Page 104 of His Curvy Distraction

“Free?”

“The number of people who will be in and out of here every week will more than pay for my expenses. I’ll even maintain the property for you, again for free, for the first three years.”

“Three years?” Natalie gasped.

Andre nodded. “Like I said, I believe in what you’re doing. I know it’s going to be good for the community. Families need this. My expenses are small, and my work is quality. I’m hoping to hire a few new people, but I have a good relationship with Landon at Blossom & Grow. If he knows it’s for you, he’ll likely give me everything for free or very low cost. If you’re open to whatever we come up with.”

“I love that place,” Natalie breathed. “And yes, of course I’d trust you both. That’s very generous of you.”

Andre smiled. “It would be my pleasure, Natalie. Truly. Thank you for what you’re doing here. This guy’s mostly pulling his weight, but I’m kind of carrying him.” Andre mock-whispered the last part.

I scowled at him.

Natalie chuckled. “Well, I keep him around for other reasons, too.”

Andre’s eyes got big, and Natalie clapped a hand over her mouth.

I chuckled.

“I didn’t mean it like that. Oh my God. That’s not… I’m going to stop talking now,” Natalie said.

“Probably for the best,” I told her. “And I think most of your volunteers are ready to get started again, if you’re ready.”

“Yes, I’m ready. And I need to go nail my mouth shut, so I’ll say thank you, Andre. It was wonderful to meet you, and I look forward to working with you more.”

“You as well, Natalie.”

Natalie walked back to the center and spoke to Sofia before their group got back to work.

“I like her,” Andre said.

“I love her,” I told him.

“I sort of figured. This place is something special. So is your woman.”

“Yeah, she sure is.”

The rest of the day brought a skeleton of a building, including the framing for the roof. The building was massive, with three panels at each end and six panels down each side of the building. When the volunteers left, the crane rolled in.

Knox, Sofia, Sebastian, and Teddy were working with Teddy’s old crew to get the metal roof on the building. Natalie didn’t want any overheard crane work done with the volunteers around, and everyone offered to get it done at the end of day one.

When that was in place, and the building looked even bigger, everyone called it quits for the night.

Day two was punctuated by the constant sound of hammers as plywood was wrapped around the entire building, then vinyl wrap was secured over it. Windows went in that afternoon, followed by the first rows of siding.

The siding was finished on day three, doors were installed, and plumbing and electrical went in through the entire place. Another inspection gave us the go-ahead for insulation.

If my position had one advantage, it was that I could have an inspector on standby when we needed one. He came back first thing on day four to check the insulation so we could move on to drywall.

“It looks like a real place,” Natalie said as drywall was screwed into place by teams of four. She hired a crew to work on the ceiling since it required scaffolding, but everything that could be reached by ladders was handled by the volunteers.

“It is a real place. It’s going to be amazing.”

“It is. I can’t believe what we’ve done this week. And Andre is going to come out next week to clear the landscaping at the front so I can get the camper moved.”

“Where are you going to move the camper?”

“I’m going to stick it over by the tree line while we’re paving, then figure out the best place for it.”

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