“Surprisingly so.”
She was glad that Emily and Blake had become such great friends. It couldn’t have been easy for Blake to look for his birth parents—her cousin Heather and her boyfriend, Jesse—and move to Moonbeam after the death of the only mother he’d ever known. She liked to think her daughter had made the transition easier for him. And now Emily had a second cousin and couldn’t be more pleased.
“You could have called me to come in if you needed help,” he offered.
“We handled it, but thank you.”
“I’m on the schedule for tomorrow evening.”
“I am, too,” Emily said. “Because tomorrow is your date night with Austin.”
“Ah, he got called out of town.” She wasn’t really up to explaining it all again.
“That’s too bad. Well, you can have the house to yourself and a night off. It will do you good.”
That actually didn’t sound all bad. A night alone. Maybe a long hot bath and a book. Or sitting out on the lanai and doing… nothing.
She made herself some ice water and turned to the kids. “I’m headed to bed to read for a bit. Lock the house and turn out the lights when Blake leaves, okay?”
“Sure. Night, Mom.”
She headed to her room to escape into the book she was reading. A new book by a new-to-her author, Robert Bentley. She hoped it didn’t keep her up half the night reading like it had last night. It wassogood.
Chapter 5
The next morning Rob stood in the semi-grassy area in the middle of the circle of cottages. That sad excuse of a courtyard needed to be dealt with, too. Where to start?
If he could find a ladder, he could get up and see what was hiding beneath the blue tarp on that one roof. There was a window to be replaced in what he thoughtmightbe the green cottage.
Doing some exterior painting kind of appealed to him. But if he painted, he’d need another trip to town because Violet had given him a strict list of the colors she wanted for each cottage. Shades of teal, sunflower yellow, cotton-candy pink, mint green, sea green, and a coral color. Then a brighter shade of the same color for each door. He was fairly certain his idea of what these colors looked like would be different than Violet’s.
Maybe he’d start on repairs, then head into town to get the paint.
Hours later Violet caught up with him in the probably green cottage as he was finishing up fixing a sagging board on the front porch.
“The repairman got another air conditioning unit hooked up. His vent guy is pretty quick at adding in the new air ducts.” She looked at the front porch and nodded approvingly. “Hey, are you hungry? It’s way past lunchtime.”
“I’m starving.” His stomach rumbled to add emphasis to his words.
“I could make us sandwiches,” she offered. “We still have plenty of that sourdough loaf you brought home last night.”
The parcel Evelyn asked him to pass along to his sister had turned out to be a loaf of homemade bread and strawberry jam. Sliced, toasted, and buttered, it had made a wonderful addition to breakfast this morning.
“How about we go into town and eat at Sea Glass Cafe instead? Then I could pick up the paint, and you can make sure I get the right shades.”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Have you eaten there yet?” Violet helped him put his tools away in the shed.
“No, I’ve been too busy to do much of anything but work on the cottages.”
“They have the same ice cream they had at the general store when we were kids.” His mouth watering at the memory of yesterday’s ice cream, he led Violet to the car.
“Really? I remember you loved it.”
“What can I say? Ice cream is my Achilles heel. And I still do love it. Come on.” They drove to the cafe, his stomach rumbling the whole time. He wondered if he could have ice cream for dessertbeforehis lunch…
He held the door open for his sister and they went into the cafe. The aroma of fresh bake bread, a hint of cinnamon, and strong coffee assaulted his senses. His stomach growled in anticipation.
