LITMIR.BIZ

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him on the shoulder. He just about jumped out of his skin.

      “Hey, don’t sneak up on a guy like that!” he said. “I could’ve sawed my hand off.”

      “You’re lucky I don’t saw your head off. What are you doing?”

      He flipped up his safety goggles. “What do you mean, what am I doing? You said you wanted an open-concept floor plan and an eating bar off the kitchen. That’s what I’m doing.”

      “I said that months ago.” And she certainly hadn’t meant for him to do it.

      “So you should be glad I’ve finally got the time. I’m all caught up at the office and decided I’d start on it. This, by the way, is your eating bar,” he informed her, pointing to a pile of boards.

      Brad had taken over a lucrative branch of a national insurance company, which was what had brought them to Icicle Falls. He was still a one-man operation with no office help other than the occasional assistance Stef gave him. Surely he had something more to do at work, someone who needed life insurance. Right now he needed plenty of it. She knew she should’ve left Petey at home with him. Then he would’ve been too busy with their son to trash the house.

      She threw up her hands in disgust. “Now? You had to start on it now?”

      “Sure. Why not?” Down went the safety goggles and he reached over to turn on the saw again.

      She grabbed his hand to stop him. “Because Griffin’s bridal shower is tomorrow. That’s why not. How am I supposed to have a bridal shower here with this mess?”

      Brad seemed shocked by that. Which showed how much he listened. “Aw, shit. That’s tomorrow?”

      “I told you that!” Did he have sawdust in his ears? “And now my guests get to look at this...disaster.”

      She was about to march off when he took her arm. “Sweet Stuff, I’m sorry. I just wanted to surprise you.”

      “You surprised me, all right,” she said with a scowl.

      Meanwhile, Petey was bouncing up and down on the other side of the curtain, shouting, “Daddy, Daddy!”

      “Just a minute, big guy.” He pushed the goggles back up on his head and gave her a pleading smile. “Come on, Stef—don’t be mad. I only wanted to make you happy.”

      Yes, he’d had the best of intentions. He always had the best of intentions. Sadly, he was better at good intentions than he was at finishing projects, as the half-done patio with its pile of paving stones out back could attest. Not to mention the master bathroom with the missing tub. That had been last month’s project. When it came to home improvement projects, the man was totally ADD.

      “You haven’t even finished the bathroom,” she reminded him.

      “I was going to, but then I remembered you wanted that wall knocked out and I thought you’d like it done for your party. Which I forgot was tomorrow,” he hastily added. “I thought I had time.”

      He always thought he had time. Bradley Stahl operated on his own unique timetable.

      If he operated at all. When they’d first bought the house, they’d talked about ways they could improve it. But they hadn’t shared the same vision. Stef had assumed they’d go at it methodically, one project at a time, hiring competent contractors. Brad had envisioned himself as perfectly competent, insisting on doing the work and saving them money. So far this was not working out.

      “Da-ad!”

      “Coming, big guy,” Brad called and beat a hasty retreat before she could say anything more.

      With a growl Stef kicked the pile of sawdust. She wished it was Brad’s behind. What was she going to do now? She had a dozen women coming the next afternoon. Even if Brad skipped church, he couldn’t get rid of this mess before the bridal shower.

      Maybe she could get someone else to host, like Cass. Cass Wilkes had taken her and Griffin under her wing when they’d arrived in Icicle Falls a year ago, both new to town, both wondering how to go about fitting in. Cass had connected Griffin with a book club, and when she found out that Stef was a movie buff, she’d included Stef in her weekly chick-flick-night gatherings with her friends. Not only had Cass become a good friend and neighbor, she also was single. No husband underfoot messing things up. She probably wouldn’t mind if they switched the party to her house. Stef could bring the eats, and Cass could provide the sawdust-free environment. She put in an SOS call.

      “Oh, Stef, I’d do it in a heartbeat but—”

      Uh-oh. If there was a but, that meant trouble.

      “I have Sheetrock all over my dining room.”

      “On purpose? You didn’t tell me you were doing a home improvement project.”

      “I am now. My roof sprang a leak and my ceiling caved in. I discovered it when I got home from work.”

      Okay, that was even worse than a Brad breakout. “Oh, no. I’m sorry.”

      “Oh, well,” Cass said philosophically. “It is what it is.”

      Cass had a dozen years on Stef. Did a woman master that sort of give-me-the-grace-to-accept-the-things-I-can’t-change attitude as she got older? Stef needed it now.

      “Why do you want to relocate the bridal shower?” Cass asked.

      “Bradley.”

      Cass knew what that meant. “Don’t tell me. He’s started a new project.”

      “He’s started a new mess. He forgot that the shower’s tomorrow and decided this would be a good weekend to pull down the wall between the dining and living rooms. He’s got his saw set up and hung a big plastic sheet between the two rooms. A lovely setting for a bridal shower, don’t you think?”

      Cass chuckled. “It’ll be interesting. But don’t worry. Everyone on the guest list is either married or has been. We know what men are like.”

      “Brad is in a class by himself. He’ll tear up the floor, too, and then the one in here because it’ll all have to match. Then that mess will sit for about a million years while he figures out his next step.” He was still figuring out the next step for installing a new tub. Good thing their house had two bathrooms.

      “At least he’s making an effort,” Cass said, obviously trying to help her look on the bright side.

      True. But every time Brad made an effort, it wound up an unfinished disaster. She sighed. “This is going to be so...embarrassing. Some of these women haven’t even seen my house.”

      “Trust me, they won’t care. It’s about being together, and no one’s going to judge you. Anyway, like I said, they’ve all seen men in action. Your plastic curtain will be a conversation piece.”

      “Yeah, but it’s supposed to be about the bride. If this doesn’t give Griffin cold feet...” Except lately it seemed she was already getting them.

      “I think she’s already got them,” Cass said, voicing Stef’s thought.

      In the last few weeks, Griffin had been a little less enamored of her husband-to-be, a little crankier with him. Okay, he didn’t help out around the house much, but he could be trained. And yeah, he wasn’t a big reader like Stef, but when he was busy gaming she had plenty of free time to read or hang out with friends. He was good-looking and fun-loving, and his sense of humor balanced Griffin’s more serious nature.

      They both had interesting jobs. Griffin was a food photographer. (She didn’t make much, but it was a heck of a lot more fun than Stef’s boring part-time job as a teller at the bank.) Steve was a video game tester. (Brad had been extremely jealous when he learned what Steve did for a living...until he learned what Steve made.) Granted, they weren’t rich yet, but the earning potential was there. They had no kids, no responsibilities, and Griffin’s house wasn’t in a state of perpetual disaster. Life on her side

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