Chapter 18

We walked through the house again, Mrs. Goddard now having a better idea of the furnishings and decorations we already had, and how to supplement them with tasteful additions. She was standing in the great room, eyes closed, imagining the space as it could be.

“What kind of floors do you want?”

I really hated this part of it. Usually Aunt June handled the colors and floors. “Ma’am, is it okay if I leave this to you? All I know is we’d like tile in the bathrooms and kitchen area, and anywhere else there’s likely to be water or dirt tracked in, such as the entryway. The back mud room should also have tile. We’ve got radiant heating, so there won’t be a problem with cold ceramic under our feet. Other than that, wood on the staircases, hardwood floor in here all the way through the dining room, carpets in the bedrooms, and I can’t think of anything else.”

That amused her. “For someone who wanted to leave it to me, you sure had a lot of opinions. I do still get to pick colors and drape fabrics along with carpet textures, right?”

I agreed. She asked me for the names of the subs I had coming to do the painting and was happy to hear they were the same ones working on her gazebo.

“I don’t know how you two did it, but every single one of your subs is either the best in the area at what they do, or is an up-and-comer. I hadn’t even heard of some of the people on your list when Candace and I were talking a few weeks ago, but when I checked out their work, I would have no problem recommending them to any of my clients.”

I provided Mrs. Goddard with the color rendering of the house Dad had done so she could give the painters trim instructions and prepare the stucco guys for the eventual dash coat. That was all for today. She left and I got back to hanging rock and taping joints.

Friday finally arrived, marking the end of my week of leisure, except that I think I worked harder this week than I had since we got here in September. I had been thinking over what Mrs. Goddard mentioned to me about Paige, finally deciding to give her a chance to show me who she was determined to be. I was going to call her to ask her out.

The only problem I had was that she had never shared her number with me. Sure I could probably call around and get it, but there was another way. Since I was still at the job site which was only a short jaunt away from the Goddard’s, I drove over to see her.

As the truck moved down their drive, I thought that I should also check on the state of the gazebo. With those two objectives in mind, my finger found the bell and I waited at the door. Once again, the housekeeper showed up.

“Mr. McKenzie, it’s nice to see you. Won’t you please come in?”

My clothes were dirty, dusty, my boots covered in a coat of mud. I swept a hand down my body indicating my current state. “I think I should wait here. I haven’t cleaned up yet.”

“Very well, I will see if Ms. Lily can meet with you.” The door closed before I could tell her I was actually here for the daughter. Oh, well, maybe Evie could walk down to the gazebo with me and we could check out the progress together.

Ms. Lily could see me. She came to the front door, obviously having been told about my current state of cleanliness. “Tim, what brings you by?”

“Hi Mrs. Goddard. I actually came by to talk to Paige, but now that you’re here, I wonder if we could walk down and see how that gazebo is shaping up.”

“Sure, let me get some outdoor shoes.” She vanished back into the house, leaving the door open with a bemused housekeeper guarding it. I could hear a muted conversation coming from within the bowels of the mansion, so it wasn’t really a surprise when Paige showed up in advance of her mother.

“Hi, Tim,” Paige said to me, almost shyly. She looked as if she wanted to hug me, but wasn’t sure if her clothes could stand being in such close proximity to that much dirt.

I made the decision for her, stepping up and enfolding her in my arms. “Hi, Paige. It’s good to see you.” I made sure that was for her ears primarily. “Strangely enough, I’ve missed the times when you came by the house. Do you think you could live with it if I lifted the ban?”

She pulled back, smiling. “If I have to.” Her hand found mine, “I think I’ve missed seeing you too.”

She quickly released me when she heard her mother’s footsteps behind her. “So is that why you came here today? To lift the ban?”

Mrs. Goddard pushed her daughter ahead of her through the doorway, tugging the entry shut behind them. “Actually Tim came over so that we could look at the gazebo. Why don’t you walk down with the two of us?”

I was nervous about checking it because I was unsure what I would find. When I had called the painting crew, I had mentioned to them that we needed the entire building stained, but that there were some still-life reliefs on the beams of the interior that deserved special treatment. When the owner had wanted to know what that might be, I explained that I could see them painted in color, bringing the scenes to life. I was told that we had come to the right place, as his wife was an artist and would love to do that work. We made a separate deal for the special order. The only question now was whether she had gotten around to completing her task.

