Chapter 5

Declan got the email with the window prices and called Lindsay back to see if they could shave any more money off the bottom line. He was on the phone when Renee came back from taking Sadie to school. Her eyes were teary and her nose pink. She'd been crying.

What the hell?

Lindsay spoke in his ear. "I'm not supposed to do this, but I can get you a slightly better discount. Like another ten percent. Any more and the boss will notice."

He smiled even though he looked worriedly at Renee. "That would be great, Lindsay. Thanks. I really appreciate it."

He disconnected and followed Renee into the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said and inhaled a shaky breath.

"You've obviously been crying."

She gave him a watery smile. "I'm not as tough as I look. I took Sadie to preschool, no problem, so I didn't think anything of the first day of kindergarten. But she let go of my hand, waved goodbye, and went into school. It just hit me hard how big she's getting."

Declan paused, unsure of what to do. He wasn't afraid of a woman's tears, but he knew enough not to assume the next step. "Are you okay?"

She waved him off. "I'm fine. I should be thrilled that she was excited to go. Some kids fell apart and cried for their mom. That would've made it harder." She blew out a breath. "I'm fine."

"If you say so. I got you an extra ten percent off the windows. As soon as you're ready, we can order them. It'll take a few weeks for them to come in."

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a slim wallet. "Here's my credit card. Go ahead and order them."

He waved the card. "Bahamas, here I come."

She laughed, which was what he was going for.

"Good luck with that. You'll be lucky if that'll get you a week in the Dells." She stood at the sink and washed the few dishes that were there.

"Do you have work, or do you want to spend some time going over the rest of the house and what you want to do?"

"Can we get through most of it before I have to pick up Sadie?"

"Probably. Let's start with the easy part. What do you want to get done? If you didn't have to worry about money. Let's rank the projects."

"I don't know. That's why you're here, remember?"

"You might not know what needs to get done, but I'm sure there are things you want to do." He paused. "Like the kitchen."

"The kitchen is fine. It's functional."

He smiled. "But you hate it. Even if you can't afford to go all out, we might be able to improve it."

"The cabinets are crap, as is the counter—what there is of it. This is a decent-sized room, but there's no counter space."

"Since it's just you and Sadie, you're not planning on putting a bigger table in here?"

She looked at the small round table and shrugged. "It seats four. We use the dining room most of the time. So this is fine."

"Hold on." He went to his room and grabbed a notebook. He sat at the table and started a rough sketch.

"You're wasting your time. I priced a new kitchen. It's way out of my budget until I find a regular full-time job."

He held up a hand and continued scribbling. Now that he'd been in the house a couple of days, he could understand why Renee bought it. It felt like a home. Just a run-down, beat-up home. Sliding the paper on the table he said, "What do you think about this?"

She looked at his sketch. "I don't understand."

He pointed at the cabinets. "We rip it all out and rearrange everything. The only thing I'm not totally comfortable with is moving plumbing. So if your ex?—"

"Nope," she said. "Not only can I not count on him for anything, I wouldn't even ask."

"Okay. Then we have to leave the sink where it is, but we can still do the rest."

"Even with discounting your labor, I don't think I can afford all these cabinets."

"Maybe this weekend, you can go with me to look at some reclaimed cabinets. If we can find a full set, or at least a set that's close enough, I can make it work."

"Reclaimed?"

"Used. Perfectly good cabinets taken out of someone's kitchen when they remodeled."

"That's a thing?"

"Yep." He stood. "Stick with me. I'll show you the ropes."

She stared at the simple line drawing. "You think you can get this done?"

"I know I can. Now let's go see what else this house needs besides tearing out the god-awful wallpaper in the living room and dining room."

She stood and chuckled, all signs of her tears gone.

Renee's day had been more jam-packed than she'd planned. With Sadie starting school, her plan had been to take on additional jobs while searching for a full-time position. Spending the day with Declan was not part of the schedule, but at least she felt like they'd made progress. They had ideas and much to her surprise, Declan was more resourceful than she'd given him credit for.

After school, Sadie talked nonstop on the way home and kept going right through dinner. You'd have thought she'd been in school for a week instead of two and a half hours. Renee felt bad for Declan because Sadie really wanted his attention. Renee told him he could go do his own thing, but he insisted he didn't have anything better to do.

They ate dinner together and she and Sadie sat at the table and colored together while Declan relaxed on the couch, drinking a beer while watching some game on TV.

"What are you drawing?" Renee asked Sadie.

"Super Sadie. My teacher said we get story time every day. If I write my story, she said I can read it."

Renee bit her tongue right before she blurted that Sadie didn't know how to read.

"She said we're gonna learn our letters but I already know them. I wanna read."

"You've already started. You can read your name."

"And yours." To prove it, her daughter carefully wrote m-o-m on the page.

"Do I get to be in your story?"

Sadie squinted. "I don't know. Do superheroes have mommies?"

"Everyone has a mommy."

"Declan, do you have a mom?"

"Of course I do. Her name is Ann. And she's like a superhero, just like your mom."

Sadie's eyes got big. She lowered her voice, "You're a superhero?"

Renee smiled. "Not like you're thinking. Declan means most moms do a lot of the same things that superheroes do, like take care of you and make sure you're safe."

Her nose crinkled.

"Sorry to disappoint you. I'm just a regular mom."

Sadie returned to her picture of Super Sadie and carefully colored it in. She gave herself a purple outfit and a yellow cape. Declan walked by with his empty bottle and paused to look at Sadie's picture.

