After they met Bennett, Mom took the rental car to the hotel while Dad helped us on set.
Ten minutes after my dad arrived, Emmitt glanced over the camera at me and cringed when my dad had dropped several F-bombs in a row.
I had no words as to how exciting it was to me for my parents to be involved, but if my dad was going to take a much more active role in this show then there were discussions to be had regarding his foul mouth. I’ll be honest though, I didn’t know what scared me most: getting dinged by the FCC or having a conversation about this with my dad…’cause damn, that talk was going to get heated fast.
At my parents insistence we met Bennett at a local fish and chips place and his quiet and shy nature immediately stirred my mom’s maternal instincts.
“Did you grow up in Seattle?” my mom asked Bennett in a companionable way.
He nodded. “Yes, I’ve lived here my whole life.”
“It’s such a beautiful town, I can’t wait to spend more time here.”
Mom’s questions continued like those. Mostly she was drawing him out of his shell, all the while trying to get some measure of him.
While Mom peppered Bennett with questions, Dad and I hashed out the transport of his equipment as well as which of his crew members were willing to relocate to Seattle for the next few months.
My father was observant of Bennett throughout our conversation. Although he was talking to me, I could tell he was absorbing a lot of what was being discussed between my mom and him. As a kid, I always felt cheated when my pops could be in a full out conversation, where he and his buddies were literally yelling at one another in the other room and he’d still have heard almost word for word what my brothers, sister, and I had been saying. More than once, we got a tongue lashing when we thought we were in the clear.
When we finally finished our meal, my pops ordered four pieces of chocolate cake and when it arrived, he looked at Bennett and said, “So, you seem like a good man, but appearances can be deceptive.”
Oh shit, here it goes, I said to myself. Silently I apologized to Bennett for what was about to go down and reminded him, again in my mind, that I had warned him.
“It seems like you came into a big inheritance with all these properties your grandpa owned, so why is it you don’t know more than you do about fixing them up?” he asked.
Bennett took a bite of his chocolate cake, taking his time to answer my dad. “Well sir,” he said after swallowing the bite. “My family aren’t close. In fact, you could say we are the opposite of close. I only saw my grandpa when my mom wanted a break from me. My dad spent a good portion of my childhood in prison and happens to be there today. So, you see, there was no one to teach me anything about home repair. The truth is I didn’t have a clue my grandpa had left me his business and the rental properties that came with it. In fact, if you’d asked me, I would have said I was the last person he considered leaving anything to. When I found out I inherited his estate, I was working at a local store stocking shelves and bagging groceries.”
“So why didn’t you go to college?” he asked.
My mom stepped in. “Vince, that’s too far.”
“Too far? We’re on the other side of the country and considering pulling up stakes that go down three generations! I have a right to know the man we’re going into business with.”
“He’s right, Mrs. Cooper. And although difficult to answer, I respect him more for asking these questions.” He returned my father’s expression and answered. “My mom and I were homeless when I graduated from high school. She’d been dating some loser who had been in the pen with my dad and he stole her money, including her rent money. When she came to my grandpa for help, he said no. I’ll spare you from saying what he called her and what he alluded to me as. Needless to say, I needed to get a job and an apartment to ensure my mom had a roof over her head. It took a year of both of us working full time before we were able to get off the streets.
I’m going to tell you straight up that Seattle isn’t a good place to live on the streets. By the time we were settled in an apartment, the time for getting in applications had passed, so I decided I would put my energy into making sure Mom and I didn’t ever have to end up on the streets again.”
“Are you doing drugs?” my dad asked.
Both Mom and I moaned at the same time.
Bennett laughed though. “Nope, you know that show Scared Straight?”
My father nodded.
“It’s nothing compared to living on the streets with a bunch of drug addicts lurking around you night and day. I’ve never been too compelled to use drugs, but I sure as hell won’t touch them now that I’ve seen the zombies those drugs can create.”
My dad finally seemed mollified and when he glanced down at Bennett’s nearly empty plate, he chuckled. “Here’s a secret I’ll share with both you boys. If you want to get the measure of a man, put a piece of cake in front of him. If he is so nervous, he won’t eat it while you’re asking tough questions, that’s a good indication he’s either lying or trying to keep you from knowing the whole truth.”
Bennett smiled as he scooped up the last piece of cake and put it in his mouth. When he swallowed, he said, “I’ve got nothing to hide. It’s embarrassing as hell, but I’ve gone from the bottom of the barrel literally living on the streets to having several million dollars’ worth of real estate. Here’s a secret I learned from my grandpa: money doesn’t make someone a good person. I’m not sure what does, but money for damn sure isn’t it.”
I could see my Pops was impressed, and it took a hell of a lot to impress him. That made me feel a lot of pride for my new partner. Even if that felt strange, why did I care what they or anyone thought of Bennett? We were in business together, nothing more, nothing less. And yet, that wasn’t really honest. There was definitely something about this man, something that made me feel things that I normally didn’t feel.
