Tiny House, Big Fix Read online

  “You told me you didn’t want to leave the area. Your friends are here. You begged me not to move!”

  Caught, she shook her head a little. “Well, maybe I was wrong. Anything is better than living at a campsite.”

  Maggie put her hands over her ears. “I hate it when you guys argue!” she shouted.

  I sighed. “Maggie’s right. We’re stressed right now. But there’s no need to take it out on each other.”

  Zoe shrugged and looked away, but she didn’t say anything more. She was a good kid in a bad place. I understood why she was angry.

  “We’re here at the campsite for now,” I said. “We might as well make the best of it. Let’s cook on the barbecue every night, and roast marshmallows over the fire pit. It will be like the old days.”

  “You mean the old days when we used to camp with Dad?” Zoe asked.

  I nodded haltingly. “Sure. Like back then.”

  “It won’t be like that,” said Zoe. “It will never be like that again.”

  “I know,” I said. “But we’ll still have fun. Lately we’ve all been living our separate lives. In the evenings you and Maggie have been on your phones and laptops. I don’t spend as much time with you as I’d like. Camping in the travel trailer will give us a chance to get closer.”

  “I don’t want to get closer,” Zoe said. “I want my own space.”

  God, I do too, I thought. But I kept my mouth shut. We just had to find a way to make this work until I found a place. I was out of options.

  “Do they even have Wi-Fi here?” Zoe asked.

  “At the motel but not out on the grounds,” I admitted.

  “Argh!” Zoe jumped out of the truck and stormed into the trailer. She slammed the flimsy trailer door behind her.

  Maggie leaned over the seat of the crew cab and wrapped her arms around my neck. “It will be okay, Mommy,” she said.

  I patted her arm. “I know, honey. Camping here is only temporary.” But after nearly a month of searching for a place, I just wasn’t sure of that anymore.

  TEN

  I KEPT SEARCHING for a place to rent for the next couple of weeks. But by mid-October we still lived at the campground. I thought maybe now that the summer people had gone, I could at least find a cabin to rent. I was surprised to find most of the tourists who owned cabins in the area didn’t rent them out for the winter.

  Desperate, I started looking at the more expensive rentals. If I used the little bit of money I’d socked away from the sale of our house the year before, I could rent one of these high-priced houses. But I quickly realized that if I did, that money would be gone in just a few months. I’d have nothing to show for it. And then we would have to move out again. We’d be right back where we’d started.

  I was fretting over the problem at work when I banged my finger with a hammer. I swore as I nursed the wound.

  “You okay there, Sadie?” Liam asked. He put down his framing nailer and came over to me. “You seem out of sorts.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, still holding the hurt finger. “I’m just angry with myself. I’ve been doing dumb things like that all week.”

  “It’s stress,” said Liam. “It makes you clumsy and forgetful. You need a break.” He grinned. “How about we finally go out on that date?”

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Liam. Not yet. I need every spare moment outside work to hunt down a place to rent. And I’m beginning to doubt I’ll ever find anything. Even the crappy basement suites are out of my price range now. It’s getting too cold to camp out in the travel trailer. I think it’s time I started looking for a place to rent in another community.”

  Liam appeared alarmed. “But will you find work at this time of year? Winter is almost on us. Construction is about to slow down. Will you even find a new job before spring?”

  “I don’t know. But what else can I do? If I can’t find a home for my kids here, then I’ve got to consider living in other areas.”

  Liam took my sore finger in his hand and inspected it. Then, to my surprise, he kissed the bruised knuckle. “I don’t want you to leave,” he said, holding my hand. “I know I have no claim on you. Not yet. But I don’t want to lose you.”

  I was stunned by his words but flattered too. I felt a spark of excitement surge through me. “I don’t want to leave either,” I said. I smiled up at him. “Especially now.”

  Liam leaned forward like he was about to kiss me, right here in this unfinished house. But then our crew boss yelled at us. “Hey!” Bruce said. “You two lovebirds make out on your own time. Right now you’re on the clock.”

  I quickly pulled my hand from Liam’s. Our crew boss had heard and seen everything. But of course he would have. We were on a new building site, with only the wall frames between us. Could this day get any worse?

  Then my phone buzzed, announcing a call. “Shit,” I said under my breath when I saw who it was.

  “Zoe causing trouble again?” Liam asked.

  I shook my head. “My ex-husband, Kevin.”

  “Oh.” Liam stepped away.

  I turned my back on him as I answered the phone. “I’m working,” I told Kevin. “Can’t this wait?”

  “I don’t think it can,” Kevin said. “Zoe just called, and she was really upset, crying. She said you and the girls are living in the travel trailer at a campsite.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment. I had worried Zoe would tell him. “Only for now,” I said. “Until I can find a place to rent. There’s a housing crisis here.”

  “It hardly sounds short-term. Zoe says you’ve been looking for a place all over and haven’t found anything. That travel trailer you’re staying in leaks, and it’s not insulated. What are you going to do when winter hits? That’s only a few weeks away.”

  “I’ll find a place before then.” I have to, I thought.

  “But you just said there’s a housing crisis.”