"What are your superpowers?"

"I haven't decided. But I think I wanna fly. That would be fun."

"Flying is pretty awesome. But I think I'd want to be super speedy. Imagine all the things you could do if you could run really fast. I'd zoom everywhere."

"Flying is fast," Sadie added with the irritation of a five-year-old who wanted to be right.

Renee interrupted, "They're both cool. Now go see what you want to have for a snack and then you can watch one show before bed."

"Can I have cookies?"

"Yes, you can."

Sadie ran off to the kitchen, and Renee straightened everything on the table before opening her laptop. Then she froze and looked at Declan, who was studying Sadie's drawing. "Sorry. I offered her the TV and didn't think about your game."

"It's fine. I was just passing time." He set the paper back down. "You want a beer?"

She almost answered no automatically, but then she reconsidered. "Sure. Thanks."

Declan followed Sadie into the kitchen and Renee could hear them continue their conversation about superpowers. She enjoyed hearing the noise in her usually quiet house. She opened her laptop to get some work done while Sadie watched whatever cartoon she'd put on.

When Declan and Sadie came back through, her daughter gave her a sly look as Declan set a beer next to Renee. Sadie rushed by, cookies clasped in her hand. "Hold on."

Sadie paused but didn't turn.

"How many cookies do you have?"

"Three. Just like always."

Declan smiled.

"And how many did you already eat?"

"See? I told you she'd know," Sadie said as she turned toward Declan. Then she whispered, "She knows everything." She reached out to hand Renee a cookie.

"You're right, Sadie. I should've listened." To Renee, he said, "It was my fault. We snuck one in the kitchen."

She looked at Sadie. "Being sneaky is not good. You shouldn't keep secrets from me. But since you tried to teach Declan a lesson, you can keep the extra cookie."

"Thanks, Mom." Running off, she called, "Come on, Declan. You gotta see the princess."

"I'm coming."

"Don't make me the bad guy with my kid, Declan. I've had enough of that."

"Whoa." He raised his hands in defense. "I wasn't trying to do that. We were just having fun. It's not like I snuck a whole package in her pocket. I'm sorry."

Renee knew she came off harsher than necessary. Sometimes Declan's fun personality was too much of a reminder of her ex, but Declan didn't deserve that. "You're fine. Don't make a habit of it."

She grabbed her beer and her laptop and sat on the couch. Sadie sat on the floor with her three cookies stacked on the table in front of her. Declan sat on the opposite side of the couch. For the next thirty minutes, Sadie kept a running commentary of all the characters so Declan could fully understand the show.

Renee tuned out the show, sipped her beer, and worked on another spreadsheet. She missed forensic accounting. The puzzle, the secrets—she missed unraveling all of them. Until recently, she hadn't realized how much. She switched gears and checked some job boards, making note to apply to a couple of places when Sadie was at school and she could give it her full attention.

When the show was over, Sadie turned with hands pressed together. "Another one? Please?"

"No. You have school tomorrow. Go get your jammies on, brush your teeth, and pick out a book. I'll be there in five minutes." She always said five, knowing it would take Sadie more like ten to complete the tasks. It would be much faster if Renee took over, but she was trying to give her daughter some independence. Even though it crushed her own controlling nature.

Since she had a few minutes, she scrolled back to the dating sites she checked out the other day. It was time to get back out there. But she didn't know where to start. She glanced at Declan who was already flipping through different streaming services.

"You date a lot, right?" she asked. If she had a live-in expert, she might as well get some advice.

"Depends on what you mean by a lot, but by your standards, probably."

"By my standards?"

"No offense, but you're a divorced, single mom. Ty said you haven't had a boyfriend since Graham. He didn't think you'd dated at all."

"Single mom with unreliable ex. Anyway, which sites are the best for dating these days?"

"Again, depends on your purpose. Are you looking to date..." He glanced around. "Or to date?" he asked while executing a hip thrust.

"Hadn't given it much thought." Liar. Her libido had been doing plenty of thinking and if she recharged her vibrator too many more times, she'd be due for a replacement.

"A lot creeps online. Dudes who lie. Catfish. You might be better off just going to a bar."

"Seriously? That's your advice?"

"That's where I find most of my dates. You'd get some. You got this whole milf thing going for you." He waved a hand over her.

"Do not call me that."

"Why not? It's true."

"Milf is barely a step down from cougar and I'm not that old."

He took a pull on his beer. "Uh-uh. Milf is just another way of noticing a hottie. Just so happens she has a kid. But you're right that like a cougar, a milf can get all the D she wants because it's well-known strings-free. She doesn't want to get tied down with entanglements because the kid comes first."

"You're telling me that by virtue of having a child, it's a free pass to get laid whenever I want?"

He choked on his next sip of beer. "You're not that dense, Rennie. You've always had it goin' on. You just need to act on it. Any man with half a brain would want to tap that."

Her face flushed. She should not be having a conversation like this with Declan of all people.

"Well, I'm not sure I agree with you, but thank you. And on that note, it's time for me to go read a chapter of Matilda to my child."

She closed her laptop, set it on the table, and went to Sadie's room feeling pretty good. A compliment from Declan shouldn't count. It wasn't all that different than her brother telling her she was beautiful, but it had been a long time since any man looked at her like a woman, instead of like a mom and it was...nice.

Of course, now that she mentioned it to Declan, Tyler was bound to have a comment about her dating life. Maybe this weekend while Sadie was with Graham she'd go out for a few drinks and check out the dating pool.

She could at least dip her toes in the water.