As we rounded the corner of the house, the gazebo came into view. I could see that the painters had done a good job on the staining. The landscapers had also been busy, with small shrubs surrounding the free-standing building. I hoped they had put the roses in, although it wasn’t the time of year to expect blossoms.

We were starting to catch flashes of color as we approached the steps – the artist had been there. Mrs. Goddard didn’t notice at first, being preoccupied with the landscape design. In fact, she walked completely around the building before she caught up to Paige and me in the interior.

“This is wonderful, Tim. Thank you for the ... roses ... are those ... it’s beautiful.” She pulled me to her, wrapping me up in a heartfelt embrace.

I held her as she gazed at each beam, reliving her memories of the events depicted there. “You deserved to have all this brought to life, Mrs. Goddard.”

Paige watched us, still not fully aware of the meaning behind the scenes, but clearly seeing the joy they now brought to her mother. Mother reached out to daughter, accepting her into the moment. We all stood bound together for a while.

“Well,” Mrs. Goddard said when she had control of her emotions once more and her eyes no longer glistened, “that was certainly a surprise to me. A nice one, but a surprise nonetheless.” She moved to whisper in my ear, “You’re a good man, Tim McKenzie. Now be careful with my little girl.” Aloud once more, “I need to get back to the house to take care of something. Paige, you make sure that Tim gets back to his truck without incident.” She winked at both of us as she left us standing in the middle of the gazebo.

“You know, you really need to get some seating in here,” I suggested. “I can’t imagine coming out here simply to stand around. Put a cast-iron-frame bench with wooden slats there, a hammock here, and you might have a nice place to lounge around in the summer. Maybe some wicker,” I shuddered, making Paige laugh, “with some nice cushioning.”

“Is that what you think Mr. Expert Construction Worker?”

“Oh, no. That’s your expert over there,” I pointed at Mrs. Goddard’s retreating form. “You need to be taking pointers from her, not me.” We walked slowly down the steps and back out onto the lawn.

“Paige, I didn’t just come here to look at the gazebo with your mother,” I confessed.

“No?” There was an arched brow over one of those enchanting eyes, “Why are you here then?”

“I meant it when I said I missed you. It got me thinking, and I want to know if ‘Fun Paige’ wants to go on a date with me tomorrow night.”

To her credit, she didn’t require a synopsis of what we would be doing, she simply answered, “Yes. ‘Fun Paige’ would love to go out with you.” Now came the questions, “What time will you be picking me up? What should I wear? Where are we going?”

Hmm, next time maybe I should be better prepared with answers. “Umm, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, my plans ended at ‘Will you go out with me?’”

Think, Tim. What did you tell Uncle Frank? Do something fun, something cheesy, go to a carnival. “You know the Georgia National Fair opened yesterday in Perry. How about I take you down there and we can eat corn dogs until we bust, and ride the rides, see what there is to see?”

“That sounds good. I have to work tomorrow, so you can’t pick me up before six. You had better be here right at six though. If you aren’t, I might start to think you’re not serious about seeing me.” She ran off to catch up to her mother before she got to the house. There were distant squeals, and I was all alone. What happened to seeing me to my truck? Oh well, I knew the way.

Dad made it back from Chicago on Friday evening, taking Grandpa out to the shop with him so they could have a little talk. There were no marks on either of them when they returned to the house, and smiles crossed their faces, but I thought I could detect a little more distance between them than there had been since their reconciliation.

The books still needed to be done for the week. That’s where Dad found me. “How did the rest of the job go? Did the gazebo get finished? Is Evie, I mean Mrs. Goddard still upset?”

“No, I think we worked that out. She did cash my check, so I need you to sign this one here,” I gave him the printed business check made out to me, “so I can replace my funds.”

He shot me a funny look, “You’re on the account. You could have signed it yourself.”

I shook my head. “Aunt June’s been giving me some business lessons. She said that even though I could sign it, since it was made out to me, for this amount, I probably shouldn’t. That seemed smart, so I followed her advice.”

There was a wistful moment. “How is your Aunt, Tim?”

“She says that she’s starting to show, and she’s not happy about it,” I laughed. “Other than that, she’s doing well, and she really does have that glow that they say pregnant women get. She told me that she’s forgiven Frank for doing it to her, but only because she knows from Mom’s example that she’ll get her figure back afterwards and be left with a bigger chest.”

Dad laughed, “She has no idea how hard your mom worked to make that happen. We’ll see if she has the same drive and resolve.”

We sat quietly for a while.

