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Due to the Christmas holiday and a busy time of year for furnaces to blow out, the earliest appointment Olivia could get with an HVAC company was the second week of January. Nick came from the basement behind the maintenance man with a load of clean laundry. "Ok mam everything checked out fine. I ran some fixer through your main pipe, it was clogged and put in a new filter and adjusted your temperature setting so you should be warm now."

"Thank you, I feel the warmth already." she said putting aside the laundry she was currently folding, sitting on the living room floor. He handed her the bill and she reviewed it. "Let me write you a check." She handed him the check and he went on his way. It was 6 o'clock now and no dinner had been made, the kitchen still had dishes left from breakfast and empty bottles that needed washing so Nick decided he would bathe Leo and put him to bed to give Olivia a break.

She peeked in on them in the bathroom holding a basket full of folded clothes, some belonging to the baby, others hers and a few items belonging to Nick.

He had the baby sitting in the sink with his hand firmly behind him with a pool of water around his bottom, splashing with his tiny hands. Nick was sponging him down and little Leo loved the feel of the water trickling down his skin as he cooed and stared at Nick who pretended to be a giant waterfall coming to wash him away.

"Who's getting the bath?" Olivia said standing in the doorway. Nick looked over at her smiling. "Is it me or do all babies radiate or just him?"

"Just him, he's perfect." Olivia said. She smiled at them then turned and left. When he was done and Leo asleep in his crib he joined Olivia in the living room only to find her stretched out on the couch resting.

"Sweetie you hungry?" She didn't respond. "Never mind." He walked past her heading to the kitchen. On the floor in front of her was a pile of freshly laundered burp cloths, onsies, wash cloths and assorted baby clothes.

"Sorry I just needed to rest for a second." He came back out and asked her if she wanted to order take out.

"I'm sorry I didn't get a chance today to get to the market, I will tomorrow." Nick placed the order.

"Do you have any plans to finish the basement and unpack the boxes down there?"

"When I get the time, in case you haven't noticed I have a baby to take care of, one on the way, laundry, cook dinner, and clean the house." Nick stood with a blank look on his picking up a receiving blanket and putting back in his playpen.

"Ok sorry I asked." He said sitting in the chair next to her.

"You could help me more you know." She told him.

"Wha- wait a minute, I changed him, gave him a bath and put him to bed…I come home from work…what…do you think I don't do anything all day?"

"And what do you think I do all day? I have cleaned up two times today I just haven't cleaned up since 4:00 so it's a mess right now."

"Nick let out a long sigh looking at her as she started to sit up. Olivia started to sob which brought Nick over to the edge of the couch cushion.

"Today when he's crying for an hour and I don't know what to do and I finally get him to stop." He put his arms around her as she fell into his shoulder crying.

"Shhh…he was crying for an hour? What was wrong with him?"

"I don't know nothing I guess. I rocked him, gave him a bottle and then he calmed down."

"It'll all be ok Liv."

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"You know we could make another bedroom downstairs or two, there's so much potential and the babies are going to need a playroom." He said over their Italian dinner they ordered in.

"What do you think it would cost to finish it off?"

"$20,000 or less."

"$20,000?" Olivia looked as if she had sticker shock.

"Talk to Sam, Fin's brother he's sure to have contractor friends from his plumbing days and I'll see if any of my old buddies are willing to make a little side money hanging dry wall."

"Ok I'll look into it."

"Great if we get the drywall hung by next week maybe we can have a few people over for your birthday and play some adult games down there." Olivia rolled her eyes shaking her head at him.

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"No problem Liv I'll give Sam a call see if knows anyone."

"Thanks Fin." The next day Fin's brother in law sent over a carpenter named Dave Peters. He was about twenty seven maybe Twenty eight or nine with piercing blue eyes and rippling arms.

"Hi I'm Olivia."

"Dave Peters nice to meet you. Hi are you my helper?" he asked bending down talking to Leo.

"This is Leo and believe me you don't want him as your helper he naps too much." Dave laughed then wrote up an estimate for her. Olivia was in the middle of making dinner when Nick arrived. He waved at Leo in his carrier atop of the kitchen table then came up behind her kissing the base of her neck. She turned around kissing him back.

