Tiny House in the Trees by Celia Bonaduce

Author:Celia Bonaduce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-07-28T22:35:25+00:00

Chapter 16

Molly walked into the office as Manny was putting on a pot of coffee—a chore he’d assigned himself when he’d started working at the tree farm. He looked surprised when Molly walked in.

“You’re early,” Manny said.

“I have new hours,” Molly said.

That wasn’t exactly a lie. She didn’t say Quinn had anything to do with her new hours.

Manny seemed satisfied with the answer, poured himself some ink-black coffee, and offered her a cup.

“That’s okay,” Molly said, peering into the oily coffee pot.

It occurred to her that she was probably going to have to get used to less-than-gourmet coffee, but she was going to take all these new steps one at a time.

“How are things at Gilbert’s?” Molly asked.

“Did you know I went to college?” Manny asked abruptly.

“Pardon?”

“I said, did you know I went to college?”

“No, actually, I didn’t.”

Should I have known that?

“You went to college too, right?”

“Right. Actually, I’m still in school. I’m in graduate—”

“My point is,” Manny interrupted, “you and I are both college graduates, with student loans up the butt, and we’ve got these…these jobs that have nothing to do with what we studied.”

Molly wasn’t sure what to say.

“What did you study?” she decided was a good question.

“Bagpiping.”

Molly stared at him. Was he kidding?

“You have a degree in Bagpiping?”

“Yes,” he said. “From Carnegie Mellon.”

“Oh. Well, I think maybe that’s a hard major to market in Kentucky.”

“Tell me about it.”

“What about…you know, going someplace they need bagpipers. Like Scotland.”

“They don’t need bagpipers in Scotland,” he said sullenly.

Mercifully, Manny downed his coffee and headed out to the trees. As soon as Molly was sure he wasn’t coming back, she plugged in her phone and iPad, then raced into the bathroom for a quick scrub.

When she’d accomplished all that could be done without a shower and her drawers full of cosmetics, Molly studied herself in the mirror. She had to admit, with a hot pink baseball cap to hide her wonky hair and a pink-and-white sleeveless—and wrinkle-proof—top, she didn’t look like someone who’d slept in a tree. She slicked on some lip gloss as she heard Old Paint settling onto the helipad behind the building.

She rushed into the office, yanking various cables from her electronics. She had them stuffed in her bag just as Quinn walked in.

“Hey, Molly,” Quinn said. “You’re early.”

“I have new hours,” Molly said before she could stop herself.

“Cool.”

That was easy.

Molly smiled. As messed up as her life was right now, it was always so exciting to see Quinn.

“Ready to go get some breakfast?” Quinn asked.

Molly’s smile faded. She couldn’t go to breakfast! Galileo was spending his first day in the tree fort. She would have to check on him several times to make sure he was all right. Saying no to Quinn made her stomach hurt but she had to be responsible.

“I’d love to,” Molly said.

Quinn cocked his head to one side, his own smile fading.

“I hear a ‘but’ coming on,” he said.

“Yeah,” Molly said hurriedly. “I would love to, you know I would. But I want to check out the…the cone situation…since it’s my new job.

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