up at his house after I changed into ski pants and thermal everything to keep from freezing on this cold but clear winter day. Before heading into my bedroom to change, I glanced over at the bookkeeping I was doing for the business and smiled. I could do it tomorrow. On an actual work day because my new contractor was maintenance and worry free. And cute.
“Thank God, you’re coming with us,” Cassie declared when I stepped out of my car in their driveway. She knew that with me there it was one less rotation on encouraging the boys back up onto their boards every time they fell.
I really liked Cass, not surprising since my brother liked her and I liked him. She and my brother were the vets in town. He dealt with small animals, and Cassie had the large ones, but they’d cover for each other when they each needed a break. Cassie wasn’t as busy as Zach, which allowed her more time with the boys. She was also a great friend to me and treated me like I was her sister, not the sister of the man she married. Considering we shared a property, it made things a lot easier.