Bennett
Truthfully, I didn’t think I’d like Les’s family. I’d done some research on them and Mr. Vince Cooper was known for being a hard ass and overall pain to work with. Numerous reviews of the company had said the old man said it like it is, and he didn’t care whether you approved of his opinions or not. Of course, that same site had over a hundred five-star ratings for Cooper Home Improvement.
In my head, telling it like it is made me think of my own grandpa. He said it like it was, too; but more often than not, that was his way of being hurtful. I often wondered if he ever said anything without the intention of being verbally abusive.
Luckily, Mr. Cooper was more of a straight shooter and there was a big part of me that was relieved this man didn’t spin fancy words or pretend to be something else to impress me. His raw honesty helped me feel more comfortable about putting so much of my trust into his and Les’ hands.
The next day, Les and I took his parents to see the house. “Oh, it’s magnificent!” his mother Melissa cried. “The way Les described it, the house was just another salt box, but this was built for opulence.”
Mr. Cooper dug into the walls, pulled out light sockets, checked wiring, and stuck his pocketknife into various parts of the wood on the outside. He appeared to be impressed when there was no insect damage.
“How long did your grandpa own this?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I admitted.
Les came up behind me and said, “Fifty-six years.”
I turned around and stared at him.
He smiled at me and shrugged, “I did the research. He bought it from the original owner or their descendants. I couldn’t quite tell from the deed transfer. At one time, this property owned significantly more land, the houses up the street to our south were built after your grandparents moved in.”
I was fascinated. I hadn’t taken the time to do research on the property myself.
Mr. Cooper wandered around the house and shook his head. “Doesn’t really make sense, boys. Besides being run down and ugly, there’s not much wrong with the place.
Of course, that made me think of my dad. “My father is a piece of work,” I said, “if you think my grandpa deliberately created this mess then I’m willing to bet it was to keep my father from becoming a thorn in his side. Until he died, no one really knew how much money or real estate my grandpa had. The homes are in various property holding corporations, LLCs... it’s a crazy web which his attorney told me was on purpose to keep people who’d sue him from being able to find everything he owned. But the IRS sure found it fast enough when it was time for me to pay taxes on it. Which is why I don’t have much cash.”
Les spoke up. “Speaking of that, did you decide to sell any of the homes?”
“Yep, talked to the realtor yesterday. She already has interested buyers for the properties I’m willing to sell. The proceeds should give me enough to renovate this big home.”
“Well, what do you all think?” Les asked his parents. “Wanna come out here and bring this lady back to her former glory?”
Both his parents smiled at him then at me. Mr. Cooper said, “The numbers sure seem to work out and things have been slowing down in Boston for us, so yeah. We’ll do it.”
Les jumped up and down and pulled his parents into a hug. I smiled and was trying to make my way out of their intimate moment when Les opened his long arms and pulled me into the hug.
“I swear, I’ve been hugged more in the past week than I have in the past ten years,” I said when he let me go.
“Oh honey, you’ll have to get used to it I’m afraid. We are a touchy family,” Mrs. Cooper replied and pulled me back into a hearty embrace.
I chuckled and said, “I’ll work on it.” Secretly, I was enjoying all the intimacy even among strangers. It’s like a hole inside me was being filled when I hadn’t even known it existed.
We took Les’s parents to the house we were renovating, and Emmitt made sure he caught their every reaction.
“Just since Les has gotten here, the entire project is moving along at a pace I never imagined possible.” I said to his parents.
“My boy’s good at what he does.” Mr. Cooper said in a way that showed his pride.
“Let me show you the attic.” I said excitedly, like I was about to show my own parents a project I’d designed.
We toured the attic and Mrs. Cooper offered a few suggestions about expanding space and making it more efficient with shelving and a couple nooks where a daybed could be built in. I was bubbling over with excitement when we were done touring the place.
When we got outside, Mrs. Cooper gently bumped me and said so the cameras couldn’t hear: “You and I are gonna make a good team. Why don’t we make plans for you to take me over to the big house and share your vision with me. I have a lot of ideas and I’d prefer to start hashing them out without the two pragmatists breathing down my neck.”
I chuckled. “Les allowed me to dream up that attic space. I thought we were gonna have to forgo it before he stepped into the picture.”
“It’s gonna be a special part of the house,” she said, then like her son had a tendency to do, she put her arm around me and pulled me close to her. I naturally let my arm fall on her shoulder, and we walked toward the rental car.
That evening, the four of us met up at what Les and I were referring to as ‘Emmitt’s pub’, we were all exhausted. After we had a meal, I stood up to leave.
“Wait,” Les said, “before you go, we need to figure out where to house the family while we’re fixing up the property. Do you have any suggestions?”
I hadn’t thought about that and I tried to run through my mind what would work. That’s when I remembered the old duplex my grandpa had purchased a few years before he died across the street and a couple of blocks down from his home.
