Page 18 of A Breeze Over Rosewood Beach
“Perfect.” She grinned at him. “Just let me put these painting supplies away and get the brushes and rollers washed off, and then I’m all yours.”
“I’ll order the pizzas,” Jacob said, suddenly feeling extremely hungry. He loved the idea of getting to have a picnic with Hazel in their house. He couldn’t wait for the days when they were eating every meal there together, and it was really their home, instead of just a building they were trying to turn into a home. “Meat lovers for me, Hawaiian for you?”
“Actually, tonight I think I’m feeling a barbeque chicken with red onions,” Hazel said, her tone almost dreamy as she stared into space. “Yup, convinced myself. I’ll take that, please.”
“You got it.” He pecked her cheek and stepped to the side to call the pizza place. A few minutes later, their pizza order was all set and they were cleaning off the paintbrushes and rollers together. Hazel protested and said that she should do it herself since she was already wearing painting clothes, but Jacob pointed out how dirty his work clothes already were.
Soon the brushes and rollers were clean and drying and their pizza had arrived. Jacob ran out to Hazel’s car to get the quilt she’d mentioned, and they spread it out on the floor in front of one of the old radiators, where it was nice and warm.
“This is cozy,” Jacob said, sitting down crossed-legged next to Hazel. “Oh, shoot, we should have asked them for paper plates—we don’t have any dishes here yet.”
Hazel picked up a slice of pizza with a grin. “I don’t need a plate. The cardboard box is my plate, because I am definitely eating this entire pizza tonight.”
“That hungry, huh?”
“Mm-hm,” she said happily through a gooey, cheesy bite of pizza.
They set Hazel’s laptop on the floor and lay down side by side in front of it, eating pizza as they browsed the website.
“So many options,” Jacob said, shaking his head.
“And this is just the one company,” Hazel pointed out. “We could try another one too.”
“Nope, too overwhelming.”
Chuckling, they kept looking. Jacob jotted down the information of all the light fixtures they both really liked in a small notebook that he always kept in his pocket.
After about an hour, they’d eaten most of their pizzas and were starting to get stiff from lying on the floor for so long.
“What do you say we move this party back to your house, where there are couches?” Jacob asked, sitting up and rolling his shoulders back a few times.
“Sounds great.” Hazel laughed and rolled over so that it was easier for her to sit up. “I guess I’m not going to eat this whole pizza after all.”
“Hey, the fridge is plugged in.”
Hazel wrinkled her nose. “But it hasn’t been cleaned.”
“Honey, the pizza will be in the boxes.”
Hazel kept her nose wrinkled. “Mm, no thanks. We could just set it outside.” She laughed. “Frozen pizza.”
“Frozen pizza that will send signals to all of the local wildlife that we put out free food. I love raccoons, but only from a distance.”
She chuckled. “Okay, don’t worry I’m only kidding. Let’s take the pizza home and we can heat it up later as a snack.”
“I won’t say no to that.” He grinned and kissed her.
They drove separately to Hazel’s house, since they both had their cars, and soon they were snuggled up together on the couch with mugs of hot cocoa, back on the light fixture website.
“What about this one?” Hazel said, squinting at a picture as she considered it. “It’s rustic looking, but I’m not sure it’ll go with the dark red walls we want for the dining room, since it’s got those blue accent flecks.” The chandelier had been made to look antique, and it was a mix of white and blue paints.
“Do they have any other colors?” Jacob was starting to ask, when Hazel scrolled farther down the page.
They both froze, staring at the screen.
“Do you see that?” Hazel asked eagerly, grabbing his hand.
“Absolutely I do. That’s it. It’s perfect.”
