Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 108124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
I put my hand on his arm. “I know. Me too. It’s why I’ve always tried to give him grace. I never shut him out of Alex’s life, when he wants to be part of it.”
“You’re a saint for the way you handle it all. And if I haven’t said this to you already, you’re an amazing mother. You try so hard every day. You’re always smiling and attentive to Alex, even when I know you’re having a bad day.”
“Yeah, a bad day like today when you walked in and I couldn’t even form a response when my poor kid asked me about sex.”
“Well, no one’s perfect. And if I hadn’t walked in, you would’ve figured it out.” He smiled. “Alex is really lucky to have you as a mom.”
I got goosebumps. “Thank you. That’s nice of you to say.”
“It’s the truth.”
An overwhelming feeling came over me. I didn’t know what plans Levi had tonight, but all I wanted was to spend more time with him. So I went out on a limb.
“Hey, after Alex goes to sleep, would you…want to watch a movie with me?”
He blinked a few times. It felt like minutes went by, though it was only seconds.
Levi toyed with his phone. “Actually, I told Patrick McGibbons I’d meet him for a drink.”
My stomach sank. I shouldn’t have asked. Faking a smile, I said, “Oh, okay. Yeah. Have fun.”
That night, as I watched a movie alone, I couldn’t stop thinking about Levi and how great he’d been with Alex today.
I shouldn’t have, therefore, also been thinking about that DVD of him tucked away in my drawer. But after I went to my room, I was tempted to take it out and watch it. For some reason, though, it didn’t feel right. It sort of felt like exploitation, even if he was the one who’d given it to me. After everything that happened today, what he’d done for Alex and the kind words he’d said to me after, it felt wrong to touch myself while looking at shirtless images of him. So, I would abstain—tonight.
There’s always tomorrow.
***
The next few days kept me too busy to spend much time dwelling on my infatuation with Levi. The air conditioning crew finished installing the new system while I painted two more bedrooms and planted flowers in the beautiful flowerboxes that hung beneath each of the windows in the front of the house. Unfortunately, though, as had been the case since I arrived, taking one step forward was immediately followed by taking two steps back.
Yesterday evening, when I’d started clearing out the furniture in the next bedroom I planned to paint, I discovered mold on one of the walls. The old air-conditioning system had only cooled three quarters of the house, mainly the common areas and eight of the fourteen bedrooms. The remaining four bedrooms on the south side of the house had been added after the original construction of The Palm Inn. Those rooms had individual AC units in the windows, and apparently one of them had been leaking water for a long time, which then spawned mold, and the heat and humidity had encouraged it to grow up the wall.
So yesterday, two guys wearing hazmat suits had ripped that wall down to the studs, and today the same men had been banging away all afternoon installing sheetrock.
“Hey, Miss Sullivan.” Ned, the carpenter, came into the kitchen. “Sorry to be here so late, but we finished hanging the new boards and slapped on the first coat of Spackle. That’ll need to dry overnight, so I’ll be back tomorrow morning to sand the walls and apply the second coat. We’ll be out of your hair by lunch.”
I nodded. “Oh, that’s great, Ned. I really appreciate it. I have six boys sleeping over Friday night for my son’s birthday, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to find them little Martian suits like you guys had on yesterday.”
Ned chuckled. “Nope. All good. I’ll see you in the morning.”
After I showed the two men out, I turned off the light in the kitchen and paused to listen to the noise in the house—or rather the lack thereof. There had been a constant barrage of hammers banging and electric tools whirring over the last week. The newfound quiet was music to my ears. There weren’t even any voices since Alex was staying at my friend Katrina’s tonight for a sleepover with her son, and Levi had gone to his mother’s for dinner. Even Fern was out. She’d left early this morning with some friends to drive up north for the night to go on some river gambling cruise.
I figured I might as well take advantage of the rare quiet time and enjoy a bath. My muscles ached from all the stretching that painting and planting required, and a good, hot soak would probably help loosen things up.