“Be right back.” I pushed myself out of the chair and went to the bottom of the stairs. “Hey, honey?” I called up. “Phone, for you. It’s Susan.”
Light feet pattered across the floor, and Christy’s head appeared over the railing. “For me?”
“Yeah. She wants to talk about decorating, I think.”
“Oh. Okay.” She disappeared.
I returned to Trip’s office, where he was nodding into the phone.
“Okay,” he said, “we’ll see you tomorrow morning. Yeah, bright and early. Paul and I are leaving at six.” He glanced at me for confirmation before he said, “So we’ll see you at eight. Sound good? Okay, bye.” He replaced the handset in its cradle. “Sorry. Where were we?”
“You,” I said as I sank into the chair. “And Christy.” I drew a deep breath and marshaled my thoughts. “Don’t worry, she’ll come around.” I wasn’t as convinced as I sounded, but he didn’t pick up on it. “Just… don’t take her for granted.”
“And don’t be so bossy?”
“I don’t mind,” I said, “but—”
“She does. Got it.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“That’s cool,” he said. Then he laughed. “Now I know how you and Wren must’ve felt when you were waiting for me to come around.” He laughed again. “Serves me right, huh?”
“Hurry up and wait,” I agreed.
“Yeah, all right. I’ll be cool. Besides, it’s not like I have a shortage of women in my life.”
“Uh, no.”
“But… I’ll be honest,” he added, “a partnership’s only as good as the silent partners.”
“Meaning that you and I are only as good as you and Christy and me and Wren?”
“More or less. So I’ll work on it from my side,” he said. “And… I’ll be patient. That’s what you and Wren did for me.”
“It worked.”
“Yeah, but Christy isn’t me.”
“Thank God for that!” I laughed.
“No kidding. I like you a lot, but you aren’t my type.”
“I have a dick.”
“Deal breaker,” he agreed with a grin. Then he drew a deep breath. “I’d better let you shower and eat. Don’t worry about me and Christy. We’ll make it work.”
* * *
I woke up at my usual time the next morning. Christy felt me stir and scooted closer. She was a little furnace, so I kicked my right leg free of the covers.
“Are you going for a run?” she asked.
“Thinkin’ about it.”
“Can I convince you to stay?”
“Mmm, probably.” I smiled when her hand found my penis. Then I turned serious and asked, “How long’ve you been awake?”
“A while.”
“Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“I like watching you. You’re so peaceful.”
“The sleep of the innocent.”
She scoffed but didn’t stop stroking me.
I yawned and stretched. “So,” I said when I felt more awake, “why couldn’t you sleep?”
“I was thinking.”
“About…?”
“This and that.”
“Anything I should worry about?”
“No, not really. Only…”
Several seconds passed.
“Only…?” I prompted.
“Only, I think you should do whatever it takes to get the job. With Susan.”
“That’s the plan.”
“Just… make sure she’s happy.”
“Why? Did she say something? Last night?”
“Sort of. Mostly we talked about decorating,” she lied. She felt my reaction and moved her hand to my chest to pacify me. “Please don’t ask. No, I’m not telling you everything. ’Cause… um…” She had a sudden inspiration and said, “It’s a surprise!”
“A surprise?” I repeated suspiciously.
“Yes. So don’t ask any more questions. Please.” She returned her hand to my manhood and tried to stroke it back to life. “What’s the matter?” she said after a fruitless minute. “You were hard earlier.”
“I wasn’t worried earlier.”
“And you shouldn’t be worried now.” She pushed the covers down. “Are you sure I can’t distract you?” She planted kisses toward my semi-hard cock.
“You can try,” I agreed.
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll suck seed.”
I chuckled at the pun. “Okay, fine, have it your way.”
“I usually do.”
* * *
Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on how I looked at it—I had to rush to get ready to leave for the airport, so I couldn’t brood about Christy’s “surprise.” Then Trip ignored my one-word replies during the flight to South Carolina. He insisted on talking about the project, and he went over most of it again with Susan as we drove to camp. She wanted to know my thoughts, of course, so I gave up trying to figure out what Christy had meant.
I didn’t have time the rest of the day, either. We spent six hours in, on, or under the smaller cabins, all twelve of them. We poked, prodded, and pried nearly everything. We discovered some surprises, including a family of possums living in the crawlspace of one, but most were in pretty good shape.
We couldn’t say the same for the two-bedroom cabins. We already knew that some weren’t worth saving, but we discovered problems with all six, including the one where we’d stayed the previous summer. Its drainage trench had never been maintained. It had filled over the years, and water had caused rot all along the back and sides.
The other large cabins had similar problems, but the last was the worst. Its drainage was fine, but something about it seemed odd, although we couldn’t decide what. Then Trip checked it with his four-foot level, and we discovered that the entire building sat at a slight downhill angle. He frowned and removed the lattice from the crawlspace entrance so he could check underneath.
“You aren’t gonna believe it!” he called almost as soon as he disappeared.
I stuck my head and torso into the opening and followed the beam of his flashlight.
“The whole thing came off its foundation pads,” he said. “It’s sitting directly on the ground.” He played the light over the rest of the underside, but we’d seen enough.
I stood and dusted off my jeans while he wriggled through the opening I’d just vacated.
“How’d that happen?” I wondered aloud.
“Who knows. Maybe a tree.”
Susan nodded. “Several years ago. A big pine fell and hit it. The winter of ’80, I think. Jeremiah had to replace a big section of roof and part of the back wall.”
“Did he replace the water and sewer lines?” Trip asked.
“I don’t remember.”
“He must have,” I said. “If it came off the foundation…”
Trip didn’t want to speak ill of the dead, but he gave me a look that spoke volumes. “It’s our fault,” he said instead. “Paul and I should’ve noticed.”
“No,” Susan said wearily. “I should’ve had a licensed contractor look at it. I—”
“We’re all to blame,” I said. “But that’s why we’re here, to fix things.”
“And to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Susan agreed. She asked Trip, “Can we lift it back onto the foundation?”
“If we had a big enough crane. But it still wouldn’t be worth it. The central floor beam is cracked, so the whole cabin has sagged and warped. Besides, the log posts have been in contact with the ground for years.” He rubbed his jaw and thought about it. “The foundation pads are fine, but the wood is just…”
“Old,” Susan said with a sour look. “Like everything else around here.”
“Some things are better preserved than others,” I said into the silence.
“I’m glad you think so—”
“I know so.”
“You’re sweet,” she said.
We fell silent until Trip heaved a sigh.
I checked my watch. “Do we have time to look at the clubhouse?”
“Yeah. We don’t need to finish going over this cabin,” he added with mild disgust. He marked through a line on his notepad. “Total write-off.”
“I hope it’s the only write-off,” Susan muttered.