Page 15 of Forgotten Dreams

I get back inside, and they’re already working upstairs. Walking up, we decide to start in the bathroom since it will be the most work to demolish. The dumpster arrives as soon as we rip out the toilet bowl. “That tub,” Theo says, “is impressive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gold tub before.” He laughs. “I’m going with we are tossing this shit out and not keeping it.”

“We are tossing that shit out,” I tell him right before he takes the hammer and demolishes it.

I take a picture of the before and after while the electrician comes in and starts opening the walls in the bathroom to see what is inside. I don’t see the time click by, and when I walk out of the house with Theo beside me, both of us are covered in white dust. “Where are you staying?” I ask.

“Got a house not too far from here,” he answers. “Renting it for a month.”

“You could stay with me,” I tell him, and he shakes his head.

“What if I want to bang a girl?” I stop in the middle of the street and laugh.

“What girl?” I look around. “Where are you finding this girl to bang?”

“I don’t know, but if I do find her, I want options, and I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable about my roommate hearing her while I’m banging her brains out.”

“You are such a romantic,” I joke with him as he flips me the bird getting into his truck. Frankie and Nino are long gone. The two of them are staying at the hotel close to the highway.

I get in my own truck, head home, and take off my boots in the mudroom before making my way to my bedroom to take a shower. I put on shorts, then head to the kitchen and grab a beer before I look at what to cook for dinner. My options are either a frozen pizza or frozen burgers. I opt for the pizza, putting it in the oven and then taking my phone out to check my emails.

I spot the quote at the top and open it before I dial her number. The phone rings once before she answers it. “Sierra Davidson.” I can’t help but smile when I hear her voice.

“Sierra Davidson,” I repeat her name, “it’s Caleb Walker.” I take a pull of the beer, leaning back on the counter.

“Caleb,” she says my name, shocked, “is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was calling to discuss a couple of things with you.” And to ask you why you are moving to town. How long are you going to stay? Also, what is it going to take for you to go out with me?

“Oh, okay.” She hesitates, and I hear her moving on her side of the phone.

“Did I catch you at the wrong time?” I ask, but what I want to ask is “What are you doing?” Is she on the couch watching television? What type of shows does she watch?

“No, it’s fine.” She doesn’t give me anything. “What can I help you with?”

“I wanted to let you know that we’ve demolished the bathroom.” I tell her everything we did today. “The electrician is going to start downstairs tomorrow to see what he’s working with, but he thinks you should rewire the whole thing.”

“Is it safer to do that?” she asks, her tone worried.

“I would if I were you,” I answer her honestly. “We don’t know how old the wiring is, but we can assume it’s from when they built the house. It’s probably not even up to code.”

“So we’ll do it. Do you need me to send you guys a deposit or anything?”

“I’m going to look over the quote and see what I can do on my end,” I tell her. “You can also do this in sections if it’s too much for you.”

“Send it over. I’ll take a look at it, but I’m thinking we do everything at the same time and get it over with.”

“Sounds good,” I reply and then don’t say anything else.

“Is that all?” she asks me after thirty seconds of silence.

“Yeah,” I say even though that isn’t all. I want to spend time on the phone talking to her. “That’s it.”

“Thanks for calling, Caleb.” She hangs up the phone, and I look down at it.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask myself because there is no one here but me. “You should focus on growing your business, not the new girl moving to town.” I take another pull of my beer. “Send her the email and move on. She’s obviously not interested in you.” I look to the side when the oven beeps, smirking when I think of her. “She’s not interested in you yet.” I smirk. “Challenge accepted, Sierra. Challenge fucking accepted.”

Chapter 8

Sierra

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