"Estimate's on the table." She told him pulling away.

"$5,000 to just hang dry wall?" Nick said flabbergasted looking over the estimate.

"We'll have to sell Leo and the new baby too."

"Nick!" Olivia said wide eyed chuckling.

"I'll make some calls." He said. Nick came up empty with his buddies from narcotics. "Negotiate with him tell him firm $3,500 is all you can do." Nick told her. "Construction business is slow right now." They bartered back and forth until finally settling on $3,900.00. The next day Dave got to work early just missing Nick. Olivia was in the middle of putting Leo down to nap when the doorbell rang. Olivia thought it was just the mail man dropping off a package that didn't quite fit in her mailbox.

"Alex! Oh-what are- how are you? Come in." The two women hugged.

"I stopped by the squad room and I'm literally in shock that they told me you were on maternity leave and expecting your second child. My goodness Olivia I go away for less than a year and look what I come back to! I'm so happy for you…DO TELL." The noise from the dry wall saw drounded them out so she closed the basement door. Olivia fixed Alex something to drink and filled her in.

"Oh my god I can't believe a good Christian woman could ever do such a thing in the first place but I am happy that it all worked out for you in the end and who's this baby belong to?" Olivia sipped her ice tea smiling behind the rim of her cup.

"A good friend."

"That's some good friend." Leo made noise so Olivia excused herself to go check on him. Dave came upstairs to get a drink.

"Hi." Alex said noticing him coming through the door.

"Hi, I'm Dave." He was covered in dry wall dust from head to toe.

"Alex, I'm a friend of Liv's."

"I um…I'm finishing off the basement for Olivia." He definitely had eyes for Alex as she did him too. Olivia returned. "I'm just gonna…go get a drink…in…the kitchen." He pointed in that direction as Alex watched smiling.

"Oh I see you both have met."

"Yeah." They said at the same time.

"Don't sit there, dust! Dust everywhere, in Leo's hair, in his milk."

"Very funny Olivia." Dave said.

"I'm outta here." Olivia said.

"Ok bye." Alex said. She caught up to Olivia in the living room gasping. "I'm staying here you can go to work in my place."

"Huh?"

"He's so cute I can't believe you haven't noticed Liv!" she said whispering full giddiness.

"No I didn't notice."

"I can't believe you didn't notice him in your own house. Olivia, oh my god that is major hotness in there." Alex said laughing falling into Olivia.

"Ok watch this." Olivia entered the kitchen seeing Dave finishing his drink.

"I…just need a…whisk, right I need a whisk." She grabbed one from the utensil caddy nearly running out of the kitchen. Dave could do nothing but wipe his mouth from where the soda dribbled on his chin. He set his glass down exiting.

"What's that?" Alex looked at her strange.

"A whisk." Just then Dave passed by smiling at them. After he closed the basement door behind him, Olivia and Alex went into a fit of giggles.

"He is cute." Olivia said. "I can't believe I didn't notice."

"He is hot! So what do we do about it?"

"What do you mean we? You go in there and do something about it!" Olivia told her friend.

"What do I do, go in there and start talking about tools?" Alex buried her head in Olivia's shoulder laughing.

"Equipment." Olivia said flipping her brows up. They busted into laughter.

"You're not even going to talk to him, you're such a coward. When was the last time you got up the nerve to talk to one of those hot defense attorney's?" Olivia asked.

"I'm still working on it." She said blowing air through her mouth making her lips vibrate. "Oh what's the use, we'd go out for two weeks, he'd have these great big strong arms, we'd get all sweaty then he'd get intimidated because I make more money than he does."

"I don't know you should see what he charges." They laughed so hard like school girls discovering their first guy crush. After a while Alex made her excuses to leave.

"Don't be a stranger hear me?" Olivia said. You have to see Leo next time."

"I won't Liv, it was so good to see you again. Did I miss your birthday?"

"Nope it's next week." They hugged good bye. Dave was cleaned up and gone before Nick arrived.

"It's looking great down there, Mr. Peters should be finished before the end of the week." Nick said.

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"Dave, Dave can you take a break or bang a little lighter?"

