New Beginnings {ACM}

Chapter 56

Song of the chapter: Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

Emily's POV

"So, what do you need all of this for?" Cassidy asked me as we looked down at the pile of building supplies. Lucy was sitting with Pancakes a few feet away, ripping out grass.

"I wanna build Lucy a play house," I told her.

"A play house? Seriously? Do you even know how to measure wood correctly or anything?" Cassidy asked.

"No. That's why you're going to help me."

"Oh, you better believe I'm going to help you. I wasn't going to let you do this by yourself." She pulled a ponytail off of her wrist and tied up her long strawberry blonde locks. "Ready?"

"You aren't exactly dressed for it," I told her.

She was wearing leather pants, high heels, and a long blue jacket that went to her knees. "I can fix that," she said. Cassidy pulled off her jacket to reveal a thin red sweater. "There."

"What about the pants?"

She waved her hand. "I'm good. Don't worry about it."

I shrugged. "Suit yourself. Alright, let's figure this out."

For the next hour, we measured and cut wood. Well, we did it our way. Not professionally. It seemed to be working, so whatever, right? Besides, we were having fun.

"Are you painting this whole thing pink?" she asked as she held down wood for me to hammer nails into.

I nodded. "Lucy is obsessed with the color pink."

"We should paint the door white with little flowers on it," Cassidy suggested. "Maybe add some other designs on the walls."

"Sounds perfect," I grinned. "She'll love it. Right, Lucy?" I said, glancing up at my daughter. She looked up and clapped her hands. I had put her in her jumper on the deck so she was away from our work area, but so I could still see her. Pancakes was sitting up with her, keeping an eye on her.

After another couple of hours, we managed to get the walls and the roof up. I brought out hot chocolate for us to have while we took a break.

"I think that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Cassidy said tiredly.

"At least the painting will be easy," I told her. "I think it looks pretty good, to be honest. We did a good job."

"Teamwork," she grinned, high fiving me. "I don't know about you, but I had lots of fun doing this. Everything is more fun when you don't know what you're doing."

We started laughing. "That's very true, " I said between laughs. "Well, what do you say? Should we paint this thing and make it pretty?"

"Hell yeah we should," she said. "I've got some artistic abilities, so this better look good."

"I have no artistic abilities," I laughed.

While we were painting, my cell phone rang. "Who would that be?" I wondered aloud as I grabbed it. Jesse's number flashed. "Jesse?"

"Hey, Emily, are you busy?"

"Um, yeah, I am, actually. What's up? Is everything okay?"

"Well, you know how your mom acts so weird around me? I think I found something you should see," he said.

"Really?" I glanced at Cassidy, who was concentrating on her design. "Can you come over around eight?"

"Sounds good, I'll see you then."

"Alright, bye." I hung up and slid my phone back in my pocket. "Sorry about that," I said to Cassidy.

She waved her hand. "Oh, don't worry about it." She did one more flick before pulling back. "There, all done!"

"That looks awesome," I complimented as I saw her drawing. It was a very intricate flower woven through vines.

"Thanks," she smiled. "Wow, we actually managed to get this whole thing done today."

"If you hadn't stayed, I would have still been figuring out how to cut the wood," I admitted.

She laughed. "That's what friends are for."

The playhouse was all hot pink with a white door and pretty designs all over it. It had "Lucy Mahone" scrawled across the top with music notes in random places.

"Nicely done, Carlyle," I said as I fist pumped Cassidy.

"Same to you, Smith," she grinned. "Think Lucy will notice we didn't use a super hot pink?"

"Um...I hope not."