“He rolls that Einstein quote out all the time.”
A tiny flame flickered to life in Evander’s chest. He’d gone through the same thought process…which meant he’d probably picked it up from Ozzy.
“Yeah. It was his idea. But he’s not wrong. Something was going to have to change if we were ever going to find some sort of new equilibrium.”
Bunny nodded with another lip pop. “Well, not to put too fine a point on this, but how does any of that explain you avoiding him like he’s some kind of plague-ridden zombie?”
Guess that’s not as obvious as I was hoping. “It’s complicated. I feel like—”
“All hands meeting right now!” Eliza threw the sliding door open and marched through, shouting as loud as she could. She nodded to Evander and Bunny. “In the kitchen. Immediately. Big shit coming.” In spite of that, she had an almost manic grin on her face. “Should make good TV if we can pull it off, though.”
Then she marched through the front door, repeating the message again. Evander shrugged at Bunny. “Rain check. I promise it’s even dumber than you think, though.”
Chapter thirty-two
Ozzy
In spite of thebig house, it was a tight fit to get everyone in the kitchen. Ozzy was sandwiched between Evander on his right and one of the Trang boys on his left. What the family was doing there, he couldn’t guess, but apparently when Eliza said ‘all hands,’ she meant it. They didn’t have all the contractors in there, but a handful of them. The three cameras and the lighting equipment crammed in didn’t exactly make things more spacious.
Eliza pointed to Melanie. “Okay. Explain fast.”
“Right.” She spread her hands out in front of her. “My parents called. They’re dropping by today. And this is the first I’ve heard of it.”
Ozzy didn’t let himself smile, but there was some undeniable satisfaction running through him.Maybe I’ll get those rose bushes yet.
“I’m really hoping we can…maybe try to keep them from getting too suspicious? I know we’re so close, I really want it to be a big reveal for them when they see the finished product.”
Ozzy clicked his tongue. “I’m not sure how feasible that is. You’ve got all these windows, we’ve cut holes in your fence, your backyard is all put in order.”
“I have an idea on that, actually.” Eliza held her hands up in front of herself, preparing for him to apparently get mad.
This ought to be great. “Am I going to hate this idea of yours?”
“Probably.” She pointed to the windows. “Tarp up the windows, caution tape around the gate, pretend there’s a leak or something in the backyard.”
“And why do I hate that?”
“All the new plants have to be covered, the sod needs to be disguised as much as possible.” She shrugged. “We’re going to have to fling a lot of dirt around the backyard to make it look like there’s something going on and get it as close to square one as we can. Any of the bags of topsoil and stuff we have are going to need to get opened and dumped back there.”
Ozzy sighed. “And then cleaned up.”
“We’re happy to help with all of it,” said Melanie. “Please. It’s one last thing to keep the surprise going for them. They don’t come over that often, so this’ll be the only time.”
Ozzyhatedthe whole concept. Eliza pinned him down right on that. A waste of resources that could be sold back, taken to another job, donated, anything. A waste of time. Wrecking the whole look of all the landscaping. All to appease the desires of some rich assholes with too much time and money who were getting their entire backyardandtheir guest house fixed up for free. It was the kind of thing that burned under Ozzy’s skin.
Honestly, it was just the fact that her kid was right there next to him that kept him from running his mouth. Plus, he knew it wouldn’t get him anywhere he wanted, and they were on a timecrunch. Eliza liked the idea of them pulling this cover up for the show, and at the end of the day, she had the final say on all this shit.
Ozzy shrugged. “Fine. But I’m going through the yard with a fine-toothed comb. Single particle of dust or rock or mulch out of place, you’re all going to hear about it. Forever.”
Eliza clapped. “Okay.” She turned and looked up at Melanie. “You say we have about half an hour?”
“Yeah. They said they were about forty minutes out, and that was ten minutes ago.”
“Okay then.” She pointed to different members of the contracting crew, getting them moving.
Mason walked up to Ozzy and clapped him on the back. Then held his hand there as he leaned in to whisper, “I’ll swing by a dispensary at the next job.”
“I don’t need a bribe like a child for behaving.” Ozzy took a deep breath, then sighed and let his shoulders drop. “A joint. I don’t need to get edible high if I’m supposed to work the next day.”
