Page 45 of Her Fixer Upper

‘There you are, I was wondering when I’d be seeing you two. Excuse the mess I’m in, I’ve been tinkering with the trailer again. Your dad keeps saying we should get a new one, but I know I can fix it. How are you, Freya my love?’ She gave me a huge hug, then stood back, holding me at arm’s length, regarding me closely. ‘Haven’t you grown?’

‘It’s to be expected, Mum,’ said Charlie. ‘We’re not kids anymore.’

‘You’ll always be my baby, you big brute,’ she said, ruffling his hair. ‘Do you two have time for a cuppa?’

‘Sorry, Mum, we could only hire the van for a few hours, so we’re rather up against it,’ said Charlie. ‘Freya’s keeping me on a tight leash.’ He winked at me, which somehow made me interpret his comment in a rather suggestive manner. I felt my face go fiery again. Charlie’s grin grew broader.

‘In which case, I’ll summon your father and we’ll help you carry the furniture.’ She tapped out a message on her phone and then beckoned us into one of the barns. ‘Help yourself to whatever you fancy. They’re nothing special, just a few pieces we’ve picked up over the years and grown tired of, or replaced. Generally items my troublesome children simply had to have in their bedrooms and then quickly fell out of love with,’ she told me. ‘Charlie’s dad is a terrible one for keeping hold of things “just in case”. Hopefully they will prove to be of use to you.’

‘It’s very kind of you, Mrs Humphries,’ I said.

‘It’s Sara, you don’t have to “Mrs Humphries” me. It makes me feel ancient.’

Charlie put his arm around his mum. ‘Come on, Aged Parent, let’s get on with it.’ She pretended to slap him away as Charlie laughed.

The barn was a veritable treasure trove of items, and Charlie and I had great fun picking out some chairs, a wardrobe and a couple of chests of drawers. We even struck lucky on the bed front, finding two rusty old bed frames, a double and a single.

‘A bit of sanding and maybe some painting, and these will be good as new,’ I said. ‘Thank you so much, Sara, you’re saving us a fortune.’

‘Ah, but how are we going to decide who gets which bed?’ Charlie said. ‘Unless we share the double of course.’ He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. I knew he was joking but I wished he wouldn’t.

‘We’ll Rock, Paper, Scissors for it,’ I said. ‘Only this time it’ll be the classic form of the game, no flamethrowers allowed.’

‘Nothing changes with you two,’ said Charlie’s dad with a grin. ‘Are you sure you don’t want our help carrying things at the other end?’

‘We’ve taken up enough of your time already. Thank you so much, Mum and Dad. We’ll invite you and Freya’s parents round for dinner once the house is in a more habitable state.’

‘We’ll look forward to it,’ said Sara.

Once we got back to Oak Tree Cottage, we both seriously regretted Charlie’s refusal to accept his parents’ help. As time was not on our side, we decided to unload the van first so we could return it to the depot, and then worry about the furniture, which we left stacked up at the side of the house.

‘The neighbours are going to start a petition about the state of the place,’ I said. ‘Please don’t let it rain this afternoon.’

By the time we arrived back from the depot, the clouds were gathering, and Ted was expressing his indignation at having been left behind by chewing on the kitchen door.

‘Ted, stop it, that’s not like you at all,’ I said, feeling guilty. I felt even worse when I had to deposit him in his run in the garden so we could carry the furniture in without him getting underfoot. I promised him an extra-long walk as compensation and then hurried round to the furniture pile, feeling his baleful eyes watching my every move.

Charlie glanced up at the sky. ‘I think perhaps the sofa should come in first. That’s most likely to get damaged if it rains. The rest should be okay. A bit more rust won’t make much of a difference to the beds.’

Despite my fears, we made a much better job of bringing the sofa into the house than Ross Geller would have done. I took the precaution of unscrewing the feet, which gave us a vital centimetre or so clearance between the frame of the front door, and we picked our way up the steps to it between the beautifully planted flower pots that had appeared there while we were on our travels. Stuck to a hanging basket I’d found a note from my parents, saying they were a present, and apologising that they couldn’t be here in person to hand them over. The generous donations from our parents felt like housewarming gifts, like we were a real couple, planning on staying at Oak Tree Cottage long term. I allowed myself to briefly indulge the fantasy, before sensibly squashing the idea.

It was amazing how much difference having a sofa made to the living room. Even though the walls were still rough and the floor was bare, it was so much more homely having one comfortable item in there. I could picture relaxing on it on a winter’s evening, Charlie jokingly complaining about me taking up all the space, before doing exactly that himself.

The wardrobe proved much more of a challenge to manoeuvre than the sofa had been, and both Charlie and I ended up with bruised fingers as we tried to get it up the stairs, which were creaking horribly throughout the whole process. For one terrifying moment I thought I wasn’t going to be able to hold the thing for any longer, which would have put all the weight on Charlie, probably sending him tumbling down to the bottom.

‘You’ve got this, Freya,’ said Charlie, fixing me with a confident look which gave me enough strength to make it up the final steps. We dumped the wardrobe at the top of the stairs and stood back, the pair of us short of breath from the effort.

‘I’d offer you a puff of my inhaler if I wasn’t worried about the side effects,’ I said to Charlie.

‘You and your rules, Freya, always looking out for me. Don’t worry, I’ll live. Probably.’ He pretended to gasp for air. I played along by rubbing his back in a comforting manner, wondering if his skin was tingling from the touch as much as my fingers were. Slowly, without me consciously thinking about it, my movement changed from teasing to more sensual as his back arched under my hand. I was even tempted to pull him closer and explore further, emboldened by the way he was watching me closely.

I leaned forward and whispered in his ear. ‘When you’ve finished being melodramatic, do you want to come to my room?’ I said, my heart beating rapidly as I issued an invitation that I knew was open to misinterpretation. Blame the fact that so many conversations today had involved talking about our plans for the future, as if it was a given that that future was still together. I decided for once to be spontaneous and daring, to act on that impulse of desire, and see what happened. Charlie gazed at me intensely, then reached forward. I tensed in glorious anticipation of his hand on my body, of his voice replying with a husky ‘Yes’, but instead he reached past me and plucked something out of mid-air.

‘A spider was about to land on your head, Hutch,’ he said.

And all at once my courage disappeared and embarrassment replaced it. I hadn’t seen a spider scuttling away, so for all I knew it was a convenient excuse of Charlie’s to prevent an awkward moment. I was letting myself get carried away. I cleared my throat, the sound unnaturally loud. ‘Do you want to bring the wardrobe into my room?’ I said, as if that had been what I’d intended all along. ‘If you’re still sure that it’s okay for me to have it.’

Charlie’s features relaxed into their usual cheery expression. ‘You have more posh clothes than I do. Besides, I’m hoping it gives me leverage on getting the double bed.’

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