Page 8 of Summer Refresh

“Okay. I’m listening.”

He sat down on the couch. He supposed he should just start at the beginning. “You know how you ordered some new pieces of furniture for in the lobby?”

“Is there a problem with the order? I had my heart set on the couch and settee. And those armchairs coordinated perfectly with the other pieces.”

“No. Everything is fine with the order. In fact, they are supposed to be delivered at the end of next week.”

“That’s a relief. So, if nothing is wrong with the order, what’s bothering you?”

“I was wondering if you would mind if I refreshed the lobby.”

There was a distinct pause. “What exactly do you mean by refresh?”

“A fresh coat of paint and a new placement of the furniture. That sort of thing. Nothing major.” There was another distinct pause on the other end of the phone. “I wouldn’t charge you anything but the cost of the supplies.”

“And you’re going to do all of this?” There was a note of disbelief in her voice.

“Yes.”

“Uh-huh.” She didn’t sound like she believed he could do it.

“Why are you so skeptical of my abilities?”

“I don’t know. It could be the time you convinced me that if you shot your bottle rocket out of my bedroom window that it would go higher and then the bottle ended up falling over and shooting the rocket into my room.”

That had been a big miscalculation. One his parents made sure he paid for by being grounded for two weeks and having to do the dishes. “How was I supposed to know that a big gust of wind was going to blow through your window just at the moment I was shooting off the rocket?”

“And then there was the time when you wanted to jerry-rig the riding mower with plywood to make it into some sort of snowplow so you didn’t have to shovel the walks.”

“Hey, it was a good idea in theory.” Two could play this game. “And I remember the time you decided to turn the driveway into your very own ice-skating rink without telling anyone, and Dad totally wiped out on it.”

“At least I didn’t get the riding mower stuck in a snow drift. Dad was so mad.”

They could keep one-upping each other all night. “Okay. Enough. We could do this for hours, and it’s getting us nowhere.”

“True enough. But you have to realize that the inn is not only my business now, but it’s also Lane’s.”

Kent felt as though his family didn’t believe he’d grown up and could make responsible decisions. “If you don’t want me to do it, all you have to do is say so. You don’t have to throw all of my childhood mistakes in my face.”

“I’m sorry. That’s not what I was doing. I was just having some fun with you, like we used to do.” The regret rang out in her voice. “Kent, what’s the matter?”

He told his sister about his idea for the refresh service and how their parents had turned him down. He also told her that he was thinking of quitting the family business and going out on his own.

“Would you really walk away?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just that I don’t feel there’s any room for me to grow there—to make some part of the business my own. I spend all day in the office, and I don’t mind doing the financial stuff. I actually get some use out of my accounting degree. But lately I’m finding I want to do more than the paperwork.”

“And you think this refresh project is what you want to do?”

He honestly didn’t know how to answer her. “I won’t know until I give it a try.”

“What exactly do you have in mind?”

And so he laid out his idea about new paint on the walls. They discussed what color she would like and if it would tie in with the new furniture. He also told her he would reconfigure the furniture, seeing as there were more pieces and different sizes than was originally there. She also asked that he replace the runner that led from the front door to the registration desk. He didn’t see how that would be a problem. He would, however, have to order it, and he couldn’t promise that he’d have it by the time she returned to the island in two weeks’ time. She assured him that would be fine as long as the other things were complete.

“And you promise you won’t make a mess? I have the Carrington wedding in two weeks. It’s a big affair, and the inn has to be perfect for it.”

“I promise.”

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