“Oh my,” she said. “That looks divine. May I come up and visit?”
“Of course,” Doreen said, laughing. “You know you don’t have to ask under normal circumstances, but as long as I know you’re coming, I guess it’s okay for you to walk here alone.”
“Can I still walk along the path?”
Doreen hopped up, looked at the creekside, and said, “It’s narrower, but I think you can still come up quite fine.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in ten minutes then,” Nan said.
“I’ll watch for you.” Doreen chuckled. “Any other reason why you’re in such a hurry?”
“Yep,” she said. “I have information.”
“Okay,” Doreen said. “I’m waiting outside, right at the creek.”
“Be there in five then.” And she hung up.
It was time to answer a call from Mack, who was astonished that the guys had already taken the framework off.
“They did ask if the captain was doing a frame for the one gate for me too,” she said.
“He hasn’t mentioned it,” Mack said. “I’ll ask him about it. I remember hearing him talk about it.”
“Yes,” she said. “But you know what? I totally forgot about it myself.”
She hung up from the call with Mack to see Nan turning the corner at the far end. Mugs took off like a dirty streak, his ears flapping in the wind as he raced toward Nan. She stopped and chuckled as Mugs wove through her legs at his joy in seeing her. Goliath, not to be outdone, sauntered toward her with that casual elegance of a cat that said I’ll meet you halfway, but you’ll have to come the rest of the way. And he stopped, sure enough, halfway. Nan walked toward him and bent down, then scooped the big guy up in her arms and gave him a cuddle. As she walked toward Doreen, Thaddeus said, “Nan is here. Nan is here.”
Nan chuckled and reached out a hand, and Thaddeus hopped up onto the back of her hand and walked up her arm. When he got there, he said, “Thaddeus loves Nan. Thaddeus loves Nan.”
Doreen’s heart melted as she watched Nan and Thaddeus cuddle close, both with their heads together and their eyes closed, enjoying the moment.
“I’m so delighted to see his vocabulary is increasing,” Nan said.
“As long as it’s all nice things,” Doreen said with a smile.
She hopped up and gave Nan a gentle hug. “What do you think?” She pointed to her backyard.
Nan stopped and stared. “I can’t believe how much you’ve done,” she cried out in shock. “You’ve only been in the house for what, not even three months?”
“It feels like much longer,” Doreen said. “But I think it has been three months, maybe a day or two short.”
“It’s absolutely stunning.” Nan looked at the sidewalk and asked, “Can we step on it?”
“Yep, it’s safe now. It’s all dried.”
As they walked along the sidewalk, Doreen said, “I think I’ll probably put gravel in along here, so I can run the lawnmower across and not have to worry about it.”
“That would look real nice,” Nan said. “Anything that makes life easy works for me.”
“That’s how I feel,” she said.
When they got to the big patio, Nan stopped and stared. “Never even occurred to me,” she said, “to put in a patio like this. It’s absolutely gorgeous.” Nan walked up the stairs. And using the railing, she hopped up on the big deck and stared, her jaw dropping. “This should have been here a long time ago. You have done a phenomenal job.”
“Not me,” Doreen said. “Honestly it was mostly Mack and his teammates.”
“Well, it’s good,” she said, “because you’ve helped them lots. It’s great that you gave them an opportunity to help back.”
“I hadn’t considered it that way,” Doreen said thoughtfully. “I was just thinking they were helping me.”
“Yes, they were,” Nan said. “But it’s important for people to have an outlet to give back as well. You don’t want anything to be too one-sided. It starts to make you feel bad after a while.” She raced down the steps, walked around the sidewalk, came back up the next set of steps, and repeated it again. She laughed. “I feel like a little kid,” she said. “This is just beautiful.”
“I know,” Doreen said with a big and happy sigh. “I’m seriously happy about this.”
“You should be,” she said. “And how much did it cost you?”
Doreen gave Nan a big, fat smile. “Nothing,” she said. “Absolutely nothing. Well, some screws and then beer and pizza in multiple man-serving amounts on two days.”
As Doreen looked around, Tony had taken the concrete mixer and all the rest of his stuff with him too. “They even cleaned it up afterward, and the framework was going to another job, so I don’t have any of that left to force me into a dump run.” She frowned and said, “A little bit of wood was unused.” And she turned around and pointed. “Two boards were sitting off to that side. I think that’s all that’s left though of the good wood. We still have to get rid of the old deck.”
Nan stared. “This is unbelievable,” she murmured. She looked at Doreen, and tears were in her eyes. “You know what? It never occurred to me to not give you the house,” she said, “but now that I have given it to you and have seen what you’ve done with the backyard, I realize just how right I was to do this.”
Chapter 21
Tuesday Late Morning …
Doreen immediately gave Nan a hug. “Honestly,” Doreen said, “I’m so happy you did. It’s giving me more sense of home than all those years I was married.”
“And I think being home is what’s really important. It doesn’t matter where it is. Home is where the heart is, and this, for you, is now where you belong,” Nan said. “And I couldn’t be happier.” She looked around and smiled. “So, do we get a cup of tea, and can we sit out
