Chapter 47

The next two days were a blur to Ed as work became frantically busy. He finished the physical inspections early and started in on the documentation but was pulled aside for other work. As he knew Ed would be unavailable for the entirety of the following week Mr. Drakos had his schedule fully loaded. He was interfacing directly now with the developers of the shopping complex and they had a number of items they needed his help on. He tried to explain that he was really only certified for heating and cooling but blue prints and schematics were being passed by him to review. When he spotted the address of a different build site printed on one of the pages he called them on it and Mr. Drakos got involved. He wasn't too hard on them as he wanted to maintain a good relationship with the group but he made it clear Ed was a resource not to be taken advantage of. And he wanted first dibs on the contract for the new development project they were having Ed review.

All this extra work meant Ed was working past dinner hour for the two days and was pretty tired when he got home. Tonight Rachel told him she was going to give his boss a piece of her mind for running him ragged before his vacation but Ed managed to convince her to let it slide and she headed out to Angie's place.

He was crashed on the couch watching TV with Grace who was resting against his side when the telephone rang. He moved to get it but Grace patted his leg and went for the phone.

"Hello? Hi Stephanie! Yes, he's right here. Is everything ok?" Ed looked over at Grace who was frowning as she listened. "What assholes! Hang on." Grace handed the phone to Ed.

"Hi Stephanie, what's up?"

"Ed, I'm so sorry to call so late but I need your help."

"Sure, what do you need?"

"I just got my new furniture for the master bedroom. They were really late in arriving, took the old furniture away but they just dumped all the new stuff in the center of the room and left. The bed needs assembly."

"Do you have tools?" he asked.

"I think so," she said but Ed heard the doubt.

"I'll be right over."

"Thank you so much!" she gushed.

Ed got up and kissed Grace sweetly. "It may be a late one."

"I have an early class so I probably won't see you until tomorrow night," she pouted.

"Since I'm going to be away for a week we're going out to dinner tomorrow night, just the two of us. We can go to that restaurant with all the cheesecakes. This time we skip the appetizer so we can actually try a dessert!"

Grace's face lit up with a smile and she kissed him again.

He picked up his tool box on the way to his truck and drove over to Stephanie's. She let him in and immediately she saw how tired he was.

"Oh Ed. I'm so sorry to drag you out on a work night. I can see you're tired. Let's just forget it. I can sleep on the couch," she said with a troubled expression.

"Don't be silly. It won't take me long and I'll be away all next week. It's tonight or a week from now." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead and she instantly felt comforted. He set off for the master bedroom carrying his tools with her following.

The new furniture was indeed sitting in the middle of the floor in the large room with the exception of the mattress and box spring which rested against one wall and a very large flat screen TV box resting against another.

"I vacuumed the carpet after they pulled all the old furniture out then they just piled all the stuff here and left." Stephanie complained.

"Not very good service. You should let the store know."

"Oh, I intend to do exactly that tomorrow morning!" she said with a fierce look.

Ed chuckled. "Go get 'em tiger!" That drew a satisfied smile from her.

"We're going to need to make some room so let's move this stuff out into the hall, except for the bed," he suggested.

The two of them were able to get the pieces out of the bedroom and he had her begin removing the plastic wrap on all of those items while he assembled the bed. He really liked the new furniture. It was sleek and contemporary but still solidly built. He read the instructions and realized it was a four poster bed with a canopy. A very romantic look. Compared to the heavy dark furniture the room previously had this was a complete change!

He had Stephanie hold some pieces in place while he bolted them together and it didn't take him long to get the frame built. It would be up to her to put the fabric canopy over the frame. They unwrapped the box spring and mattress and put both in place.

Then they carried the unwrapped furniture pieces back into the room and positioned them where she thought they looked best.

Finally it was time for the TV. There was a wall mount rack in another box so he realized that needed installing. He pulled out his stud finder from the tool box.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It's a stud finder."

She practically leapt over to him and snatched it from his fingers with a giggle. She glanced at it, pushed the button and held it against his chest. Nothing happened and she pouted dramatically. "It's not working… Stud!" She couldn't hold the pout and began to giggle again. He reached for the device and she slid it away down his chest. It wailed as it passed his zipper.

Stephanie's eyes flew wide and laughter burst from her as Ed rolled his eyes. He plucked the device from her fingers as she gasped for breath from laughing so hard.

