Page 89 of The Shell Collector
“Hi, Paul!” The kids raced from the living room to greet him.
“Hey!” He placed the bags on the floor, picked up Jesse, and slung him into the air. Then he twirled Hailey. “You ready for fun tonight?”
“What are we going to do?”
“It’s a secret, but I promise you’ll like it.” He turned to Amanda. “How long until dinner?”
“About forty-five minutes. Do you need a snack?”
“Nope. That’s perfect. I have a project for the three of us while you finish cooking. That is, unless you need our help.” He reached down and tickled Jesse. “Because all the fun happens after dark.”
“Nope. I have dinner under control. You are dismissed.”
“Awesome.” Paul moved the plastic bag to the corner, then unpacked the contents of the paper bag.
“What is all that?” Amanda asked.
“Well, the other night I fixed your squeaky gate.”
“I noticed. Thank you, by the way.”
“You’re welcome. Although it occurred to me later that I’d also eliminated your redneck burglar alarm.”
She snickered. “It wasn’t intentional, but I guess it was a pretty good alarm.”
“So I got you one of these systems where you can use an app to see who’s at the door and the gate. It’s safe here in town, but couldn’t hurt, right?”
“That was thoughtful.” She picked up one of the boxes. “Yeah. Great!”
“Won’t take long to install, and then you can see what’s going on here even if you’re over on the beach.”
“I do like that.”
“Can I have your phone so I can set up the app?”
“Sure,” she said. “It’s on the charger over there by the door.”
He picked up the phone and took it to her. “Can you type in your password for me?”
“You can probably guess it. My birthday. Do you remember it?”
“I do.” He pecked at the keys and downloaded the app. All the while, Jesse shadowed him, picking up the boxes and wrappers as Paul installed the cameras at the gate and front and back doors. There were double-stick tape and Velcro options, but he went ahead and screwed the tiny cameras into place. No reason to do a job halfway.
A few more twists of the screwdriver and everything was working. He had the kids ring the doorbell and tested it, then gave Amanda a quick lesson.
“I love this. How handy! Especially if I’m waiting on packages. Thank you.” She walked back over to the stove. “I need about ten more minutes. Then we’ll be ready to eat.”
“Anything I can do?” he asked.
“Not a thing.”
“It smells great. We’ll go outside and stay out of the way until you’re ready.”
She mouthed, “Thank you.” He liked the feeling of being helpful.
“Let’s go. All three of you.” He ran behind Denali, giving the lazy dog a little encouragement to go outside.
The yard was small, but they still had a decent amount ofspace to play in. It was nice that the entire property was fencedin.
