Page 22 of The Boyfriend Gamble

Didn’t make me any less uncomfortable. More peopling. More interactions. More…stuff.

“He and his crew are doing the bathroom remodel first, right? For the master bathroom? So that we don’t have to bring a portapotty out.” Josette considered.

“Yeah.” Another expense and, frankly, gross. “Once he gets that done, I can camp out here as well.”

She scrunched her nose. “You worried about thieves?”

“Building supplies do get stolen.” I rubbed my arms, wishing I’d brought a sweater. “More that I want to get used to being out here. I’ve lived in town my entire life.” My ulterior motive, though, was to start cutting the apron strings sooner rather than later.

Wally moved out when he graduated from college with a certificate in landscape architecture. He’d gone to work for a great firm until he came into his inheritance, then he’d been able to buy his own equipment and start his own business.

His old boss had wished him well, encouraging Wally to take the bigger properties outside of Mission City. Richer, more demanding clients.

Pains in the ass as far as I could figure, based on Wally’s whining, but the money was damn good.

He’d recently moved from a rental apartment to his own townhouse with a down-payment he’d diligently saved to go with the remainder of his inheritance that he hadn’t yet spent.

I, on the other hand, still lived with Mom.

She didn’t want me to move out, and although she was here today, she wasn’t happy about this.

Linda, Josette and Jacob’s mother, was dropping broad hints that Mom would happily move out here to keep me company. That she’d sell her house in the city, and I could build her a cabin on the property. She’d be able to come and babysit the grandkids while I taught and Josie decorated.

Jesus.

I loved my mom. Desperately. I admired the way she picked herself up after Dad died and had striven to make the best life she could for us. How she’d encouraged us to follow our dreams and gave us money to help pay for post-secondary education. Money she could barely afford. Her annuity was helpful, but was meant for her, not to take care of us as well.

Dad hadn’t been supposed to die.

Young. Vital. Healthy. Then cancer struck and he was gone within a month.

If not for the strategic life insurance policy they’d taken out when Wally was born, we would’ve been in dire straits.

Josette squeezed my hand.

I blinked.

“Where’d you go, Felix? You seem to be wandering off more than usual.” She smiled. “And that’s saying something.”

Ah, yes. Felix with his head in the clouds. Felix who forgets everything. Felix who manages to get to work every day, but anything else seems beyond him.

I was accustomed to the not-so-thinly veiled criticisms.

“I’m fine, Josie.” I looked around. Our friends had paired off where appropriate and were mingling with others as well.

Izzie and Vanna were gone.

I was kind of annoyed with myself for being pleased with that.

Bertha and Keller had taken their brood home after dinner.

Only Darah remained, of Jacob’s crew. She and Wally were deep in conversation about something.

August and Julian sat close to Ben and Isaac, conversing about something animatedly.

Well, Ben and Julian were animated.

I found Isaac to be a quieter man. More contemplative. Apparently he used to be a lightkeeper out in Tofino. He’d once explained how that was solitary work. How he’d go weeks or months without genuine and deep interactions. Then he met Ben and, despite his love of the ocean, he’d come inland. His work as a harbormaster in Mission City on the Fraser River kept him close enough to the water that he got his fill.

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