While He Built Her Home novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Wish List

By two in the afternoon the walnut wall was standing.

It ran the whole length of the back room, eleven feet of dark wood.

Brass hooks were set into it in a grid.

Phoebe put a lamp on the first shelf and switched it on.

The light spread gold across the grain.

"Okay," she said, quietly. "Okay, that's gorgeous."

Clayton stood with his hands in his back pockets and looked at the wall.

"Jared drew this," he said. "He's good at drawing."

"He's good at drawing a lot of things."

"Yeah." He took the pencil from behind his ear. "I want to show you something. I'd rather you were sitting."

I wasn't going to sit. "Show me."

He walked me out to the cab of the flatbed, where the paperwork was on the dashboard.

He didn't hand it to me right away.

"This is the donation form for the Seven-Day Home Reset," he said.

"It's a company document, so I have a copy in the office."

"And?"

"I didn't read it until this morning."

"Jared told you it was a weekend job."

"Jared told me nothing. I found out about it at the gala when the screen lit up, same as you."

I took the form.

The first page was ordinary. Vaughn and Quade Homeworks, donor. The Ohio Children's Fund, recipient. A list of services.

At the bottom were two signatures.

One was Jared's.

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