Tiny House on the Road

Book 2: Tiny House Novel

by Celia Bonaduce

Genres: Family Life; Small Town & Rural; Women's Fiction

Synopsis

A tiny home is where the heart is in this novel from the author and TV producer whose credits include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It’s not the size of the house . . . At twenty-two, Vivien Orlando is already a homeowner—albeit of the tiniest of tiny houses, a whopping 64 square footer called “Shrimpfork.” It’s the perfectly portable home from which to run Organization Oracle, Vivien’s new business as a personal organizer. In fact, she’ll be toting Shrimpfork to her upcoming client’s home near Taos, New Mexico. Seventy-year-old Priscilla has a colorful past, a rambunctious boxer named Clay—and a home crammed with treasures . . . Priscilla also has a love for the TV program “This Old Thing?” Her twenty-five-year-old neighbor, Marco, is happy to watch it with her—while watching over her. When Vivien arrives, it’s clear she and Marco are suspicious of each other’s intentions. But Priscilla’s determination to get her most cherished possession appraised on “This Old Thing?” soon has all of them grudgingly working together. Vivien and Marco find themselves in cahoots, Priscilla discovers the wider world, Clay digs up trouble—and everyone learns that sometimes the greatest treasures are valued for their flaws . . . Praise for Celia Bonaduce and her novels “Celia Bonaduce writes well rounded, real life characters straight from the heart. I loved this book!”—Phyliss Miranda, New York Times bestselling author “ The Merchant of Venice Beach has a fresh, heartwarming voice that will keep readers smiling as they dance through this charming story by Celia Bonaduce.”—Jodi Thomas, New York Times bestselling author

Release date: March 13, 2018

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Print pages: 210

Sample

Chapter 1

All Vivien wanted was some coffee—and maybe a ladies’ room.

Vivien Orlando had planned her route meticulously. She had checked Google Maps. She had studied MapQuest. She followed Waze’s advice when traffic even hinted at slowing. For the drive from Jacksonville, FL, in her hand-me-down battered orange truck stuffed with all her worldly goods, she had plotted a course to Cobb, Kentucky that would take twelve and a half hours with stops for food and gas. Following her strict calculations and driving through the night, Vivien was confident she would pull into her final destination when the place opened at exactly eight in the morning.

Instead, she sat shivering in the truck in the predawn light in front of a locked gate, wondering when she’d learn to give up on the “precise plan” idea.

Vivien yawned. She had another two hours until the place opened for business. Maybe she could find a cup of coffee in Cobb’s downtown area. Cobb seemed like a sleepy little town, even by Kentucky standards. But after a ten—not twelve and a half—hour drive, it was not as sleepy as Vivien. Main Street offered nothing until seven o’clock. Vivien was relentlessly optimistic, but even her good nature started to flag. She remembered passing a place on her way into Cobb that at least had its lights on.

Maybe they were open?

Trying not to see it as a bad omen, she turned the truck around and headed back the way she came, pulling into the parking lot of a place called Crabby’s. Perched on the Kentucky River, the restaurant must have been picturesque during the day, but now it just looked cold and inhospitable—even with the giant neon crab sign blinking its deranged invitation to come on in. Vivien’s was the only vehicle in the parking lot. Through the window she could see a woman with bright red lipstick and a black ponytail, setting up the restaurant for the morning. Vivien sat, huddled in her truck, waiting for the Closed sign in the restaurant’s window to be turned around.

Vivien got out of the truck and set her car alarm. It sounded unnaturally shrill in the eerie silence of the parking lot. The chirp attracted the attention of the woman inside. The woman looked up from behind the counter and smiled at Vivien. She came to the front door and flipped the Closed sign to Open before returning to the coffeemaker behind the counter.

Maybe things are looking up.

Vivien slung her messenger bag over her shoulder, before remembering she hadn’t zipped up the front pocket after grabbing her toothbrush and deodorant at the last rest stop. Toiletries scattered in every direction. She stooped in the dark, feeling around the gravel for errant products. Stuffing things unceremoniously back into the bag and blinking back tears, Vivien pulled open the restaurant’s door.

“Welcome to Crabby’s! I’m Molly.” She waved a pot of coffee across the counter. “First brew of the morning. Want a cup?”

Vivien tried to say yes, but instead burst into tears.

“I’m so sorry,” Vivien said as she plunked herself down at a table and grabbed a paper napkin. “It’s just been a bad day.”

“It’s only six in the morning,” Molly said, rushing over. “How bad can it be?”

“You must think I’m a crazy person.” Vivien continued to sob.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I work at the only place open for breakfast for twenty miles. I know crazy when I see it. You’re okay. Here….” Molly extended a linen napkin. “Have one. We switch to cloth napkins at five. On the house.”

