“The back room that’s going to be my office is already painted. It’s been
dry for a few days and there isn’t any smell. The door closes tightly and
when I ask Chloe to listen, she listens. She’ll be fine back there. I’ll let
everyone know she’s there and no one will bother her. I’ll be no more than
ten feet away and I’ll check on her every half hour. If you check every half
hour, alternating with me, she’ll have someone watching her every fifteen
minutes.”
“Me?” Christina gasped again.
“Yeah. You. Uh— she’s not running a fever or anything or there’s no
way I would have brought her today. I would have taken another day off.”
“I’ll be good,” Chloe said indignantly. She clearly didn’t like getting
talked about like she wasn’t even standing there.
“I know, sweetheart.” Taylor took her daughter’s tiny hand and walked
off towards the back of the building.
The crews were already busy with the usual. The fencing guys were
short a couple workers; one had quit and two were out with injuries. Taylor
had offered to help. The fencing took some time, and she didn’t have to be
overly skilled to make holes and set the posts. She’d done a lot of that work
on the farm. Not with chain link, but she could learn.
“But— Taylor—” Christina followed behind them, ready with her
long list of protests.
Taylor spun. She managed to be pleasant for Chloe’s sake, because
she’d always taught her daughter to be kind. “Yes?”
“I— I can’t— I mean—”
“Can’t what?” Taylor blinked innocently. “I just need to help with
the fencing to get everything done on time. I assume that later we can sit
down, maybe by the end of tomorrow, and talk about setting a solid opening
date. I know that you want this done as soon as possible and everything.”
Christina went totally red. “Oh, and before I forget, I have a short to-do list
for you. Just all the things that I thought you could use your considerable