Chapter 3

 

Once Mitch had looked over the whole house, he added up all the work that needed to be done. It wasn't as much of a fixer upper as he feared, but he was still worried that the price tag for the work would lose him this job.

Sammy and Enrico were exploring the closet under the stairs where they found Christmas decorations. Sammy squealed with delight. It would be really nice if she could get to stay here.

Waiting in the foyer, Mrs. Del Rio was ready to make a deal. She rubbed her hands together then eagerly took the paper from Mitch. With one quick perusal of his estimate, she accepted his prices. They exchanged some information and she told him, "If you like the look of the place, you can move right in. Shift around what you need, where you need it. I'll leave Enrico here to lend you a hand with making it livable."

"I think I can manage on my own," Mitch said, but she was already waving to them, heading to her car and leaving her grandson behind.

Enrico shrugged at Mitch then turned to Sammy with a pout. "Did you see how she ditched me?"

Sammy giggled and said, "No."

Enrico asked her. "Does that mean you like my grandma?"

"She's nice," Sammy said.

"Yes, she is. You're a good judge of people," Enrico told her then he faced Mitch. "That room with the ivy wallpaper should be Sammy's, right? I can clean that up," he volunteered.

Since it was important to him, Mitch was planning to do that himself, but then Sammy chimed in too.

"Me too. Me too," Sammy said. "I wanna do it."

"I guess we can do it together," Enrico said. Mitch was going to send him off to do something else, but Sammy looked happy, so he didn't.

"I'm going to see what cleaning supplies we have," Enrico said, jumping right into it. He went into the kitchen to look under the sink and then he poked around in a cupboard and pulled out various cleaning supplies.

"No vacuum, but here's what I found," Enrico said.

Sammy went straight for the blue feather duster. "That's your weapon of choice huh?"

Upstairs, Mitch went in first to check over the room more thoroughly now that Sammy would be sleeping there.

It seemed fine. The wood floor would be easy enough to get clean. Otherwise the room was mainly just dusty, nothing that couldn't be spruced up. The mattress was OK, and there were even sheets on the bed.

"Did the people who moved out just leave everything here?" Mitch wondered out loud.

"They..." Enrico started to say then he looked over at Sammy, who was dusting random things.

Mitch could guess what he was going to say before he stopped himself. The owners probably died.

"I bet they just got all new stuff," Enrico said and smiled at Sammy.

"The washer works, right?" Mitch said as he eyed the sheets. They looked clean, but they had been sitting there a while, no doubt.

"The washer is in the basement. I'll go check," Enrico said and he was off, clomping down the stairs. He certainly was energetic.

He was back in no time to report. "It's an old one, but it works. I have it filling up, but no luck with detergent."

"I saw a box of baking soda in the fridge. Throw some of that into the washer," Mitch said.

"Baking soda? You must be super dad to know something like that," Enrico said and went off again with an armful of sheets and a few towels too. The place certainly was stocked with a lot of what they needed.

"He said you're super dad," Sammy said looking up at him with a proud smile.

Soon Enrico was back and huffing from running up and down the stairs. "Why didn't we bring beverages?" he complained.

"We have drinks in the car," Mitch told him. Then he reached in his pocket for the keys. "There is a cooler in front if you want to get it." As he handed Enrico the keys, their hands touched briefly and Mitch felt a weird jolt.

A few minutes later, Enrico was back with drinks, still huffing. "I brought the cooler in and stuck the drinks in the fridge."

"Thanks," Mitch said as Enrico handed him a sports drink and gave Sammy an orange juice.

They got to it, cleaning the room until Mitch felt it would be OK for Sammy to stay there. With Enrico helping, the work went fast. He didn't seem serious, but he was working hard to make Sammy's room nice for her, and that earned him a ton of points from Mitch.

The sheets were still in the dryer, but otherwise the room was pretty much all set. Enrico wasn't done though. Looking around, he frowned critically at the pictures on the wall. "What about these pictures, Sammy? They aren't much fun."

To have a better look at one of the paintings hanging on the wall, Sammy stood on her tiptoes. Mitch picked her up and held her so she could get even closer.

"I see a horse," she said.

There was a horse pulling a cart down a country lane, but honestly, the painting wasn't much fun, just like Enrico said.

"We can do better," Enrico decided. "Let's find some nice pictures and switch these out."

Mitch was going to say that wasn't necessary, but he saw it made Sammy happy. And Mrs. Del Rio did say to shift things around if they wanted. As Sammy and Enrico went in search of pictures, Mitch went along so he could have another look at what needed to be done, take some more detailed notes and make a list of supplies.

As they were looking over the pictures on the walls, Mitch remembered what he had seen at the café. "I've been meaning to ask, why are there all those pictures of showgirls all over the café?"

"Grandma was a Vegas showgirl back in the day. Way back in the day. Way, way back in the day," Enrico said then he stopped in the doorway of the next room. "These are good ones."

They entered the small sitting room that looked out on a wall of green where the garden was overgrown. The decor was very feminine with rose wallpaper and rose botanical prints on the walls. Sammy liked it a lot, but she didn't want to take the pictures.

"They're nice here," she said.

Still empty-handed, they moved on to other parts of the house. Along the way, they found pictures Sammy liked. A print of a girl with a yellow hat sitting under an apple tree, a painting of a basket of wildflowers and one of a cat in a garden next to a watering can found a new home in Sammy's room. She was thrilled to see them go up on her wall.

