Laid Bare - Lauren Dane [109]
“Don’t lick anything else.”
“As if.”
The two brothers bickered as Erin began to chop the vegetables for the stuffing and tried not to think about what a difficult thing Ben faced.
She was laughing and sipping her second cup of coffee when Todd came through the door, talking loudly to none other than Annalee Copeland.
“Look who I found downstairs.” Todd looked around quickly, relieved nothing naked was happening, and ushered her in.
“Hello, Mrs. Copeland. Can I get you a cup of coffee?” Erin called out from her place in the kitchen.
“This is such a big, lovely place!” Annalee, all nearly six feet of her, came in and gave Erin a hug. Her hair was dark like Cope’s, but they both had her blue eyes. She was a seamstress and had a small shop in Ballard that her family had operated for two generations. Erin liked her a lot. She was open and generous, funny like Lorie, and she loved her family.
“Andrew, what are you doing here?”
Erin laughed, pouring a cup of coffee for Annalee, who thanked her.
“Free food, Mom.” He shrugged, and she rolled her eyes at her son before looking at Erin.
“He was already at my house to eat breakfast first thing.”
“That was before I went on my run.”
Annalee sighed. “I raised them all to cook, goodness knows.”
Ben came through from the rest of their newly enlarged place. He smiled when he saw his mother. “Hey!” He hugged her. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“I haven’t seen you in a while and I wanted to see this place.
Lorie said the renovations were finished?”
“I just had dinner with you on Monday.” Ben put his arm around her shoulders.
“Still.”
“You want a tour?”
Her face lit up. “Yes. Show me the place.”
Cope stood. “Me too. I haven’t seen the office space yet.”
“Come on then.” Ben looked back at Erin, who smiled, and he wondered just what he would do about the situation brewing. He’d lived with Caroline, and as far as his family knew, Greg was a tenant who lived in their mother-in-law unit. But this was different. They knew Todd and Erin were married. They knew Todd. He wasn’t sure how to broach it, not that he hadn’t thought about it nearly constantly.
“Wow, they’ve done a great job.” Cope turned around as he took in the space.
“The expanded kitchen is here.” He pointed to a state-of-the-art kitchen with marble counters, fridge drawers and all the bells and whistles you could imagine. “We’ll all move here and they’re going to rehab the rest of the apartment next. Erin will keep her music room and expand into the bedroom next door. The kitchen in there will be removed and that entire living space will be a media room with a home theater. There’ll be a library back where the master bedroom is now and a guest room.”
He had to admit the renovations had gone exceptionally well and their new living space was more incredible than he could have ever imagined. He did get the occasional twinge at how much it all cost and what a large portion of it all Erin paid for, but she’d been so excited and then had given him and Todd the if it were reversed, you’d want me to take it speech. So they’d given in but volunteered to pay for the new furniture.
“Our living room will be small for now until they’re done next door.”
“Where’s your room going to be?” his mother asked with perceptive eyes.
“Here.” He opened up French doors leading to a small living area with a couch and a television and into a bedroom with an en suite bath. They’d moved his bedroom furniture into it the day before, and he’d dashed in to rumple it a bit before his mom came in.
“Wow. Do you need a roommate?” Cope asked.
He snorted at his brother.
“This is very nice, Ben. Not as big as your old apartment or even your house with Caroline. Aren’t you a little old to rent a room in someone’s house? How are you ever going to find a woman if you live here?”
“I like it here. I love the building.” He ushered them out and across the apartment to another set of French doors. “This is our office space.” The workmen were nearly finished with it. “We’ll all work in this space instead of having to lease space downtown.” He backed