Their Forever Home

by Syndi Powell

John had never planted a garden, not even as a child. After his parents divorced when he was seven, he’d grown up in apartment buildings and condos without backyards. There’d been no room for growing his own food, or anything else for that matter. Hearing them talk about the bounty they’d harvested from the community garden stirred a longing in him that he’d never known. Maybe they should plant a garden in the backyard of the house. Not just flowers, but tomatoes, corn and green beans like Loretta suggested.

  But then, what did he know about growing a garden?

  A tall man entered the living room carrying several bags of food. “The party has arrived.” He frowned at John. “You made a new friend, Ma?”

  Shekinah took the bags from the man as Loretta stood and motioned to John. “This is John. He’s working on one of the contest houses down the street. John, this is my son, Walter Junior.”

  “Call me Junie.”

  “Pleasure to meet you.”

  The two men shook hands as the front door opened again and more people filtered into the house. Loretta introduced John to them all and he made an effort to remember their names. There had to have been at least twenty new arrivals. When Shekinah announced that the food was ready, they moved en masse to the backyard, where card tables and lawn chairs had been set up. John found Loretta. “I really should go. I don’t want to horn in on your family picnic.”

  “Nonsense. There’s more than enough to eat, so you’re staying.” She pointed to the man at the charcoal grill. “Besides, you never had my husband Walter’s ribs. He’s won awards for them.”

  Seeing that he didn’t have much choice, he joined the group moving down the buffet line. Someone thrust a paper plate at him, and he ogled the variety of choices. He vaguely remembered going with his mother to a family Christmas party where a huge spread had been provided for dinner, but Loretta’s family seemed to have made every kind of summer dish. He helped himself to a little of each and ended at the grill where Walter Sr. placed a half slab of ribs on top of everything. “Thank you for joining us today, son.”

  “Thank you for inviting me.”

  After everyone had eaten too much, Shekinah and Loretta brought out several desserts despite protests that they were all full. John looked around the backyard as the younger members of the family stacked cookies in their hands before sitting in the shade of the garage. Loretta brought over a small bowl of strawberry shortcake and placed it in front of him before sitting in the empty chair next to his. “Did you get enough to eat?”

  John laughed and patted his belly. “I don’t think I could eat a bite of those strawberries.” When she started to take it away, he stopped her. “But I’ll give it a try.”

  “I like to see someone with a good appetite. You’re welcome to join us for the Fourth if you don’t have plans.”

  “You have a wonderful family, Miss Loretta. I’m jealous. It’s been just my mom and me for so long.”

  “No brothers or sisters?”

  He shook his head. “I did always want a brother, but it never happened.”

  “And your father?”

  “He divorced my mom, and I saw him for two weeks every summer for a while until even that didn’t happen.” He’d long ago given up on the idea of having a relationship with his dad. He had his mom and he was grateful for that. “I don’t think he wanted children. I seemed to be an inconvenience to him.”

  “Well, you seem like a nice young man, so he missed out.”

  “Thank you for that.” He ate a bite of the shortcake and closed his eyes in appreciation. “Is this real whipped cream?”

  Loretta gave him a smile. “That’s the problem with you kids today. You’re used to the fake stuff that comes in the can.”

  “I’m hardly a kid.”

  “You are to me.”

  John grinned and continued to eat his strawberry shortcake as Loretta continued speaking, “I’m not saying that everything in those days was perfect. You know, it’s too bad you can’t take the great things from the past and combine them with the good stuff now.”

  John paused eating and put his spoon down. “Say that again?”

  Loretta sighed. “I just think if we could combine what we loved about the good old days with what we enjoy now, life would be pretty near perfect. Trouble is, we’re likely to tear down the old to make way for the new. Couldn’t we combine them both?”

  Images of the house started to fill his head. Combining the old with the new. Using what was best about the past with the technological innovations of today. He nodded. It could work. But that would mean changing the designs. Again.

  Although this could be the idea that would help them win.

  * * *

  CASSIE SAT ON the chaise on the patio in her parents’ backyard and flipped through the pages of a magazine. Her mother watered the flowers. If they were selling the house, she wasn’t sure why her mom was making the effort. Granted, she knew about curb appeal when it came to selling a house, but her mother seemed to be going overboard.

  Her mother wound the hose after she was finished and joined Cassie on the patio. “Are you disappointed we didn’t barbecue this year?”

  “Daddy was the one who manned the grill. Didn’t seem like any point.”

  Her mother nodded and they fell silent. Cassie pretended to be reading an article, but she couldn’t focus on the words. Instead, she wondered where her father was. Had he left the country? Canada was only across the river, so maybe he had fled there. “Do you think he’s okay?”

  “I think he believes he’s better off there than here.”

  Cassie peered at her mother. “Do you really think he did it?”

  Her mother blinked but kept her gaze steady on her. “The evidence is pretty overwhelming that he did, sweetheart. I know that you don’t want to believe that he’d betray us like that, but...”

