Chapter 175: New Home
*A house is made with walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams. – Ralph Waldo Emerson*
On the first Friday in November, afternoon Reese sat in his office with the conference call on speakerphone. The architect, engineer and site foreman were not on the same page. Rubbing his forehead, he wondered if they were even in the same book. Clicking on the calendar on his computer, he looked for a time that all four of them would be available. And soon.
“George,” Reese said to the foreman, cutting off the engineer, “go ahead and shut the site down before the city comes in and shuts us down.”
“No offense, Reese,” George replied, “with the holidays coming up, my men would rather work until the city shuts us down.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, I’m calling it, I’m shutting it down, your crew will still get paid.” He tried to keep his voice calm, but damn it, he was tired of telling them this.
“It’s not common in the trades.” George pointed out.
“As you keep pointing out to me, neither are benefits and paid time off. Yet, I also do both of those.” Reese pointed out. “Obviously, I do not run my business like the typical trades.”
“Okay, I’ll shut it down.”
“Monday, too. I want all three of you at the office at ten on Monday. Make sure to bring everything related to this issue. I want a plan in place to start up again on Tuesday.”
There were a few complaints and “I need to check my calendar” excuses that had Reese rolling his eyes. Smirking as he caught himself in the act, he mentally thanked Dean for the bad habit.
“I have your calendars pulled up and I’m putting the appointment on from ten to one.” His fingers flew over the keys as he added it to the four calendars and sent a message to Willow. “I’ll have Willow do an early lunch for us.”
They all finally agreed and Reese grinned. “When are you going to realize that it’s better to just agree with me?”
“You’re a right ass.” Billie, his engineer, said with her British accent lightly tinting her amused voice.
“At least you’re no longer a right cunt.” The architect, James, laughed as he threw out her typical insult for Reese.
“Not sure if it’s an improvement or a demotion.” Reese admitted and the others laughed. He pulled up his message from Willow and read over the options that she sent for brunch. Replying with his choice, he reminded her ‘early lunch – brunch has mimosas.’
Almost immediately she responded with ‘mimosas for me.’
Giving her a thumbs up emoji as he chuckled, he ended the call and reached over to push the button on his desk phone. Once that was taken care of, the small baby monitor was turned back on. With the sounds of his happy babies filling his office, he headed to the kitchen to get more coffee.
On the top of the coffee maker was a sticky note in Gigi’s handwriting reminding him to have no more than three cups of coffee a day. It was a compromise, the doctor said two, his coffee addiction said many more. With a disgruntled sigh, because he really did want more coffee, he rinsed the coffee mug and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge.
Snagging an apple on his way back to the office, he paused as the front door opened. Turning to see wo it was, he smiled as Cheryl and Wayne entered the house. Today she was in jeans and a sweatshirt for the university that she now teaches at. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun and she wore no make up causing him to think that she did not have any classes today.
Wayne was also casually dressed in jeans and a Denver Broncos t-shirt. “Denver? Really?”
His future son-in-law chuckled. “Hey, I grew up there. I still bleed orange and blue.”
“Dad’s been a die-hard fan of the Falcons for as long as I can remember.” Cheryl laughed as she hugged her dad. “But obviously, Helen forgave you for that.”
“Woman loves her Chiefs.” Reese grinned.
“Not everyone can be perfect.” Wayne teased.
“I’m still going for the Browns. One of these days, they’re going to remember that they have good players and actually do something.” Cheryl shrugged. “And if they don’t, it’s still fun to cheer for the underdogs.”
“That’s my little girl, always the optimist.” Reese kissed the top of her head. “I guess you don’t have any classes today?”
“Not on Fridays.” She admitted. “We found a house.”
“Oh, yeah?” he grinned as his daughter moved back to her fiancé. “You tell Dean?”
She shook her head as her dad took a large bite out of the apple. “Not yet. It’s going to be a while before we can even think about moving.”
“Come on, let’s go see if we can pull up the specs of your house.” He covered his mouth with the hand that held the apple and grabbed the bottle of water with the other.
The couple held hands as they followed Reese down the hall to his office. It was the first time that Wayne had been to the office and was taken back by the large mural behind his desk.
“Whoa.”
Reese chuckled as he sat behind the desk and watched his future son-in-law take in the forest scene. The instant Wayne saw the zombie, his eyes widened, and his mouth formed an O in surprise.
“I told you, she’s good.” Cheryl laughed as she sat down in the chair in front of her dad’s desk.
Wayne moved to the chair in the corner to drag it closer.
“Don’t sit in that chair, get the other one.” Cheryl gave her father a knowing look and he simply shrugged as he took another bite of his apple.
“Why are there handles over here?” Wayne asked as he reached out and grabbed one of the loose straps hanging on the handle closest to the large picture window. “What are these for?”
“Think about it.” Cheryl suggested.
Reese continued to watch the younger man with amusement as he continued to eat his apple. Wayne let the strap fall and he jumped back as if it had bitten him.
“Is that…? Is that a sex chair?”
Cheryl groaned as she buried her face in her hands, her dad simply chuckled as he finished his apple and tossed it into the trash can before using a wipe to clean his hands.
“It’s not a sex chair. It’s simply an armchair.” He tossed the wipe into the trashcan also. “That we have sex in.”
Wayne looked at the older man who was grinning from his amusement. “Doesn’t that make it a sex chair?”
“No. A sex chair is different.”
“I’m sure you have one.” Cheryl said from behind her hands.
“No, but I like the way you think. There’s a specialty furniture store-“
“I do *not* need to know, dad!”
Reese chuckled.
“Is this chair a sex chair? Sorry, a chair you have sex in?” Wayne asked walking over to the other chair along the opposite wall.
“No, or at least not yet.”
“Dad.”
Wayne dragged the chair over to the desk and then took one of the wipes from the container to clean his hands.
“Why do you have wipes in your office? It’s not to clean up from…?”
“Oh, God.” Cheryl dropped her hands to her lap as she looked up at the ceiling and her dad laughed. “Please, dear God, please tell me it’s *not* for that.”
“It’s because I have three babies in the house.” Reese said as he motioned to the monitor where Gigi was reading a spicy lesbian romance book to the sleeping babies.
“Seriously? That’s what she reads to them?”
“Don’t even.” Her dad warned. “I’ve seen the books that you’ve given Dean and put on her e-reader.”
His daughter blushed slightly. “She’s practically an adult.”
“And they have no idea what she’s saying. It’s the tone and the fact that she’s reading to them. When they’re awake, it’s classics and children’s stories.”
“Fine.” Cheryl groaned.
“Now, what’s the address?” Reese asked and she rattled it off and he pulled it up on the real estate website that he used. “You can definitely get it cheap and you’re right, you won’t be moving into it for a while. I can George out to inspect it,” he pulled up the other man’s calendar again. “Maybe not.”
Grinning, he pulled up the other calendar. “It can’t be an official inspection, because he’s not certified yet, but I can send Jack over Monday morning to give it a once over.”
“Yeah, that works.” Cheryl agreed and Wayne just nodded.
“Good.” Reese sent a message to Willow to arrange the inspection with the other realtor. “Willow is on it.”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
