Page 17 of A Breeze Over Rosewood Beach
This restaurant really is a great little establishment, hethought, unable to deny it to himself any longer. The food was wonderful, the staff was friendly, and Sally?—
He grunted. It was a restaurant. It served food. It was decent enough, he supposed.
CHAPTER NINE
Jacob picked up a box of his favorite screws and tucked it into the basket he was carrying. Turner’s Hardware offered a wide variety of nails and screws of all different sizes, but he knew exactly what brand he wanted, and he knew the length that he needed to install drywall.
Things are going great,he thought cheerfully. Idon’t know where Hazel and I are getting all this energy from, but I’m certainly not complaining. It’s wonderful to feel like we’re making so much progress on the house.
Hazel and Jacob had been working long hours renovating their home, on the weekends and in the afternoons after they finished working their jobs for the day. It had helped greatly that not many people in Rosewood Beach had been having emergencies with their plumbing or electricity. Jacob often had to work late at someone’s house, fixing something that needed to be repaired immediately because of a safety issue or because the thing needing repair was vital to the family’s home life, such as a refrigerator or a furnace. Thankfully, however, most of his work during the past few weeks had been simple, short projects that he could easily schedule in the morning and early afternoon.That left him plenty of time in the second half of his days to work with his beautiful girlfriend on renovating their home.
He grabbed a second box of screws, this time in a slightly shorter length. If there was one thing he’d learned over the years, it was that you could never have too many tools. Well, you could have more tools than would fit in your storage area—and his small office and storage space was full to the bursting with tools. Now that he and Hazel had the house, however, he had a whole basement to fill with extra supplies. He would still keep most of his frequently-used tools in his office in the center of town, but it was nice to know that he could buy a new tool here and there without wondering where on earth he was going to put it.
He was making his way toward the front of the hardware store when he saw Cedric rearranging a display of potted herbs.
“Cedric!” he said cheerfully, stepping toward his friend and mentor.
“Jacob.” Cedric turned to him with a grin. “Back for more, I see? Are you running into any trouble with the renovations?”
“No, just the usual trouble like running low on the screws we need for the drywall. Hey, has that light fixture that we ordered come in yet?”
“Oh, no, I’m sorry I meant to tell you, but it slipped my mind.” Cedric shook his head. “It got backordered. I’m sure it won’t be too long before it’s back in stock, but I know you both wanted to install it right away.”
“That is disappointing.” Jacob held back a sigh. He and Hazel had ordered a beautiful rustic chandelier to go in their dining room, and they’d both been looking forward to installing it. “Thanks, Cedric. I’ll let Hazel know.”
“You two working on the house today?”
Jacob smiled and gestured to his dirty work clothes. “Yup, I’m dressed for the occasion and everything.”
Cedric shook his head with a chuckle. “Jacob, you always look like that.”
Jacob laughed. “Fair enough.”
He said goodbye to his friend and made his way to the front of the store to make his purchase. After that, he stepped back outside into the cold winter air and clambered inside his truck. It was a particularly chilly day, and he was looking forward to being inside his warm new house with Hazel. Even though it didn’t have any furniture in it yet besides a couple of camping chairs they sat in whenever they needed a break, it felt cozy to him.
He drove to the house and parked in the driveway. He could hear faint music playing, and he knew that Hazel must be inside the house working on something. Their new home seemed like a sure place to find her these days. He smiled and hopped out of the truck, taking the screws with him.
“Honey, I’m home!” he bellowed playfully as he stepped inside the front door.
“Jacob!” Hazel called out joyfully. She looked up with a radiant smile from where she was painting the living room walls a creamy mint green. At the moment, she was sitting on the floor, carefully painting next to the molding. “Come over here and kiss me, I don’t want to get up yet.”
He smiled and went over to her and gave her a big kiss. “The walls look great.”
“Don’t they?” She looked around the room with delight. “It’s going to be so wonderful in here, I can already see it. I feel so impatient to get everything done, especially that chandelier. Now that I know it’s coming, the dining room just doesn’t look right without it. I can’t wait to see it in there—I just know it’s going to complete the look of the whole room.”
“Ah.” Jacob sat down next to her on the floor. “About that. I’m afraid I’ve got bad news. I talked to Cedric at the hardware store and he said that the light got backordered.”
“Oh!” Hazel’s shoulders slumped and she was clearly deflated by the news. A moment later she brightened, however. “That’s okay. We can keep browsing their website. Maybe there’s an even better one we can pick out.”
Jacob chuckled. “I don’t know. It took us a while to find that one. Do you really think we’re going to find another light fixture that’s even better?”
“Please?” She pretended to make a sad puppy face at him. “We can order a pizza when I’m done here and have a picnic on the floor using that old quilt I keep in my car. Sam is at Willow’s tonight, so we can do whatever we want to for hours.”
“And the thing we want to do most is look at light fixtures, huh?”
“Yes.” She clasped her paint-covered hands in a dramatically pleading gesture.
He laughed and kissed her head. “Okay. I do actually like that idea. I love looking at anything that might become part of our house. And I hate the idea of waiting until that chandelier is back in stock too.”
