The Kitchen Renovation Crew Stayed Three Weeks Longer Than the Quote novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Stairs
"Surprise," my sister said again, as I stood there with my mouth open. "You don't answer your texts, so I'm answering them in person."
She hugged me with the banana bread between us and then looked past my shoulder.
My kitchen stood open at the back of the hall.
Tanner, Kou and Mikko had come to the doorway at the sound of her voice, wiping their hands on their jeans.
"Oh," she said. "These are the contractors."
"This is my crew," I said. "Tanner, Kou, Mikko. This is my sister."
"We've heard so much," Mikko said, and stopped, because no one had.
"I'm sure you have," my sister said, and shook all three hands, one at a time, taking her time with each.
She was thirty-six, round and quick, with my mother's chin and a way of looking at a room that missed nothing.
She stood in the new kitchen and turned in a slow circle.
"It's gorgeous," she said. "Britta, it's gorgeous. Ten years of that man promising you cabinets and you did it in six weeks."
"Nine, almost," Mikko said. "We're over."
"Over?"
"A little," Kou said. "By arrangement."
My sister looked at him, and at me.
"I'm staying the night," she said. "My husband's in Denver until Thursday, and I thought, I'll go see my sister. Can you take me for a night?"
"I have two spare rooms," I said.
"I'll take the one with the lamp."
She set the banana bread on my new quartz counter, and the three of them looked at it, and at her, and at the counter.
Not one of them said a word.
I went red to the roots of my hair.
At five that evening I walked the men to their trucks.
"Church camp rules tonight," Mikko whispered. "I'll sleep in my truck out front if you need a bodyguard."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Kitchen Renovation Crew Stayed Three Weeks Longer Than the Quote are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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