"This is a nice room now," Mitch said. "Thanks, Enrico."

"Thank you, Enrico," Sammy echoed.

"You can call me Rico since we're buddies," Enrico told her. He didn't say it to Mitch though, but he tried not to take it personally. But then Enrico did turn to him and said. "As for you, you can call me whatever you want."

Enrico grinned at him and there was a wicked gleam in his eyes. Mitch would swear he was flirting with him. Once again Mitch felt that odd stirring inside. Did that mean that Enrico was gay? It didn't matter to Mitch if he was, but he did wonder why he had this strange feeling around him.

They did more cleaning in the bathrooms and then the kitchen. Then Mitch brought up Sammy's things from the car, and now she was arranging her toys in her own room. Standing in the doorway, Mitch watched her line up her teddy bears according to height while that quilted doll with hair made of yellow yarn sat in a place of honor on top of her pillow.

When Sammy noticed him there, Mitch smiled at her. "Good job, honey," he told her and went off to get his own room in order.

Though he was planning to just take care of it himself later, Enrico insisted on helping out with that too. Alone with him, Mitch felt strange having him in what was supposed to be his bedroom. He couldn't seem to shake it off.

Glancing at Enrico out of the corner of his eye, Mitch tried to figure it out, but it just didn't make sense. So what if he was alone with him in his bedroom? Why should it matter to him?

As Mitch was trying not to stare at him, Enrico got a text. "We have new marching orders. Grandma wants us over at her house for dinner," he said.

"Some people call that an invitation," Mitch pointed out while he made his bed with freshly washed sheets.

"Not when it comes from Grandma," Enrico said. "It's not like there's anything to eat here. Let Grandma feed you. Consider it a business dinner. Grandma will probably want to talk your ear off about what you'll be doing to this place."

"In that case, we accept. We have to give you a ride into town anyway, right?" Mitch said.

"No need. I'm staying at Grandma's for now," Enrico said. "I'm texting to let her know we're on the way."

"Do you work at your grandmother's café full time, or is it a summer job?" Mitch asked.

"Kind of a summer job," Enrico said. "Getting away from some family pressure while I figure out what I want to do with my life. I took an extended break from school this spring. I was on the wrong path, but I don't know what the right path is. For now I'm trying not to be a freeloader while I hang out at Grandma's place."

That didn't surprise Mitch. Though he worked hard when he had a task in front of him, Enrico seemed unfocused. But any time his gaze landed on Mitch, he seemed very intent, like a man who shouldn't be taken lightly. Mitch had no idea what that was about or why he kept noticing things about him.

 

Sammy was happy that they were visiting Mrs. Del Rio, and when they arrived at her house, she loved all the flowers in her garden.

"This is a nice place," Mitch said as they went up the path to the front porch.

"It was in grandma's family for a few generations. She probably needs some work done in here too."

Enrico let them in and called out, "We're here!"

The house was furnished with a lot of character and color, and Sammy found even more to love about it.

"Smells good in here," Mitch said.

"I bet she's in the kitchen," Enrico said and led the way through the house.

Now they heard his grandmother greet them from somewhere. "Come on out here. I was just setting the table on the veranda."

Going out through a set of French doors, they found Mrs. Del Rio busy arranging silverware and napkins. The sun was just starting to set, but there were also hanging lanterns lighting the veranda. A gazebo stood in the middle of the huge back yard with more flowers everywhere, and Sammy was delighted.

"Your plates are pretty," Sammy said seeing the plates with purple flowers on them.

"What are you going to be putting on these pretty plates?" Enrico asked.

"Lasagna and bread sticks," Mrs. Del Rio told him. "I'll have supper out here soon. So are you all settled in at the Dunbar place?"

Mitch gave her an update. "We moved in more or less. We only did clean up. The real work starts tomorrow."

"Sammy's room is all ready for her," Enrico added.

Mrs. Del Rio was happy to hear that and smiled down at Sammy. "That's good."

"We got nice pictures," Sammy told her.

"We rearranged a few things," Mitch said.

"Rearrange anything you want. You can make the place your own while you're staying there," Mrs. Del Rio told him.

 

Mitch and Sammy took their seats at the table, and Enrico went to help bring the food. Once they were all sitting down, Mrs. Del Rio served the lasagna. "I invited a few people over for dessert, so you and Sammy can meet them," she said. "Sam plus Wyatt Hayes and his boys. The boys' parents died not too long ago, and Wyatt is taking care of them like they are his very own. He's their uncle. They're all a nice bunch."

Mitch nodded while the sight of the lasagna on his plate made him realize just how hungry he was.

"Want a breadstick from a can?" Enrico asked as he offered the basket with the breadsticks to him and Sammy.

"You don't have to put it like that," his grandmother scolded him.

Both Mrs. Del Rio and Enrico were very relaxed. They certainly didn't act like Mitch and Sammy were practically strangers at their table. Sammy took to both of them so fast. Mitch wasn't surprised that the offbeat but grandmotherly Mrs. Del Rio could engage her, but Enrico seemed to know how to relate to Sammy as well.

Mitch couldn't feel at ease around him though. Enrico's eyes were too lively and bright. They seemed to prod Mitch like some sort of provocative question was being asked, but he refused to hear it. It wasn't anything Enrico was doing deliberately. If only Mitch could stop paying so much attention to him, there wouldn't be a problem.