Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love) (15 page)

Once Carrie reinforced all four legs, one of which did
require a long, thin screw to further secure it, Destiny and Dan flipped the
desk back over.

Destiny smiled as she ran her hands over the desktop, then
jerked her hand away and frowned at her finger.

“I’m buying you a new desk,” Dan declared.

Carrie checked the desk, finding no nail points. She pulled
Destiny’s hand closer for inspection. “It’s a splinter, which is why I have the
sander. She looked at Dan. “I didn’t bring tweezers.”

He took his daughter’s hand. “I’ll handle it. I’m highly
skilled at splinter retrievals.” Dan led Destiny from the room.

In their absence, Carrie focused on repairing the drawer.

She had just fitted in the bottom slide bar when she felt a
soothing presence hovering over her. She looked up to Dan’s smiling face.

“You’re amazing. Where did you learn to do this?” he asked.

“In college. ‘Sad’ doesn’t even start to describe the
dorm-room furniture. I took an adult shop class at a nearby tech high school
and learned how to fix things.” She still remembered the stunned silence when
she’d entered the classroom on the first day.

The other students, all male, mostly over sixty, stared as
if an alien had landed on their sacred ground. Through the whole three months of
lessons, they kept trying to do everything for her.

Had it not been for the professor’s constant intervention,
she wouldn’t have learned how to operate any tools.

Dan stared at her with clear admiration. “If there’s
anything I can do, let me know. I don’t want to get in your way, but if you
need a third hand or extra muscle, I’m your guy.”

She appreciated his consideration.

It struck her odd such a nice man remained unmarried when
he had a child in need of a mother. Sure
ly
some woman would’ve been willing to help him raise his
daughter. Yet it never happened? Why?

Kneeling, he helped her lift the drawer and ease it onto
the slider. A smile of pride came to her lips as the wooden beam held the
drawer in perfect position. “Let’s leave it so the wood has weight upon it
while the glue sets.”

He stood and offered her a hand.

As she rose, she realized one helper hadn’t returned. “Where’s
Destiny?”

“Oh, I sent her to the hospital.”

“What?”
For a small splinter?

He laughed. “Kidding. I asked her to work on my problem. I
didn’t want her breathing sawdust.” He paused. “I’m pleased to see you have a
mask.”

“I brought three.”

“Do you mean I get to sand?” His eyes sparkled with joy.

She had brought three so her helpers wouldn’t breathe dust
if they insisted upon watching, but she couldn’t burst Dan’s enthusiasm. “You
can do the smooth surfaces using the flat sander, while I do the curved areas
with the mouse.”

Motioning him to the desk, she gave Dan a short lesson on
operating the tool. “Don’t go deeper than needed to remove the scratches and
the faint remainder of varnish.”

He proved to have a very gentle touch, so she sat on the
plastic tarp and worked the rounded balls and curves of the legs.

Carrie had finished her second leg when an unhappy voice sounded
from the door. “Hey. Why didn’t you come get me if you planned to let us do
something other than watch?”

Carrie blushed with embarrassment. Poor Destiny had come to
help and Carrie had excluded her from every fun task thus far.

She patted the plastic on the other side of her. “Come
here. I’ll teach you how to do the tricky stuff.”

Seconds later, a happy young lady sat beside her.

“Mask!” Dan warned from behind his.

Carrie located the third mask and gave it to Destiny,
expecting her to declare it unfashionable. Without a single protest, the girl
slid the rubber band over her Princess Leia buns.

After a few mishaps, Destiny mastered the mouse sander. So
Carrie focused on Dan, teaching him a few tricks to speed the process.

Having no additional sander for herself, she tugged the
drawer a few inches out and put on the ceramic handle that had ripped through
the wood. The back plate’s holes fit the handle to perfection. However, she
needed to sand and stain the drawer before she attached anything. In fact, she should
remove the other handles while they sanded the other side of the desk.

When Dan’s watch beeped, he stood and carried the sander to
Carrie. He walked to the fridge, extracted the leftovers from last night, and
popped them into the microwave.

Destiny stopped sanding. “Dad, it’s ten o’clock. You can’t
take a break yet.”

He turned and faced her. “According to Dr. Lenard, my new
employee requires feeding five times a day. And I suspect you’ll eat a few
despite your scolding. I know I will.”

Destiny chuckled. “You know, parents aren’t supposed to comprehend
their teenagers so well. It’s downright unnatural.”

As the delicious odors filled the room, Carrie’s stomach
growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten breakfast.

They ate the remaining appetizers in Dan’s office, away
from the dust. She would have been worried about the time they’d wasted, but
with three of them working, she realized they could finish the entire
renovation today.

When they returned to work, she practiced delegating,
something she had little experience doing. As a kid, she’d never gotten a
leadership role. Even when she went to work for Trent, no one accepted her
authority over them. If she needed something done, she had to do it herself.
When she required help, she’d either charm or bribe them into helping.

However, today she had two competent assistants who wanted
work sent their way.

Thus by six p.m., they’d painted the room, laid the carpet,
refinished the desk, and returned it to the room. Tomorrow, she would hang
pictures and ready her desk for work.

Destiny hugged her as they stood in the transformed space.
“The change is incredible! It even looks larger.”

Dan chuckled. “It does. Must be swollen with pride.” His
gaze focused on the desk. “I cannot believe how beautiful the piece of junk
turned out. It looks like an expensive antique.” He groaned and stared at the
painted ceiling with the flickering fluorescent.

