Chapter 7:

The next morning, the strong smell of coffee hit Annie’s nose waking her up. She stretched and got up from the couch, heading into the kitchen.

"Good morning sunshine," Connor smiled as Annie took a seat at the table.

"Hm hmm," Annie mumbled just as he placed a cup of coffee in front of her.

"Hey Annie- can you come to career day today at school?" Finn asked eating his cereal.

"I thought I was going to be your career day person?" Connor asked.

"Sorry dad, but everyone knows your job, you’re the hardware guy, but Annie’s job is different."

Annie stuck her tongue out at her brother, "Yeah, I’ll be there- what time?"

"After lunch- so 12:30."

"Sounds good!"

"Thanks Annie!"

"You’re welcome Finn"

"Alright, now that I’ve been replaced- go get ready for school munchkins."

As Finn and Clare ran upstairs to get ready, Annie noticed Carly wasn’t around.

"Where’s Carly?"

"Had a vet emergency"

"Oh," Annie said finishing her cup of coffee.

"You know Annie, you can’t let him get to you."

"Who Finn?"

"No, you know who I’m talking about."

"I’m not letting Justin get to me, so I don’t know what you’re talking about"

"Really? You’re designing the man’s house!"

"Well he is now a client and that is my job, so I don’t see the problem."

"Um, the whole town knows about the article, so you can’t let him get to you"

Annie got up from her chair, "I’m not talking about this. I’m going to go for a run." She said heading into the living room to grab her workout clothes, while all Connor just shook his head at this baby sister.

As Annie rounded the corner, she came upon a southern farmhouse style home, and decided to take a detour and go visit the house.

She knocked on the door, and the smell of a familiar sweetness peachy smell wafted in the air, and she was soon greeted with a large smile and a hug.

"Annie!"

"Hi Miss Kay," Annie smiled embracing the hug.

Miss Kay let go of Annie, "What are you doing in town? Come in, Come in."

"Just had to get out of Nashville," Annie smiled following Miss Kay into the kitchen, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

An hour later, Annie was back on her run thinking about her chat she had with Miss Kay. It made her a little happy inside when she was told that even Miss Kay doesn’t like Jessica either, and every time Justin brought her home there was something off about her. This was a good feeling coming from Justin’s grandmother.

Just as she arrived back to the house, the phone was ringing, and since it used to be her house, she answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey! I was hoping you would answer Annie."

Annie smiled at the voice at the other end.

"How do you know its Annie? Maybe it’s really Carly?"

"Because Carly still has her southern drawl, while you lost yours while you were at Michigan."

"I don’t think I ever had a southern drawl"

"Oh you did, now you just have a little one."

"Uh huh… oh um Miss Kay says hi."

"Please say you’re going to bring back some cobbler"

"Maybe, but I can’t guarantee it’ll last the trip home," Annie smiled into the phone, and looking at the clock. "What are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be in class now?"

"Yeah, but we have a field trip to the observatory"

"Oh yeah, so why talking to me, when you have kiddos to watch over"

"Because I wanted to see what you are up to…"

"Just got back from a run, and then going to talk to Finn’s class for his career day, since he thought my job was cooler than Connor’s."

"Ooo well that should be fun, just call me later to let me know how it goes and maybe I’ll book you for my class."

"I’m going to have to start charging for my appearances then."

"Well after this last week, you just might have to."

"Haha, you’re sooo not funny, but yeah I’ll call you later."

"Sounds good, but I have to go, the buses are starting to load. Love you!"

"Love you too, bye, have fun!"

"Bye."

"Bye," Annie smiled hanging the phone back on the wall. She laughed at herself, because somehow Scott still remembered the houses landline phone number after all these years.

She still had a couple of hours left before she had to be at the elementary school, so she decided to head to the hardware store, the store that has been in the family for as long as she could remember. This might be a good time to talk to Connor about Clare getting her own room, since her dad could move into the room that was used as an office, or even the apartment above the store that her grandparents used.

