“One thing down and several more to go.”
Lady scampered about the inside of the barn while we worked. She chased crickets and snapped at butterflies, finally settling down to rest after a few minutes.
I pointed to a pile of thick columns. “Those have to be put in place to reinforce the original poles.”
Rufus winked at me. “I’ve got this. Don’t worry.”
“But it would take three men to hold those up.”
Without a word, he crossed to the pile and tucked his arms under one of the columns. With a great heave, he hoisted it from the stack.
My jaw plummeted to the ground. “What in the…?”
He winked, obviously proud of himself. “I don’t remember the fundamentals of magic, but in the past few minutes I’ve worked a few things out.”
“Like how to have superhuman strength?” What if he decided to use his strength on someone else, like me?
“It’s not strength,” he said. “It’s levitation.” He winked again, this time full of mischief. “Had you fooled, didn’t I?”
A wave of worry dissolved, and I found myself laughing despite myself. “You did. Come on. Let’s get them up.”
We reinforced the poles with the help of the hammer, and then set about repairing the wood planks on the outside. We did as many of those by hand as we could, without the use of the hammer, as I didn’t want our luck to run out.
Rufus surprised me. He whistled while he worked, asking for my lead in things, but generally he listened to a little bit of direction and took off. He worked on his own, which I liked.
We repaired a lot of the facade. One last thing that I wanted to accomplish was transforming the front sliding doors into glass French doors. Feeling confident, I figured Rufus and I could frame them out—with the help of my hammer, that was.
“Are you sure about that?” Rufus asked. “Your luck’s been good.”
I scoffed. “I have the feeling we can get one more good fix out of this.”
“If you say so,” he murmured.
His tone suggested that he doubted it, but I ignored him. “The framing on these needs to be completed. If we can show Dooley that we’re ready for the French doors to come in, he’ll be super impressed.”
Rufus studied the area. “I’m sure he will be.”
He said it without confidence. Well, I’d show him. It was my turn to have the upper hand between us. I took a two-by-four and placed it to the barn, nail in hand.
“Okay, we just need to finish framing this.” I lifted the hammer and gave the nail one good whack.
Next thing I knew, the frame was finished. I brushed my hands and stared at Rufus, proud. “Looks like we did it.”
He nodded. “Looks like.”
“Let’s get out of here.” I called Lady, who was scratching her back against the floor. At the sound of her name, she jumped up and padded over.
I tossed the tools into the back of the pickup and slid behind the wheel. “All right. Let’s get you back to the bed and breakfast.”
“I could use a shower,” he said. “And a change of clothes.”
“Well, you never know. Maybe Malene dropped something off while you were out.”
“That would be nice. Leather is great, but what I wouldn’t give for cotton—now that would be fantastic.”
Understanding the feeling, I smiled. Hey, I loved soft fabric as much as the next gal. “Let’s get out of here, then.”
I plugged the key into the ignition and turned, but nothing happened. Hoping this was no more than a coincidence, I turned the key again, but still nothing. The engine didn’t turn over; it didn’t even sputter.
