Chapter 13 #2
“And we can use the rec room for meals when the family is here,” Zeke mused. “I’ll need a shed out back for my gardening equipment and lawn mower.”
“It’s all going to be perfect,” Darlene agreed.
Lottie hoped her mother was right. That her parents lived to be a hundred years old and died happy right there at Swan Song Estates. After the epiphany she had the night before, she sure intended to spend more time with them—even if they upset her at times—than she had in the past.
“What do y’all think?” Jack came through what would be the back door. “Sorry I wasn’t here earlier. I just dropped off the doughnuts and hurried down to the lumberyard to put in an order in time to get it delivered tomorrow morning.”
Darlene gave her brother a brief hug. “No problem. We love all of it. The place. The cabins. The lake. And especially the room between the places. I didn’t realize how much land two acres covered.”
Lottie’s mind wandered off to think about the section of land that Knox had bought—six hundred and forty acres—and how many houses would fit on that big of a place.
Then it jumped track to think about moving to Spanish Fort to what Knox said about having connections for her to work in that area.
She would be close enough to her parents to drive down on Sunday morning, go to church with them, and then spend the afternoon visiting all her relatives.
Right away, she banished the idea from her head. She probably couldn’t make enough money to survive, much less be running back and forth from Spanish Fort to Swan Song Estates.
She reminded herself that there was enough money in her savings account to live on for a while.
“Besides, a boring person doesn’t need much,” she whispered under her breath.
Jack nudged her on the shoulder. “You look like you are either angry or sad. Which one is it?”
“Maybe a little of both,” she answered. “I don’t want to go to El Paso.
They”—she nodded toward her parents, who had started walking toward the place where the framing crew was already working—“aren’t spring chickens anymore, and I need to spend more time with them.
That means taking jobs that are closer, maybe no more than a couple of hours from here. ”
“If that’s what the Universe has in mind for you, then a door will open,” Jack said. “For now, let’s go watch Zeke drill a sill plate in place. It’ll be kind of like the day he proposed to my sister.”
“How’s that?” Lottie asked.
“That was the beginning,” Jack replied. “This is another one, only this time it’s also the swan song.”
Lottie shivered. “Don’t remind me. I already feel so guilty that I have avoided them as much as I have in the past.”
“You can’t change the past, darlin’, but you can use it as a stepping stone to have a future where you won’t ever have regrets,” Jack told her.
* * *
Knox had the cordless screwdriver in his hand when a shadow covered him. He looked up to see Zeke standing in front of him with a big smile on his face. Knox handed the tool to him and pointed to the pilot hole that he had already drilled. Zeke put in the bolt and gave the device to Lottie.
“You take this now and get to work on our new cabin. Your mother and I have to get on the road, or Ryan will be worried,” he said. “But this has been special. Kind of like when your mother and I said our vows.”
“How is putting a bolt into concrete like saying vows?” Lottie asked.
“We’ve had tough times like this slab, and we’ve had to use every tool that we had to keep our marriage from falling apart, but we worked at it until we got past the rough patch. Now we’re in our glory years, and every day is a blessing. I hope you find someone to love as much as I do your mother.”
Darlene gave him a quick hug and wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. “All these years, I thought you were as romantic as a rock, and now you spout off something poetic.”
“Saving the best for last, darlin’,” he said and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “Now let’s get on the road. I’ve used up all my lovey-dovey for this day.”
“I’ve been ready for an hour, but you had to help put down the first sill plate,” she teased.
“Yeah, right,” he grumbled and took her hand in his.
“Don’t I get a hug?” Lottie asked.
Zeke reached out with his left arm and gathered her to his side. “Now, get to work before Jack fires you, and you have to move onto Swan Song Estates permanently. I’ve gotten used to the empty nest and do not want a kid underfoot all the time.”
“If I did, you’d have a fishing buddy,” Lottie told her father.
“Even that ain’t worth it. You and your mother would argue all the time and ruin my peace.”
“You are an old coot.” Lottie covered a giggle with her hand. “Y’all send me a text when you get to Dallas so I know you made it.”
“Oh, no!” Darlene protested. “We aren’t going to start that nonsense. We are two independent adults. Just because we are settling down doesn’t mean we are ready for the role reversal where you become the parent and we are the children.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lottie said with a snappy salute.
