“Oh, my God! Finally!” Racing toward her, Claudie gave her a tight hug. “I knew it.” She stepped back, beaming. “I just knew he wasn’t asking you up there just to look at his special project. Was it good?”
“What do you think?”
Her sister laughed. “I only asked because it’s fun to see you get red. How many times?”
“Hey, I’m not gonna?—”
“C’mon. Let me live vicariously.”
“Twice, and we would’ve— well, Mom called with a plumbing emergency, so?—”
“She didn’t! Well, fudge, as Cole would say. That sucks. Why didn’t you stay and wait for hm?”
“The pipe under the sink finally broke. He said it could take a couple of hours at least.”
“Stupid pipe. Rotten timing. Dad was supposed to fix the damn thing, and then….”
“I think that’s why she put off having Cole replace it.”
“Oh, definitely. Whenever he does a repair Dad would’ve done, she feels it. You can tell.”
“She’s not the only one. I think about it, too.”
“So do I. We probably all do. But I’m so glad we hired Cole.” She chuckled. “I’ll bet you’re really glad.”
“You could say that.”
“So what’s the status? I assume you’ll continue what you started.”
“Yes.”
“You just lit up like a Christmas tree when you said that.”
“That’s what I feel like. As if someone turned on a switch inside me.”
Claudie laughed. “Someone did, and his name is Cole Sterling. Are you telling everyone?”
“Just you for now, hermana.”
She nodded. “I get that, but they’ll guess something’s going on. You look really happy.”
“Of course I do. It’s Christmas.”
“And you just got an early present. Will you be sneaking over there for fun and games?”
“Sort of, but at this point I have a cover story. I’m making a small addition to his secret project and I’ll work on it at his place to keep from giving anything away.”
“Clever. And what is this secret project? I’m all ears.”
“I’m not going to tell you.”
“Mila!”
“You need to see it for yourself, when everyone else does. Even if I tried to describe it, I couldn’t do it justice.”
“Well, damn. Can you give me a hint?”
“I’ll just say this. Dad would have loved it.”