  “Because he wouldn’t.”

  Her mother came to sit next to her on the chaise, putting a hand on hers. “But he did.”

  “Why would he steal from his own company? It doesn’t make sense to me.”

  “Maybe if he ever calls you again, you can ask him that.”

  “He only called the one time, Mother.”

  “Good.”

  Cassie removed her hand from her mother’s. “I miss him. And I can’t run the company without him.”

  Her mother stood and looked down on her. “Cassandra, there is no company anymore. We’ve sold most of the assets to pay back what your father took, and that means Lowman Construction is done.”

  “But...” Weren’t there other ways to pay back the money? If they sold the company, what would she do? What was the point of entering the contest to win the prize money to keep the company going if Lowman Construction was already gone? She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. The Belvedere Foundation was paying her a stipend while she worked on the contest house, but that would end once the judging took place. “What will I do then?”

  “What do you mean, dear?”

  “That was my future.”

  “So you’ll come up with another one.”

  Cassie’s heart sank. Did her mother really think she could just conjure up another plan for her life? Since she had turned twelve and started working onsite with her dad, she’d been anticipating taking over for him when he eventually retired. There was nothing else for her.

  Her cell phone buzzed in her shorts pocket, and she pulled it out and swiped the bar to answer it. “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s John. Am I interrupting anything?”

  Only her life falling apart. Cassie stood and walked away to find a little privacy. She hadn’t expected to hear from him after the other night. They had to work together, which meant her kissing him had been the wrong impulse to follow. She took a deep breath. “About the other night...”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s forgott
en.”

  Okay. Maybe it was better to do that so they could keep their relationship on a professional basis. “Is something wrong?”

  A long pause. “I’m changing the designs.”

  “What? No, we start tomorrow. It’s too late to change gears.”

  “But we haven’t finalized the materials yet or paid for them. And I think you’ll like this new direction.”

  She rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “John, we agreed to the plans the other night. That’s what we’re sticking with.”

  “Just let me show you the new sketches. I’m sure you’ll agree with what I’ve come up with.”

  “And what is that?”

  “I’ve got pictures of what the house used to look like. I can bring some of those elements into the new look. Sort of retro meets high tech.”

  She considered his words and his burst of enthusiasm, and had to admit that the direction intrigued her. Maybe that was the idea that would put them over the top compared to the other teams.

  And now that there was no company to save, all she had was winning this contest so she could create that new future for herself.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  JOHN PULLED UP to the house the next morning. He hadn’t felt this excited about his work in a long time.

  He brought the new designs with him into the house and propped them against a wall in the kitchen. Eyeing a box of doughnuts, he chose a cruller and moaned. Sugar and caffeine would get him through the day. Fresh-brewed coffee was in the pot and he poured himself a cup.

  Cassie flipped through the designs as he finished his doughnut and drank his coffee. “You worked on these since we talked?”

  “I told you I would.”

  “But you only had a few hours, realistically.” He stood behind her as she studied the changes. When she finally finished looking at the last board, she went back to the first and started the process over. The suspense was killing him. Did she like them? Hate them? He couldn’t tell by her body language.

  After she finished her second pass, she looked over her shoulder at him and he could see a gleam in her whiskey-brown eyes. “You’re right,” she said. “These are better.”

  He wanted to pump his fist in the air but kept his expression neutral. “Thanks.”

  “I’ve been thinking about something you said a couple weeks ago. About wanting to see the original blueprints.” She tapped her lips with her finger. “We could go to city hall and ask if they have copies on file, but I wonder if we’d have some luck in the attic. Builders often stored copies there.”

  The attic with the creepy crawlies? He shivered. “Do we really have to go up there?”

  She nodded and laid a hand on his bare arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the spiders.”

  He swallowed hard and told himself that she was teasing. But still, as he climbed the ladder to go through the hatch to the attic, he repeated to himself that he was much bigger than any spider they might find.

  What they found in the attic surprised him. He’d expected it to be emptied by the previous owners. Instead, there was furniture, boxes and a large trunk. The room was filled to the rafters. Cassie stepped around the trunk, and as he boosted himself up, his foot hooked on the top rung, knocking the ladder to the floor below. He grimaced at it, then turned to find Cassie staring at him with an open mouth.

  “I’m pretty tall. Maybe I can let myself down and drop the last few feet. Then you could use the ladder.”

  She seemed to hide a smile and said, “We’ll figure it out later.” They started to survey the myriad of stuff that crowded the attic. “Careful. Some of these joists are rotten. I don’t want you to take the wrong step and fall through the floor.”

  Taking her advice, he tiptoed to an old metal pedal car. “I haven’t seen one of these in years. There’s not many still around.” He squatted beside it and ran a hand along its rusted exterior. “I wonder if the Czarnecks left it here.”

