The rest of that day she’d seemed thoughtful, but when he saw her stop at the drafting table, trace her fingers over the name, look toward him with a shine in her hazel eyes, he knew he’d made the right call.
As they worked together to sketch out the changes they wanted to the house—a more open layout that would require mostly gutting the interior, and customized options on the kitchen, bath and outside porches for full wheelchair compatibility—he pulled in contractors for bids on the changes that he and his buddies couldn’t do themselves. He’d also revamp the storage shed, so it would be a workshop and workout area for him.
Des had already agreed to re-roof both the house and storage shed with architectural shingles. Their only cost would be whatever the shingles cost him. He wouldn’t hear anything different from them on it.
Even so, their ideas required a budget that would take about six months of saving before they’d feel comfortable beginning the first major renovation step. While Marcus and Thomas were willing to front them the money, or even gift it, that wasn’t the way Rory operated, and Daralyn was on the same page on that.
However, his girl did mention that, if the minor repairs needed to make the place inhabitable “could be done,” it “might be nice” to go ahead and move in. She dropped the hint a couple times, in various ways.
Each time she did, he hedged on agreeing to it or setting a date. He didn’t tell her why, which he knew was starting to cause a problem. It showed in the pucker between her brows that grew deeper each time. Though he was usually forthcoming with her on things, he wasn’t on this. Instead, he would move on to another topic, or simply tell her, “We’ll see how the repairs go.”
He and Johnny did work on those minor repairs in the evenings and on weekends. And not just to give her a sense they were moving in the direction she wanted to go. When she decided to tackle the storage building contents, it gave him a reason to be on the property.
He was glad she asked his mother to help her, for additional moral support. Most of what was in that building were things that belonged to her father, so he wasn’t surprised when she had a local thrift store charity cart off most of it. She found a couple small things that had belonged to her mother—a vase and a small music box—and kept those, but that was about it.
He knew she felt guilty about it, wanting them to carry away pots and pans and other things that were functional, but the first time she expressed guilt over it, he’d put an end to that, pulling her down on his lap and cupping her chin so she could see exactly how he felt about it.
“Anything in that shed that has a bad memory for you goes. I don’t care if it’s a teaspoon or a mahogany dining room set. Nothing comes into the Moss Wilder house that isn’t something you want in there.”
“Not even that vintage Winchester rifle I found?”
He did a double take, then saw the smile quivering around her lips. She was up and away with a shriek and a laugh as he grabbed at her, but that was okay. He paid her back for her teasing when he cornered her in their bedroom, after dinner that same night.
But later, when she was lying in his arms, he revisited the subject, because he knew the potential waste was bothering her. “The money from selling the stuff will help the charity,” he pointed out. “And people buying it get something useful at an affordable price. They can create good, new memories with it.”
Once the storage shed was empty, she and Amanda began making regular shopping trips to find secondhand furniture pieces that could be stored in the building until it was time to move them into the house. Sometimes he went with her, but since he wasn’t as much into the shopping end of things, she often sent him pictures on her phone, to see if he liked her choices.
No surprise, she considered both their tastes when she was looking, so he had no problems with anything she picked out. But mostly he liked seeing how happy it was making her. If she wanted it, he’d have said yes to a faux fur hot pink sofa that made his eyeballs