Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 124(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 124(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
After everything went down and the Reverend was arrested and Michelle and Jerry’s wedding was called off, I kind of took Rodney’s advice. I started my own company, but it sure wasn’t oiled-up lawn care. It was my own construction company. I asked him and Chris to join me on small jobs first, and being the good friends they are, they took a leap of faith and came in as partners.
Dave took a bit more convincing. He thought I’d lost my mind and was out of control or on drugs or something. But once he saw how serious I was and that Michelle and I were the real deal and not some passing obsession, he came in too.
With our resume of jobs under our belts, we were able to get work quickly. I took out a loan from the bank to get us started, which we paid back in no time, and then we were off to the races. Work just started flooding in.
We expanded, hired more workers, and before I knew it, I was acting more as a foreman than an actual guy getting my hands dirty every day. Now I’m known as the boss to everybody. They joke that I’m losing the calluses on my hands from spending more time on my phone and my laptop than using my tools.
But I can take the jabs. It brought in enough money to build Michelle and me a brand-new house up in the hills, overlooking the woods. With her interest in architecture, Michelle had a hand in coming up with the design. She’s even thinking about whether or not she wants to go back to school here in a year or two and become a licensed architect. I told her it would be rough with a young daughter, but I’d support whatever choice she wants to make. I know she’d be fantastic.
The doorbell rings, and Michelle gives me a gentle “be good” smack between the legs as she goes to the door. “That will be the boys.”
“Daddy!?” I look up and see Charlotte standing at the top of the stairs in her jammies.
“Sweetie, what are you doing up? It’s night-night time.”
“My window is still open, and it’s cold,” she says. Her voice still melts my heart whenever she speaks. “Can you close it for me?”
“Of course I can, sweetie.” I smile.
I go up the stairs, take her hand, and walk her back down the hall to her bedroom. It is colder than it should be, so I go over to her window, which has been left open a crack, and close it. Then I help her into bed and tuck her in.
“There we go. All better?” She nods. I lean in and give her a kiss on the forehead. “Great. Now it’s bedtime. Don’t let me catch you up here with a flashlight reading all night, okay?”
I make my silly monster face at her, which always gets a laugh, and she nods innocently back at me.
“Love you, honey.”
“Love you, Daddy.”
I squeeze her hand and leave her door partially cracked before heading back downstairs to find Rodney, Dave, and Chris all sitting in the main combination living and dining room that overlooks the woods. Rodney’s girlfriend, Sasha, is with him. And Dave’s wife, Tina, is seated beside him.
“Is she okay?” Michelle asks as I enter the room.
I nod. “She was cold.” I turn to our guests and grab a glass of wine that’s clearly been left out for me from the table and raise it high into the air. “Well hello, everybody! Welcome to our house-is-finally-finished party!”
Everyone laughs and claps.
Dave raises his glass. “You couldn’t have done it without us!”
I smirk and flip him the bird. “You know what, Dave? You’re right. Speaking of which, I just have to say, that without you guys taking a chance and coming with me to my company–”
“Yeah, yeah,” Chris interrupts. “Enough of this sappy crap. I’m starving. Where’s the grub?”
Everyone cracks up, and I sigh, actually relieved I don’t have to make the speech I’ve been mulling over in my head all day.
“The kitchen. We had like three hundred dollars of Vietnamese delivered, and there’s gelato in the freezer. Come on. Let’s feast!”
The evening’s festivities go even better than Michelle or I could have planned. Everyone has a fantastic time. At first, Michelle and Sasha didn’t quite hit it off, and it’s taken them a while to warm up to each other. But by the end of the night, they’re both laughing and telling jokes over their raspberry truffle gelato.
The boys and I are recounting our worst days on our worst jobs back when we first started working construction, but the whole night, I’m eyeing my wife like a guy at a bar who is entranced by a woman he’s just seen for the very first time.