Knox could well remember the time when his mother lost her independence and had to rely on her sons to take care of her physically, mentally, and even the estate she and her husband had amassed.
He would have loved to have built his parents a lovely little cabin beside a lake and to have gotten to watch them hold hands when they took long walks.
“What are you thinking about?” Lottie asked as she bent over to drill another bolt into the sill plate.
“Probably the same thing you are,” he answered.
She moved down another two feet. “That time goes by too fast, and we didn’t take advantage of the moments that’s already gotten past us?”
Eddie handed his drill to Knox. “Y’all are awfully poetic this morning, but I reckon a day of back-breaking working with sill plates and a nail gun in your hands will take that right out of you.
I’m going to go back to my job of building a wall to put up.
That is if y’all can stop being all lovey-dovey and keep up with us. ”
“We can work circles around y’all old, lazy men,” Lottie teased.
“Are you bragging or just wishin’?” Thomas asked.
“Oh, I’m bragging for sure,” she fired back. “I already heard that you are making Thomas’s Terrific Thursday Tacos for supper tonight, and I intend to work up an appetite.”
“It’s the only time you’ll get them until we get to El Paso, so you better eat all you can,” Gabe told her.
“Why’s that?” Knox asked.
“I cook one time at each building site,” Thomas explained.
“After that, it’s someone else’s turn to show off their talents.
Micah will probably do it next Thursday, and he’ll make enchiladas.
That’s his signature dish. But we’re all looking forward to the end of the job when we get finished and you make the dinner. ”
“I’ll do my best to make it a meal to remember,” Knox said and went back to work.
At noon, Knox and Lottie carried their lunch over to the rec room and sat down at an empty table. When Gabe, Thomas, and Eddie joined them, he was reminded of grade school when the kids in the first grade never sat with the older ones.
As if she understood what Knox was thinking, she nudged him on the shoulder. “They’ll be a little more friendly at supper tonight,” she whispered. “Right now, they are sizing you up and deciding whether they believe that we are really a couple.”
“Why would they do that?” he asked.
“Because three of them are single, and they’ve had bets going for the past several jobs as to which one will get her to go on a date first,” Thomas answered.
“Ever since we’ve known her, she’s declared that she would never date a coworker,” Eddie said. “None of us believed it at first either. We figured she roped you into being her fake boyfriend so all the single guys would stop hitting on her.”
“Why would I give up my freedom to do a foolhardy thing like that?” Knox asked.
“Who knows, but we are good with the idea of y’all being a couple now, and by the time the third crew gets here, those guys over at the other table will be, too,” Gabe said.
“That said, what’s everyone doing this weekend?” Thomas asked.
Jack sat down at the end of the table and took out his lunch. “I’d like to go home to help Mandy finish packing this weekend.”
“Lottie and I figured we’d stay close by,” Knox told him. “We can keep an eye on things, so go on if you want to. You plan to drive?”
“Yep, and I’m not looking forward to six hours in the truck tomorrow evening.” Jack bit into a sub sandwich.
“Are you afraid of flying?”
“Not at all, but by the time I drive to Dallas, worry with all the stuff at the airport, and then fly to Houston, it will take more time than driving,” Jack answered.
“We have a small plane that could get you there in about an hour and bring you home on Sunday or Monday,” Knox said.
“Who is this ‘we’ business?” Lottie asked.
“It belongs to the three of us. My brother Tripp wanted to keep it when we sold the Callahan estate,” Knox answered. “I can make a call, and the pilot that he keeps on payroll will be glad to take you.”
“Yes, and thank you so much,” Jack said with a nod. “I can get an Uber to take me home from the airport and surprise Mandy. Maybe we’ll all just call it a day at noon tomorrow. Y’all have really been keeping your shoulder to the work this week, and we’re ahead of schedule.”
Lottie didn’t say anything until their lunch break was over and they were walking over to the job, but before they began helping build walls, she whispered, “You have a private plane?”
“It’s not a jet.”
“After supper, I want to hear more about this estate thing.”
He handed her a nail gun and set a stud in place. “Darlin’, you already know more than most of my real girlfriends have ever known.”