Vivien nodded gratefully and blew her nose, honking extravagantly. Molly was young—probably just a few years older than Vivien herself, but seemed to have a much better handle on things.

“It’s just that…” Vivien said, starting to cry again. “This was going to be the first day of the rest of my life. I had everything planned.”

“Your whole life?” Molly asked, pouring coffee into a large porcelain mug. “That’s some plan. I hope you left some room for a few surprises.”

Vivien smiled at Molly and ordered the World Famous American Sunrise Breakfast. Vivien wasn’t exactly sure what that was, but maybe Molly was right. Maybe she should leave herself open for a few surprises—especially with the new life she had planned.

“We’re pretty slow at this hour,” Molly said, looking around the restaurant to indicate the lack of action. “So I’m the cook too.”

Before Vivien could ask, Molly pointed down a hallway on the left. “Ladies’ room is that way.”

Molly was still busy in the kitchen when Vivien returned from the restroom, face washed and hair brushed. If she didn’t feel less like a crazy person, she at least looked less like one. While the soothing smell of bacon and eggs floated in from the kitchen, Vivien closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

* * * *

The clatter of plates on the table startled her. When she opened her eyes, she was staring into a happy face of food. The bright yolks of two sunny-side-up eggs looked up at her, while a strip of curling bacon formed a smile. A tiny salt and pepper shaker set sat in the middle, filling in as the nose. Vivien glanced up at Molly, who was beaming lovingly at the plate.

“The salt and pepper shaker nose was my idea,” Molly said. “More coffee?”

Vivien assumed she wouldn’t be able to eat a bite, but she surprised herself. She wasn’t sure if it was the comfort food or the sight of the sun rising over the river that lifted her mood, but she was thankful. As she buttered the last biscuit, her optimism and the possibilities of her new life seeped back into her spirit. Keeping the doubts at bay was as daunting as driving for hours.

Several people had entered the restaurant in the last hour. Molly was too busy to continue their conversation, for which Vivien was grateful. Vivien was a little embarrassed by her tears and really didn’t want to go into any more detail about her future plans. She’d exhausted herself explaining it to family and coworkers over the last few months.

Her iPhone made a soft purring noise. It was her alarm, letting her know it was time to head back; the gates would be opening in ten minutes.

She caught Molly’s eye. In the sign language of the road, Vivien signaled for the check and Molly signed back that Vivien should meet her at the cash register.

“You have good day,” Molly said, handing Vivien her change. “So, I’m guessing you’re headed over to Bale’s to check out the tiny houses?”

Vivien almost dropped her palmful of change.

“How did you know that?” Vivien asked.

Molly’s eyes shot to the parking lot, where Vivien’s overstuffed orange truck stuck out among the more sedate sedans.

“I’ve gotten used to spotting Bale’s customers,” Molly said.

What does that mean?

Vivien couldn’t get Molly’s words out of her mind. As she threaded her way back to Bale’s Tiny Dreams, she wondered if everyone who pulled into the tiny house lot was a woman in her twenties with a restless desire to forge her own path. Vivien suddenly smiled. There were worse accusations, she supposed. And there was no denying the truth of it—at least in her case.

She pulled up to the now open gate. It was amazing what sunlight could do. In the predawn gloom, the tangle of tiny pitched, flat, and gabled roofs had looked like a haunted miniature golf course—she had half expected a goat dressed in country club gear shaking a nine iron to come rushing out to the fence, threatening her. Now, as she slowly pulled in among the confection of diminutive homes, the place looked more like a village for peaceable gnomes.

When she heard a rasping barking coming up behind her, she looked around for the goat.

Vivien had lived her entire life in the city, so she was no expert. But she was pretty sure the animal now yapping at her heels was no goat.

“Thor!” rumbled an authoritative voice. “Crank it down a notch.”

Vivien knew the voice. It belonged to Bale Barrett, the proprietor of Bale’s Tiny Dreams. She’d spoken to him on the phone so many times over the last few months designing her tiny house that she would have known it anywhere.

The creature immediately sat down quietly and thumped its tail. In repose, the animal looked even more unusual. Vivien assumed it was a male—after all, its name was Thor. Thor was mostly white with a black mask, making him look like a cartoon bandit. He had the build and blank expression of a bull terrier—broad-chested with turned-out, short legs. She would have settled on assigning Thor to the family of “dog,” except for the shock of reddish fur sprouting wildly between its ears, like a Mohawk. He looked like a cross between a dog and a woodpecker.

“He won’t bite,” Bale’s voice rang out again. “I’ll be right with you.”

