Page 84 of Truck Up

She shrugs like that doesn’t matter. “Yes, but … at least there you’d be living in an actual house.”

“This is a house, Nova.” I don’t bother hiding my frustration with her.

She continues inspecting the cabin like she didn’t even hear what I said. “How are you paying for all of this?”

“Nova!” Hadley presses her hand to her chest like Nova insulted her. “That’s a rude question.”

“No, it’s not.” Nova keeps talking like this is a perfectly normal conversation. “We both know Lia has put everything she has into the flower shop. Christian is a mechanic. At a shop he co-owns with his six brothers.”

“Christian does really well, actually.” I defend him. “He makes a lot of money building custom motorcycles.”

“Maybe so,” Nova continues. “But this is a huge project. It’d take a lot of custom bikes to pay for all of this.”

I cross my arms over my chest and glare at her. “I know you’re asking all these questions because you care, but you’re going about it in a very shitty way.”

She huffs. “Sorry. It’s just—” She spreads her arms out to her side and spins around. “This is a lot. And not just the additions to the cabin. You’re so far away out here.”

I sigh. “It’s not that far. It’s only ten minutes from the flower shop.”

“Yeah, but it’s even farther from my house.” She almost sounds like she’s whining. “It won’t be as easy to see you.”

“Nova.” I rush over to her and pull her into a hug. She resists me at first—because she hates hugs—but when I don’t let her go, she gives in. “You can come visit me anytime. And I’ll still come visit you.”

“I know. But it won’t be the same.” She squeezes me tighter, like she’s afraid I’m going to disappear.

“I wanna hug too!” Hadley wraps her arms around both of us. “If you don’t stop, you’re going to make me ugly cry.”

“Oh, hell no!” Nova breaks free from the group hug. “No crying or I’m leaving.”

Hadley quickly wipes her eyes and shakes her head. “I’m not crying.” Then she forces a fake smile. “See?”

Nova and I can’t stop the laughter as more tears well up in Hadley’s eyes. Where Nova deals with emotions through anger and silence, Hadley cries. The two of them balance me out. We complement each other well. It’s probably why we’ve been friends for so long.

Nova places her hands on her hips and looks around the messy room. There’s a closed off doorway on either side that leads to the additions that are still being constructed. Most of our boxes are stacked to one side. I’ve organized the kitchenette as best as I can, considering how small it is. But it’ll do for a couple of months.

Once completed, this will become an entrance and a sitting room. We’ll have a new kitchen to the right and our bedroom and bathroom will be behind that. Those are the rooms the contractor is finishing first. When we move into that space, they’ll gut the current bedroom, take down some walls and convert it to the main living area.

“This is going to be nice,” Nova says. When I look at her, she smiles. “I can see the vision.”

“It will be.” I let out a deep breath in relief and shake my arms to the side to release the tension. My friends are important to me and I need them to accept my life choices. “Fingers crossed it all gets done before the baby arrives.”

“When’s your due date again?” Hadley asks.

“End of March.” I rub my belly and smile. I’m still not showing that much, but a tiny bump is forming.

“Oy. That’s not much time.” Nova’s expression turns contemplative. “Here’s hoping this winter doesn’t slow you down.”

“Yeah, I’m worried about that too.” I admit. “But Christian’s already ordered all the supplies. That’s currently what’s stored in the new giant garage you see out there.”

“That garage looks bigger than this house.” Hadley’s eyes are wide as she peeks out the front window. “I mean, it’s huge.”

I chuckle. “He is a mechanic. I think he wants to make it a second shop so he can build motorcycles here rather than heading to the homestead every day. Cut down on the drive.”

“Are his brothers okay with that?” Nova asks.

“I think so. He mostly works on his own. Now that they have Sophia, Christian rarely needs to help with customers. If they need him, he’ll go in. Otherwise, he’s going to move all his equipment here and run the custom motorcycle business from home.”

“How is he affording all of this?” Nova circles back to the money question. She raises her hands in surrender and looks at me with nothing but concern. “It’s not a critical question. I’m just curious. ’Cause this is a lot.”