Chapter 3
The kitchen was a mess. Every place he looked, there were piles of debris.
He didn’t want to freak out or anything, but he was beginning to think that the house was never going to be the same and they’d never be able to live in it.
He stepped outside on the covered porch and sat in the swing that was still there.
He was happy when Molly decided to come out and join him.
“I’m still trying to figure out how I was able to get out of the service because of my overtime hours when I was paid for them.
Also, and this one boggles my mind a great deal, we were married in the White House with about fifty guests that I didn’t know.
Did you know any of them?” He said that he’d met some of the Fosters but not all of them, and that was who was there.
“Ronin is some kind of big deal to you, isn’t he?
I got that feeling when you were around him, you seemed sort of scared of him. ”
“He’s the king of my kind. He and his wife rule us. Brook, I’ve talked to the most, but I know them, yes. And Parker and her husband.” She told him that she was scary. “No kidding. I find her to be more scary than Ronin and Brook for some reason.”
She finally sat down beside him, and he took her hand.
There was something comforting about having her close that he didn’t know how to explain it.
She kissed the back of his hand, and they rocked for a few minutes while the hammering and sawing went on behind them in the house. Molly finally turned to him.
“I’ve been through my granddas bedroom, and I didn’t find anything worth all that much.
There are some lovely quilts that I’d like to use on the kids’ beds, but nothing that would make me think it’s going to be enough to finish the house with.
” He said that it might be in the walls.
“Then I guess we’ll have to have them start on that room before we do the bathrooms. Don’t you think? ”
“I don’t know what to think.” She agreed with him on that, and they rocked some more.
“What do you think about us having six kids? I mean, it seems like a lot to me, and I’m going to be carrying them.
Do you think she should have told us that part?
I mean, she kind of took all the surprise out of us finding out on our own.
Especially the one that we’re having by Christmas of next year.
That’s not a great deal of time, is it?”
“Do you want to have a child this soon?” Molly shrugged, and he did the same back to her. “I don’t have an opinion one way or the other. It’s your body, and if you want to have a child right away, I’m all for it.”
“You just want to have a part in making the baby.” He said that there was that.
“I see how you are. We’ll have a baby by Christmas, and I guess it will be settled.
Though there is a lot going on here for me to suddenly have a baby.
The house is a mess. Did you think it would be like this when you and I decided that the kitchen needed to be taken down to the studs and rewired? I certainly didn’t.”
“My offices are worse than in here. They had to take down walls so that they could put them back up with more power running through them.” He looked in the direction of his new offices and thought of how Molly had saved him a lot of heartache when he’d left the group.
“I’m so glad you were there when I had to deal with them.
They were saying that I had not worked out my contract.
If you’d not gone over it the night before, I would have been scrambling to find the part where I had to give them sixty days’ notice, and you knew right where it was.
I would have been devastated to know that I had to work another sixty days with them. Thank you for that.”
“It was something that the witch said.” He called her by name.
“Yes, that’s it, Parker. She told me that I’d be helpful when it came time for you to leave.
I’m just glad that I went over your contract when I did.
And that you had stapled your letter of resignation to the back of it.
I might not have had that if you’d not been so good about keeping them together. ”
They swung some more, and he was just getting to the point where the noise in the background was getting too much when Molly stood up.
She wanted to see how his buildings were coming along.
He decided that going with her would be better than hearing the house being demolished right in front of them.
They’d go see his offices, having the same thing done.
“It looks like the wiring is finished.” He could see where the new wiring was sticking out of the new drywall, and there were places for plugs. “You’re going to have a lot of plugs in the walls. I hope that’s normal.”
“I have quite a few things that will need to be plugged in. Mostly they’ll be used for equipment, but I will have extra if I need them.
” The two of them were careful where they walked.
“The reception area is looking like it’s coming along, too.
I’ve already decided that I’m not going to take the nurse from the practice where I was.
She and the other nurses were too tight, and I have a feeling that she’d be telling them everything that’s going on here.
Look at this. I love the waiting area. They were able to use most of the woodwork from the old building, like I wanted. ”
He would have his own office, of course, plus one where he could talk to patients when necessary.
There would be six rooms set up for his patients to be seen in, and he had some equipment for the reception area that was going to make appointments and keep track of records.
There would be three bathrooms set up in the place.
One set for his nurses and himself, the other two would be for patients.
He wanted privacy when he went to the bathroom and didn’t mind paying a little extra so that he could have that.
Kayce pointed out the things that were going to be in the reception area and what kind of computers he was thinking of buying so that things would be up to date from the very start.
“I want to keep my records on the computer as well as hard copies. They did that at the other place, and I kind of liked having a copy of everything that was in the records that they kept.” She said that she had a scanner that she used to download all her receipts onto the computer so that she could keep track of them.
“Good idea. We’ll have to start doing that for the house when it gets finished. ”
“Do you think it will get finished?” He said that he had faith in the system. “I’m glad that one of us does. All I can see is a mess. I’m afraid to bring pop-pop around. He’ll have a heart attack over what we’ve done to his house.”
“I’ve been showing him pictures, not of the messes but of the offices that I have going in.
He is having a good time telling me what my offices need over other offices.
He said there should be up-to-date magazines around instead of them being years old.
I promised him that I’d take care of that.
” They both laughed, and she waited to see what one of the workers was going to be doing with the drywall that he had in his hands.
“I didn’t know they were that far along in the process.
I thought that it would be another month before they were ready to hand drywall. ”
“I think that they’re getting the rooms done first. It’ll be chilly soon, and they can work on the bigger rooms all together.
That’s what I see anyway.” They were excited to have something getting done, and the foreman said that’s what they were doing.
Getting one room at a time done so that they could see progress.
“I love being able to see what’s going to happen here.
It’s like the entire building is going to be done right when I can see one of the rooms finished up. ”
“I agree.” They made their way back to the house and saw that the workers were putting in the wiring.
They would have an ample amount of plugs along the countertop so that they could plug things in, like a coffee machine and other items, as they needed.
The large center work area was going to be big enough that it could be used as a table if necessary, and he was excited to see that going in, too.
They were headed to the bedrooms when he remembered about the find they were supposed to get.
“I have no idea what it could be. I’ve spoken to your grandda, and he said that his wife was forever saving things for a rainy day.
It might well be in one of the hat boxes.
He said that he’d never gotten around to getting rid of her things yet, and it might be in one of them.
” She told him that she looked into the boxes but didn’t find anything but hats.
“I guess we’ll have to wait until we get started on the room, then.
I just hope that we find something. The kitchen alone is going to cost us a fortune.
I know that we have the loan that we need, but we might be paying on it until we’re old and gray. ”