Her smile was brilliant. “Welcome home, darling.”
Tanner handed me a scotch.
“Damn, dude. You’re a mind reader,” I said, sipping the amber liquid.
He laughed. “I don’t know about being a mind reader, but I do remember what you like to drink.”
I held my glass up and was joined by the other guys.
“Jayma, grab your glass,” Dig said.
“Oh, right.” She stopped stirring something on the stove and reached for her glass of red wine.
“Cheers to…renovations,” I said.
A round of cheers to that followed, and then Jayma shooed us all to the dining room.
“Did everyone have a good day?” Wyatt asked, laughing. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to say?”
“No, no. You’re supposed to say honey, I’m home!” Dig bellowed.
Jayma walked in with a big tray of prime rib that looked like it had been cooked to perfection.
“This all looks so very Leave it to Beaver.” She laughed.
“Let me help,” Wyatt said, jumping from his chair.
Jayma brought the rest of the dinner to the table, and what a feast it was. No one spoke for several minutes while we devoured her excellent cooking.
“To Jayma,” Tanner said.
Glasses clinked all around the table, and damn if Jayma’s beautiful face didn’t turn a bright pink. I liked that about her. Actually, I think we all did.
After some talk about the upcoming baseball season, I wanted to start the conversation about getting going on Jayma’s house.
“So Wyatt, you’re available for the plumbing? It looks like the place needs new pipes pretty much across the board. When we open up the walls, I’m thinking you’ll be able to dive in, probably day after tomorrow,” I said.
“That sounds great, and I have a worker I can bring with me since time’s of the essence,” he said.
“I’ve taken a couple days off work,” Tanner said. “I can help with the demolition, taking the waste to the dump, etcetera.”
“Hey guys, before we go too far down this road, I want to say something.” Jayma stood at the end of the table. I didn’t like how serious her face looked.
“First, thank you. Thank you for coming together and making a plan to save my house.” She looked around the table at each of us, one at a time.
“I got a call today from the bank. They’re not giving me any extra time to fix it up and sell it. They just want to foreclose on it. I can’t have you put a minute of work into it, knowing that there will be no benefit from it.” She looked down at her wine, and when she raised her face to us again, there were tears on her cheeks.
“I just w…wanted you to know…th…that I am more grateful than I can say. You’ve stepped up to the plate for me in a way I never dreamed anyone would.” With that, she fell back into her chair, burying her face in her hands.
“Wait a minute…”
“That’s total bullshit…”
“There’s got to be something we can do…”
“That fucking bank…”
Everyone was pretty much talking at once, myself included, we were so massively angered by her news.