  “Kevin, I’m doing the best I can. I spend every hour I’m not working trying to track down a house to rent.”

  “What are you going to do? You can’t raise our daughters in a travel trailer. That’s one step up from homelessness.”

  There was that word again. We were nearly homeless. How had I let this happen?

  “I’ll find something,” I said.

  “Until you do, I think the girls should come live with me.”

  “No!” I cried, louder than I’d intended. I glanced at Liam and lowered my voice. “They are not going to live with you.”

  “Liz and I have more than enough room in my house,” Kevin said. “The girls can each have their own bedroom.”

  Liz? I felt anger well up inside. “That woman broke up our home. She’s the reason we had to sell our house in the first place. She is not going to raise my girls.”

  “Liz didn’t break up our home, and you know it,” said Kevin. “Our marriage was over long before that.”

  I glanced at Liam. He’d overheard everything I’d just said. But then, Bruce had too. I lowered my voice further. “I don’t want to argue about that,” I told Kevin. “It’s in the past. But I’m not giving up the girls. They live with me.”

  “You may have no choice.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You clearly can’t take care of them,” he said.

  I tried to keep my voice level. “I’m not neglecting my children.”

  “Sadie, they are living in a travel trailer at a campsite. You aren’t providing them with a decent home.”

  I felt my chin tremble with emotion. “You have no right to tell me I’m not taking care of my kids. I’m a good mom. I’m always there for them. You only see them a few times a year, on holidays.”

  Kevin didn’t respond to that taunt. Instead he softened his voice. “Zoe is scared, Sadie. And she’s ashamed at how you’re living. Do you really want her to feel like that?”

  “Does Zoe want to live with you?”

  Kevin paused. “I don’t know. We didn’t get to that. I wanted to talk to yo
u first. She phoned to ask for my help. She wanted to know if I could send more child support, so you could afford a place to rent.”

  I covered my mouth. “Oh, god.” I was shocked Zoe felt she had to do that. But she was trying to help me, in her way.

  “I’ll talk to her,” I said. “I’ll explain she shouldn’t have done that.”

  “You can’t expect the girls to keep living like this, Sadie. It’s not fair to them. Either find a place there or move to another town where you can find a place to rent. I expect you to put a roof over their heads right away. By this weekend. Otherwise, I want the girls to come live with me. If you fight me on that, I’ll take you to court.”

  “Kevin, please don’t do this.”

  “I’m only thinking about what’s best for our daughters.”

  “Please, Kevin.”

  “I have to go. We’ll talk more about this.” Then he hung up on me.

  I stared at the phone in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening, I thought. I couldn’t lose my girls. I just couldn’t.

  When Liam saw how upset I was, he held me by both shoulders. “What’s going on?” he asked, even though I was sure he’d heard nearly everything.

  “My ex found out we were living at the campsite.”

  “Zoe told him?” Liam asked.

  I nodded. “Since we don’t have a house, he wants the girls to live with him. He’s threatening to go to court if he needs to.”

  Liam took me in his arms. “I’m so sorry, Sadie.”

  I saw Bruce frown at us, but he also turned away to allow us some privacy. He clearly knew how hard this was for me.

  I pulled away from Liam and ran both hands over my head. “My ex is right, isn’t he? I’ve let my girls down.”

  “No, you haven’t,” Liam said. “You did everything you could to find a home for your kids. There’s just nothing out there. At least, nothing most of us can afford. We need to build more affordable housing in this community.”

  “I don’t want the girls to live with Kevin. But am I just being selfish? Maybe it’s best if the girls stay with their father for now. Just until I sort things out.”

  “You know how that goes,” he said. “If the girls are living with your ex, he’s got them. A judge won’t want to move the girls again unnecessarily. In any case, once the kids are established in a new school, are they really going to want to leave?”

  I knew Liam was talking about his own story. I doubted his boys would ever live with him full-time again. The thought of losing my own girls made my eyes sting with tears. But was that what Zoe really wanted, to live with her dad? I had to find that out right away.

  ELEVEN

  “CAN YOU GIVE me a moment?” I asked Liam. I kept my head down as I headed toward the portable toilets. I hoped to avoid talking to my crew boss. But Bruce called out anyway.

  “You’re not leaving again, are you?” he asked.

  “No,” I said, trying to control my tears. “I’m just going to the bathroom.”

  But the stinky portable toilet on the job site was the last place I wanted to go. I hid behind it instead, taking a moment to control my emotions. Then I pulled out my phone, pressed Zoe’s name on my contact list and waited for her to answer.

  “What?” she asked. No hello. She knew it was me calling.

  “Are you in class?” I asked.

  “No. It’s my spare.”

  “Good. We need to talk.”

  “What about?” she asked.

  “I think you know. I just got a call from your father.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “He said you told him we were living at a campsite.”

  “We are.”

  “I know, honey,” I said quietly. For a moment I didn’t know what else to say.

  “Is that it?” she asked. “Can I go now?”

  I was taken aback by the anger in her voice. “No,” I said firmly. “We have a few things to discuss.”

  “Like what?”

