Darkmoon(53)

I supposed I’d see how long that lasted.

They were a professional crew, though, all recommended by the architect. Civilians, just because although the McAllister clan did have some talented carpenters and painters and such among its ranks, I thought it was safer to have a nonmagical group working on the house. Besides, my cousin Adam had been doing a lot of construction and contractor work around town and down in Cottonwood, and the very last thing I needed was him underfoot, shooting daggers with his eyes at Connor while attempting to braze a pipe or something. He’d made himself scarce the past few weeks, probably wanting to avoid seeing me with Connor. Although I still felt a twinge of guilt over the way things had shaken out between us, I couldn’t help but be relieved that he apparently wasn’t going to force a confrontation this time. Things were already complicated enough when it came to interactions with my family members.

Thank the Goddess that Connor had insisted on coming down with me to Jerome, even though I’d protested feebly that it would be fine and he didn’t really need to subject himself to the noise. He’d only lifted his eyebrow at me — oh, I did love it when he did that — and said, “Of course I’m coming with you. Did you really think I’d let you suffer through all that on your own?”

And when he said “suffer,” he wasn’t kidding. The first hour or so was quiet enough; it looked like the workmen were taking final measurements, clearing out any last-minute stuff that I’d forgotten about. I’d already packed most of the kitchen, but there were always a few odds and ends that escaped capture. But after that?

Wham! Wham!

Connor and I had been sitting in the library upstairs, trying to keep out of the way, when the whole house shook. I would’ve said it was an earthquake, but we didn’t get many of those in northern Arizona. No, it was just the capable wrecking crew from Yavapai Construction Associates.

After wincing and sharing a look of mutual commiseration, we tried to go back to our respective books…which lasted for a whole ten seconds.

“You want to get out of here?” Connor said, laying aside the paperback he was holding.

“Thought you’d never ask,” I replied, and blanked the screen on my iPad before laying it aside. Okay, true, I’d come back to Jerome to be here in case the crew needed me, but after that last bit of clean-up and a final consult with the architect, it seemed I wasn’t much needed.

So we fled to Sedona, where we caught an early movie, went out to lunch, wandered around a few galleries, saw another movie, and then finally ate dinner, coming home at dusk when we deemed it would be safe.

And it was, more or less; the crew was packing up as we pulled into the garage. Connor and I headed into the house, where there was a gaping hole in the side of the kitchen, now carefully covered with plastic sheeting. Good thing monsoon season wasn’t due to start for another month and a half.

“Good first day,” Brad, the foreman, told me. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning at seven.”

I think I managed a watery thanks, looking at the destruction around me. On paper, a remodel sounds great. Take an outdated, inconvenient space and turn it into something worthy of a magazine spread. The problem is, no one bothers to tell you how much of a godawful mess it’s going to be during that all-important time between the “before” picture and the “after.”

Wisely, Connor held his tongue, and only went with me into the family room, where we watched a little TV before going to bed. And as much as I enjoyed making love in the big king-size bed in my bedroom, I wasn’t feeling it that night. Maybe it was hormones, maybe it was frustration over trying to figure out where Marie had gone, maybe it was worry about how the days were slowly ticking away, and eventually these babies — plural — would show up, and then my own clock would start winding down. It might not happen right away, or even within a few months, but eventually, something would happen to take me out of the picture. I definitely would not be around to fret over them getting into a good college.

Or maybe it was none of those things, and I was only worrying about what sort of mayhem the contracting crew would wreak the next day.

It also didn’t help that the room felt horrendously warm to me. True, it had been warm verging on hot that day, but the house should have started to cool down by now. We always got a pleasant night breeze in Jerome.

After I adjusted my position for what felt like the tenth time, I heard Connor’s voice in the darkness.

“What’s the matter?”

“I’m hot,” I said irritably.

“It is a little warm. I’m surprised you don’t have air conditioning.”