“Why do Uncle Frank and Aunt June overshare everything with me?” I asked Dad quizzically.

That got him laughing again. “I think maybe they aren’t quite sure how to relate to you anymore. When you were little, it was easy, you were a kid and they could treat you like one. When you turned thirteen and had that growth spurt, suddenly you weren’t a kid any more physically, even though you still acted like one sometimes and they could still treat you like one. Now, you’ve shown maturity and some interesting insights, and it has everyone mixed up all over again. Give it time, and you can have a more adult relationship with them.”

“Now, what else happened when I was gone?”

We talked about the progress on the house, how the building was on schedule and what problems I had encountered to date. Everything was going smoothly as far as I could tell, except that I needed to confess about my small revision to Dad’s plans in the master suite.

“I was going through our storage unit with Mrs. Goddard so she could get an idea of our tastes and preferences when I realized we forgot something.”

Dad’s eyebrow rose questioningly.

“Aunt June had Mom’s window packed up and shipped along with the rest of our furniture. It’s somewhere in the storage room. I know I saw it when it came in, and I measured it for the new house before it got packed away in there and forgotten. I had the guys frame in a space for it above the French doors in your room. That way, the late afternoon and evening light can remind us of her.”

“Thanks, Tim. I forgot about it when I drew up the plans. I think that’s the perfect spot.”

Something else I had said finally connected with him.

“Wait, you mean Evangeline’s still doing the interior for us?” There was a hopeful note in Dad’s voice that I couldn’t help but catch.

“Yeah. Why? Isn’t that what we want? I have her number. I can always call and let her know that her services won’t be required.” I took my phone out, offering to bring up her contact.

“No. That’s fine.” His response came quickly while his hand covered mine, keeping me from completing the call, “I think we could stand to have her take care of that.”

Yeah, you dog. I thought of the prospect of the two of them together, reaching a decision to tell him and speaking up before I could lose my nerve. “I’d be okay with it if the two of you got together,” I said in a quiet voice.

Dad just looked at me, through me.

“It’s not like you’d be betraying Mom. I’ve thought a lot about this, why I wasn’t more devastated when she passed, and I think I have an answer. We had time to say our goodbyes while she was still with us, and it wasn’t like her death came as a surprise. I talked to Aunt June about this too, and we agree. It would take some time to get used to, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing. Plus, I like Mrs. Goddard. We talked this last week.”

That sharpened his gaze, “You did? What about? Why did she... ? No.” He sat, thinking quietly, “I’m glad you said something, Tim. Ever since Atlanta, I’ve been feeling guilty about the two of us, and I didn’t know how to tell you. I am attracted to her; I think you’ve seen that. I just can’t get around how she abandoned me all those years ago though. And then she married that rich asshole...”

“Dad, you talked to me about mistakes. I think that both of you made some; don’t keep making them.”

He was quick to respond, “You know something, don’t you? Spill it!”

“No. Think about it, do you want to keep dancing around her, always on the outside looking in, or do you want to actually have a chance with her? If you want that chance, you have to get in the game and the two of you need to talk. If it’s any consolation I think that in her eyes, she didn’t abandon you.”

“Now, if we’re done here, I need to get these books finished and cut grandpa a check. I have a date tomorrow with Paige, so I need to get this done tonight.”

I saw Dad’s eyes go wide with the mention that I was taking out the daughter of his former girlfriend on a real date. “Boy, those Goddard women really do something to the McKenzie men, don’t they?”

“Yeah, but only one McKenzie man is doing something about it. Now get out of here so I can work.”

He left, muttering something about mother-daughter-father-son.

Grandma was up early, waiting breakfast on me. “Tim, honey, you look happy. What’s going on?”

I was happy. “Well Grandma, Dad is back, the gazebo is done, I had a long talk with Mrs. Goddard, the house is on schedule, I had fun seeing the guys this last week and I have a date tonight.”

That was a lot of information for anyone to parse, but she was quick to pick up on the important parts. “You talked to Evie?”

“Yes, and I’m sure she talked to you about that, so wipe the surprised look off your face.” I stood up, walking over to her, “I love you, Grandma, but you need to stop meddling.”

The fake surprise was replaced with a caring expression, “I can’t help it, you two are my boys, and I want what’s best for you.”

“Try, Grandma, try.” I hugged her before getting back to the whitish gruel she had placed in front of me.

“Uh, what exactly is this?”

“Grits, don’t change the subject. So you talked to Evie and you have a date. With whom?”