Page 26 of Saltwater Memories
Chapter 9
The next week was busy for Will. He finally got to meet with some contractors – the ones that Amanda recommended – as well as with a few suppliers. Amanda wasn’t kidding when she said it would be tough to build on the island, but he was hopeful. He had a few allies now, and his boss said he could call in for extra help if needed.
He was trying to avoid that, if possible. Will would rather work sixteen hour days to get all of this done on his own. It wasn’t that he was too proud to ask for help…
No, it was something else. There was pride involved, but it was more like he wanted to see if he could do it on his own. He was trying to prove something to his boss, yes, but even more, he needed to prove something to himself.
On Friday night, he decided that he deserved a bit of a break and that he should explore more of the island. He popped into the local brewery, hoping to snag a quiet table for himself, and was disappointed to find that the wait for a table was over an hour.
He was about to turn around and walk out when he spotted Amanda at the far end of the brewery. It felt like his heart skipped a beat. They’d been texting since their last meeting two weeks ago, but she hadn’t offered to set a date to show him the house. It was hard to keep his mind off of her; he didn’t even care about the house at this point. But he didn’t want to come on too strong, either. And here she was, as if by magic.
He had to at least say hello.
“If it isn’t my favorite islander,” he said as he approached the table.
She turned, her face puzzled before breaking into a smile. “Will!”
He smiled back. “Sorry – I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just wanted to say hi.”
“You’re fine, you’re not interrupting. This is Jade, my sister. Well, step-sister, but I like her.”
Jade smiled. “Hi!”
“Nice to meet you.”
“And this is Morgan, my – ”
“I’m sort of like a sister, too, just not blood related.” She stuck out her hand, which Will accepted. “Would you like to have a drink with us?”
His eyes darted to Amanda, whose expression remained unchanged. “Oh – no, that’s all right. I don’t want to spoil sister night.”
“Oh please, I insist.” Morgan patted the seat next to her – the one across from Amanda.
He looked around. It would be nice to spend time away from his laptop. “Well…that’s really nice of you. Saves me an hour wait for a table.”
Jade nodded. “Oh yeah, this is a really popular spot. Do you like beer? The beer here is great!”
“Sure, I like everything!” He accepted the menu that Jade handed him and glanced through the drink list. He hardly ever drank alcohol unless he was meeting with a client – rarely just when socializing with friends.
Not that he and his friends socialized often either…they usually combined hangouts with work events. Or they tried to get him to agree to another clubbing disaster.
Amanda cleared her throat. “So Jade – Will is the guy that I spilled that coffee all over.”
“Oh no!” She bit her lip. “I heard about that. It sounded bad.”
“No, it wasn’t that big of a deal; water under the bridge. Amanda has been a huge help in connecting me to contractors and reliable vendors on the island.”
“Sheisa wealth of knowledge,” Morgan said with a smile.
“Yeah, I don’t know about that,” replied Amanda, setting her drink down. “Did you finally get to talk to some people?”
“Yeah, just this week. Things definitely move slowly on the island.”
“Oh man, I could talk about that all day,” Jade said with a laugh. “We’ve been trying to open a new state park. Er, did Amanda already tell you about it?”
He shook his head. “No, I haven’t heard anything about that. But it sounds challenging.”
“It has been,” Jade said, face bright. “But at the same time, we’re so close. And it’s been so rewarding. I won’t bore you with it, though.”
