Page 71 of January

“I was just thinking about how nice it might be to sleep outside under the stars and a whole lot of blankets with you,” Melinda said.

Kyle looked over at her in surprise, but then she smiled, and Melinda kissed her on the cheek.

CHAPTER 19

“Hey. What’s up?” Kyle asked into the phone as she closed the door behind her.

“You never called me after your date, and I gave you all day to do so,” Jolie replied.

“Well, I’ve been a little busy,” she said, looking back at the garden, where Melinda was sitting on a blanket in the grass.

“Doing what, exactly?” Jolie asked with a bit of teasing in her tone.

“Not that.” Kyle laughed. “But she’s here right now.”

“Date number two?”

“Yes. And you’re interrupting it.”

“Where’shere? I don’t hear any noise or anything?”

“We’re at the garden house,” Kyle replied.

“Nice. Romantic.”

“It would be, but they took most of the stuff out today,” Kyle shared.

“Wait. What?”

“I hired a contractor. She had a crew available to move all the stuff out and put it in storage while the work is done.”

“That’s already starting?” Jolie asked.

“Should I have called you? I don’t know how involved you want to be in all this.”

“No, I trust you. I just didn’t think it would happen this quickly.”

“Me neither. I happened to catch the contractor at a good time. They actually had someone back out of a job at the last minute or something. I don’t know. I was too excited that she’d said yes to a meeting to really pay much attention. Anyway, I researched her. She’s got great reviews, and she’s worked on houses like this one before. It’ll be a long process because we’re redoing the floors, the windows, and the roof, among other things, but she said she doesn’t see that taking morethan six to eight weeks, depending on how fast I choose the materials and how quickly they can arrive, which, apparently, is what takes the longest. She said she has some in stock if I choose those.”

“And are you staying until it’s done, or just going to check in from here?”

Kyle looked outside again toward Melinda, who had laid down on the blanket with an arm behind her head, using it as a pillow.

“Staying,” she said definitively.

“You’re looking at her right now, aren’t you?”

Kyle smiled and said, “Yes. And she’s so beautiful and an amazing kisser, Jolie.”

“Ah… So youhavegotten somewhere. Amazing, huh?”

“Yes. Best first kiss I’ve ever had.”

“And how many kisses have there been?”

“A few,” she replied.

“And were they all amazing?”

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