Page 26 of Say Something
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“Knock, knock.” Michael’s voice startled me. I lifted my gaze from the case file spread out on my desk and was surprised to see the sun had set outside the large bay window in the office.
“Gosh, I completely lost track of time,” I said, stretching my arms above my head. My back cracked, and I made a mental note to find a chiropractor.
“I figured. We just finished cleaning up inside,” he said, gesturing to the house. “The cabinets have all been sanded, too.”
My eyes widened at that. “Already? You guys did all that today?”
“It’s a small cottage, Jess,” he smirked. “Your kitchen isn’t much more than a galley. You’ve got like six cabinets.”
“There’s more than six cabinets in there,” I said, defending my little home.
“Fine, seven.”
I laughed, doing a count in my head. There were about ten cabinets total in the kitchen. “Is there a special kind of paint I should get for them?”
“I think it would look best with a light stain rather than paint, but you can do whatever you’d like. It would be great if you could get the painting done before we put in the flooring. We’ll finish up the ceilings tomorrow, so I’d suggest painting on Wednesday.”
“I think a stain sounds nice.” I could go purchase the paint tomorrow morning and be ready to go Wednesday morning. “Would you be able to meet me at the hardware store to look at the stains?” It didn’t matter how detailed his instructions were, I’d likely still purchase the wrong stuff. I was not Ms. Home Improvement…Danny had always handled that kind of thing around the house.
I was surprised that thought of him hadn’t caused as much pain as it had only days ago. Maybe Iwashealing...finally.
“Sure. I can meet you there around nine, I have to drop by a job site first thing.” The fact that my little brother had to take care of work “first thing” and would be finished with it in time to still meet me at nine was crazy. Nine o’clock was what I considered first thing in the morning, even when I worked at the firm.
“That sounds perfect. Thank you, Mikey.”
“No problem. We should be able to pick up the flooring you picked out tomorrow or Wednesday.”
“That’s wonderful. I can’t believe how quickly all of this is coming together.”
He shrugged. “It’s a small project, and you wanted it done fast.”
“Well, it might be a small project, but it’s still a lot of work. I appreciate it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he waved me off. “You having dinner with the ‘rents?”
“Nope,” I answered, rising from my desk chair and stretching again. “They’ve got some meeting tonight so I was just going to pick something up on my way home.”
“I’m heading to The Diner; want to join me?”
“Sure. Just let me put these files away.” I made quick work of putting back together the handful of files I’d been reviewing.
Mr. Smith had been right. Nothing I’d come across was particularly urgent—mostly wills and estates that needed the occasional update when a new grandchild was born, or when someone pissed off a relative enough to get written out of their will. Some of the wills were quite entertaining. Gotta love small towns and big, crazy families.
“All right, ready,” I said as I turned the key in the lock of the file cabinet.
Michael left ahead of me, waiting in the grass as I locked up. “Think you’re going to be happy here, sis?” He asked as I joined him.
I looked at my new home and my new business, then at my brother and smiled. “I think I already am.” I hooked my arm in his as we walked the rest of the way to our cars.
***
“I think you’ll find a lot of what you’re looking for at the flea market. They have a lot of rustic, repurposed things straight off of Pinterest.”
I let out a small laugh. My buff little brother knew what Pinterest was.
“What?” he asked, pausing with a forkful of meatloaf halfway to his mouth.
