Page 149 of The Homewreckers
“Anything else you wanted to tell me?” Hattie realized she was holding her breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“It’d be better if I could tell you this face-to-face,” Mo said.
“I should be back at the house in fifteen minutes unless traffic gets worse.”
“Yeah, but I’m on my way to the airport. Rebecca decided to ‘surprise’ me by flying in tonight. She wants to be on hand for the reveal tomorrow.”
“Oh.” The word hung there.
“It’s kind of a command performance. Probably won’t be much time to talk privately tomorrow, and, uh, I just wanted to tell you that I don’t regret last night. I know you think it was a bad idea, and I’m sorry you think that, because I think it was pretty great. Even if it was just that one time, I don’t regret it. I think you and I could work.…”
“No,” Hattie interrupted. “We’re not Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. We’re too different. We want different things.”
“We’re not that different,” Mo insisted. “I’m passionate about my work. I’m stubborn as hell, but I’m loyal, and I’ll never lie to you.” He sighed loudly. “Look, we can’t resolve this over the phone. I’ll see you in the morning. In the meantime, think about what I said. Please?”
“I gotta go,” Hattie said. She disconnected before he could.
68House Beautiful
As soon as the van pulled into the driveway behind the truck, Leetha jumped down from behind the wheel and directed the camera crew to start shooting. “The light’s great right now,” she enthused.
Trae had enlisted one of the finish carpenters to stay and help unload the truck and van, and he was obviously eager to critique all the things Hattie had borrowed.
“That rug is way too faded,” he sniped, as the helper unrolled it in the living room.
“That’s the Tybee look,” Hattie said. “Faded and worn but beautiful.”
“Like me,” Leetha quipped from off-camera.
Hattie picked up the blue-and-white ginger jar lamps and placed them on the console table at the far end of the room. “They’re obviously not old,” Trae said. “But it’s a good look.”
“Help me with this,” she ordered Trae, picking up one end of the huge Bert John abstract and propping it on the wall above the mantel.
“Okay, the paintings are great. This one especially. We’ll leave it leaning like this. More casual.” He grabbed a pair of large, seeded-glass hurricane lamps Hattie had unloaded and placed them on either side of the painting, then stepped back to admire the effect.
“All right,” he said. “Yeah. Now I’m seeing the vision. You done good, Hattie Mae.”
Hattie lifted an eyebrow. “Good?”
“Okay, great. Now let’s get this place styled up.”
“Where’s Cass?” Hattie asked.
“I sent her into town to pick up the porch furniture. The stuff I ordered wasn’t on the moving van, so we arranged to borrow some from her mom’s house.”
“Good idea,” Hattie said. “Zenobia’s got an awesome collection of old, dark green–painted wicker. Is Cass coming back out here tonight?”
“No. She said she’d be here first thing in the morning. She’s going to stop at that nursery on Victory Drive and borrow some palm trees and plants for the porch.”
As soon as her rented van was emptied, Leetha called a halt in the shooting. “We’ve got way more footage than we need,” she said. “Trae, reveal first thing in the morning, right?”
Trae yawned widely. “No way. We’ve got window treatments to hang, the bookshelves have to be styled, and then the kitchen and bathrooms and porches still need doing, and the beds have to be dressed. If you’re quitting, I’m quitting too. It’s way past cocktail time.”
“I’ve still got some gas left in my engine,” Hattie volunteered. “If you’ll lay out where you want everything, I can knock that out before I leave.”
“Don’t stay too late,” Leetha warned. “You’ve got an eightA.M.call tomorrow.” She snapped her fingers. “Damn. Almost forgot. I was supposed to text Mo photos of today’s progress. Can you do that before you leave?”
“Probably wants to impress Rebecca while he’s wining and dining her tonight.”
