Page 37 of Returning to Everton

I laugh at her antics. “We’ll just have to wait and see, okay Princess? Just let your mom and I work it out please,” I plead. “Now you stay here and play. I’m going to go check on your mom. Be good,” I tell her.

“Okay, Nate! See you later!”

I smile and wave at her as I walk out of the playhouse. As I’m walking to the house, I see a couple of guys in the kitchen with Rowen. They must be the movers. Better get in there and make sure they don’t get any ideas.

15

Rowen

An hour later, we’ve got a list a mile long, and the movers just pulled up. I walk outside to greet them, only to realize it’s Tim and Nick. The guys that packed the moving van yesterday. This is going to be awkward. The guys walk up to the front porch and Nick whistles.

“Nice place. Pretty big upgrade from the last one,” Nick states as he looks at the house appreciatively.

“Thanks, Nick. It’s pretty empty right now though,” I quip.

The guys laugh at that. “Alright Mrs. Thompson, how ‘bout you show us around so we know where to put everything, then we’ll start unloading the truck,” Tim suggests.

“Good idea Tim, come on inside I’ll give you the tour.” When we walk inside, Quinn sees the guys and raises a brow in question.

“Quinn these are the movers. They’re the guys that loaded up the truck yesterday,” I inform my best friend with a look that clearly says ‘this is going to be awkward save me!’ She absolutely knows what that look meant because she gets a twinkle in her eyes and just smiles at me.

“Oh, that’s good. So y’all already know each other and have a good rapport. I was a little worried about leaving you here with some strange men, but now that I know you already know each other, that’s a load off my mind,” she says to me with a smile.

I swear I don’t know what she’s plotting but I’m going to kill her. Nick breaks into my train of thought as I’m plotting her very painful murder.

“Oh, we’ll be fine here. We’re complete professionals. You have nothing to worry about ma’am,” Nick assures her, and I have to try to keep myself from busting out laughing. Nick is many things I’m sure, but a complete professional is not one of them.

Tim just pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. “I’ll make sure he stays on his best behavior,” he says.

Quinn looks over at me and raises her brow again. I stealthily tilt my head down. She tilts her head up. And now we’re on the same page. That was code for ‘that’s the guy that hit on you?’ ‘Yup’ ‘gotcha’. Didn’t even have to say a word and the guys were none the wiser.

I suggest we start upstairs and work our way down, so the guys and Quinn follow me to the second floor. We start in the far bedroom, which is the one Violet claimed. Since not much will be going in this room now that Violet has a new bed, we quickly move on to the room across the hall, which will be Violet's playroom.

“This is gonna be Violet’s playroom so anything you find with her name on it just put it in here. I’ll go through them later and move the clothes to her room,” I tell Tim and Nick.

“Yes ma’am,” they both say.

The next room is the bathroom. There’s not but maybe one box that goes in there, so I just tell them to put Violet’s bathroom box in there and keep walking to the last room. This room is going to be the guest room because it’s the furthest from Violet’s room.

“Since Violet got a new room, let’s just put her bed in here. I know it’s pretty small for a guest, being it’s only a twin, but I don’t really anticipate us having any guests anyway. It’s really just to fill a room and make some use of it,” I shrug my shoulders.

“Okay, anything else go in here or just the bed?” Nick asks.

“No, I think that’s it. I’ll have to buy a dresser for it eventually I suppose,” I shrug again.

With the upstairs complete, we walk back downstairs and start with the living room. I explain that anything that says living room or books, and the furniture, of course, goes in this room. We move on down the hall and as we enter the kitchen, the door slides open. I look over to find Nate standing there eyeing the guys.

“Hey, Nate. Where’s Violet?” I ask. “The movers are here,” I gesture to the guys and he squints his eyes at them. What is going on in that brain of his?

“She’s playing in her new playhouse. I may have taught her some magic. I hope that’s okay,” he replies worriedly.

“Of course it’s okay Nate. I trust you not to teach her anything she shouldn’t know,” I assure him.

“Yeah, that’s probably a bad idea Rowe. Remember where we learned most of the bad spells growing up...” Quinn helpfully points out.

Nate gives her the stink eye for that. “I wouldn't teach her anything bad Rowe. I‘m not here to be a bad influence. That's all Quinn,” he retorts.

I can tell Quinn wants to refute that, but we all know it’s true, so she snaps her mouth shut, then sticks her tongue out at him. I’m dealing with children. I just shake my head at them.

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