The House We Built

by Ina Williams

  PART II

  Who We Are

  CHAPTER 10

  Closed Window, Open Door

  “Did you ask her yet?” Elsa Rae blurted before she was all the way in the door of the shop. Elijah was still with a customer which made ignoring her question much easier. She politely greeted the patron then patiently waited until they were alone in the office before reviving the subject.

  “Well?”

  “Well what,” he answered busying himself with receipts instead of looking up at her.

  “Did you ask her out yet?”

  “Who?”

  Elsa Rae said nothing, silently daring him to keep up the facade.

  “Ask who out,” he said again, trying desperately not to blow his cover.

  “Fine, be that way,” she said flatly as she turned to leave. “But the window is closing Elijah, and I’d hate to think of you going through the rest of your life with only me knowing the truth about how you feel.”

  It was quite an exit line and she had timed it perfectly. The door closed just as she finished so that her words hung in the air like children mimicking echoes—way too loud and annoying.

  She was right of course. He could feel his window narrowing by the day. His interaction with Molly had lessened significantly. Their conversations were brief and straightforward. She seemed to have a much better handle on what she wanted to see in the house and most days she was gone before he arrived and still out when the crew left for the day. He was beginning to miss her indecisive and long-winded chatter, her chipper greetings, and her annoying ability to make everything funny. The worst part of it all was that if they kept this pace up he and his crew would actually finish by the impossible deadline she set. This would not only mean she was right, but that the chance to see her at all would be over. That seemed to bother him most, not seeing her.

  It was her fault. Molly was convinced she had wanted Elijah to ask her out too much and that was why he hadn’t. So what if they had an amazing conversation and a heart-melting moment. Stuff like that happens all the time, right? She wasn’t sure that it actually happened all the time, but she was fairly sure it was possible for people who hadn’t forsaken their love life to focus on that of a woodpecker. She didn’t want to blow the situation out of proportion. She would be professional and conduct herself with decorum. As a matter of fact, she would even go a step further and take constructive criticism. Elijah made a comment about her inability to make decisions. If she was slowing down the process that could easily be rectified, even if that meant staying up till one in the morning video chatting with her mother in order to pick a tile for the kitchen.

  There was no reason to make herself uncomfortable by being constantly present. She didn’t always have to be at the house while they worked. She believed Elijah and his crew were trustworthy men. Molly decided to make herself scarce. She had plenty to do at work and several places to explore in her new town.

  The house was coming along beautifully and at this rate the renovations would be done before she knew it. Molly wasn’t sure why, but the last fact made her both relieved and sad.

  Strange how denial sneaks up on you—you never knew you were lying until the truth accosts you in the hallway of your partially renovated home. Elijah was packing up preparing to head out for the night when a weary Molly returned home after a grueling commute from work. She poured herself onto her couch, certain she was alone. When she found that she was not, she wasn’t startled—not the way she was in the kitchen the night of the storm, more like someone realizing they’re not alone after belting a song in their underwear.

  “Hi,” Elijah said softly.

  “I’m sorry, I thought everyone was gone for the night.” Molly replied as she quickly stood from the couch.

  “No need to apologize, it’s your house. I was just headed out.” Elijah said attempting to reassure her.

  “No, I know it’s my house I just meant sorry if I scared you,” she resisted the urge to be annoyed.

  “You didn’t,” he said opening the front door.

  “Why didn’t you ask me out,” she asked. The loudest silence of all time followed her question. It was full of self-doubt and actual southern crickets who seemed ready to the task of orchestrating this awkward moment. Elijah set down his tools on the porch then slowly made his way back inside.

  “I mean I’m sure I’m not supposed to ask that. I should take a hint and all that, but I just figured I’d ask…since I really, really want to know,” Molly stated plainly.

  After another moment of silence her mouth opened slightly and she shook her head, “You know what, never mind. This was weird enough already. I shouldn’t have said anything. Just forget I brought it up.”

  Elijah sank onto the arm of the couch and considered carefully before responding. “I can’t do that,” he finally sighed.

  “Can’t forget about me bringing it up or can’t ask me out?”

  “Either, both,” he said with his gaze fixed firmly but softly on her.

  “Because I’m your boss?” She teased him.

  “I prefer to think of you as my client.”

  “Of course you do,” she said smiling.

  His face softened, “It just wouldn’t be smart.”

  “But you want to?” Her chin was lowered, her eyes softly locked on his.

  This was a trap he understood, but one he felt inclined to enter.

  “Want to?” he asked, feigning confusion.

  She smiled and lifted her chin now, holding his gaze. “Ask me out.”

  The corners of his mouth curled into a mischievous smile and she grinned in reply.

  “Ok then,” she relented, then made her way to the front door and held the screen open.

  “What, you’re kicking me out?”

  “No, I’m letting you leave.”

  His brow furrowed as he tried to read her mood.

  “Look, Elijah, I get it. I know how much your work means to you. I’m not going to complicate either of our lives by trying to mess with that. You’re off the hook.” Molly explained.

