Page 26 of Until Forever

Lana rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. It’s just for the back wall behind the front counter. There’s a giant white sign going in the middle that will brighten it up. This was all in the design brief. Didn’t you look at it?”

“Apparently not closely enough,” I frowned.

“Shocker.”

Melody interjected with an awkward laugh. “I’m Melody, by the way. You must be Lana. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“If you heard it all from these two, I’m sure it was nothing good,” she smiled tightly before going over to the work table to grab a large black portfolio. She came back and spread it out on the floor in front of us just to prove she was right. It was all printed in there, plain as day.

I blinked, staring at the design in disbelief. “I don’t remember agreeing to this. Granddaddy’s place was done up in blues, reds, and browns. Since when did we change it? This is all in black and white. There’s not a thing about it that says ‘lake’ or ‘boats’ or ‘fishing’.”

Lana started pointing forcefully at the page. “You mean aside from the giant sign that says ‘marina’ or all the fish-shaped artwork and literal boat oars that will be hanging everywhere?”

“Maybe since they’re all washed out in black and white, I failed to notice ‘em,” I huffed. “Which will be the exact feelings of everyone who walks in here.”

She looked over to Derek and Melody. “Well, what do you two think?”

Derek looked to Melody for her opinion first.

“I think it looks great!” she beamed. “It’s so fresh and modern!”

“Exactly.” A satisfied smile spread across Lana’s face. “It is fresh and modern. And we’ll actually be reusing a lot of the old decor. We’ll just be repainting it to make it a little more contemporary.”

“Contemporary?” I sneered. “It’s a marina, not a damn art gallery.”

“Black and white is timeless,” Lana defended. “Don’t you want your grandfather’s legacy to be timeless? Look, let’s just start with the white walls first, and we’ll ease you into the black. I promise you, you’ll like it when it all comes together.”

As much as I wanted to put my foot down about it, white was an easy color to paint over if it came down to it. And it was too hot to stand around all day arguing about it.

Melody and Derek hung around for a little while to help with the first coat, then headed off to lunch. Lana and I stopped painting and sat in the corner of the room, on the floor with our backs against the wall, eating sandwiches while observing all we had finished so far.

“Is it growing on you yet?” she asked after a few moments of silence.

“The white? Maybe. But please don’t paint the first wall people see when they come in the door black.”

“It’s gray,” she argued.

“Dark gray. Very dark gray. As in, you could’ve fooled me—it looks black.”

She groaned and rolled her head back against the wall. “If you change the color of the main wall to anything else, it will throw off the whole design. Do you really think you know better than the very expensive designer I hired for this?”

“I wouldn’t have thought so, but it’s starting to shape up to look that way,” I grumbled.

“You can take it up with the designer yourself when she comes by later. For now, let’s just get back to work.” She let out an aching grunt as she peeled herself up from the floor.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it as we started painting again. She had a good point that if we weren’t going with the black, I needed to have a good idea of what we could do instead. Something more convincing than “anything but black.” I was having a hard time imagining what the perfect color would be until something about Lana caught my attention.

She wasn’t paying me any mind. She was too busy dragging the long roller through a tray of paint and then smoothing it over the wall. But her blue eyes glimmered in the light shining through the window behind her, giving me an idea.

“I’ve got it,” I told her.

She barely looked up to me at first. “Got what?”

“The wall. I know exactly what color it should be.”

This time, she noticed how intent I looked and slowly lowered the roller in her hands. “Oh, I’m sure this will be good,” she said sarcastically. “Go on.”

I stepped closer, staring deep into her eyes. “Light blue. Crystal light blue. Like the color of your eyes.”

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