  “For starters, why now? Why didn’t you phone your dad when we first moved to the campsite?”

  “You told us not to.”

  Like that ever stopped you, I thought. “I mean, your dad said you seemed really upset when you called him.”

  “Of course I’m freaked out. We don’t have a place to live.”

  “Something else is going on here, Zoe. I know you. What’s happened?”

  She paused so long I thought she’d hung up.

  “You still there, Zoe?” I asked.

  “I just broke up with Jason, okay?”

  Broke up? But she’d only known him since school started. “I’m sorry, Zoe,” I said. I pinched my nose in frustration. “But I don’t see the connection. Why would you phone your dad about our living situation after breaking up with your boyfriend?”

  “One of Jason’s friends told him we live at the campsite. The guy saw Maggie and me getting out of the travel trailer this morning. Jason thought that was hilarious. I mean, he made fun of me, Mom. He made fun of our family for living like that.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “So I ended things.”

  “Oh, honey.”

  I could hear her crying over the phone. I just wanted to hold her. Of course my ex was right. Living at the campsite wasn’t fair to either of my girls.

  I sighed. “Your dad wants you and Maggie to live with him. Is that what you want?”

  “I want to live in a house.”

  “Do you want to move in with your dad and Liz?”

  “No! I don’t want to move away from here. I don’t want to leave you. I just—I thought maybe Dad could give you more money so we could afford a place.”

  “I know. He told me.” I hesitated. “If you do want to move in with him, then I can make it happen.” I chose my words carefully. “But please understand I want you here. With me.”

  “If we can find a place to rent right away. Otherwise…” Zoe trailed off.

  I understood. She would stay if I could find a place now. If not, she wanted to live with Kevin.

  I glanced back at the job site. Together our crew could build a house in just a few months. Why couldn’t I provide a home for my daughters? Money, I thought. That was the problem. I couldn’t afford to build a house or even buy the land to put it on.

  Then I caught sight of the guesthouse we were building to the side of the job site. It was about the size of Liam’s tiny house, three hundred square feet. We’d roughed out the shell of that cabin in no time at all. Maybe I could put a roof over my daughters’ heads.

  “Okay, honey,” I told Zoe. “I’ll deal with this. One way or another, we’ll be out of that campsite by the end of the week.”

  “This week? Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “Where are we going to go?”

  “I have an idea, but I need to work a few things out first. I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”

  “Mom?”

  “Yes, honey?”

  “Parts of living at the campsite are okay,” she said. “The evenings are nice. I like playing games and talking around the campfire. We used to hang out like that after I got home from school, remember? I could tell you stuff. Then, after you and Dad split up…”

  She didn’t finish, but I knew what she meant. After I’d started working again and we moved to the rental, we rushed to have supper, do chores and homework. Then the girls disappeared into their rooms to scan the net or stream movies while I watched TV. We didn’t do much together anymore.

  Alice rounded the corner of the portable outhouse. “Bruce told me to find you,” she said. “He wants you to get back to work.”

  I nodded at Alice as I wrapped up my call with Zoe. She started to leave, but I waved her back so I could talk to her.

  “I’ve got to go,” I told Zoe. “Talk later?”

  “Later,” she said.

  We ended the call.

  “What’s going on?” Alice asked. “You look wrecked.”

  “A few weeks ago you said I could stay
with you. Is that offer still open?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can I move in this weekend?”

  “I don’t see why not. I’ll have to clean out my office first. But that should only take a couple of hours. You could even move in tonight, if you wanted.”

  “I’ll help you pay your rent for as long as we’re staying with you.”

  “You bet you will!” she said. “You’re not the only one facing a higher cost of living, you know. My rent went way up over the last year. Almost half of my paycheck goes to rent now. No one can afford to live like that.”

  “Are you sure about this, Alice? I expect we’ll be there for a few months.”

  “As long as you and the girls do most of the cooking and cleaning.”

  I laughed in relief. “You’re on. Okay, now I’ve got something else I want to talk to you and Liam about.”

  “What is it?” she asked as she followed me back to the unfinished house.

  I held up a hand to get her to wait a moment. Liam stood upright and wiped his brow as we reached him. I took a deep breath and launched right in.

  “I need a place to live,” I said. “You need a spot to park your tiny house. And Alice, you can’t afford to build a house on your land.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “I don’t have an easy fix for our problems,” I said. “But I may have an idea of how we can help each other out.”

  I turned back to Liam. “How would you like to help me build a tiny house?”

  Liam shrugged. “Sure. I’m game. I had a blast building mine.”

  “How about you, Alice?”

  “I guess. Yeah, that could be fun. I’m sure I’d learn a lot from you two.”

  “I can’t afford to pay either of you,” I said.

  Liam laughed. “I knew there was a catch.”

  “In fact, I’m hoping to build on the cheap,” I said. “I was thinking about taking apart our old camper and using the trailer from that as the foundation of my tiny house.”

  “That might work,” Liam said, considering the idea. “And like I said, we can use recycled materials.” Then he scratched his cheek. “But once we build the tiny house, where are you going to park it? You don’t want the city chasing you off a property because you aren’t legal.”