by Syndi Powell
“Sure.” Cassie had mentioned that an inspector would be out to hopefully give preliminary approval before they completed the wiring. “Anything you need me to do? I’m John Robison, the designer for the house. Cassie, the contractor, had a meeting this morning. Otherwise, she’d be here.”
Darren shook his head and held up a small rectangular gadget. “Got all I need. I’ll be about twenty to thirty minutes.”
John nodded and returned to the first of the twins’ rooms, but the image he’d pictured so clearly before the interruption had faded. He took a seat on the plywood subfloor and picked up his sketchpad and pencil to try to recreate what he’d seen.
Time passed quickly as he drew and erased lines. A knock on the doorframe brought his attention back to the present and the electrical inspector standing over him. The man tore a sheet off the clipboard and handed it to John. “I made notations on things that have to be replaced or upgraded before I can sign off on the electrical work.”
John glanced at the page and nodded, not understanding what it all meant and wishing that Cassie was there to make sense of this. “Cassie already made the upgrades.”
“My notes indicate where she needs to go back before the final inspection.”
He started to leave, but John followed him, holding aloft the page. “Are you saying she did it wrong?”
The inspector turned and sighed. “Listen. This is normal. I inspect. Make notes. She fixes it. I inspect again. End of story.”
“But she’s licensed. Why wouldn’t she get it right the first time?” He had had faith in her that she knew what was she doing. What if she didn’t? What if all the self-doubts she’d been having were real, and he’d been as duped to believe in her?
Darren waved him off. “Overall, you’ve passed. You’re fine, okay?”
John tried to decipher the notes on the page, realizing he had a lot left to learn about renovating a house as opposed to designing a hybrid sedan. “Okay.”
Darren nodded and left the house, passing Cassie as she entered. She glanced behind her at the retreating back of the inspector. “Did we pass?”
John handed her the inspection notice. “Overall, yes.”
She read the page and snapped her fingers. “Shoot. I figured that one circuit in the bathroom might need to be changed out, but not the entire half of the house. This adds another day to our schedule.”
“I don’t understand.”
Cassie looked confused. “Understand what?”
“If you knew the circuit might need to be changed, why didn’t you? Why are we wasting time redoing the electrical that you assured me you knew how to do?” He paced the length of the living room and came to a stop right in front of her. “I might be new to home design, but you’re not. Why the mistakes?”
“Mistakes?” She held up the page, waving it in his face. “These are not mistakes. These are recommendations. The circuits in this house are more damaged than I had expected, but that doesn’t mean I rewired them wrong.”
“Darren said this was normal.”
“It is.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked him in the eye. “Are you starting to worry about my abilities?”
“You’ve been doubting mine from the first.”
They stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, Cassie sighed and dropped her arms to her sides. “I’ve got enough to do without adding this to my problems.”
Noticing her furrowed brow, he said, “The police?”
She dug through a knapsack she had and produced a handful of papers. “It’s nothing. I just need to get my hands dirty and my thoughts on this project instead. I’m sure you have plenty to do, as well.”
She left the living room and he took it as his cue to get back to work. He returned to the twins’ bedrooms. The atmosphere in the house hung heavy with tension. Even the volume on the radio in the hallway had been turned down as John sketched and Cassie rewired the bathroom and master bedroom. The sound of a car horn honking brought both of them outside.
Tiny motioned to the back of the brothers’ truck. “I think I found our replacement kitchen cabinets. Come see.”
John approached the truck with a mix of hope and dread. They’d been searching for days but hadn’t found what they were looking for. Would this be another case of disappointment? But the closer he got to the truck, the more excited he became. The golden color of the oak in the cabinets matched the picture of the kitchen in his head and his sketch. The lines of the cabinets were simple and clean. He put a hand on one of the upper cupboards and nodded. Solid.
Cassie joined him at the truck bed and bit her lip as she moved her hands along the surfaces. “The glass fronts are missing.”
“Easy enough to replace,” Tiny told her. “Biggie has worked with cupboards in worse condition.”
“They’re going to need a lot of sanding and restaining before we can install them. More work than if we buy prefabricated.”
John murmured, “These are exactly what we’ve been looking for. Where did you find them, Tiny?”
“A friend of mine mentioned that his cousin was rehabbing a house out in the suburbs and was getting rid of them.” He shrugged. “I got these for a song.”
Cassie peered at Tiny. “Which friend?”
Tiny eyed his brother before facing her. “You don’t know him.”
“I need a name,” she insisted.
Tiny’s eyebrows rose as he looked over at Cassie. “What did the detective tell you?”
John glanced between them. “Detective?”
Tiny answered instead. “The police seem to think that our extended family makes us real suspects for sabotaging the contest houses. And maybe helping your father get away with embezzlement.”
Tiny glared at Cassie. “Do you think we’re guilty?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
This admission from her shocked John as well as the brothers, who gaped. “You know us, Cassie. We are honest, hardworking guys who have loved you and your dad for years. Why would we hurt your chances of winning the contest?” Tiny asked.
