A house is made with walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
On the first Friday in November, afternoon Reese sat in his office with the conference call on speakerphone. The architect, engineer and site foreman were not on the same page. Rubbing his forehead, he wondered if they were even in the same book. Clicking on the calendar on his computer, he looked for a time that all four of them would be available. And soon.“George,” Reese said to the foreman, cutting off the engineer, “go ahead and shut the site down before the city comes in and shuts us down.”“No offense, Reese,” George replied, “with the holidays coming up, my men would rather work until the city shuts us down.”“How many times do I have to tell you, I’m calling it, I’m shutting it down, your crew will still get paid.” He tried to keep his voice calm, but damn it, he was tired of telling them this.“It’s not common in the trades.” George pointed out.“AsFear is a reaction. Courage is a decision. – Gina RodriguezIt was a little after nine when Reese pulled into the back parking lot behind the turn of the century dry goods store that now housed his company offices. The last store at the end was becoming available at the end of the year, and he planned on owning it. Tire of sharing a single office, his project managers had been requesting offices of their own.Most of their work was done on site, and they each had offices in their houses. He contracted with an architecture company and a separate engineering company. The trades were all self-contained within his company. Except landscaping – he had two companies that he contracted with for that. TRAAC took care of the payroll and financial side of the business.For the most part, it was just Willow at the office. And that was how she preferred it. He worried about her, but Neo always had someone keeping an eye on her. Stepping through the back door, he found himself steppi
Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom? – Terry Pratchett, HogfatherNeo walked into the apartment and found Jo sitting on the couch with her knees pulled up almost to her chest. The Nightmare Before Christmas blanket from her childhood covered her legs. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun and she wore a dark blue sweatshirt, and he could barely see the top of the yellow print. He knew what was written on the shirt – PROUD NAVY SISTER.Chuckling, he thought about the day that they had gone to the art museum. If the fact that JD was in a new uniform with hardly any ranks or ribbons didn’t tell people that they were a Navy family, all the sweatshirts and onesies did. It wasn’t anything that was done intentionally. They had all bought the shirts before leaving for Chicago.PROUD NAVY DADPROUD NAVY MOMPROUD NAVY BROTHERPROUD NAVY SISTERI HEART MY SAILORLITTLE NAV
We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses. – Alphonse KarrJolene had not realized how much she had missed cooking with her mom for Thanksgiving. They laughed and joked as she did the prep work and Helen did the actual cooking. Cheryl and Dean helped where they could and Bunny sat at the kitchen island, taste testing everything.Currently Jolene was cutting and peeling apples for her mother’s now famous apple pies. As the knife slid just under the green skin, she thought about how much she nearly lost. Nearly missed out on. Her baby siblings. Her niece. JD’s high school graduation. His graduation from Navy boot camp. Neo. Her mom finding happiness.The apple in her hand blurred and her hands began to shake. The sounds of the other women around her laughing and talking slowly faded away. A warm hand gently took the knife and apple out of her hands. A ragged sob escaped her as she was pulled into a very familiar chest.Neo li
I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book. – J.K. RowlingNeo handed Jolene one of his T-shirts before guiding her into the bathroom. She had prepared for tomorrow to be emotional. Last Thanksgiving was the day that her life changed, her world shattered. Whatever line you wanted to use to describe a life altering event, it would fit.Nearly being murdered by your husband has that effect. Falling apart on your new boyfriend is more than embarrassing. She looked at the shower and thought about how excited she had been only a few hours ago about his promise of a shower together. As water sprayed from the large showerhead on the wall and fell from the rain head on the ceiling, she wasn’t sure that she was ready for this. Not now. Not after confronting her memories of last year. Or facing everything that she nearly lost.It felt like she was in a trance as Neo stripped out of his clothes and then carefully removed her clothes. Taking h
May your walls know joy; may every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility. – Maryanne Radmacher Hershey“Reese!” Cooper called from the front room of the main house. “Reese!” he called again, moving deeper into the house and heading for the laundry room just off the open concept kitchen. “Damn it, Reese!”“I keep telling you, call me JD. Reese is my dad.” He replied as he screwed in the last anchor for the shelves above where the washer and dryer will go. “I’m not used to answering to it, yet.”“Yet?” Cooper chuckled as he propped his shoulder against the door frame. “You act like you haven’t had the name your whole life.”He was a few inches taller than JD and had short dark blonde hair and pale green eyes. Having been a linebacker in high school, he was bulkier than JD was. The deep tan of his skin and dark lines of his tattoos only seemed to emphasize his muscles. Today he wore jean shorts and a dark gray tight Under Armor T-shirt.“I ha
US Navy Seabees – We build, we fight.“That son of a bitch!” The chief muttered with a grin as he looked past the sailors that were cleaning the equipment parked in the large hangar. He gave a small shake of his head as a rare smile crossed his face. “Owen Reese! You sorry fucker! What the hell are you doing here?”Reese laughed as he approached Chief Pollard with an arm lightly slung around Dean’s shoulders. “You salty old bastard, they haven’t kicked you out yet?”“They did, but then they realized that I knew everything and brought me back.” The gray-haired man replied as they shook hands. “This cannot be little Denise.”“Hi, Chief.” She smiled at him as she discreetly looked past him, and her eyes landed on JD.“Damn, girl.” He pulled her in for a hug and she accepted it from the man who she only vaguely remembered. “I’m sorry about your momma.”“Thanks.” She whispered and blinked back tears as he let her go.“So, Chief,” Reese said as he turned them so that their backs were both t
Selecting a wedding dress is more than just a fitting… it’s a process – a memory in the making. - Olivelli Cape TownReese woke up and found himself alone in the large bed. He rolled out of bed and found his sweatpants where he had dropped them before crawling into bed the night before. If his wife was downstairs in the kitchen making more cookies, he was going to haul her deliciously plump ass back to bed.Bypassing the house shoes, he was grateful that the company here agreed to the radiant heating in the floor, he headed to the door and then down the hall. He peeked into the nursery where all four babies were sleeping soundly. Then he continued his way down the hall towards the faint light that was coming from the floor below.Approaching the stairs, he heard the soft voices of the women. “Dad lived in barracks the whole time.” Cheryl laughed. “Drove a god awful old beat-up pick-up and squirreled away the majority of his check.”“But it paid off for him.” Bun
If it wasn’t for each other, I’m sure a lot of us would have gone crazy. That’s where the cohesion comes in. We were brothers. – Clancy LyallThere was a loud pinging noise that preceded the screen of JD’s phone lighting up the dark room with double bunkbeds. There were a few grumbled complaints from his bunkmates as they were drifting back to sleep it did it again. Again, they voiced their complaints, but not too loudly. They had all received messages in the middle of the night from time to time.Cooper was notorious for getting messages from women who had names in his phone such as Gayle – wholesome and Christina – Blonde, tits, waitress, freaky and some were more descriptive. A few even had emoji’s to depict everything the women were willing to do. Or had done.The occasional ping was soon replaced by pings going off back-to-back and the phone screen never going dark. “What the fuck, man?” Cooper asked as JD’s phone dinged with another message. “Tell your gi