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Dana wanted to tell him that he was no more responsible for failing Asher now than he had been in the past. But he wouldn’t listen. Maybe he couldn’t. She’d never seen him like this. But then she’d never heard the true story of his childhood before either.
So she did the only thing she could think of. She walked over and put her arms around him and held him. He was rigid at first but then she felt him give and his arms went around her and he held on tight.
“It will be all right, Levi. We’ll make sure of it.”
“How?”
She pulled back and took his face in her hands. “Whatever we have to do, we’ll do it. I promise you, Levi, by the time Asher comes home his rooms will be livable.”
Levi’s phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and looked at the readout. “It’s Asher,” he said. “He hardly ever calls.”
He answered. “Asher? What’s—what’s going on?” He was silent a moment then said, “Because you usually don’t call me. What’s up?”
Dana could see his hand clutching the phone, white-knuckling it. Then suddenly he relaxed.
“No shit? That’s great! Of course we’ll be ready. Yeah, you take care. I’ll see you Saturday.”
He hung up and looked at Dana.
“Saturday? Saturday as in four days from now?”
“Yes. And I told him we’d be ready. Was that a lie?”
Oh, holy shit. “No. I’ll go call the tile shop. If they don’t have something we can use in stock we’ll find another one that does.”
“I’ll go pick it up if I need to.”
“That might be necessary.” Today. If they could get it today they might have a chance. “Call Harlan and make sure he can get his tile people over here as soon as we have the tile. I’ll talk to you when I know something.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dana tried every tile shop she knew but none of them could get the amount of tile needed for at least three days. Which did them no good at all. Finally, she looked online at one of the giant chain home improvement stores and found both a large and small tile that looked similar to the others they’d chosen. She showed the pictures to Levi.
“Looks good to me. Do they have enough?”
“One way to find out.” She called several stores within a reasonable distance but no one carried enough of the tiles. They would all have had to order from their warehouses and that would take time Dana didn’t have. Just when she was beginning to despair she called the store in Kerrville, and struck gold. She spoke with the manager and then hung up.
“Well?” Levi said.
“They have it. As much as we need with extra.”
“That’s great. Isn’t it? Why don’t you look happier?”
“I’m happy. I’ll be happier when we have it in our possession. I think we should pick it up. Today. It feels like tempting fate to wait for it to be delivered. Besides, I want to see it in person.”
“Not a problem. I have a pickup.”
“Of course you do.”
“Every Texas boy needs to own a pickup at least once in his life. Let’s go.”
Dana followed him out to the car barn. Before when they’d been together, Levi only had five or six cars. In fact, when he moved to Florida with her he’d left all but one of his cars in Whiskey River. Which should have alerted her to the fact that Levi wasn’t happy with the move. But there was no sense beating herself up about something she’d done when she was young and, quite frankly, stupid. “How many cars do you have, Levi?”
“Here? Only about twenty-five.”
“Only twenty-five? You have more?”
“Yes. Most of them are in a garage that’s out in the country. Near the airport, actually.” He opened the side door and let her go in first.
