Page 29 of A Chance Love

April read over the instructions as Georgia began to pull out the light pieces. They sat on the clean floor of the first bedroom and stared at all of it. “What do you think goes first?” Georgia asked.

“I think we put the blades on the fan part and then all we have to do from there is install it and hook it up to the lighting up there.”

They stared at the hole in the ceiling where they would need to center the entire fan. April began to regret their decision to do this themselves. It would be hard work, but it would save money in the long run, she had to keep reminding herself.

Georgia worked hard on getting the parts together as April read over the same four steps in the instruction manual. “I think if I stand on the stool and we carefully lift it together, then we just center it and I’ll hold it while you screw it all in.”

“We’re going to need two stools, then.” She went off to grab them from the living room as April continued to stare at the same pages. She didn’t want to get this wrong. If the fan pulled down their entire ceiling, she was going to have so many more problems than just a missing light in a bedroom.

When Georgia came back with the stools, she started to question the decision even more. A lump grew in her throat. “I’m so nervous.”

“What? Why? We’re just following the instructions. If we do that, nothing can go wrong.”

She appreciated her daughter’s confidence, but a lot of things could go wrong. “If you say so,” April said, shrugging.

“Okay, so I’ll grab the screws and the drill and help you carry it up.”

And that’s exactly what they did. Georgia grabbed the tools and hardware as April focused on lifting the light. As they held it up to the hole, April searched for the lighting attachments and worked to get them all connected. “Okay! The light is attached; now we just have to screw in the fan!”

It was all coming together easier than April thought. She wondered why she’d ever paid anyone to do things like this before. At one point, she was paying people to come in and change her light bulbs if they were too high up. Now she was installing her own ceiling fan.

“That’s the last of them,” Georgia said as the drill came to a stop. “We actually did it!”

April and her daughter climbed off the stools and jumped up and down together. “We did! You were so confident before! I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She shrugged. “Ah, Mom, I bet you could’ve. You just needed a boost. I was nervous, too. But we finally did it.”

Satisfaction ran through her more than it ever did at her old job. The law firm never felt like this. She was never doing something with her own hands, excited to finally accomplish something.

“I’ll get the box for the next room and you bring the stools there,” she told Georgia after they finished celebrating.

As she grabbed another box full of the necessary parts, a moving shadow caught her attention out the back window. It moved so fast, she thought she imagined it. Until it happened again.

She walked out the front doors, to the back of the property. And there was the brown horse she’d seen on the first day, prancing through the field. For a moment, she thought about running inside and grabbing more of the crackers she’d given to it on her first day.

But it was having too much fun, bucking through the fields. It wasn’t the time to disturb such a pretty creature.

Something about the day must have had an effect on the animals, because as the horse pranced, two squirrels ran around the trunks of a tree far across the field. Then a small fox wandered through the same trees and jumped at the squirrels. It was too slow to reach them, but it continued on as if nothing had happened.

April took a deep breath in the fresh air. It was out of a dream. She could pretend like the work on the house didn’t exist for a moment. Everything she needed was out here. It was beautiful. Perfect in its own way.

Her eyes slowly closed. The wind gently slid under her sleeves, a chill trickling up her back only to be warmed by her shirt again.

“Mom! This one didn’t come with screws! Can you run and get some?”

And she was woken up from the dream, forcing herself to crash back into reality.

Nature drifted away and responsibility weighed heavy on her shoulders. April sighed. She would come back to the heart of the island, the animals that ran wild. It would just have to be after she was done.

Because she was going to finish this place if it was the last thing she did.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

April stepped through the aisles of the hardware store searching for screws that matched the one in her hand. “Henry, can you help me out?” she called out to the worker in the same aisle.

He was old enough to retire, but hadn’t wanted to. April knew all about his work life up until now. Henry told it in pieces as he checked her out each time she showed up with a new problem he could fix.

“You’re looking for the longer ones, see?” He pointed to the difference between the two in her hand. “So that means you need to check up here.”

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