I blew out a breath. “Obviously, we can’t tell them anything. So, I’ll just have to warn her to keep to herself while they’re in town. I dunno if she’ll need to warn whoever helps her from Witness Protection, but I should tell her in case.”
Jae nodded, “Yeah. Probably a good idea.”
“Did your mom give you dates?”
“No, not yet.”
“Okay. Well, as long as we have a heads up of when they get into town, we shouldn’t run into any issues. Just, act normal.”
Jae rolled his eyes, “Yeah. Normal.”
???
A knock at the door had me jogging down the stairs to answer. I could see Ford from the window and opened the door with a smile.
“My boy!” Ford hollered, pulling me into a short hug with a few slaps on the back.
I chuckled, returning the hug. “Hey, Ford.”
I stepped aside so he could come in and closed the door.
“Well, give me the grand tour. This place looksnice.I’m really jealous right now. This beats the dorms no questions asked.”
I shook my head and motioned for him to follow me upstairs.
“The downstairs is where my cousin lives. It’s got a den with a bedroom and full bathroom.”
“That’s right,” he nodded, climbing the stairs. “I always forget you don’t live alone. Oh, man, the photos you showed me do not do it justice. This is sick. And you got sky lights too! And a deck!”
I chuckled, watching Ford circle around the upstairs living space.
“How big is the yard?”
“It’s almost a quarter acre, but it’s completely overgrown and needs to be cleared.”
Ford hummed, spinning back to the kitchen. “And you guys did all this yourselves so far?”
“Uh, we had help to make sure things were structurally sound and make sure we weren’t going to take out any load bearing walls, but otherwise we’ve done it all.”
“Wow,” Ford said, wide-eyed. “I gotta hand it to you, man. This kind of work is no joke. You must’ve been working, like, every night of the week since you bought the place.”
I chuckled, nodding in agreement. Another part of Twelve Steps was finding a hobby to keep you distracted. And this had certainly kept me distracted for the last three months.
“Alright, then. You said we’re doing a bathroom?”
I gestured towards the guest bath in the hallway, and he stepped inside to look around.
“You’re not doing the shower, right?”
“Nah, I don’t want to have to deal with tiling and all that when the tub and shower surround is in good condition. Just gotta re-caulk it and change the fixtures. I put up the new drywall, and I’ll paint it eventually, I haven’t decided on a color yet.”
Ford nodded, doing another sweep of the bathroom. “Do we need to go to the hardware store, or do you have everything you need?”
“IthinkI have what we need. At least according to Google and YouTube,” I laughed. “You’ve got the experience here, so you can tell me.”
“No problem. Show me what you’ve got.”
I led Ford back downstairs to the garage and showed him all the materials I had purchased. Ford agreed that we should start with the flooring and then put it in new vanity and toilet.Between the two of us, it was easy to get all the boxes of flooring upstairs.
