“And we’ll do the season despite you, too. But only if you step the fuck back and leave us alone. No more articles or surprise visits from my nightmare mother, and no more fucking with the time line. We will do this our way or not at all. I want it in our contract.”

“Yeah, that’s not a real thing—” Lyle starts.

“Make it a real thing, Jessup,” I say, before ending the call and rounding the island to my girlfriend. She swirls in her stool to face me, her face lit up.

“That felt good.”

“I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty turned on right now.”

“Really?” she asks, already undoing the buttons on my shirt.

I still her fingers. “We can go back to my place. I know you said you didn’t want to have sex here.”

She swipes my hand away and continues with my shirt, pulling it down over my shoulders and tossing it to the gleaming kitchen floor. “I said I didn’t want to have sex against the wall. Which, as you know, I’ve reneged on. Several times.” She presses forward, her tongue teasing my earlobe and sucking it into her hot mouth. Her hand reaches down the front of my pants, stroking against me with enthusiasm, as she whispers, “And I never said anything about the kitchen counters.”

25

SHELBY

THE BONES

I prefer to keep the furniture to a minimum when I’m staging a house. Particularly one as beautiful as the Caroline Street project, letting the polished Craftsman details speak for themselves. But I’ve managed to come through with some books, fresh flowers, logs in the fireplace, and so forth. I’ve scheduled an open house with Jazz this Sunday, and I’ll be on hand to bake some cookies in the oven, light a cozy fire, and walk the HomeMade cameras through, before the public gets its first glimpse of what we’ve done. I should probably feel nervous, since the entire world will see if we sink this house, but I’ve been too busy browsing options for the next project with Jazz, my dad, and Cam. We’re planning to take on a few this time. My dad always has multiple projects going at any given moment. It’s more sustainable financially and pragmatically, and it will help keep things rolling for our camera crew during light weeks. Or so we think. If necessary, I can take on one project while Cam takes the lead on the other, and we can fill in the gaps together.

Everything together.