  More disappointed than relieved, Elijah peeled himself from the arm of the couch and gently brushed past Molly through the narrow frame of the door. He reached down to pick up his tool box as Molly pulled the door closed.

  “Besides,” she started from behind the screen door, “that impossible deadline seems less impossible by the day doesn’t it?”

  There it is, he thought to himself. He knew that was too easy. Elijah turned to offer a defiant smile over his shoulder but the scene caught him off guard. Molly stood in the doorway, her shoulder resting on one side of the frame and her legs crossed gracefully to the other. Her arms were folded in front of her and, with the light from the living room glowing softly behind her, she engraved herself on his memory.

  CHAPTER 11

  Breaking Ground

  “Who you trying to sound good for,” Earnest Jay mocked when Elijah answered his phone an octave lower than his normal voice. Elijah hadn’t realized he’d done it until the Atlanta area code on his phone screen resulted in a man’s voice rather than a woman’s. Secretly, perhaps even secret to himself, he was hoping it was Molly.

  “Earnest?”

  “Yeah, it’s been forever. How are you man?” Earnest asked brightly, but Elijah noticed something about his voice sounded different. Not wrong exactly, but strange.

  “I’m good man, the shop’s doing well. Business is really picking up.”

  “I’m not worried about that, how are Rae and that botanist?”

  Elijah laughed out loud. When Earnest and Elijah first met Howard Bixby he was always only “that botanist”. Elijah, ever the over-protective brother, had always been pretty hard on the few guys who came to call on his baby sister. Earnest Jay was his partner in interrogation. When Howard got the official seal of approval Earnest and Elijah took
to calling him Bix for short instead.

  “They’re fine, grossing everybody out as usual. How are you? Everything alright?”

  “Yeah, yeah it’s fine,” Earnest Jay answered, almost convincingly. “I’m thinking about heading home in a few weeks.”

  “Oh cool man! We gotta hit up Grace’s while you’re here.”

  “Man, I haven’t had sweet potatoes like Ms. Grace’s since I’ve been in Atlanta.”

  “I’m sure you haven’t.”

  “You can bring whoever you thought I was when you answered the phone so I can meet her,” Earnest joked.

  “Who says I thought you were anybody?”

  “Elijah please, that’s your Tara Fredrick voice. You’ve had it since the tenth grade. I know what I heard.”

  Talking to Earnest Jay made Elijah realize how long it had been since he had a true friend. There was Elsa, but closeness with a sister wasn’t the same. Elijah understood that there were parts of his life that he could only share with someone who truly knew him and loved him anyway. Rae would, for better or worse, always see her big brother. But with Earnest Jay all he had to be was himself. He missed having a friend like Earnest, and maybe more than that, he had specifically missed his friend Earnest. It was this tether he felt being pulled more and more in their conversation as Earnest’s voice would sink and drift off, as if happiness were some memory he was trying to recall. But when he denied for the second time that anything was wrong Elijah resolved that whatever the weight was, Earnest wasn’t ready to share it just yet.

  With Earnest’s visit on the horizon Elijah got it into his head to buy the shop once and for all when Earnest arrived. He knew Earnest was dealing with something and figured that taking the shop off his hands would be one less thing on his plate. He convinced himself that was his motive. The real reason, while equally noble, was far less selfless.

  Outside of his old GMC truck, which he’d restored with Bix, Elijah hadn’t owned much more than the clothes on his back. He didn’t even own the small place he lived in—a carriage apartment in the back of Widow Liddell’s place. She let him have it for obscenely low rent after he fixed the armoire in her room. It had been a wedding present from her late husband. She was so moved by his restoration of it that she had trouble charging him anything at all for rent. But Elijah could hear his mother’s voice, and living for free in someone else’s home would never have sat well with her. He insisted on paying something, so she named a small fee and to make up the difference he acted as her resident handyman. She never asked, but he always offered.

  Elijah liked his life the way it was. He never felt he needed a lot because he always felt he had enough. But owning the shop was different. It was a sacred rite of passage that Elijah was anxious to begin.

  It was that excitement that made him worry when two weeks passed without word from Earnest Jay.

  “Jay, it’s Elijah. Just checking in to see when you’re headed this way. Call me.”

  Elijah had enough to deal with but on top of everything else there was Molly, or rather the looming end of the renovation, that was causing strife. The deadline Molly had set was quickly approaching and Elijah began to doubt he would be ready, even if the house was.

  Molly was onsite during the work more now, but not nearly as much as she had been in the beginning. The more he saw her, the more he wanted to see her and the more time she spent away, the harder it was for him to pretend he didn’t care. She was cordial and kind and professional, and it was driving him crazy. Why couldn’t she just be a regular woman and yell at him for blowing her off? At least then he could go back to being annoyed with her. But the more he talked to her, the more he watched her talk and laugh with the crew, the more he realized how truly un-annoying she was. The frustrating part was that the more he thought about her the harder he worked in order to stop thinking about her, and the harder he worked the closer they got to finishing.

