Page 7 of Daddy Bear Picnic

It had been such a long time since I’d been to the house that it didn’t even look like the same place from the pictures or the fragments of memories that triggered over certain smells, mostly over warm fruit cobbler.

At the house, Elijah walked around with his belt of tools swinging around by his waist as I stood by the gate, just watching. I kept one hand holding onto the small keyring teddy, rubbing at the fur with my thumb as a relaxation technique.

“Malcolm,” he waved me over as he waded through the long grass back to me.

“Everything ok?”

“The porch is probably going to need to be rebuilt, thankfully the frame is still solid, but those floor planks are so old, they took on water and it weakened them. But the house from the outside looks fine. The wood is in great condition. I’ll know more when I go inside, but I’m assuming this place didn’t always have a porch, and the material used was subpar for it.”

He was right. Mentioning it brought back memories of steps directly up to the house, no porch. “Yeah, sounds right. Do you also landscape? Or cut grass? I’m now worried there might be field mice in here or something.”

“I can get someone to cut it,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. So, if you want, we can go inside. We’ll have to be careful of the porch, but I’d like to take a peek inside, see what you’re working with.”

“As long as you make sure I don’t fall through anymore floorboards,” I joked, although very serious issues if I did fall through them.

He nodded. “You don’t have to worry about that. We can safety walk around the edge of the porch. Inside should be, at least that’s what I’m going to find out.”

I trusted Elijah, he didn’t give me any reason not to trust him. “You made it sound like this would take a while to do,” I mumbled, whacking my hands through the tall grass as I walked to the porch, aka the scene of my earlier pain. “I’m not complaining though.”

“Honestly, if I needed a second opinion, it would, but I’m pretty confident in what needs to be done,” he said with that oh-so confident smile. If I knew I’d fall to my knees again, I might’ve let them buckle with the way my imagination ran wild. “I would obviously like to look at the place before you move in to avoid anymore issues.”

The room they had me in at the bed and breakfast was nice. It beat having to find blankets and what-nots from old storage cupboards and hope they weren’t full of moth balls.

Elijah held my hand and arm as a support on the porch. This was typical of me to find a hot guy with a beard that looked like a nice place to sit, and project all my romantic feelings onto. He was, of course, encouraging it with his comments about the pride events, and talking about my stuffy collection.

From my keyring, I used the key for the house. It was double locked, and surprised the place hadn’t already been broken into.

“You’re lucky we don’t have much crime around here,” he said, as if reading my mind. And if he could, I needed to stop thinking about the things those thick arms and large hands could do to my body.

The house was a summer home, and treated like one. Large items were covered in large dust blankets, the couches and tables were just as they’d been left the last time anyone had been here. There was no electricity running, but the midday light was enough to see in every room as we went through the house. At first, we were careful, and I continued to walk on the tips of my toes as if that would stop me putting so much pressure on the floorboards. Elijah chuckled a couple times, telling me the structure was intact, but I’d already fallen through one floor today.

“This place is a time capsule,” he said as we headed upstairs.

“Stripped a little bare from the last time,” I noted. I didn’t expect it to be completely decorated or anything quite like gran had it when I was younger. The walls seemed greyer, even though there was color shining through, but very slight. “It’s gonna need a lot of work. And I’m going to need a lot of paint.”

“Well, you’re in luck, we’ve got good connections to the hardware store,” he said.

An old bedroom with twin beds, smaller than I remembered them being, but at that age, everything must’ve been bigger. I recalled fun wallpaper back then, circus themed with balloons and clowns. I told Elijah about it and his eyes widened before his forehead lines creased in the middle as if to ask me if I was ok or at least well-adjusted.

“I’m sure I can recreate it,” I said.

“You like clowns, then?”

I shrugged. “Well, unless we’re talking about the horror clowns, then yeah, sure, I think they’re fun. But that might be because growing up, I was obsessed with painting my face and I would always have a red nose and those two big red hotdog lips like a clown.”

“Well, stay clear of me when you bring that side out,” he said, stroking a hand against the peeling wallpaper. “You’re gonna be busy then, this summer.”

“That’s the plan.” The plan was anything to be occupied. “I’m hoping to create a living canvas of my work, and what better place than with a house I’m living in.”

“That’s kinda like what I do with my workshop,” he said. “You know, I’m also great with paint if you need a second set of hands.”

I nodded, looking down at those large hands. I was sure he could haul paint up in them like drinking water and just smear them across the wall as if giant paint rollers and coat the entire place. “My budget isn’t that big, just wanted to let you know that before you begin to plan all these extreme ideas.”

“Don’t pay what my brother said any attention. I’m more than happy to help out.”

“Obviously, I’d pay you something, but I’d never want it to be less than what your time is actually worth. I really strongly believe in people getting paid.”

If there was anymore light in the room, I might’ve even though he was blushing. A giggle came out, escaping the depths of my throat like I was a school girl with a crush, and he was jock I never thought would give me the time of day.

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