Dating Daddy's Best Friend novel · Chapter 27 of 32
Chapter 27: Twenty-Two Frames
On Monday I lit the boiler at five.
The sky over the river was still dark blue.
By five-thirty my father was standing in the steam shed doorway in his canvas coat with a kitchen timer in his hand.
"The cardiologist said light duty," I said.
"This is light. It weighs four ounces."
He set it on the steam box lid.
"I'm the clock," he said. "You're the hands. Nobody touches the oak till I say."
"Since when?"
"Since I'm the clock."
Six frames in three weeks would have been easy in May.
But every frame had to be fastened, and faired, and then every plank of her bottom had to go back on over them.
Then caulking. Then paint below the waterline. Then nine coats of varnish above it.
The boat people came back.
The outboard brothers from Fennville came on weekends and hung planks with Cullen without being asked.
The varnish woman came on a Tuesday, looked at our brushes, and threw every one of them in the dumpster.
"Badger hair," she said, and handed me a box of new ones. "You're welcome. Don't thank me. Sand between coats."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of Dating Daddy's Best Friend are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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