She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “Maybe we should watch the shed overnight.”
He met her eyes and imagined he could see every single thought running through them. So, big guy, what do you say we spend the night together, in the dark, all alone, just the two of us? Let’s see how this hands-off bull goes then.
“Okay,” he croaked.
“So how is it?” Burdick called.
Ethan had forgotten to look. He turned his attention back to the shed. It was in great shape. The lumber still smelled new. Cedar, he thought. He turned around and said, “We’ll move it.”
“Let me know where you want it and I can pour you a slab,” Burdick said. “Take a couple of hours. You buy the concrete and I’ll do it for no extra charge, assuming you hire me for the addition.”
“That’s a generous offer,” Ethan said.
“Well, this would be a notch in my belt, and I don’t mind sayin’ so. A honky-tonk, owned by a country star, right here in Mad Bull’s Bend. You’re fixin’ to put this town on the map.”
“I don’t know about that,” Ethan began
“I don’t see how it can miss. And I’m hopin’ you might let me leave a little sign someplace. ‘A Samwell Burdick Project.’” He spread his hand apart as he said it.
“Sign? Heck, I’ll put up a plaque, you do a good job.” Ethan said, “So, like I said, I want the addition to be the dance floor, with a stage, backstage area with a dressin’ room.”
“With a flagstone patio out front, running the whole length of the place,” Lily said, “where the parking lot is now.”
Burdick rubbed his chin. He had a yellow legal pad he was scribbling on. He said, “You know you could have that whole front wall all glass. It could slide open. We could continue the floor from inside to outside.
“That would be…” Lily began, then glanced at Ethan.
“Amazin’,” he said, finishing her sentence.
Lily flashed him a message with her eyes. He read it as something like, This guy gets us. He sees our vision.
“We could do the same in the old section,” Burdick said, looking at the wall they were going to demolish. “So dinin’ tables too, could continue outside. Maybe…put in a patio bar separatin’ the outdoor-dinin’ side from the outdoor-dancin’ side.”
“That’s a great idea. Taco bar or beverage bar?” Ethan asked, looking at Lily.
“Why not both?” She crossed the lawn with the men on her heels, until she was facing the parking lot in front of the building. “And there has to be an open-flame aspect to it, I think. Wouldn’t that be cool?” she said.
“I know a guy,” Burdick said. “Wait, wait, wait.” He scrolled his cell phone while Ethan and Lily exchanged a smile. She arched her eyebrows and hitched her chin toward Burdick, as if to say, This guy, right? He acknowledged with a slow blink that served as a nod.
Then Burdick said, “Here it is. Check this out. This guy’s local, Julio Gomez, a real artist, but doesn’t charge like one. He’s a plumber, and this is his side gig.” He turned his phone around.
Ethan bent lower to look at a video of a water-bubbling fountain surrounded by fire.
“Of course, that’s a freestandin’ feature,” Burdick said. “He does tabletop versions, though. Just fire, just water, or both. Every one’s unique. He can size it for the space. And you have plenty of room.”
Ethan could tell Lily wanted him to say yes. He said, “Let’s get some numbers from the guy first,” because it seemed like what a reasonable entrepreneur would say. What he wanted to say was, “Anything that makes Lily’s eyes light up like that is a go.” But he couldn’t really say that out loud.
She looked disappointed while nodding in agreement. “Yeah, I suppose we should see how big a dent it would put in our budget.”
They didn’t actually have a budget yet. He had a round figure in mind and intended to borrow it from the bank. But he thought it might be a good idea to get some of the biggest numbers in hand before he applied for the loan. If the honky-tonk did well, it would pay the loan back itself. But if it failed, he’d still have to pay it back. And that was no small deal, even for a Brand with a hit song.
They gave the plumbers and electricians the specs and sent them on their way to crunch numbers and write estimates. But they spent the rest of the morning with Samwell Burdick, because they both knew he was the man for the job. They discussed the addition, the dance floor, the stage, the parking lot in back, the improvements Hyram had mentioned for the kitchen, and the bathroom for the second floor.
Several hours later, Burdick left with a paperback’s worth of notes and promised to have an estimate and a timeline for them within a day.
Then Ethan was alone with Lily.
“We worked right through lunch,” she said. “And the kitchen’s empty. And there’s not a decent taco for at least…?”
