Page 36 of Story of My Life
She and Zoey looked at each other with elation and broke into what looked more like rapturous flailing than any kind of victory dance I’d ever seen.
“If you two are turning this into a fucking social media meeting, I’m leaving,” I announced over the jumping, hair bouncing, and high-pitched squealing.
Zoey broke away first and shot me the kind of glare a woman usually reserved for someone who had lied, cheated, and stolen her dog.
“Who’s ready to see upstairs?” Darius cut in, taking advantage of the temporary lull in squealing.
“Me!” Hazel said, starting for the staircase.
“I’ll be right behind you. I just have to answer this email,” Zoey called.
“Okay. But hurry up. Otherwise I’m taking the bedroom with the biggest closet,” Hazel said, jogging up the stairs with Darius following along like a puppy.
Zoey spun around and planted herself in front of me. She stuck a sharp fingernail in my sternum. “Now you listen to me, Campbell whatever the hell your last name is.”
I pointed at my shirt. “Bishop.”
“Shut up. This is the first time intwoyears that I’ve seen a spark ofanythingin that woman’s eyes. And if you manage to put it out by being a gigantic, grumpy man bear baby, I will destroy your life.”
I had at least a foot and one hundred pounds on the woman, but I got the feeling that she didn’t fight fair.
I pushed her hand away. “Look, lady. I’m not getting roped into whatever idiotic whim your friend has just to have her change her mind and bolt. This is a family business, and ifshe fucks with my family’s livelihood, I’ll be the one destroying things.”
Zoey’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah? Is your business drowning in projects, or is it as dead as the downtown?”
Fair point. Not that I’d admit it out loud. “You don’t know anything about our business or our town.”
“We sat in the middle of Main Street for five minutes while you argued with the only other human being outside. You’ve got lumber supplies in the back of your truck but still had enough time to ride to the rescue, drive us into town, and turn this walk-through into a whine-through. My mistake, you’reclearlyswamped.”
“I can tell just by looking at your friend that she’s gonna get bored with the ‘idyllic small-town life’ and move on to something else. So I’m not getting up to my neck in supplies and scheduling just for her to pack up and leave in a week when she realizes she can’t hack it.”
“Oh my God, I have no idea what she saw in you. You’re such a dick.”
“I’m a dick protecting my family. And what the hell do you mean ‘what she saw in me?’ I’ve never seen the woman before you two destroyed public property.”
“Then get a damn deposit when you take the damn job,dumbass,” she enunciated, ignoring my question.
To be fair, a nonrefundable deposit was standard operating procedure. And the way the work order was shaping up, it would be a nice fat hunk of cash for doing little to nothing. Cash that Bishop Brothers was in dire need of.
“Or, better yet, give her the name of some non-assholish contractor and get the hell out of here before you start making her doubt herself again.” With that, Zoey turned on her heel and stomped haughtily up the stairs.
“She’s gonna eat some poor idiot alive someday,” I muttered before slowly following her.
9
THE PIANO BENCH LEG DEFENSE
HAZEL
Didyou know there’s a piano in here?” I called from the sitting room after my sneezing fit stopped. I’d muscled open as many of the first-floor windows as I could to give the dust we were stirring up a place to go.
“Uh-huh. Yeah, awesome. I’m definitely not searching for nearby hotels as we speak,” Zoey said from the purple velvet settee we’d uncovered in the library, a.k.a. my future office.
I threw the dusty sheet on the pile in the foyer on my way to her. “I said you could have the big bedroom.”
“And I told you I want you to have every square inch of inspiration you can squeeze out of this ghost-infested horror house.”
I flopped down next to her and put my feet up on the three-legged piano bench we’d found in the pantry. The fourth leg had been discovered in one of the coat closets that flanked the front door. “Cam said the scratching we heard in the wall is probably just a teeny tiny mouse.”
