59
Itapped my fingers on my elbow impatiently. I felt a little bad that I had called these guys out at such short notice, but it was for the best. I wanted to have everything ready to go by the time Amaya arrived here with her sister. I wanted to show them both I was about as serious about this as I possibly could be.
“How much longer do you think you’ll be?” I asked the workman who passed by me, a bag of tools slung over his shoulder and clinking loudly. He shrugged.
“Should be another hour, at most?” he offered, and I could tell my impatience was getting to him.
“If I put another five hundred on the price tag, could you get it done quicker?” I asked, and he nodded at once.
“Sure thing, boss,” he flashed me a smile, and then he disappeared and left me waiting in the kitchen, wondering if there was any way in hell they were going to get this finished in time.
It was my fault. If I wanted a stairlift put in, I could have organized it long before the actual day Jolene was supposed to come down here and visit us, but I wanted to surprise both Amaya and her sister. We probably didn’t need it since the elevator was right there, but I’d decided to have a chairlift put in on the staircase up to the apartment, just to make sure. I wanted Jolene to have every option she could, to have the choice to do anything she wanted when she came to live with us.
I knew these workmen were charging me double the cost already, and there was that thrifty part of me that was rolling my eyes at how obviously they were ripping me off right now. But I would swallow it if it meant I could get this done before Amaya was back from picking up Jolene after work. I had tried to offer to do it for her, but she’d insisted, despite the pregnancy. She seemed to be determined to prove to both herself and me that she was perfectly capable of doing anything she set her mind to, and I didn’t want to get in the way of that. It was her pregnancy, her body, and I wasn’t going to try and control her. Besides, I had a feeling Amaya wasn’t going to be the kind of woman who let just anyone have a say in how she conducted herself over the next eight months.
I heard them working downstairs and went back to trying to finish up dinner. I had slow-roasted some lamb alongside some balsamic vegetables and a little rice, and I was looking forward to having a proper family meal. Cleo would be coming later. Since the shit with the contract, she had practically been at my beck and call trying to make it up to me, and Amaya had invited her friend Darla from work as well. I was looking forward to meeting her, glad Amaya finally had a proper friend outside of her sister and her family. Though I didn’t like the thought of sharing her with anyone, I knew she was too good to keep to myself.
Finally, the workmen seemed to finish up. I counted the cash out and pressed it into the hand of the guy in charge, throwing in a hundred extra in case I ever needed them to come back and do more work for me.
“Thanks.” The guy raised his eyebrows at the wad of cash I had handed him. “Anything else you need done, you just call, all right?”
“Will do.” I managed to smile at him. Now that I knew it would be ready in time for Jolene’s arrival, I felt a hell of a lot better.
They left, and I continued to work on dinner. I was ahead of schedule, but that was fine by me. Before anyone else arrived, I wanted to take some time to talk with Amaya and Jolene about the best course of action going forward when she moved into this place with us.
Suddenly, I heard the familiar growl of the SUV pulling into the garage downstairs, and I headed down to meet them.
“Kristo!” Jolene exclaimed as we helped her out of the back of the SUV. She reached up to give me a hug, and I held her tight for a moment before extracting myself.
“There’s something I want to show you,” I told her, and I glanced up at Amaya, who raised her eyebrows at me as if to say what the hell have you done this time? I wheeled Jolene over to the stairlift, praying it would actually work, and her eyes lit up.
“You had this put in for me?” she asked, glancing up at me with surprise. I nodded.
“When did you have time to do this?” Amaya demanded, shaking her head as she made her way toward me. “This wasn’t here this morning.”
“That’s not important.” I waved my hand. “What’s important is making this as easy for you as I can. Right, Jolene?”
“Sure thing.” She beamed back at me, and with a little maneuvering, Amaya and I got her into the stairlift and the three of us headed up to the apartment.
“You didn’t have to do this, you know,” Amaya told me quietly as we trailed a few steps behind her sister. I shrugged.
“Yeah, but I wanted to,” I replied. She grinned and gave me a quick kiss while Jolene was looking the other direction.
“What did I do to deserve you?” she asked, brushing her nose against mine briefly.
“Hey, lovebirds, I’m going to need someone to unlock this door for me,” Jolene called down to us, and Amaya sprang away from me and went to help her sister. I paused for a moment on the stairs, grinning up at the two of them as Amaya opened the door and let Jolene in. This was what it was going to be like, the three of us living together. It was never how I’d imagined my life, and it was crazy how much sense it seemed to make now that it was right there in front of me.
I hurried up the stairs to join them, and Amaya headed to the kitchen as soon as she was inside.
“Wow, that smells good.” She inhaled deeply, pulling the lid off one of the pots and looking at what was inside. “I should get you to cook for us more often.”
“As if I don’t do all the cooking already,” I replied, shooting a wink at Jolene, who grinned. Amaya rolled her eyes at me and came over to join us on the couch.
“How long do we have until the others arrive?” she asked, and I glanced at my watch.
“About a half-hour,” I replied. “Enough time to figure out some more details for when Jolene is living here with us.”
“I can’t believe this is actually happening.” Jolene shook her head, fiddling with the charms on the bracelet we’d purchased for her a few days earlier. “I’m going to be living here. Here! Have you seen this place? It’s like a palace.”