Read Online Two Weeks in August by Nat Burns - Free Book Online Page A

it carefully over her hair.
    Mander was in the large living area nailing a piece of mitered baseboard to the wall near the kitchen door. Workmen stirred and talked softly in adjoining rooms.
    “Hey there,” she called, upon catching sight of Nina.
    “Hi Mander, can you use a little help today? I need to occupy my mind.”
    Mander looked surprised but answered readily enough. “Sure, I never turn down an offer of help. What did you have in mind?” She swiped at her forehead with a balled-up cloth.
    “I thought I could paint a little. I wield a pretty mean paintbrush, or so I’ve been told.” She smiled impishly, trying to show her they could still be friends.
    Mander returned the grin.
    “Well, okay ,” she sighed and rubbed her palms together, “let’s see what we can do with you. Danny has already started on this room and Ray is in the other. I’ll get you to do one of the bedrooms upstairs.”
    She started for the stairway. “Let me open the paint and stir it around for you.”
    “Whoa,” Nina cried quickly, “get back here. There’s no need for you to do all that. I’m perfectly capable. Just go back to what you were doing. I’ll call you if I need help.”
    “Okay.” Mander watched her mount the stairs. “The roller and pan are in the bottom of the closet and the paint should be in the center of each room.”
    Her cheery ‘thanks’ floated down the staircase as Nina ascended.
    She was intrigued by the changes that Mander’s crew had made to Grandpapa’s home. The walls along the stairway, which had once been pocked with age, had been replaced with new Sheetrock and painted a subdued dove gray. The steps and risers had been sanded and sealed with polyurethane, as had the floorboards of the landing and the long upstairs hallway. The four rooms on this floor had been mostly unused after Freda had moved away. At one time, Tom and Emily had shared the master bedroom, but after her death, Tom had begun sleeping downstairs in a small room off the kitchen. He’d been content with a single cot, a stack of books and a lamp. Freda’s room had been at the end of the long upstairs hallway, with Anna, when her husband was away at sea, sleeping in the smaller bedroom next to Freda’s. Anna’s room was Nina’s favorite as it faced east and had a full-on view of the channel. It was colder than the other rooms in the winter, however, and stepping inside, she was glad to see that Mander had installed modern double-walled glass windows and a new heat register.
    She and Mander had already discussed the paint colors her grandfather had chosen and she had opted to leave them unchanged. It somehow kept him closer. As she pried open the paint can, she was gratified to see the color he’d chosen for Anna’s room, as Nina had always referred to the room she’d used while there, was a lovely robin’s egg blue.
    Painting her new bedroom was the perfect chore. She could be alone to think about her life and the choices she would need to make. Like how she was going to avoid Mander’s advances, for example. What was it about her that was so annoying? She frowned and applied pastel-tinted paint to the south wall.
    If only she could pinpoint exactly what bothered her about Mander, maybe it would help. As it was, with her feelings undefined, she felt as if it would be wrong to deny a relationship; it would be like not allowing Mander a chance to prove herself.
    Yet she didn’t want a relationship, did she? Not like that. She wanted something real , permanent and thrilling, something that made her feel loved for all the right reasons. Mander just wasn’t it andthere was nothing she could do to change that, Nina decided.
    The afternoon sun was a pale glow when she finished the room. She stood back and admired her handiwork. It was lovely; the pale blue walls were made almost ruddy by the spreading sunset reflecting off the channel water. It’ll be lovely to lie in this room when the sun comes up, she thought. She