Episode 270: Your Everything

"No need to tiptoe Quent, everyone’s awake here!" Justine called out from her seat on the carpet playing her thousandth round of peek-a-boo with their daughter.

"Don’t hate me for saying it Just, you’ve gotta be exhausted but I am so glad she kept both of you up," Quentin smiled entering the room. He kissed his wife’s forehead and scooped up their daughter, gurgling and cooing at the sight of her daddy. "Feels like I haven’t seen you two in days."

"Yeah well talk about exhausted, it’s three in the morning hon, and you’ve been at the garage since five-" she frowned, "yesterday I guess that was. That can’t be healthy."

Rising, she watched her husband settle on the bed, long denim-clad legs stretched out, balancing Tansy’s wiggly legs on his thighs. "It’s just temporary babe, that guy’s willing to pay top dollar to have his muscle car restored as soon as possible, now we can afford a great Christmas without freaking out over every bill, a nice change from the past few months, don’t you think?"

"Definitely." Justine grabbed the newspaper he’d left on the nightstand and joined her family on the bed, loving the intimate Sunday morning feel of things, even though it was the middle of the night on a Wednesday, and ten minutes ago she’d been dying for sleep.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers, maybe if she hadn’t sold the business they’d have gotten to the point where they could afford more time- No. It paid the bills and she adored her days with Tansy, what’s done is done.

"Maybe with a few more jobs like this- spaced far apart so my eyes don’t look like road maps- maybe then you won’t have to read day old papers from the shop, we can buy you a subscription," Quent teasingly grinned.

"To dream," Justine smiled, resting her head in the crook of his neck while turning to the business section. "Unbelievable! It says here that my homemade frozen food business is about to be the toast of the financial world and here’s the kicker, my dad was the secret buyer! Ugh!"

Episode 271: Demolition Love