Every Way (Brush of Love 4)

I shut off my truck and hopped on out. I took a walk around the house, surveying it from the outside. I headed in through the french doors that had been installed in the dining area and stepped right into the smell of drying paint. I was shocked at how much progress had been made, and everyone turned to wave at me as I slowly walked through the house.

“Bryan! Hey, man. What’s going on?”

“Hey there, Jack. I wanted to stop by and see how things were coming along,” I said.

“You wanted to check on the wallpaper,” Foreman Jack said.

“That obvious?”

“Nope. I’ve just known you that long. Come on, I’ll show it to you.”

“You’ve got it up already?” I asked.

“That was the first room I worked on when we all transitioned to the interior. I think you’re going to like how it turned out.”

I followed Foreman Jack through the house and took in everything around me. The walls were this neutral blueish-gray, and the baseboards and crown molding were this vibrant cream color. It reminded me of the walls of Hailey’s gallery, and it made me smile. I knew she would love the neutral color scheme because it would give her a chance to really add color to the rooms she wanted to switch around and change.

But something was nagging me in the pit of my gut.

I followed the foreman up the stairs before we turned down a truncated hallway. There was a door on either side of me, and Jack reached for the one on the left. I reached for the one on the right and tossed it open, finding a fully-stock bathroom across the hall from the nursery.

“That little one’s eventually going to grow up and need their own bathroom. Figured we’d go ahead and put one in.”

“Is ours this nice?” I asked.

“It’s nicer,” he said with a grin. “Come on. Let’s get a look at the nursery.”

I left the bathroom and wandered across the hall. I stepped into the nursery and took in the wallpaper I had ordered specifically for this room. It was finished expertly, and it shocked even me how good it looked. It didn’t look like wallpaper at all, and the pictures Hailey had drawn on the nursery at our current house were replicated perfectly.

It looked like she had come in and painted it herself.

“Holy shit. It looks incredible,” I said.

“It really does, and I’m not one to toot my own horn,” Jack said.

“How much longer do you think you guys are going to need to complete the house?” I asked.

“The painting’s gonna get done today, and we’re gonna have to let it dry through tomorrow. Tuesday, we’ll lay carpet down in the bedrooms, and then Wednesday and Thursday are gonna be hardwood floor days. I’ll come through and take a real hard look at things on Friday, and if everything checks out, then it’ll be ready for you to fill with furniture.”

“I can’t believe it’s almost done,” I said.

“You told Hailey yet?”

“If I’d told her, she’d be with me,” I said.

“Still keeping it a surprise?”

I could hear the anxiousness in Foreman Jack’s voice, and it did have me worried. I knew I was terrible at keeping secrets, but I figured I was doing a pretty good job with this one. But with Hailey’s growing distance, I started to wonder if it was because she knew I was hiding something from her. It would make sense, especially with her pregnancy hormones. If she thought I was hiding something from her, she could’ve twisted it around in her head to be something bad. And even though I had lied to her to keep a positive surprise from her, I had lied to her this morning.

I had lied to my beautiful wife and the mother of my child.

“You think I should tell her now?” I asked.

“I think you know her better than anyone else. But I know the last time I tried surprising my wife with something, she admitted she thought I was cheating.”

“What?” I asked.

“Yeah. Wanted to get her a new wedding ring set for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. I was meeting with someone who would personally design it and everything. She thought I was slipping out and fucking another woman.”