"Oh he's napping huh?"

"Yeah, why don't take your break and I'll have my twentieth cup of coffee." They moved upstairs to the kitchen. Olivia went to get a cup out of the cupboard but he was in her way leaning against the counter with a suction toy of Leo's in his hand. She bumped into him not seeing him there.

"Excuse me." she said.

"Sorry." He moved to stand in front of the refrigerator then she went to the refrigerator to get the cream out.

"Excuse me."

"Sorry again."

"What are you doing?" Olivia asked looking at him oddly.

"What? This doesn't go like this?" He was attempting to suction the toy to his forehead.

"No." she told him. He picked up a Rocky the squirrel doll emulating Rocky's voice from the cartoon show. Olivia picked up his lead and emulated Bullwinkle's voice then they switched to all-time favorite from Sesame Street. She was Bert and he was Ernie. Dave felt comfortable flirting and hopped up on the counter laughing. Olivia even enjoyed the amusing stroll down her childhood memory lane.

"Wait I got a good one." She said breaking out into a lyric. "H.R. Puffin stuff where do you go when things get rough?" The phrase she recited didn't register with him. He thought for a second.

"Hannah Barbara?" Olivia looked at him…hoping a light bulb would go off. Dave still had a blank stare.

"Oh yeah the Banana Splits, boy that was a long time ago." he said trying to save face but it wasn't working. Olivia really felt her age now with this older twenty something.

"Right." She said lifting her eyebrows.

"That was really the 70's, wow you're old." She scoffed at his bluntness.

"Thanks for noticing Dave." she said hurt.

"You're not too old you're kinda just the right amount." Olivia stared straight ahead feeling old while Dave stared at her profile until she heard Leo cry.

"Yeah…bye." Olivia said leaving him in the kitchen.

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"Dave will be finished tomorrow and he's offered to paint?"

"He's just looking for more money Liv I'll paint…wait Dave? Excuse me?" Nick looked at her with a pang of jealousy.

"Yeah that's his name."

"What else have we learned about Daaave?" He said sarcastically chuckling at her.

"Nick, are you jealous that I know the man working in our basement is named Dave?"

"Me jealous? Haha that's really funny Olivia. Wait, did you just say…our basement?"

"Yes our basement and WE can paint…if I wear one of those allergen masks." She turned off her light, kissed him long then rolled over and went to sleep.

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Olivia was scooping coffee into the machine and Dave was standing behind her watching. "So Dave you're finishing up today, it looks great can't thank you enough."

"My pleasure…buttttt you don't want me to paint huh?"

"No, Nick and I can handle that."

"I like that, a couple's project. I can see that with you two." He opened the white bag that had red stains on the side and pulled out a jelly donut offering her a bite. His gesture took her by surprise. Olivia opened her mouth letting him feed her, taking a bite with a little jelly oozing down her chin. He reached over and wiped it off her chin licking the sweet pectin. Olivia pulled back from him knowing where this may lead.

"Dave."

"Yeah."

"Thank you."

"For?"

"Making my day, my week, my month."

"I don't get it." He looked at her rather sad.

"Yeah you do and that's ok." She smiled at him.

"Well uh…I guess this isn't going to happen huh." He added. Olivia shook her head no.

"Not in this millennium at least and you…you'd have no problem with this would you Dave?" Olivia eyed him wondering why it was so easy for men to just tap it and go.

"No."

"God this was fun, I mean you're talking to someone who's been out of touch recently with the world this past month…oh shut up Liv."

"No finish please." He said.

Because I spend every day with baby food on my clothes and in my hair and in two months I get to do this all over again. What can I say; I'm beholden to you Macaulay Connor."

"What who?"

"What Katherine Hepburn said to Jimmy Stewart..."Philadelphia Story? Never mind Dave, I'll go get my check book." Olivia smiled scoffing at his innocence.

*Olivia's thoughts*

Most women in their forties are beginning to enter menopause and some face mid-life crisis's. I'm 45 and pregnant and I have a three month old joined to my hip and now this past week I had a twenty something gorgeous guy have an interest in me. Suddenly I feel young again like I'm back in college and vibrant like I never lost it.