“Maybe you’re trying to help me by hurting the others. You have to admit that the damage to our house was mostly cosmetic.”
Tiny gritted his teeth and pounded the truck before walking away from them. Biggie blinked several times before turning to go after his brother. John whistled. “What just happened? You don’t think they’d really do this.”
Cassie sniffed and shook her head. “I don’t want to believe it. But what if my faith in them is as misguided as that in my dad? How could I be so wrong about the people in my life?”
John put a hand on her shoulder, but she stiffened and took a step away. “Cass, they’re right about these cabinets. They’ll be a perfect fit with the layout and design.”
“What if they got them through illegal means?”
“Buying them from a contractor who was probably going to toss them otherwise? Sounds legit to me.”
“We have to be aboveboard on everything for this contest. I can’t let the scandal surrounding my father and his business taint what we’re trying to do here.” She shook her head. “If they’d only give me a name and I could verify their story.”
“Jim Sanders,” Biggie offered as he returned to them.
Cassie nodded. “I hate that these detectives made me distrust you. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“You can believe in us.” Biggie wrapped his beefy arms around her small frame. “We’ll figure it out.”
He placed a kiss on the top of her head, and John smiled. The big man might be quiet and gruff, but he could see how much he loved Cassie. Tiny rejoined their group. “I’ll prove our innocence to you, Cass. You won’t ever have to doubt us again.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE HOUSE WAS coming along, but the way Cassie fi
gured it they were still behind. The Fourth of July was looming, and she needed to ask the team to give up their holiday to work in order to meet the deadline.
A familiar truck pulled up in front of the house, and she groaned and wished that she could start the day over. Bad enough that it had started to rain and she’d had to leave Evie in the mudroom by herself. And they’d run out of coffee beans yesterday, and she’d forgotten to pick up more before coming to the house that morning. The caffeine withdrawal headache throbbed as she went to the front door and opened it to greet Mr. Clemens.
“Are you sure you want to inspect the plumbing under the house today in this rain?” she asked, although she already knew his answer.
“I’m tight for time, Ms. Lowman. I don’t have any to waste on doing what I want to do, but only on what I have to do.” He glanced at the bare living room that still didn’t have drywall. “I’ll check around here before going down in the crawl space.”
“Give me a warning before you get to the mudroom.”
He eyed her and frowned. She was tempted to give him a salute, but she tamped down her sarcastic tendencies and focused on checking the electrical socket that she had to rewire. Mr. Clemens passed by her to examine the pipes in the bathroom and muttered under his breath before marking things off on his clipboard.
She heard him in the kitchen next. He wouldn’t open the door to the mudroom before letting her know, would he? The bark and the yelp that followed told her he had. She sprinted into the kitchen to find him backed into a corner while Evie tried to sniff him and make friends. “I told you to warn me before going in there.”
He pointed a shaking finger at the dog. “Get that thing away from me.”
Cassie smiled and gave Evie a good rub. “She’s only trying to say hello.” Evie panted, and it seemed to Cassie that she almost smiled at the fussy plumbing inspector who still looked anxious before her. “How about I hold her while you check the mudroom?”
He gave a short nod as Cassie held on to Evie’s collar. When the dog tried to follow the inspector, Cassie crouched by her and rubbed behind her ears. “You wouldn’t hurt the inspector, would you?”
The dog made a noise as if to say she’d never think of doing that. Mr. Clemens stepped softly out of the mudroom and took the long route to the front door.
“Come on. Back to the mudroom for now. Once my tools are out of your way, you can have full rein of the house. Okay, girl?”
Evie barked her agreement and Cassie shut the door. “Only another fifteen minutes, and then you can come back out.”
A few moments later, a knock on the front door announced the return of Mr. Clemens. Cassie invited him in, but he opted to stay on the porch. “Plumbing’s fine. Someone will be out to inspect again once the fixtures are in place.”
“You won’t be coming back?”
The man seemed to pale even more. “I’ll have an associate of mine take over this particular project.” Then he practically ran next door.
* * *
SATURDAY WAS ANOTHER WORKDAY. Not that John minded. He didn’t have much else happening outside of his work on the house at the moment. He’d thrown his entire self into the project like he always did whenever he was involved in a new car design. Maybe some things didn’t change even if the object of his efforts had.
Since they’d passed the electrical inspection, they could now start to hang drywall. Although he’d never done anything like this, he rather enjoyed holding up the walls while one of the brothers secured them into place. Then it was his job to mud the seams. With the walls going up, the house was starting to take shape. Tiny said that once the mud over the seams was dry, they would sand the walls and prep them for paint.
Someone called his name from the living room. Seeing the Tanner family standing at the entryway, John held up his hand in welcome. “Donny, Jo, come to see the house?”
Jo said, “I couldn’t wait. My parents have the boys for the day, so we figured, why not? I know you said it was a mess, but I just had to see it.”
