Page 100 of Grit
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Cool.”
“Ox and Emmie are coming for dinner tonight. You should come.”
“Can I kiss you in front of your mom?”
She shook her head, but she was smiling. “Yes, you can kiss me in front of my mom. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.”
“Good.”
“I can’t wait for you to see the bunkhouse.”
He smiled. “Yeah, Brian said it turned out really well.”
“Did you call him and tell him to make time for me?”
“Yep.” He took a bite of toast and locked gazes with her. “You gonna argue with me about it?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Since he was booked through the fall, no.”
Cary grinned. “So, dinner tonight. What time and what can I bring?”
“Six o’clock and bring your muscles.” She grinned. “We’re scavenging in the barn.”
Oh joy.
Cary stood next to Ox,staring at the solid block of tangled furniture pushed into the storage closet of the barn.
“Good Lord,” Ox said.
“She said she wanted a dining set out of here and a bed for the bunkhouse. And there’s a coffee table too, but she wasn’t sure if it was here or in the attic.”
“I can’t see anything other than cobwebs.”
“You scared of spiders, Ox?”
“No, but I hate dust.”
Emmie and Melissa walked into the barn and Emmie’s eyes lit up. “Oooh! It’s like a treasure trove back here!”
“Right? Anytime we get new furniture for the house, we just put the old stuff out here. We never throw anything away.”
Ox said, “Why are you saying that like it’s a good thing?”
“Because there’s so much good stuff in there.”
Cary took a deep breath and elbowed Ox. “Okay. We’re doing this.”
Ox pulled a bandana from his back pocket and tied it over his mouth as Emmie and Melissa picked through the other storage areas in the barn.
“Man,” Ox said, “you are so whipped.”
“Yes, and?” Cary glanced at Emmie. “Aren’t you leading a middle school book club now?”
Ox’s face lit up. “Those kids crack me up.”
“Just… move your ass.” Cary started lifting pieces from the closet and setting them on the empty floor of the barn. All the while, Emmie and Melissa were talking a mile a minute about Ox and Emmie’s engagement—no surprise there—and plans to expand the second-floor apartment above the shop.
“I own the whole building, and right now Ethan and his dad are just using their second floor for storage. So I think if we lowered their rent a little, they’d let us use the space. We could just knock down the second-floor wall to expand the apartment.” Emmie’s smile was shy. “I mean, we love living over the shop, but…”