"Is that exactly where the bed is going?" he asked. "Once the TV is up that's where it stays."

Still chuckling she walked around the bed and confirmed its location. She nodded at him with a mischievous smile as she bit her lip. He just grinned and shook his head.

He located the studs and mounted the rail on the wall. They unpacked the TV and he installed the two brackets on the back of the TV. He turned to Stephanie.

"Do you want to run the cables through the wall?" he asked.

"Would that mean I wouldn't see any dangling wires?"

"Yes."

"Then yes, I'd like to do that. Is it hard to do?" she asked.

"No, but I don't have all the parts to finish the job. I can make the holes and run the cables through for now but I'll need to come back and add the boxes and wall plates later. To make it look neat."

She nodded with a smile and he took some more measurements. Then he use a small knife to cut two holes in the drywall both next to a stud but one behind the TV and one a foot off the floor behind the low dresser. He tucked all the cables through the top hole and pulled them out the bottom hole. Then he got Stephanie to help him lift the TV in place. Once it was up he connected all the cables. They moved the dresser back in place and he put the cable box and a digital media player on top of that and made their connections.

He stood back and looked at his handy work. He was pleased with the final appearance. The TV seemed to be floating over the dresser. He looked back and Stephanie was finishing up putting sheets on the bed. She looked at the TV and her eyes lit up.

"That looks incredible! Thanks!"

Ed pressed the power button on the universal remote and the cable box, TV and digital player all came on. He bumped the play button accidentally and suddenly the large screen filled with the image of a naked woman riding an equally naked man. It was artfully done but the look on the woman's face left no doubt that she was enjoying the aggressive sex.

Stephanie squeaked and leapt at Ed to snatch the remote from his hand. She hit the power switch and the screen went black. "Yup! The TV works!"

"A little research?" he asked with a coy smile.

Her embarrassment quickly turned to a wicked smile and a nod. She really was an imp, Ed thought fondly.

He looked around the room and realized he was all done. Suddenly a huge yawn caught him by surprise. A heavy fatigue descended over him and he moved to put his tools away. Once he was all packed up he set down the box and yawned once more. His eyes were really bleary.

"Ed, I don't think you should drive home. You look exhausted. You could… stay here with me tonight. I have this brand new king sized bed. Fresh sheets?"

He looked out in the hall and realized he hadn't heard or seen the kids all night. He looked back at Stephanie.

"Sleep over at Carolyn's," she said understanding his unspoken question. "Besides I don't mind them knowing you're my… boyfriend," she said the last word nervously.

Ed saw her watching for his reaction. She thought he'd reject her?

He reached over and pulled her against his chest and felt her relax in his arms. "Yes to both things." He leaned back a little and took her face between his hands. He gazed into her happy blue eyes. God! She had so much love in those beautiful eyes. He felt his own heart responding in kind. He knew now. It was love! She was so energetic, adventurous, and full of mischievous glee he found her completely addictive.

Another yawn threatened to shatter the tender moment and she snorted as he struggled to supress it.

"Get undressed before you fall asleep on your feet!" she grinned. He stripped down to his boxers then looked at her delighted expression. While he had undressed she'd put on a nightie.

"Do you have an extra toothbrush?" he asked.

She nodded and dragged him into the bathroom. He opened the package and they brushed their teeth together. Then they went back to the bed and crawled in.

"I promise tonight will just be for sleeping. I can see you're exhausted. It's just really nice to be able to sleep next to someone after so long," she said with a tremulous smile.

"Now that we're officially girlfriend and boyfriend it's ok for me to tell you I love you, right?" he said quietly.

Stephanie gasped and her eyes filled with tears. She leaned over and kissed him tenderly. When she pulled back tears of joy were on her cheeks. "Yes, Ed! That's perfectly fine to say! It's wonderful! I- I love you too!"

"I was talking with Rachel about my relationships with the six women in my life. I'm still trying to figure it all out. I have strong feelings for all of you but aside from Grace and Rachel I wasn't sure if it was love. You're all so different and my feelings get all jumbled up sometimes. I- I can be kinda slow when it comes to people stuff. It takes me time to understand feelings. I'm sorry about that," Ed apologized looking her straight in the eyes then another yawn overtook him.

Her smile was brilliant. "Go to sleep big man. We can talk in the morning."

He nodded and closed his eyes.

He felt her snuggle in and sigh contentedly then he was gone.