price to pay for a young girl who didn’t deserve to have to face the rest of her life without her mother and father.”
Gently clearing his throat, all Kyle could do was nod.
After that, he took a backseat and simply let Jake do all the talking.
An hour later, he felt like there was way too much work for one guy to handle, and when he and Jake were back outside—alone—and standing by his truck, he told him so.
“For starters, you’re not the only guy working here. Most of the time, yes. But when we’re ready to tackle the siding, the roof, and things like that, I’ll have guys here to help you.” He glanced at his watch and frowned. “Today, I need you to place the orders on the materials you’re going to need for all the interior work—drywall, mud, paint, the basics. Schedule it all to be delivered tomorrow and we can store it all in the garage. Get all the material you’re going to need for these front steps. You think you can do them alone or do you want me to send someone over to help?”
“If you have a guy to spare, I’ll take him. Demo will go smoother with a second guy.”
Jake nodded. “You got it. I’ll have someone here after lunch. And I’ll get a dumpster sent over for tomorrow. Just try to keep the debris contained, okay?”
“Got it.”
Turning to walk away, Jake added, “Call if there’s anything you need and uh…do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Think before you speak to Sydney again.” It wasn’t often his boss—or anyone—had to reprimand him, but in this instance, Kyle knew he deserved it.
“Yeah, I know. Sorry about that.”
“You sure you’re going to be able to handle this? Working with Sydney?”
Did he?
“Yeah,” he said gruffly after a moment of contemplation. “We’re both adults and what happened between us is ancient history. You’re not going to have to worry about me, Jake. I give you my word.”
With a curt nod, Jake commented, “For what it’s worth, I understood why you were asking what you did. But try to remember all this family has been through. That’s all.”
“Don’t worry. It won’t happen again.”
“Alright then. Call me if you need anything.” And then he walked up the rest of the driveway and climbed into his truck.
Kyle turned and stared at the house and he wished he had some of the big equipment with him to simply knock the stairs down in a matter of minutes. Even with another guy helping him, it was going to take a little time and he was more than anxious to get started.
“No time like the present,” he muttered. After getting his tape measure, he took it and his tablet over to the front steps to take his measurements and then plug them into the program to determine how much he was going to need in materials. It took several minutes and once he was at the top of the stairs and looking down, he got a good look at the front porch. It seemed crazy to build new stairs when the entire front porch needed some work so he figured he’d measure things up and add that to today’s plan.
After plugging in all the numbers, he straightened and did his best to be conservative on what needed to be replaced and what he could salvage. There was no need to spend money where it wasn’t needed and he wanted Jake to see that he could be trusted to run a job and stay within the budget. Behind him, he heard the front door open and turned.
“Oh, uh…hey,” he said quietly, almost afraid to make eye contact.
Sydney stepped out, partially closing the door behind her, and he wondered where her niece was. Was the kid really old enough to be left alone in the house like this?
Do not even think about asking her if that’s what she did.
“I saw you out here measuring,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “I didn’t think we were doing the porch.”
He clipped the tape measure onto his front pocket. “It wasn’t in the plan, but there are quite a few rotten pieces of wood and I think we can replace those and make sure everything else is tightened up and reinforced. No need to go putting a brand-new staircase up to a porch that is in disrepair, right?”
She nodded, studying him hard.
They stood in silence for a minute. “Was there anything else you wanted to know?” he asked carefully, respectfully. “I need to