  Cassie began to open boxes. “There’s china. Old clothes. A whole bunch of books by authors I’ve never heard of. Why would they leave all of this?”

  “Maybe they forgot about it. Or they figured there was nothing worth keeping.” He opened a box and pulled out some papers. “We might find the plans in this one. It looks like paperwork. Maybe from the original sale.”

  Cassie joined him and together they sifted through the various documents. She took a seat next to the box and perused several pages. “Tax information. Mortgage information. They really didn’t want to take this with them?”

  “They were trying to escape their grief.” When Cassie stared at him, he explained, “I talked to Miss Loretta about the family and found out they moved after their oldest son was killed.”

  “She’s a wealth of information.”

  He agreed and then gave a cry of triumph as he pulled out a haphazardly folded sheaf. “Floor plans, I’ll bet.”

  He spread the large paper across the floor. Cassie pointed to where the mudroom now existed. “They had an option for a basement. Wonder why they decided to go with a crawl space instead.”

  John sat back on his heels. “To keep costs down, perhaps. If all these houses were built with similar plans by the same builder, they might have been trying to build more with less money.”

  “Sounds about right.” She started to smile. “We’re above the living room right now. If we took down the ceiling to open up the room, we could really make a visual impact when the judges come into the house.”

  “Take down the ceiling?”

  She nodded. “We might be sacrificing the storage space in the attic, but from the looks of things up here, we’d have to finish off the floors so things didn’t fall through below. Instead, we open up the living room and kitchen with vaulted ceilings.” She stood and wiped her hands off on her shorts. “We won’t be like everybody else’s design that way. We’ll truly have a unique concept.”

  “More demo?” he asked, unsure of how he felt about this.

  Smiling, she put her hands on her hips. “There’s nothing better.”

  * * *

  AFTER REMOVING THE items from the attic and storing them in the garage to look through later, the Buttucci brothers got to knocking down the ceiling. Biggie especially seemed to be enjoying the process. His smile stretched from ear to ear.

  With the ceiling in the living room and kitchen removed, Tiny stared up at the open space. “We’ll need to reinforce the joists before we add insulation and drywall.”

  Cassie added those to the list of things they would need to buy for this next phase of construction. “Did John go home already?”

  “In the garage. He has an idea for a tile mosaic and wanted to go through those boxes of china we found in the attic.”

  He was certainly fixated on using old items. But like he said, if they could marry the past with the future in their designs, it could potentially give them an advantage over the competition. She ripped the page with the list of needed supplies off her notebook and handed it to Tiny. “If you and your brother could go get these items, I’ll take John with me to the architectural salvage yard that he suggested. We might be able to find some things there.”

  “I’ve never built with junk, Cass.”

  “And we won’t start now.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “But maybe he’s right. Things were made to last when this house was built. We could probably find quality fixtures that won’t need to be replaced every five to ten years.”

  He didn’t look convinced. She wasn’t sure she was completely on board with this idea, either, but they had to give it a try.

  The salvage setup was unlike anything Cassie had ever seen before. It was less of a store and more of a warehouse that housed everything from fixtures to lumber, tiling to appliances. She ran her hand along hard pine flooring. She loved the golden look of the wood and wondered where they cou
ld use it in the house. There was only a small amount. It didn’t look like enough to replace the floor in the living room.

  John walked up to her. “That would work great in the master bedroom.”

  Of course. She should have seen it herself.

  “Come on over here. I want to show you something.”

  She followed him outside to an area that seemed to be full of items intended for the trash pile. John pulled out a stainless steel sink that was rusted in spots. It was deep but narrow, much like what he had wanted for the kitchen. “Isn’t it great?”

  “It’s full of rust.”

  “It’s only on the surface. It hasn’t eaten through the steel, so it can be scoured to look like new.”

  She wasn’t convinced yet. “Why are we buying junk?”

  “It’s not junk. It just needs a little extra love and care.” He held it up and inspected it more carefully. “This looks like it will outlive us both. And you know we’ll be able to get a great discount on it.”

  She winced and scanned the outdoor area. “Let’s find a cart to put it in while we keep looking.”

  John smiled as if he’d won the argument and carried the sink inside the warehouse. She moved along the rows of discarded light fixtures. Most of them looked as if they belonged in a different century and would be out of place in their house. But then a glint of green caught her eye, and she pulled a stained glass shade off one of the shelves. In triangles of varying hues of blues and greens, the design reminded her of a Tiffany lamp. But this was made to hang from the ceiling, likely over a table. In her mind’s eye, she could see it hanging over the kitchen table at the window seat.

  She heard John coming up the aisle with the cart and held up the light fixture. “Tell me where you see this.”

  “Above the kitchen table.”

  She nodded and smiled as she placed it on the flat pallet cart with the sink. Okay, so maybe this salvage idea wasn’t a horrible one. Maybe they could marry the past with the future in the designs of their house. “We still need cabinets, more light fixtures, flooring, counters...”