Vivien looked around, but couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from.

“Okay,” Vivien called back.

Vivien regarded Thor. She wasn’t much of an animal person. She had nothing against cats and dogs in theory. She’d just never had pets growing up and, at twenty-two years old, had not acquired an affinity for them in her few short years as an adult.

Thor stared up at her. Even with his disconcertingly blank expression, he seemed to want something.

“Good doggy,” she said.

Thor needed no further encouragement. He leaped up, seemingly propelled by the wagging tail. Vivien let out a little squeak and closed her eyes. She staggered backward, pressing up against her truck for safety. She could feel the dog’s paws on her midsection.

“Thor!” came the voice again. “Get down!”

The pressure on her stomach suddenly ceased. Vivien opened her eyes. She found herself looking into the gentle eyes of a man. She knew it was Bale—she’d watched his tiny house videos online and followed him on Instagram. They had also used FaceTime when discussing design ideas. He had a ruggedness she found attractive, although he had a few lines around his eyes and some gray in his hair. This man was much too old for her—he had to be forty. She found herself weirded-out that she found him appealing; she was new to the idea that someone close to her father’s age could be attractive.

“Sorry about the dog, Vivien,” Bale said, holding Thor by the collar. So he recognized her too! “Thor showed up here a few weeks ago and I’m still working on his manners.”

Vivien tried to think of something to say. She settled on, “Thor is an interesting name.”

“He’s an interesting dog.”

“What kind of dog is he?” Vivien asked.

“Beats me,” Bale said, looking down at Thor. “I named him Thor because he’s got that weird red hair between his ears. I figured he must have Viking blood.”

Vivien looked up sharply, wondering if this was a joke. The twinkle in Bale’s eyes said it was. She relaxed.

“Speaking of no manners,” Bale said, putting out his right hand, while keeping a firm grip on Thor with the left. “I’m Bale, in case you haven’t guessed.”

“Yes, I figured that out,” Vivien said, shaking his hand and trying to regain her composure. “Nice to meet you finally. I’m Vivien—in case you haven’t guessed.”

“Come on back to the office,” he said, letting go of Thor, who walked politely beside Bale, having lost all interest in Vivien. “Coffee?”

“No thanks,” she said, as she tried to guess which of the tiny houses was hers. “I stopped at—”

“Crabby’s,” Bale said. “Yeah, I saw the loaded down truck in their parking lot on my way in this morning and thought that might be you.”

“Does every truck that comes through Cobb stop for a tiny house?” Vivien asked, trying not to seem defensive.

“Pretty much,” Bale said, holding the door to the office open for her.

“Really?” Vivien asked in amazement.

“No,” Bale said, smiling. “But we get our fair share. Let’s face it, anyone who’s committed to trying out this lifestyle has pretty much done the emotional heavy lifting and arrives with no more than a truck full of stuff. My customers are usually pretty impatient to hit the road.”

Thor squeezed ahead of Vivien and shot into a dog bed in the corner of the office. Bale indicated a chair across from his well-worn desk. As they settled into their seats, Vivien thought about what Bale had said. He was certainly right as far as her own story went. She had been ruthlessly tossing out everything that wouldn’t fit in her truck, let alone her soon-to-be home, and she was more than impatient to start this new adventure she hoped would be her life.

“So, Vivien,” Bale said as he rummaged around the mountains of paper on his desk. “I know I have all your paperwork here somewhere… Tell me about your plans.”

“My…plans?” Vivien faltered.

“Yes,” Bale said, continuing to flip through papers. He seemed to be talking to himself more than her. If I recall correctly, you’re a barista at Starbeams, right?”

Vivien held her breath. She had paid for the tiny house in full, so Bale shouldn’t really care that she quit her job. But still… This was the first time she’d let anyone in on her new plans.

“I’m not there anymore,” she said.

“Well, there are Starbeams everywhere,” Bale said, giving her a quick smile. “I’m sure you can pick up work anywhere.”

“Actually,” Vivien said, taking in a deep breath. “I’ve moved on. I’ve gone into a completely new line of work.”

“Oh? What do you do?” Bale asked as he slipped a pair of reading glasses onto his nose.

Vivien thought the glasses made him look older. He moved quietly into the “dad” role. Vivien didn’t mind. She was about to become a vagabond and romance was the farthest thing from her mind.

“I’m an oracle.”

Bale stopped shuffling his paperwork and looked at her.

“An oracle?” Bale asked, his eyebrows arching over the reading glasses. “Like a prophet?”

“Sort of,” Vivien said. She was new at describing her self-created job and still wasn’t comfortable explaining it. She knew it sounded weird.

“I didn’t know there was much of a job market in that,” Bale asked. “Since Ancient Greece, I mean.”

