Page 50 of Dreaming Without Heartache

“Here we go, girls,” I say, handing them their bags. “Let’s change inside, then we can get started on making this woman a lady.” Maisie giggles. Kara acts like she’s about to enter day one of boot camp. “Find a room to change wherever. Kara, please look after your sister.”

“Always,” Kara scoffs. I expect nothing less from her anymore.

“Hey, my beautiful angels.” Steven emerges from the house. Kara walks past Steven without any recognition as Maisie jumps in his arms. “Well, okay then,” he says in Kara’s direction before turning back to give me a wide-eyed look.

“She’s in a constant mood.” I shrug as I grab my phone and backpack. Tomorrow, I’ll go home first before coming here, but right now they’re installing cameras at the house. I don’t want Kara to know about them yet. I want to catch her in the act and find out what she’s up to. I hope since she’s been caught, it stops. But I don’t have high hopes.

“It’s rough, Uncle Steven.” Maisie shakes her head in disbelief as she walks inside. Steven looks at me after she’s out of sight and we both burst out laughing.

“She’s not wrong,” I admit.

He drapes an arm across my shoulders as we follow Maisie. “I love that kid,” he says.

“Me, too.”

There are no blinds to the enormous windows, so there’s plenty of natural light to work with. I’m actually excited to get started. I haven’t done this in a while. I wore blue jeans, a black T-shirt, and tennis shoes.

“What are you having the girls do first?” Steven starts unpacking the things he bought.

“I was thinking they could start by cleaning up the place a bit before giving them small tasks here and there.”

“Perfect!” Steven hands me two brooms. “Voila!”

“Kara’s going to love me so much for this.” I shake my head, picturing the wrath of a teenager having to clean.

“So much,” he agrees. A sneaky smile spreads across his face as he pictures my demise.

Chapter Eighteen

“Like this, Aunt Allie?” Maisie asks as she carefully turns the screwdriver in the light-switch cover, working at one of the screws. It slips from her grip and clatters lightly against the wall. She giggles and picks it back up. She was desperate to use something from her new kid-size tool belt I bought her, so we took a break from painting to let her try a small task. How could I resist? She’s the cutest kid alive with it on.

“That’s it,” I encourage her. We haven’t been able to work this week as much as I would have liked, but we have a whole long weekend now. The girls are out of school today for an in-service day. We have three days to make progress before school again.

Steven’s been here helping us out and seeming to enjoy it as much as I am. He usually doesn’t care for manual labor these days, being more into management, so I’m pleasantly surprised to have him around. Thankfully, he hasn’t mentioned Sam to me. She finally stopped texting me after I didn’t respond to any of her messages or calls. Refer to me as childish if you wish, but don’t fuck me then go out on a date with another woman in the same week without even a polite “it’s not you, it’s me” screw-you text.

“So…” Steven says slowly as if unsure of himself. “Can we talk outside for a moment?” He looks toward the front door and then back to me.

“Sure,” I say, squinting my eyes in question. He’s acting strangely.

“It’s nothing bad,” he assures me as we walk out onto the front deck. “About the people I hired to redo the cabinets throughout the house…” His words taper off as if cushioning the fall that he’s about to take. And right on cue, two vehicles come to a stop in the driveway. One of them belongs to Sam and the other to Luke.

“You didn’t,” I say calmly as I turn back to face him. “Why would you do that? Much less, not ask for my input. What the hell, Steven?”

“I did mention it early on,” he rushes to say. “And Luke is so talented at what he does. I wanted him to be a part of this with us. Sam’s just the package that comes with Luke’s work. We can all get along, can’t we? Please do this for me, Allie. I love him.”

And there it is. Finally. The first time that he’s said those words to me about a man. How can I be upset now? I push down my anger so he can have his happiness. Though, he has totally blindsided me. We make decisions that affect us emotionally together. Feels a little like a betrayal. Or maybe I’m just super sensitive when it comes to Sam.

Car doors open and close behind me—Sam and Luke have arrived. I sigh. I don’t turn, not wanting to catch a glimpse of her yet. “Okay,” I submit. “How hard can it be, right?” I shrug as I walk away, leaving Steven to greet them. I haven’t seen or talked to Sam since the restaurant with Ginger, and I had no plans to.

The upstairs bedroom is midpaint, nothing final yet. Maisie’s been helping me with the primer, mostly rolling the lower walls in uneven strokes that I’m smoothing out as we go. Kara’s working on the doors that I took off the hinges and laid across drop cloths, just base coats for now. A professional will come in later to handle the finishing work, but she’s doing better than I expected. This is about teaching them responsibility while earning some money of their own. “Ready to finish our wall?” I ask Maisie. She’s finishing up on a light cover. The same one I left her on.

“I’ve almost got it.” Maisie sticks out her tongue right before pulling out the screw, then dropping it onto the floor. She picks it up and puts it in the bag I gave her to keep all the screws and cover plates. “Ready.” She puts her screwdriver back in her tool belt, and I can’t help but smile.

“Ah!” Kara screams as she runs down the stairs, startling me. I take off to follow her when I realize Olivia’s here. They collide into each other’s arms like they haven’t seen each other in years.

Before I reach the stairs so that I can disappear, she walks in, stealing my attention as she once did. Sam is beautiful. My heart skips a beat as her eyes meet mine. I resent the betrayal of my body when I need to feel nothing for this woman.

“The walls aren’t going to paint themselves,” I say to Maisie as I guide her toward the stairs.