“I’ll pick up some after I leave here tonight,” he said.
She looked at the money, frowned, and then said, “You think the fifty will cover it?”
“Not sure,” he said. He looked over at a twenty still sitting on top of the bowl and said, “Why don’t you sort that?”
“I did pick up coin wrappers.” She hopped up and went to the shelves by the printer and pulled them out.
Immediately she shuffled over a little bit, then pulled the bowl closer toward her and laid all the bills together, including the $150 she’d already set aside. Then she went through the coins, pulling out all the little stuff that wasn’t cash money. And, because it was older money, she was surprised when she didn’t see any loonies and toonies in there—Canada’s one-dollar coins and the two-dollar coins.
Mack picked up the earrings and whistled. “Aren’t they pretty,” he said.
“I showed them to Nan, thinking she might want them back, but she doesn’t.”
He smiled, nodded, and said, “The rest of it looks like notes and business cards.” He picked up the dainty handkerchief and raised an eyebrow.
She shrugged. “Nan did have a lot of admirers,” she said. “That’s all she would say. She told me it was from an admirer.”
He chuckled. “She’s had an interesting life.”
“That she has,” Doreen said. When she was done sorting the money, Mack helped her roll up the coins. “I have it written down somewhere how much I counted last time.” She got up and went to her notes by her laptop.
“It’s $924 dollars,” she read off, nodding. “Same count as I got tonight.” She looked at the bowl and realized that her entire bowl of money could be gone soon with this deck project. That money bowl had been her security blanket for these last few months. She walked over and took two baggies from the cupboard, then put all the paper money together in one, taking out the $170 for Mack and sticking it under her empty plate. She put the jewelry in another baggie. Then she dropped both baggies into her purse. And then she added the rolled-up coins to her bowl and took it all to set atop her printer. “I’ll go through the cards and notes later,” she said. “And figure out what to do with the odd opal too.”
“Good enough,” he said. “With any luck, we won’t need too much more than this money for right now. The decking boards delivery you got today is huge, so we’ll do what we can this weekend, and then, when we run out of time, we run out of time. When we run out of supplies, we make a run to the store.” He shrugged. “That is just all there is to it.”
“Right,” she said.
And, on that note, he got up, grabbed her notepad, and headed to the side of the house. She came with her list of supplies to date and followed. It took him an hour to mark off everything. He frowned as he stared at her list and then down at his notes and said, “We have some decking screws and bolts for the anchors, but we’ll need some other screws.” He wrote on his list as he spoke; then he nodded. “Okay, I’ll take that $100 for supplies and go get that stuff and get the beer with the $50. And take the $20 for good measure.”
“Sounds good,” she said. She walked back to the table on the deck, where she had anchored the bills under her empty plate, and brought them, as requested, to hand over to Mack.
“You okay to let me have this?” he asked, looking at her.
She smiled and nodded. “I trust you.”
He rolled his eyes and said, “Good thing.” Then he pulled out $40 from his pocket. “I wanted to check in with you if you’re still okay to look after Mom’s garden? Or is it getting to be too much?”
“I’m fine,” she exclaimed. “I was afraid you wanted to stop our arrangement.”
“Nope, she’s so happy to have it done and she loves your visits. She spends hours outside enjoying her garden, always has.” He handed her the money. “That’s for this week’s gardening.”
She stared at it in delight and said, “Maybe we will make it through the weekend after all.”
“Well, we still need more supplies,” he warned. “We only got a half of a can of deck sealant here. That’ll do a skinny coat, but that’s all.”
“If you say so,” she said.
“But we can see how far it goes first and then can get that afterward,” he muttered.
And, just like that, he hopped up into his vehicle, gave her a wave, and left. He managed to leave without cleaning up the kitchen again. Chuckling, she walked back to the deck table and grabbed their dirty dishes. She could hardly ask him to clean up when he cooked too, especially considering that he had brought the groceries. Some things she didn’t need to get too cranky about. She appreciated the fact that he wanted to shop and to cook for her. She knew something was brewing between them, but she wasn’t too sure how big of a something.
Then she sent him a text. What about your brother?
Next weekend, he answered back. He’s coming to your place next weekend.
She stared at it in shock. It was one thing to have this happen in the near future, but it was another thing to have a date. She gulped. Not a whole lot she could do about it. It was well past the time to argue about it now, as she’d pushed it off as long as she could. But the deadlines were running. She responded with okay and left it at that. She had taken a couple steps here, though she didn’t feel very comfortable about them yet. But somehow they felt a whole lot easier with Mack at her side. He’d proven himself to be somebody very honorable. Hopefully