“I’m freelance.”

“How’s that working out for you?”

Vivien wondered if Bale was being sarcastic, but he looked genuinely concerned.

“I don’t really know yet,” Vivien said. “I just started my own business. I’m a professional organizer.”

“And oracle.”

“They go together,” Vivien said, warming to her subject. “After Starbeams, I worked for the Kloset Kompany. Two Ks. We organized stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” he asked.

“Oh, you know, the usual—closets, attics, basements, paperwork, wine.”

“Wine?”

“Yes,” Vivien said. “I organized a man’s wine collection right before I came here.”

“That sounds pretty interesting.”

“It was, but most of the time it was the same old, same old. You can’t just keep your fingers crossed that a wine collection is going to come along every now and then.”

“I guess not.”

“So, I decided it would be cool to travel around, instead of staying in one city,” Vivien said. “I put a new spin on the whole business model. I’m going to provide personalized service. I’ll take on a client, they’ll explain their problem and I’ll see what they need right away. That’s why I call myself the Organization Oracle.”

From the look on Bale’s face, Vivien could tell he wasn’t a fan of her new name.

“I was also thinking of calling it ‘Vivien Orlando! I put the O in Organization.’”

“I think the Organization Oracle is a great name,” Bale said.

He smiled at her. Which was very different from laughing at her. She smiled back.

“I can’t find your paperwork,” Bale said, throwing up his hands. The stacks of binder-clipped papers settled into place after being disturbed by his quest.

“It’s five contracts down in the left-hand pile…well, the right-hand pile for you,” Vivien said.

Bale stared at her for a second, then thumbed through the stack. Five contracts down and there it was. The final contract for Vivien Orlando.

“That’s a miracle,” Bale said, holding up the contract and staring at it. He smiled at Vivien. “You really are an oracle.”

Vivien shrugged shyly.

Should she tell him she’d seen her name, recognizable even upside down while he was frantically flipping through his untidy stacks?

“Maybe I can hire you,” Bale said, looking around his cluttered office. “I could use the help.”

“Thanks,” Vivien said sincerely. “But I’m headed to New Mexico to my first client as soon as I pick up the house.”

“New Mexico?” Bale said, sounding impressed. “Sounds exciting.”

“The lady who is hiring me lives in a place called Casa de Promesas,’’ Vivien said, knowing she shouldn’t be giving away anything so confidential, but wanting to up the “exciting” ante.

“House of Promises,” Bale said, now looking for a pen among the rubble of his desk. “Sounds like a good omen.”

She knew she shouldn’t give away any of her organizing secrets. But she liked Bale and wanted to make up for her little subterfuge about spotting her name. She offered Bale a little advice.

“You should use color-coded binder clips,” she said. “I mean, you use paper clips anyway, so why not sort them with various colors? One color for advertisement, one for bills—that sort of thing.”

“That’s a great idea,” Bale said. “I bought a label maker to use on black binder clips, but…”

“But,” Vivien said, “you never get around to actually making the labels.”

“Exactly!” Bale said.

“If you want to take it one step farther,” Vivien said, eyeing the wall behind his desk. “You could paint that wall with magnetic paint. They have magnetic binder clips, you know. So everything would be off your desk, but easy to reach and—”

“And not put away in a filing cabinet,” Bale said, staring at the wall as if he’d never seen it before. “Because as you’ve probably guessed…filing is never going to happen.”

“One thing about getting organized,” Vivien said. “It’s not one size fits all. You’ve got to know what you’ll stick with. You know what I mean? You have to know who you are.”

“Funny you should say that,” Bale said, finally locating a pen. “I say the same thing about living in a tiny house. You really have to know who you are before you take it on.”

Remembering what she’d learned in her college course on Start Your Own Business and Soar!, Vivien quickly added, “I can call you when I’m finished in New Mexico. Maybe we can work something out.”

“Sounds good,” Bale said. “Want to go see your house?”

Vivien nodded, too overcome to speak. She was giddy with possibilities.

Maybe she was going to soar!

Chapter 2

The idea of a party after so long was exciting. Humming “Happy Birthday,” Priscilla Workman pierced the cupcake’s chocolate frosting with a pink-and-white candle. She studied the cupcake. It was lopsided and the frosting hid the fact that half the top was burnt, but nobody would know that. A birthday was as good an excuse as any to rummage around in the pots and pans that had been a fixture in the house since her grandparents built it, back when Sandstone as well as its better-known neighbor, Taos, were still sleepy New Mexico towns just starting to earn their reputations as arts colonies.

It had been a busy day. She’d already laid out her mother’s good china, linen, and silver in. . .