  “I can’t believe we met that crazy deadline,” Drew, one of the crew members, mused as he finished the last swig of his beer. The crew was gathered on the front porch for some well-deserved downtime after their last day.

  “I never doubted you,” Molly beamed as she made her way back outside with two more beers in each hand for the men who were running low.

  Why does she have to be so damn beautiful? Elijah thought to himself. She was wearing a turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans. There was nothing truly glamorous about either, but both the jeans and the sweater seemed to highlight all the best features of her figure.

  “I’m kind of sad though,” Molly admitted, after handing the last bottle to Elijah without looking at him. She wasn’t ignoring him, she was just playing hostess. It didn’t matter, he still hated it.

  “You’re going to miss having eight sweaty guys destroying your house and waking you up in the morning?” another crew member chimed.

  “Well, I mean I won’t really miss any of that, but…” Molly smiled as she reached to take back her own glass of wine which she had handed to Drew before going into the house. She raised the glass to her mouth and Elijah watched as her lips closed around the brim of the glass.

  “What else was there?” one of the crew members joked and they all broke into laughter. The laughter jarred Elijah from his trance. He shook his head as if to nod off sleep.

  The laughter of the crew fell away like fall leaves, slowly and in no particular pattern. They savored the quiet for a moment taking in the night sounds. Elijah looked up at Molly who was resting her head against the railing with her eyes closed. He studied her, trying to imagine what she was thinking.

  “This,” she said with her eyes still closed. “I will definitely miss hanging out with you guys.” She opened her eyes to find Elijah smiling at her. Her cheeks flushed before she lowered her eyes timidly.

  Elijah lingered when the last of the crew members left. After helping her cleanup on the porch he took his precious time collecting the last of his tools and loading them onto his truck. On his very last trip he realized there were no more ways to stall. All that was left to do was say goodbye, but he wasn’t ready for that.

  “That’s the last of it,” he said from the frame of the door to Molly who was standing in the kitchen washing the few dishes in the sink. She jumped at the sound of his voice, but was trying to play it cool now that she was facing him. He was really going to miss how cute she was.

  “Oh, okay,” she said brightly. “Well thanks again for everything. You guys really did a great job.” She wiped her hands on a dish towel that had been lying on the counter beside the sink.

  “Our pleasure,” Elijah offered. He sounded like he was pretending to be someone else. Someone less nervous.

  They stood in the silence for a moment, both hoping for something to say but there was nothing.

  “Okay, well I guess I’ll see you around,” he said making his way out of the door finally.

  “See you,” she lifted her hand to wave but he was already outside.

  Elijah tossed his tool box into the bed of his truck in frustration. What was his problem? Why couldn’t he just say something? Anything? All he could hear was Elsa Rae’s voice giving him that speech about a closed window. He was on his way to the front of his truck when he heard Molly’s voice again from the porch.

  “Hey, you forgot something,” she ran down the stairs with a level in her hand.

  “Here,” she held it out and he took it from her slowly, looking only at the level and not at her.

  “Thanks,” he said quietly, unsure of what to do or say next.

  “Sure.” She turned to reenter the house then changed her mind.

  “I meant what I said before.”

  “About what?” Elijah asked, his eyes now firmly locked on her face. He was secretly hoping she was brave enough to say what he could not.

  “About you being off the hook,” she made her way towards him, s
he was frustrated, but she wasn’t picking a fight. “You don’t have to…”

  She never finished the sentence. Elijah’s lips were on hers and she could hear him breathing her in like the first breath of air after a long swim. Her eyes closed slowly. This feels like swimming, she thought to herself, or drowning, and the thought roused her. She pulled away. They stood apart but her eyes remained closed.

  “Okay,” she sighed.

  “Okay?” Elijah growled. Without looking at him she could feel the old Elijah creeping back in, with his walls and fences.

  “What does that mean,” he grumbled.

  “That was actually what I was going to ask you,” she took another step back and opened her eyes.

  This is worry, she’s worried, Elijah thought to himself. He was equal parts relieved and taken by her.

  “It means I’m cashing in my rain check for our date.”

  He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. Elijah had been out with an impressive number of women. Granted it had been a while, but it was just like riding a bike right? Not much had changed in the year he’d taken a break. Although, if that were true then why were his palms sweating? Why were Stevie Wonder lyrics swirling around in his head? And why couldn’t he find one shirt in his whole closet that didn’t make him look like he hadn’t been on a date in a year? He took a deep breath and steadied himself as he made his way onto Molly’s porch.

  Elijah could barely catch his breath when Molly opened the door. She was wearing a red dress that hugged her the way he wanted to at the top and flared out at the bottom. A delicate gold chain rested on her chest and diamond studs donned each ear. It was simple and perfect. He must have been silent for too long because she looked down at her dress then back up at him.

  “What,” she asked, not quite nervous but definitely curious.

  “You look beautiful,” he said without hesitation.

  Her cheeks flushed and she smiled, lowering her eyes. “This old thing,” she teased.