Page 50 of Her Fixer Upper

‘Trust me’ was all he said.

There was a queue of people waiting to sign in, and from the growing rustling from the bag, I could tell that Ted was getting rather restless.

When we finally got to the front of the queue, Charlie suddenly kissed the back of my hand.

‘Why don’t you sign us in, babe?’ he said. ‘My fiancée is ever the practical one, and that’s why I love her,’ he explained confidently to the woman behind the desk, drawing her closer in a charming manner, the very picture of the besotted partner. Meanwhile he surreptitiously offloaded the bag onto my shoulder, I’m assuming so I could tuck it out of the woman’s sight. But the sudden weight of Ted nearly made me stagger, which of course drew her attention straight back to where we didn’t want it.

Charlie bent his head and briefly kissed me before turning back to the woman. ‘She’s overcome by my presence,’ he said, still Mr Charm personified.

The woman actually giggled. As she turned away to check Granddad’s room number, I rolled my eyes at Charlie and mouthed, ‘What was that in aid of?’ at him, my heart still pounding at the sudden delightful shock of feeling his lips against mine. He grinned.

‘Means must,’ he whispered. ‘While she’s focusing on love’s young dream, she won’t notice that Ted’s about to climb out of that bag. Quick, make a run for it.’

I hadn’t noticed either. I glanced down and spotted Ted’s furry head poking up out of the bag. I gently shoved it down and then strode off down the corridor, hoping that if I looked like I was meant to be there, nobody would question my presence.

Fortunately, I heard Granddad’s distinctive laugh in the distance, so I knew I was going in the right direction. I rounded the corner and nearly got taken out by a cheerful man in a wheelchair who was apparently involved in a race against my granddad. He reached the end of the corridor and slapped his hand against the wall, then punched the air in delight.

‘Well done, Sjaak,’ said Granddad as he reached the finishing post a mere second or two later. ‘Freya love, it’s great to see you.’

At the sound of Granddad’s voice, Ted’s head made a reappearance.

‘Eh, Ted lad, let me introduce you to my good friend Sjaak. I think you two would get on like a house on fire, same sense of mischief the pair of you.’

I heard Charlie’s voice drifting down the corridor, asking a question of someone in an overly loud manner.

‘Watch out, the introductions are going to have to keep, I’m afraid. I think we might be about to get found out. Is there somewhere we can escape to?’ I asked.

‘Follow me,’ said Sjaak. ‘I’ve been here a few days longer than your granddad, so I know all the Colditz escape routes.’

He led us out of a fire escape, across a courtyard and then into a wing at the back of the building.

‘Use my room for your visitors, Arthur, I’ll go and keep watch,’ said Sjaak, giving a cheery wave before he whizzed back out to run interference. I was glad Granddad had found a friend here, someone with the same bright outlook on life. Hopefully it would make all the difference to him settling into his new surroundings and making a speedy recovery.

A few seconds later Charlie slipped into the room, then we shut the door and let Ted out to greet Granddad properly. I don’t mind confessing that their happy reunion brought tears to my eyes, while Charlie was also openly sniffing at the sight of Ted’s tail wagging so hard it was shaking the rest of his body too. He picked Ted up and put him on Granddad’s lap, whereupon Ted started fiercely licking Granddad’s ears.

‘Enough of that, lad,’ said Granddad, although his voice was gruff as if he was also only just holding back the emotion. Ted settled down, nuzzled up against his master and started quietly snoring as Granddad stroked his head. ‘Tell me how the house is doing. Have you fixed it up yet?’

‘We’re getting there,’ said Charlie.

‘I’d say we’re quite a long way off,’ I said at the same time.

Granddad looked between us, an amused expression on his face.

‘Sounds intriguing,’ he said. ‘I can’t wait until they let me out of this place so I can come and inspect your handiwork – especially yours, Charlie old boy. How is the…?’

‘It’s a joint effort, Arthur sir, as well you know,’ said Charlie cutting him off partway through his sentence. I couldn’t for the life of me work out what unspoken conversation was being held.

‘Yes, of course,’ said Granddad. ‘Judging by the specks still in Freya’s hair, you’ve been painting? A nice fresh colour that. I shall look forward to seeing it in situ.’

‘We thought we might as well focus on the kitchen as the other rooms are going to need re-plastering,’ I said. ‘I’m yet to brave the tutorial videos about how to do that, and judging by my painting inabilities, I have a horrible feeling that plastering isn’t going to be in my skillset either.’

‘I think I might be quite good at getting plastered,’ said Charlie with a grin. ‘In fact, when you go back to school next week, I was going to take a go at it.’

I experienced a clutch of nerves, both at the thought of having to go back to work and at the idea of Charlie solo plastering.

‘Are you sure we shouldn’t wait until we can stretch the budget enough to find a professional to do it?’ I said.

‘But it could be months before we’ve saved up enough,’ responded Charlie. ‘And until we’ve done the plastering, the rest of the work will have to wait too. It could set your timetable back ages.’

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