Page 36 of A Future in the Bay

“Sure.” Gwen made herself a coffee at the Keurig as she and Olivia began to discuss the plans for the classrooms.

“Let’s create a spreadsheet with the schedule for each project,” Gwen said. “That way, if we start to fall behind, we’ll know how many more volunteers we need to ask for based on the number of hours we’ve fallen behind.”

Olivia’s eyebrows lifted a little, but she smiled. “Okay! Sure. Sounds like a good idea to me. Very efficient.”

Gwen smiled, but she felt a little twist in her stomach. Olivia’s surprised reaction had made her feel as though she wouldn’t ever fit into Blueberry Bay—to her, a spreadsheet was a simple matter of course, but Olivia seemed to think it was a little bit of overkill.

At that moment, Isaiah stepped through the doorway of the teachers’ lounge, grinning like Tom Sawyer.

“Hey, ladies!” he said cheerfully. “Mind if I join the party?”

“Not at all,” Olivia said, grinning back at him. “You already provided the snacks, didn’t you?”

He bowed and went to make himself a cup of coffee. “I might possibly be guilty of that. What have you been talking about so far?”

Gwen felt her flutters of nervousness whirl like butterflies in her chest when she looked at him. It was ironic, she thought, that he gave off such a relaxed energy but he made her feel so jittery.

“Gwen here just suggested a spreadsheet for every project,” Olivia said. “That way we can track how many hours we mightget behind so we know how many more people to bring in if necessary.”

Isaiah turned to Gwen with a smile. “A spreadsheet, huh? Sounds smart, but I don’t expect we’ll need to be so careful in this case. Right now, we’re still ahead of schedule. I’m sure everything will work out just fine.” He leaned against the counter, grinning cheerfully.

“We can’t just rely on luck,” Gwen protested, feeling a little frustrated that he was shooting her idea down so quickly. After all, they’d asked her to help out—this was how she knew how to be helpful. “I think we should have a detailed plan to make sure we stay on track.”

“I agree with Gwen,” Olivia said, although Gwen suspected she might be trying to keep the peace more than she was actually in agreement with her. “Let’s use spreadsheets. I’m grateful for any help you can give us, Gwen.”

“Great.” Gwen smiled briskly. “What else could I do to be of help?”

“Would you be willing to write up a little ad, asking for paint donations for the activity rooms? We thought that could be a fun way to keep costs low. We don’t need any particular color—bright colors are best, but anything will do. And if someone doesn’t have enough of one color to paint a whole room, that’s okay—then we’ll just paint all the walls different colors, which will be fun for the kids.”

“Absolutely,” Gwen said, finding the idea resourceful and charming. “I’d be happy to write up an ad for that.”

“Perfect.” Olivia smiled. “You and Isaiah are the perfect team for this project. With Isaiah’s optimistic enthusiasm and your practicality, you’ll have every base covered.”

Gwen felt herself flushing a little at the suggestion that she and Isaiah would be a good team together. Her mind flashed back to the thoughts she’d had in her kitchen late at night, aboutwhether or not she could be in a partnership with someone as laid-back as Isaiah. Not that working together and being in a partnership were even remotely the same thing, she thought hurriedly—but she couldn’t help making the connection that if they worked well together in one dynamic, they might work well together in other dynamics as well.

She glanced at him and saw that he was flashing that radiant grin at her. She felt her stomach flutter, although she kept herself from looking away too quickly.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I agreed to help out at the school,she thought.

She had a feeling that she and Isaiah were both about to challenge each other’s ways of doing things a great deal.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Caitlin hummed along to the radio as she drove along the coastline. Behind her in the back seat, Pearl was reading a book and swaying back and forth a little as if in excitement. Ever since her flower girl dress had arrived, Pearl had been the picture of health again, and Caitlin was relieved that she’d recovered from the flu so quickly.

“How’s your book, honey?” she asked, smiling at her daughter.

Pearl looked up and grinned. “Amazing! There’s all kinds of stuff about time travel. Right now they’re in the eighteen hundreds on a pirate ship.”

“Ooh, sounds exciting,” Caitlin said, grinning.

“Are we there yet?”

“Not yet.” Caitlin chuckled. “Just another fifteen minutes or so.”

“Thank goodness we get to eat cake at the end of this,” Pearl said. “This has been one of the longest car rides of my life.”

Caitlin chuckled again. She and Pearl were on their way to Providence, to visit Paige at her baking school there. Paige had baked up a few different wedding cake flavor samples, so they were on their way to meet with her and try the cakes. Michaelwasn’t able to join them for their “girls’ trip,” as they’d decided to call it, but they were planning on bringing pieces of the cake samples back to him so that he could help Caitlin decide on the flavor.

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