“All that’s left is to bring in a few decorative touches.
I’ll do that tomorrow.” Carrie frowned at the overhead light signaling Morse
code.

“Dad, did you forget to call about the light?” Destiny
asked.

“I called. They promised to be up on Monday.”

“Which Monday?” Destiny grumbled.

“Good question.”

“Give me your stepladder and I’ll steal you a new light.”

Carrie handed it over and smiled as the girl hurried from
the room. “She has excellent problem solving skills.”

He chuckled. “Depends upon whose light she steals. I’m
already dreading the complaints I’ll get on Monday as to why you have an office
so much nicer than the norm.”

Her smile fell. She didn’t want everyone hating her. “Maybe
you could mention I paid for the changes myself, but offer them the same
opportunity if they want to improve their environment.”

“I don’t wish to commit Destiny and me to give up our
Saturdays for people who have no clue what they’re doing. If you don’t mind,
you and Destiny get all the credit for doing this.”

She nodded.

He rubbed the center of her back. “Your ability to perform
miracles amazes me. If I’d been given this challenge by myself, I would have
failed.

“Got it,” Destiny returned with her stepladder and a
fluorescent bulb.

“Where did you take it from?”

“The storage room.”

“Well done.”

Destiny turned on the light to see which bulb flickered,
then turned it off and switched it out.

“How do you know how to change these bulbs?” Dan asked.

“Necessity. Scott stole my bulb when I was at class, so,
when Greg told me, I stole it back later in the evening. Yet when I came in
after classes, I had a flickering room again and Scott had two working bulbs.
So once he left, I took it back and now lock my door if I’m gone for even a
moment.”

She stepped down from the ladder and flipped the light
switch. They all smiled at the bright, non-flickering light. “You need to lock
your door whenever you leave as well, or all your cool stuff will disappear.”

Dan lost his smile. “I hope you’re joking. If people are
stealing, I want to know about it.”

Destiny rolled her eyes. “If you weren’t my dad, you still
wouldn’t know about it, because no way in hell would I complain to the CEO when
my lunch disappeared. Even the continued existence of our appetizers shocked me
until I remembered we were the last ones here yesterday and first in today.”

“Maybe someone is hungry,” Carrie suggested.

“Maybe some of our people are jerks.”

“I’ll bring it up on Monday,” Dan promised.

Destiny mimicked her dad’s groan and stared up at the
ceiling. “Please don’t. They’ll think I told you.”

Dan’s watch beeped. “It’s time to feed Carrie again. Let’s
lock up and go get dinner.”

“I can’t…” Carrie pointed to her sweats covered in dust and
a grazing of paint.

Dan’s gaze swept her from head to toe. “Good point.”

Destiny gripped Carrie’s arm. “You can come home with us.
Dad cooks a mean salmon, and we have no dress code. And then you can stay the
night, and I’ll put your clothes in the washer and dryer so they will be ready
for tomorrow. Then we can take you back to finish the office, while Dad and I
go shopping.”

Dan raised his brows but remained silent as a soft smile
formed.

Carrie suspected he had intended to remind her of the show
they planned to see, but he refused to ruin her new plan, which left her to do
so.

“I have to get home. Trent may show up.”

Destiny’s eyes rounded in outrage, reminding Carrie how
much the girl hated Trent. She focused on her father, as if expecting him to
fix the matter.

Dan slipped his arm around his daughter. “Don’t push,
sweetheart. Besides we have plans for tomorrow.”

Destiny rolled her eyes.

Carrie grinned. “The show you are going to see is the best
thing in the world.”

“Would you like to see it with us?”

Dan grimaced. “I already checked. The show is sold out.”

Destiny released a loud and dissatisfied huff.

Her ability to flip from responsible adult to a child
within seconds amazed Carrie. But unlike Trent, Destiny remained adorable even
in her youthful pouts.

They took the elevator down to the indoor parking lot.
Destiny turned over her key so Carrie could get in tomorrow. Carrie hugged the
girl for taking her disappointment like a champ.

She shook Dan’s hand and thanked them both for the help.
They remained standing together until she drove off. She envied their
relationship. She hadn’t spoken to her dad since she left for college. He’d
wanted her to wait for Caroline to finish college first, then he promised to
send her
if
he thought her ready for such a responsibility.

Since nothing he had ever promised her with a caveat had
ever come to be, Carrie concluded she’d have to send herself to school. She
targeted smaller schools on the other side of the country. According to the
admissions counselor, her personal essay on growing up small had impressed the
selection committee and won her a rare out-of-state full tuition and housing scholarship.

She had thought if she removed the monetary issue of
sending two daughters to college at once, her parents would be both relieved
and happy. Instead, it proved to be the final blow to their tenuous relationship.

When she announced her great news at dinner, instead of being
relieved, her father became furious, telling her she lacked the maturity to go
to college, much less a college halfway across the world. He demanded she write
to the school and tell them she had made a colossal error.

Carrie had run to her room, locked the door, and cried her
eyes out. Her father had left no doubt he saw her as a blight on his gene pool,
a deformity to be hidden away, a mistake to be punished for eternity.

Once she calmed, she called her high school counselor who
had helped with her search for a college. She told him her good news and cried
when he responded with happiness and pride, the emotions her father should have
felt, if he had loved her.

Between sobs, she relayed her father’s response and her
determination to go anyway. At eighteen, she didn’t require permission. However,
she didn’t have the money to get to New York, and school didn’t start for three
months.

As a former New York native, Mr. Davis had a married sister
who agreed to take her in until school began. Mr. Davis paid her coach fare.