“Space?”
“Yes. For my kitchen appliances, pots and pans, you know? I’ve barely unpacked half of them, and there’s no room left.”
I looked around at the upper and lower cabinets of the kitchen, noticing a few doors slightly ajar from whatever she’d packed behind them. And I could no longer see my canister set because of the machinery she’d lined up in front of the four cylinders. My lips twisted to the right. “Not sure how we can get more…space. I mean, it is what it is.”
“I was thinking maybe an overhead rack.” She raised a hand and traced out a long, invisible rectangle above us.
I quelled an outright “no” with a click of my cheeks. What did she think this was, one of those home-remodeling shows?
Gabriella added, “Just until the construction resumes.”
Oh. That.Seeing as I had no idea when the construction might resume, I had to consider her vision. “Where… How… Who would install it?” I asked, still coming to grips with the idea that half her rent would probably be spent on this impromptu project.
“I can get my boyfriend to do it,” she offered.
Boyfriend?I should have known a beautiful girl like Gabriella would have somebody. Goodness gracious—what did that mean for me? Would they be making noises in the night? Would I have to actually enforce the three-night-stay rule in our lease agreement?
I looked up at the hypothetical rack again, as though it might give me the answers I was looking for. Did I really want to share my space—mylife—with someone else and her boyfriend at this point in my journey?
“He’s good with carpentry. He’s also a cook, kind of. So he’d know how to make it work in a kitchen.”
My first thought was to ask if he’d leave holes in the ceiling, but given the fact that I’d be demolishing the kitchen whenever it was time for the rack to come down, it didn’t seem to matter. “I suppose that would be all right.”
Gabriella clapped three times. “Yaaay! This is gonna be great.”
Greatwasn’t the word running through my head, but my daughter’s ringtone saved me from having to don yet another disingenuous smile. I set my plate in the sink on my way out. “I’ll be back to wash it.”
I missed Terri’s call but redialed her a few seconds later.
My belly was so full from the breakfast, I swear my bed creaked a little louder as I sat down to talk to her.
“Momma, where were you?”
“I was eating.”
She huffed. “You need to keep your phone on you at all times.”
“Aren’t you the one who always said I worry too much?” I reminded her. “I’m fine, Terri. My housemate and I are just getting to know each other over breakfast, is all. I don’t like to watch my phone over a meal.”
“Well, I need you.”
My heart dropped.
“Actually, Elijah needs you.”
“What’s going on with my grandson?”
“He needs a place to stay for the summer.”
“Hehasa place to stay,” I blurted out without thinking.
Terri finally told the whole truth. “What I mean is, he needs someone to watch him while I go to Tennessee to take a seminar to get an endorsement. I just found out they selected me from, like, thousands of applicants. It’s an amazing opportunity. But I have to go to Tennessee for seven weeks for the training so I can take the test.”
“Seven weeks?”
“Yes. June and July, basically.”
“Why can’t he stay with Christopher?”
