Mack shook his head. “No, it looks perfect.”
And, with that, all the men stepped back, a beer in their hand, to take a look at the job well done.
“That looks absolutely phenomenal,” she said warmly. “I can’t believe it.”
“Well, we need to put a sealer coat on all the wood,” one of the men said, who’d just popped the railing on. “And it looks like it’ll rain tomorrow, so we should probably push to get that done.”
“Well, I got my concrete mixer here,” Tony said. “We’ll pour the rest of the walkway on the far side of the house, and then all the concrete work is done too.”
She watched one of them gently brooming in a beautiful little pattern into the concrete, and it went all the way down the side of the house and to the patio. She looked back down to the creek.
Mack nodded. “Depends on whether you’re still getting some more concrete or not,” he said, “but we can manually pour blocks all the way down.”
“I’ve got one of those flagstone block templates,” one of the guys said. “It’s at home. I think I have four of them.” With the guys bugging him, he said, “Okay. Hey, I don’t mind if we’ll do another couple hours. I’ll need food, but I can run home and grab that.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Doreen said. “I’m happy to order more pizza.”
“Pizza it is,” the guy said, cheering. “Make sure there’s more beer too.”
She laughed and said, “I’ll check that.”
And, with Mack at her side, she headed up to the kitchen. Two more six-packs were still in the fridge. She looked at it and frowned. “Is that enough?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Another six-pack would be better.”
“I don’t even know how to get that,” she said.
“Right,” he said. “It’s a matter of figuring out what everybody’ll want.”
“I don’t have pop either.”
“No,” he said, “but you can order that to be delivered with the pizza.” He called out to the guys outside. “Anybody want some pop with pizza?”
“Absolutely,” a quorum of voices raised up, answering him.
So they quickly put together another pizza and pop order, and she called it in. When they said it would be ready in about an hour, she nodded and said, “Thank you.” Then she walked back outside and said, “Okay, sixty minutes to pizza, and we’ve got pop coming too. I’m putting on coffee, and there’s still some beer.”
“You got it all,” one of the guys said, smiling at her.
“What I’ve got,” she said in all seriousness, “is the best darn group of men I never even thought I had. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
“Hey,” one of them said, “we’re happy to help. You’ve done a lot for this community too.” The others nodded in agreement.
“Well, I wasn’t thinking about that,” she said. “I mean, I try to solve some of these problems so that it brings closure for the families. You don’t really think about the extras in life when you do that.”
“Because you don’t think of it,” one of them said, “it can happen easily.”
She nodded and smiled. “So, now what are we doing with the bags of cement?” She watched as a couple of the men wheeled over another big round barrel thing.
“We’ll toss it in here, and we’ll mix in some sand,” Tony said. “I’ve got a bunch of that in my truck, and we’ll add in some gravel. That ends up as concrete. Then we’ll pour enough to put a path down on the far side of the house. In order to do that, we’ll frame it up, put down a gravel bed, like we did for the patio and the walkway, and then pour down the concrete. We can do it nice, but it won’t be the same look. It’ll be more cobblestony.”
“I’m happy with cobblestones,” she said. “And, besides, the pattern on the first sidewalk is fairly cobblestony.”
“And I actually only did that,” one of the guys said, and she thought his name was Harry, “when I realized one of the other guys had cobblestone molds for the path. So now it’ll match a little at least.”
Chapter 12
Sunday Late Afternoon …
By the time the pizzas arrived, the guy had returned with his templates. And she cried out in amazement when she saw the heavy-duty plastic forms. He had five of them, which he laid down in a row—from her patio to the creek—and then they just filled them with concrete. So, as they were working on filling the forms and then having to wait for them to dry enough that they could take them off and reuse them, the guys did some other work. They poured a big flat piece alongside the house.
Because they had to hand mix it, and it wouldn’t be done as one big pour, like earlier with the big truck, each batch of concrete could be mixed and poured separately. It would leave a crack—like how bathroom tiles needed grout in between—but that was totally okay too. They’d fill in with dirt or rock. Immediately her mind thought of a moss she could walk on for those spaces.
It wouldn’t match the other side, but how many people actually walk this far side of the house? It would stop the weeds completely though, and they put it up almost against the side of the house. Gravel would again be needed for that final bit. As she watched that whole side of her house transform, it took about an hour. And when the men were done with that, she arrived with a big pizza deluxe with everything on it and opened it up right there for them.
The men grinned and grabbed. “That wasn’t hard at all,” Tony said. “It looks good.”
One of the men said. “I’ve got some dye with me, but it won’t be an exact match. Still should be