Cassie entered from the kitchen, stopped short and smiled. “Anxious to see what we’ve done for you? Want the nickel tour?”
John stood back and Cassie took over. She pointed out the details that had been completed and how they fit with those that were still to come. Jo especially loved the picture window in the living room. In the kitchen, they had to imagine a lot of what would be there since it was still a work in progress. Cassie showed them paint chips as well as samples for the tile backsplash and pulled out one of the square tiles that would eventually cover the floor.
John led the tour when it came to the bedrooms. Jo nodded as he talked about the garage concept for the boys’ rooms. “They’re going to love it.”
The one thing he didn’t share was his idea for building a wooden ramp along one wall with a connecting tunnel between the rooms that the boys could use to zoom their cars around. He figured that would be one surprise for the final reveal. He guided them into the guest room and sensed Donny’s hesitation. “You don’t want a guest room?”
The man shrugged. “I guess it’s fine.”
“If you want to change things, now is the time to say so.”
Donny winced. “I guess I don’t see the need for a guest room. We don’t have many that sleep over since everyone’s local.”
Cassie asked, “What would you like to use this room for?”
Jo gave Donny an encouraging bob of her head. “We don’t need an office since my work is with cars at the garage and Jo’s at the library part-time. And like I said, I doubt we would use a guest room. But we’d love to have a TV room.” He spread his hands along where a wall would be. “Big-screen TV here. A comfy couch that the family could sink into while we watch our favorite shows and movies.”
“Instead of in the living room?” John wanted to verify.
Donny nodded. “It’d be nice to have the living room be for conversation rather than having our eyes glued to a television.”
Cassie looked at John, who had to agree. “No problem. We’ll make the change.” He already had ideas percolating about how to repurpose the space and use the technology package the foundation had provided.
Tour completed, they strolled into the backyard and checked out the garage that housed most of the construction supplies. “Don’t worry. This will all be out of here before you move in.” Cassie shifted a couple of cans of paint out of their path. “It will hold one car, plus have plenty of space for storage. Bikes, a lawn mower, garbage cans.”
Jo loved the huge maple tree in the backyard. “I can imagine the boys climbing this when they get a bit older.” She pointed to a patch of ground where John had turned over the soil and transplanted a few tomato plants. “A garden?”
“One of the neighbors talked about how she used to grow some of their food. I wondered if that’s something you would be interested in.”
“I never thought of it before, and I have no experience.”
“Would you be willing to learn?”
She shrugged and laughed. “Why not? This is a gift I didn’t expect. The boys might like to help me weed and water it.”
“You’ll be moving in after the growing season, but I thought I could prepare it for next spring’s planting. I could come back to help you. It’s something I’m just learning about myself.”
Jo held out her hand to John and they shook on it. “Deal.”
They returned to the living room. Donny put his arm around his wife’s shoulders, and they looked out the large window at their new neighborhood. They didn’t say anything for a long while, but when Jo turned back to look at Cassie and John, she had tears in her eyes. “I can’t thank you enough for the work you’re putting into this house. Even in this state, I can see the potential and know that you’ll make it amazing.”
Cassie put her hand on Jo’s shoulder and rubbed it. “It’s our honor. And
you’re welcome to stop by anytime.”
“I think we’d like to keep the rest a surprise,” Donny said, smiling. “Thank you for the tour. We’ll let you get back to your work.”
After the Tanners left, John felt as if he’d been reenergized. Even though he’d had a long week of work, he felt as if he could put in another twelve-hour day and still feel good. The Tanners’ visit reminded him of why he had agreed to do the contest in the first place. Part of it was to prove that he could use his designs in a new arena, but now the bigger part had come to mean giving back to the community. And more specifically, to provide the dream home to the Tanners, who deserved the blessing.
* * *
THE BUTTUCCIS HAD a potential job to bid on after this one was completed, so they left early. It was just herself and John at the house. Without the brothers’ help, Cassie had to depend on John when she needed strong arms to hold up a slab of drywall as she fastened it to the wood frame. She called his name, but he didn’t respond. She went looking for him and found him in the newly designated TV room. He had his sketchpad on his knees as he sat on the floor, drawing. He looked up as she stood in the doorway. “Sorry. Did you need me?”
“It can wait.” She peered over his shoulder at the sketch. “Talk about throwing us a twist, huh?”
He mumbled something since his focus was on the picture and not on her. She watched as he transformed what they had planned to be a plain wall to hang artwork into a row of unique built-in bookcases. He added the requested comfy couch and two smaller beanbags that she assumed were for the boys. “Nice.”
He held the sketch up for her to see. “I think I got it.” He rose to his feet. “You said something about help?”
He followed her into the kitchen where she pointed at the drywall. “I need you to hold that in place while I nail it to the wall.”
He hefted the slab and positioned it to where she indicated. She stood on the ladder and used her nail gun to secure it into place. “One down. Three more to go.”