As she walked in to the store, Connor was on the phone behind the counter.

"Speak of the devil, guess who just walked in."

Looking behind her, Annie didn’t see anyone else come in, turning back to Connor she pointed to herself in confusion.

"Yeah, she just walked in."

Annie gestured saying that she wasn’t there, as Connor covered up the receiver part of the phone.

"It’s not Justin, it’s Trace."

"Fine," Annie huffed holding out her hand. "Give me the phone."

Connor handed over the phone.

"What do you want?"

"Just to see how you’re doing."

"Bull"

"Really Annie! You just decide to skip town for the weekend?"

"Yep, plus you knew where you could find me, so it wasn’t like I’m in some broken down shack in some unknown forest."

"Does this have anything to do with Justin choosing you to plan his house?"

Annie hesitated… "No"

"Now, it’s my time to say Bull."

"Fine, that’s part of the reason. But you weren’t in that meeting with them! Jessica kept throwing out different housing styles she wanted like, Tuscan and Craftsman and Victorian, and every time I would bring up that they were on different design spectrums, I would get the stink eye from her and she would go into her whining voice. Trace, I wanted to put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger, that’s how bad it was, and Justin just went with it, I wanted to smack him. But of course what the client wants, the client gets."

"Well I’m sure you can figure something out, you did with my house."

"That’s because you and Sammie were a breeze to work with and didn’t have multiple pages of demands of things you wanted, you just had half a page, but I should go, Connor is starting to give me the stink eye for using his phone. Some things never change," Annie laughed.

"Sounds good, just give me a call in a couple of days, so I can make sure that you haven’t fallen off a cliff."

"Haha! I will! Bye Trace"

"Bye Annie," Trace said as they both hung up.

As she looked up from the phone, she was met with Connor in her face.

"So it’s true, you are letting him get to you," Connor smiled, just as Annie sat down on the stool that was behind the counter. "You’re just like Dad, to stubborn to see it for yourself."

Rolling her eyes at her brother. "I’m not stubborn! It’s just his dumb wife, did you know she threaten me to stop being friends with Justin."

"What did you do?"

"Just laughed in her face and that there is no way she was going to destroy a 30-plus year friendship, so I really have to her thank for this dumb project and trying to make different house designs work together."

"You mean the plan I saw when I found Clare asleep with you."

"Yeah, something like that, and speaking of Clare… have you guys thought about giving her her own room? Since she’s complaining about Finn’s snoring."

"Yeah, but we don’t know how? She’s been climbing in with Carly and I almost every night, so you being there helped that out, so thank you!"

Annie smiled. "No problem, plus she kind helped in a way with the plans. But you can turn the office into Dad’s new room. He could enter though the back door, and won’t have to disturb everyone if he comes in late. Then you can probably turn the store's upstairs, into a new office area. It shouldn’t be that hard, since it was Grandma and Grandpa’s apartment. Just turn the bedrooms into offices and then you have the kitchen and the living room as a break room."

"That doesn’t actually half bad, I’ll talk to Dad about it tonight, but you know that means that you get help clean out the office and upstairs apartment," Connor smiled as Annie banged her head on the counter. "Stop banging your head, or you’re going to get a red mark on your forehead for career day."

Sighing Annie stood up and looked at the clock, "I’m going to get some coffee before going over to the school. So I’ll see you tonight."

"Sounds good, and Annie don’t let this project get to you, do what you feel is right, even if it means not going by all of Jessica’s demands. You’ve got this, there have been worst things you’ve been through, so this is just a small bump."

"Thanks Connor," Annie smiled as she left the store.

As she was walking over to the coffee shop, she decided Connor was right. She wouldn’t let this get to her, the list of demands from Jessica was stupid and she would just design the house from her gut and incorporate what home means to Justin. Jessica would just have to deal with it, and if not they will find another architect. She’s been through more shit than she can remember, and Jessica is nothing to her.