Walking into the house, I looked around the living room for Oren, who was being picked up from school by Whitney today. They have been closer than usual since they came back from the mini-vacation. Nope, he’s not downstairs, and it’s noticeably quiet. I think he’s next door with Whitney.
Oren loved his room, and it was worth all the effort and the cost to do it. He’s loving the small bookcase, and I promised we’d get him some more books when he reads the one he has. One at a time, not filling it up and never reading them.
Myles walks into the house and quickly grabs me and kisses me. “You had a good day, sweet’ums?”
“I’ll tell you all about it later. Is Oren with Whitney?”
“Yeah, he was waving from their front door when we pulled up in Clem’s truck. He’s growing fast don’t you think?”
Nodding as I quickly open the fridge and see what I can make for our supper. “He is, and oh…” I then tell him about the run-in with Mrs. Bradshaw.
“That woman is a menace. But you’ve probably bought us some time.” Myles laughs. “We’ve taken Cassian on permanently; did I tell you?” Before I can reply he continues, “He’s good at booking clients in, organizing the costs and everything. I’m thinking he’ll be damn good for the garage. He is working hard with Dan and his boys. They have almost got the place done. Oh, and Dan is moving into the apartment next week. Synthia is having new furniture delivered this week.”
The conversation bats back and forth, and I can’t help but think that this is exactly where I should be, and how I want to live my life.
Chapter 23
Myles
“Come on, Clem. We need to get all this stuff out of the attic. It’s been way too long up here cluttering up the space and collecting dust,” I shout down to him from the attic.
He clambers inside and stands looking around. “There isn’t as much as I thought there was. Some of these boxes,” pointing to the corner of the space, “hold photographs. Some of the people I don’t even recognize.”
“There are boxes here with clothing stashed,” I say while digging around in a box with old dresses inside.
“No idea who that all belongs to, but let's just ditch them all. We can make this a grand space if we get rid of all the trash stored in here.” Clem looks around, then picks up a box and heads to the attic entrance, and I am thankful we have attic stairs.
I came across a box of Oren’s old toys. Things I’d forgotten he’d even had. But they are not useful to him or me anymore. I’ll take these to the nursery in town and see if they can use them. They are in good condition, and it would be a shame to trash them.
Maylee walks into the attic and starts digging into boxes, mumbling to herself about what garbage people keep and for what reason? I smirk to myself because she’s mumbling exactly what I was thinking.
Quite a few of the boxes are from my old home. Just stuff thrown into a box and sealed to deal with later. Opening one box, I come across a clock, a set of pans, and a measuring jug. I mean, really? Why on earth did I keep all this?
I pass box after box to Clem who takes them to the kitchen where Maylee and Whitney are going through them and deciding if we ditch, donate or keep.
“Most of this we can trash, Myles,” Clem grabs the last box out of my hands. “No idea why we kept it all. Even some of this from your old place should have gone in the dumpster.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. Did you see the children's books? I’m going to take them to the nursery with the toys.”
“Good idea. Books are always good to keep, and maybe get Oren to check if any are a favorite, because you’d be in deep trouble if you gave away one he had an attachment to.”
Nodding my head at Clem, I look around at the empty attic and think it would make a great room. Maybe a library-type nook or something?
In the kitchen, Maylee and Whitney are looking at photographs, and I grin when I pick one up of me and Clem when we were in our early teens. “Remember this, Clem?” I ask as I pass him the photograph.
“Shit, yeah, that was right before we got our asses paddled.”
Both Clem and I laugh as the memory floods back.
“What happened?” Whitney asks as she wraps an arm around Clem’s waist and leans on his side when he throws an arm around her shoulder.
“We stole Mom’s truck. Trouble was we didn’t know how to drive,” Clem states with amusement in his voice. “That truck wouldn’t stop, and we ran right into Mr. Foster’s front yard, knocking down the water feature he had. It was like a waterfall that ran down levels into a base where he had koi. You know his pride and joy.”
I started laughing uncontrollably. “Clem and I were running around his yard trying to catch those koi before Momma found out what we’d done. But you know Mr. Foster knew us well enough that one call to Momma, and we were done for.”
We reminisce some more, but I realize I’ve not seen Oren for a while. I look for Oren and find him in the livingroom. He’s playing with toys. Toys he hasn’t played with in a long time.
“Look, I found my fire truck and police cruiser.” Oren holds up the toys and has a huge smile on his face.
