“She was really, really pleased that she was offered the opportunity to apply for that job. And that Adam made it clear it was something that had come up, but if she didn’t feel it was right for her, that was all right, too.” She hesitated, and Cindy gave her an encouraging nod.
“In Chicago, she had a hard time finding a good job. Some of the pack members would tell her things, like they saw a help-wanted sign at the fast food restaurant.” She paused again, glanced down the table to find her mom talking to Myra and Bill. “It’s not that she thinks she’s above a job like that, but she’s very smart, and very good at office work and managing, so…”
“It probably felt like people were demeaning her.”
“Yeah. Not intentionally, but, yeah. She hated having to ask the pack for help, but everything is very expensive out there. Anyway, I’m so glad Myra and Adam were willing to let us come here.”
Cindy put her arm around the girl’s shoulders. “Me, too, honey. If your homework’s not bad this weekend, and you’re interested, I’d love some help setting up for the party on Saturday. And, just in case it hasn’t been made clear already, Adam and Myra are going to want your opinion on the people who ask to join. So make sure you try and talk to people, get a good sense of them.”
Tasha blinked at her. “My opinion? Are…are you sure?” She looked doubtful.
“One hundred percent sure. They’ll have to decide, of course, but they’ll want to hear any strong feelings you have, one way or the other.
“Okay. I know Mom is looking forward to meeting Brenda, and thanking her for the opportunity.”
“She’ll be glad it turned out to be a good fit.”
“I’m going to grab dessert. Looks like Joe made a cake. Do you want a piece?”
Cindy laughed and rubbed her stomach. “Not yet, honey, I’m still full. Thanks.”
She made a mental note to let Myra know that the Keoghs seemed to be settling in just fine. A quick look around the room found her mate chatting with Myra. She started in their direction, only to be hailed by Bill and Thomas.
“Cindy, we need you to settle a debate,” Thomas said.
“Oh dear. This isn’t going to go well for me, is it?”
Bill’s lips twitched, but he pulled on a serious face. “You’re a lifestyle blogger, right?”
“Riiiight?”
“So you have your thumb on the pulse of what’s going on out there. Right?”
“Uh-huh, sure, let’s go with that.”
“Tiny homes. Are they the future? The smart, responsible way to live in the new millennium?”
“Tiny homes. Okay, well, I guess my question would be, even if nine out of ten people said tiny homes were the best thing ever, does that really have anything to do with where you personally want to live?”
“Ha!” Bill said, smacking Thomas on the arm with the back of his hand.
“But then again, sometimes you need to hear about a thing several times before you start to incorporate it into your thinking, and allow for it as a possibility. When something sort of radical comes along, it can be hard to take it seriously until you’ve heard it enough that you just can’t ignore it.”
“Ha yourself,” Thomas said, smirking.
“So, I can’t say I’ve done any research on tiny homes myself, but certainly the idea of being minimalist and being conscious of environmental impact is good. But then, sometimes space is good as well. I guess my question would be, aren’t you living in a trailer right now? Isn’t that pretty much the same thing?” She smiled at Jonas as he joined them, wrapping his arms around her and leaning his chin on her head.
“The trailer is okay, but it hasn’t been optimized for long-term living, like I would want.” Thomas was frowning as he considered.
“We’ve done pretty well so far. We had a fairly large home before, so we still have a lot of stuff in storage,” Bill said. “I’m already starting to forget what half of it is.”
Thomas nudged him. “See, we don’t need all that stuff.”
“Yeah, except I’ve already had to stop you three times from ordering things online because we have them in storage, but you were looking for them.”
“That’s true. We do need our things. But I bet we can get rid of a lot of it.”
“Probably, but we don’t have room for any of it right now.”
