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Cassandra came running down the stairs and reminded the boy not to answer the door in case someone was terrible.
"Are you bad?" the boy asked him.
"Not me, little buddy, but you're mother's right. Better to be careful."
"OK."
Cassandra smiled down at the little dark-haired boy and told him he could eat the cookies on the table now that they were excellent.
"We're just going to have a look at the electrical upstairs," she explained to him, and the boy disappeared into the kitchen.
"I can't thank you enough for this, Daniel."
"It's nothing," he insisted.
She led him up the stairs to the spare bedroom, where a section of drywall had been removed from the closet, and he could see that it was dangerous old wiring. Cassandra explained that she had enough money to cover all the repairs but couldn't find anyone to do the work promptly.
"And it's just on this level?" he asked, taking out his flashlight to see behind the wall.
"That's what the electrician from town told me, but he said he couldn't come do the job for another six weeks."
"Did he leave it exposed downstairs at all?"
"Yes."
After confirming that the old wiring was only on the upstairs level, he estimated that he could finish the job in a week. There were only three bedrooms and no bathroom, so it wouldn't take too long. He still had to work full-time, but if he came over on evenings and weekends, he could get the place safe for her and the boy.
"The big thing right now is just getting the old wiring out, so it's not a fire hazard, but then it could take me a week to get the place back together."
"A week?"
"That's the fastest I can go cause I still have to work during the day."
"No, I didn't mean that! I mean that it's really fast," she explained.
"You'll be stuck without electricity up here for most of the week, unfortunately, and there will be dust in the air from taking some drywall down."
"Me and Ben can camp out in the living room for the week, that's no big deal . . . thank you so much."
"I don't mind at all," he insisted.
Daniel wanted to get the electrical out immediately, so he went to the basement and disabled the current before getting to work.
The old house didn't have central air like his place, and Cassandra only had a fan upstairs, so he was feeling the heat quickly.
Daniel took out the six walls necessary to get to the wiring and knew Harry could get the drywall back up in only a day or so; he was a master at drywall.
Cassandra brought him lemonade, which he drank gratefully as he stripped off his outer shirt and returned to work. He wished he'd spent some time at the gym before meeting her, but he'd get to it now and hopefully look fit soon. He still had big strong arms but suffered a little from "Dad-Body Syndrome."
By 5 pm., he could smell something good downstairs, and he remembered how much he missed the smell of food he didn't have to cook. He and Tina had eaten a lot of pizza that the first year. Still, he eventually learned to make a decent variety of meals.
Cassandra called him up the stairs to say that supper was ready, and he wasn't sure if she was asking him to go or eat with them. He walked down the stairs to wash his hands and waited for more information as she took food out of the oven.
"I hope you're hungry," she grinned.
"Oh . . . did you want me to stay?"
"Of course! I'm not having a man working his tail off in my house for nothing. Please," she said, offering him the head of the table next to Ben.