“Well, she isn’t pretty, but I do have a property not far. It’s a duplex and one side is empty. It was one of the properties I’d considered selling but I’ll show it to you, if it works, you can move in there.”
All three of them stared at me. “You have a duplex that‘s close to the property?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but like I said she’s ugly. Big though. Four bedrooms in each unit and each side has a finished basement. It was built in the early 1980s so besides the bad taste, it’s very livable.”
“It’s almost like providence.” Mrs. Cooper said.
“Seriously, don’t get too excited until you see it. You don’t understand what I mean by ugly.”
“Let’s go.” Les said, and I had them follow me to the property. We just had enough daylight left for them to see it. I pulled into the empty unit’s driveway so they could park beside me. When they got out, they were all laughing.
“You weren’t kidding were you?” Les asked.
“I warned you. But, ugly or not, she’s solid. Come on in.” I said as I used my common key to open the basement door. The first part of the unit was garage. It was a split level, so we all walked in through the garage and smelly basement and then up to the rest of the house.
“The other side will be vacant next month,” I explained. “Both sides were rented by sisters. Unfortunately, this sister passed away last month and the other sister is going into a retirement community. But, it’s exactly the same floor plan as this one. Décor is exactly, and I do mean exactly the same.
Mrs. Cooper chuckled. “It’s ugly, but nothing we haven’t worked with before. What do you say, Vince? We can have this up to our standards by the end of the first week.”
“How much you asking for rent?” Mr. Cooper asked me.
“If you’re working on my project, we’ll just consider it part of my investment.”
“Then we’re in. Les, I’ll need you and your boy Robin there to gut the place. Bennett, since you’re letting us live here rent free during the project, we’ll do the reno. You’ll get updates and we won’t feel like we’ve fallen into a time warp.”
“Sounds fair.” I said and shook his hand.
“Les, I think if you’re willing, we can get this demoed in the two weeks it takes your parents to drive across the country. They can stay in the hotel until we get it put back together.”
Les smiled at me. “You’re getting sure of yourself lately aren’t you?”
“What was it you told me? I need to be the brains and you be the muscle?”
“No, I definitely didn’t say that, you Diane Stacey wannabe. But if you’ll throw some of those muscles of yours into the mix, I’m confident we can do as you suggest.”
We parted ways in a good mood. I pulled up to my apartment and looked around to make sure Frank was nowhere to be seen.
Luckily, I made it to my front door without running into him. I went in, threw my mail on the counter top without going through it, grabbed a soda out of the fridge, rummaged through the cabinets for a snack I knew wasn’t there and not finding anything, I took the soda to the old couch and turned the TV on. I woke up early the next morning fully clothed, television still on and soda open but not drunk.
“Shit,” I said out loud and looked down at myself. “I must have been more tired than I thought.”
I checked the clock and it was already 5:00 AM. I jumped up, got undressed, tossed my clothes into my already overloaded hamper, and got into the shower.
I finished showering and got dressed in a fucking excellent mood. Things were going better than they ever had and I was happy and ready for the change, until I went to my mail and began rummaging through it. I froze when I saw the handwriting, recognizing it immediately. “Fuck.” I said out loud and almost tossed the damned letter into the trash.
; I opened it, dreading what I’d see and sure enough found a three-page handwritten letter from my father.
As usual, it was full of threats. He went into detail about how I could end up being shot in one of the empty houses, or that someone would take me down a few notches considering how I was always prancing around on TV like I owned the fucking city.
He ended by writing about how I was a worthless son who’d stolen his inheritance. That was a new part. He’d never even acknowledged my grandpa to me before. I stopped reading and found a priority mail envelope in my mom’s stash next to the old sewing machine and wrote the warden’s address on it.
I carried the letter with me to my car and almost walked out of the house without brushing my teeth. I rushed back in and did my thing, remembering to take a leak too, then dashed out of the house and called my mom as I went.
“Hello?” she answered in a voice that told me she’d been asleep.
“Mom, did you tell dad about the inheritance?”
“Huh?” she asked, and the way she said it, I knew she was guilty.
“Mom, we talked about this. Dad is going to give me all kinds of shit now. Why do you need to make my life so miserable?”
“Shit, I’m your mother,” she said no sleep in her voice now. “You become some movie star and now you wanna kick me to the curb like I’m a worthless piece of shit? I was just talking to your father and mentioned how you were treating me; he figured the whole inheritance thing out on his own.”
“Well, he sent me a threatening letter. Three pages of threats to be precise. How are you going to feel if I’m dead?” I resorted to our usual manipulative conversation which we’d had for the past eighteen years.
“Well, I’ll probably be better off than living in a hut under where all the fucking planes take off.”
“Mom, you’re not in my will and if you were, I’d have you removed for sure now. Knowing when dad gets out, he’s going to head straight to my apartment with the intention of killing me.”
Romantic Renovations Page 6
