Tipping the Balance by Christopher Koehler Read Free Book Online Page B

just tell me you’ll come look at it.” When he’d looked like he was about to turn her down, she added, “Mary and Fred Abernathy love your work so far. You’re on budget and slightly ahead of schedule. As far as they’re concerned, after hearing horror stories about home renovations, you’re a miracle worker. I need another miracle.”
     
    So there he was, wondering how the hell he was going to pull off another miracle and rotting on the elevated Capital City Freeway while down below, Sacramento went about its business beneath a leafy green canopy. At least it wasn’t a complete house renovation, just the master bedroom and bath. That was the only reason he was even considering it.
     
    But it wasn’t just another possible reno for Emily. It was the job already under way and the one lined up, just waiting for his crew to become available. Every day those properties went unrenovated and unsold cost him money.
     
    The flips he could handle. That was what he did. He knew how they worked. But the flips, along with the not-nearly-as-complete-as-Emily-claimed Abernathy renovation and a new reno on top of his stillborn love life….
     
    Just the thought of it all made Drew a little queasy.
     
    The problem was that Drew didn’t know how helping out his friend and keeping everything else going was going to be humanly possible. Sure, he could find the labor. This was California, after all, and so long as you didn’t look too closely at immigration status, labor was there for the asking. It sucked, and it was exploitative, but there it was.
     
    Drew made sure his crew checked out, and he knew he could trust Octavio to find more help, if it came down to it. But Octavio wasn’t interested in the headaches that went along with being a project leader. He’d made that much clear the first time Nick had had to go back to coaching and grad school in the fall a few years before.
     
    Crawling down the highway at thirty miles per hour, Drew realized he needed a business partner, not just more labor, and where he was going to find someone he could work with, he had no idea.
     
    Finally traffic opened up, and he drove to meet Emily to see this latest nail in his coffin.
     

     

     
    “ You know, we actually used to socialize outside of home improvement,” Nick said the day after Drew had gone to check out the next proposed reno. He placed a level against a cabinet door in one bathroom of the Abernathy renovation to make sure it was hung correctly.
     
    “We used to socialize more before you got a boyfriend,” Drew said from under the bathroom sinks where he was adjusting a leaking cold-water feed. “It’s just the way things go.”
     
    “Yeah, I guess. I just miss talking to you without hardware in my hands or worrying about deadlines,” Nick said.
     
    “I know what you mean, but summer’s almost over, and we’ll get back to normal in a month or so,” Drew said. “And speaking of which….”
     
    Nick put the level down. “I know that tone. Spare me the buildup and cut to the chase.”
     
    “I’ve got another reno I want to take on, and that means you,” Drew said, leveraging himself out from under the sink. “For starters, it’s a small one, just a master bedroom and bathroom. I think we can bang it out before you go back to school.”
     
    “Maybe, maybe not. But you said ‘for starters’. What else is going on?” Nick leaned against the counter, arms crossed over his chest.
     
    “This is what I want to do. Flipping’s all well and good, but I’m limited to what I can do alone during the school year and what we can accomplish together during the summer,” Drew said, “and you—”
     
    “Graduate next spring, yes,” Nick said.
     
    “I don’t even want to think of that yet,” Drew admitted.
     
    Nick shrugged. “I know, but you’re going to have to one of these days.”
     
    Drew looked up. “You and Morgan will graduate, probably move away, and then where will I be? Here without my