Four Short Weeks Page 10

  Ida walked over and clasped Gary’s hand. “You kept so much the same. But you’ve put so much work into it. It’s beautiful. The woodwork shines. It reminds me of when we first bought the place. I was afraid you’d rip out the old worn floors and woodwork and modernize it. But the house looks lovely now.”

  “Honestly, as we got older, it was hard to keep up with everything. Part of the reason we sold it to Lillian and moved to a retirement village on the mainland to be closer to our daughters,” George added. “We do miss living on the island, though.”

  Gary smiled at both of them. “It’s a good house. Good structure. I enjoy working on it.”

  “We should head out.” George took Ida’s arm and they all headed back outside. He turned to Lillian. “This makes me feel good that you’re fixing the place up. Glad we sold it to you. I wish the best for you on using it as a guest house for the inn.”

  “Thanks, George.”

  George and Ida headed out to their car. George had Ida’s hand in his, then stopped and opened the car door for her. Ida waved as they pulled away.

  Lillian turned to Gary. “Nice couple. I do miss having them here as neighbors.”

  “But at least you got the house to use when they decided to sell.”

  “And at least I found the perfect person to fix it up for me.”

  Gary beamed with the compliment. “I’m trying my best to get it all fixed up by the wedding, exactly how you want it.”

  For the first time, she was almost disappointed the house would be ready by then. Because when the house was finished, what would Gary do? Would he head back home?

  Chapter 20

  The next week flew by in a flurry of wedding planning and Magnolia House rehab. Lillian and Gary got into a routine of having a late dinner every night at the dining room of the inn and going over everything he’d done that day. Charlotte had gone over to the house and picked out paint colors and Gary had ordered the paint they needed.

  “That’s a lot of work to do all that painting.” Lillian said as they sat after dinner one night.

  “A lot of hours, yes. And I still need to repair some woodwork and finish up the downstairs bath.”

  Robin and Sara walked up to the table. “You two still talking about Magnolia House?” Sara asked.

  “They’re always talking about Magnolia House. Unless we drag her away for wedding planning.” Robin laughed.

  “Do you need me for something for the planning?” Lillian asked.

  “No, just dropping by to say hi. We’re headed over to my bungalow to meet Charlotte,” Robin assured her. “How’s Magnolia House coming along? Haven’t been over there in over a week to see it.”

  “We were discussing painting. Charlotte picked the colors, but it’s a lot of work to paint it all.”

  “How about we have a painting party?” Sara’s eyes lit up. “This weekend. I’m sure Noah would help. We’ll ask Charlotte—she’s the best painter of all of us.”

  “We’ll let Sara roll the middle of the walls. You saw how she was when she got close to the trim when we painted the cottages for you,” Robin teased.

  “Hey.” Sara grinned. “Okay, that might be the truth. But I’ll help where I can.”

  “You’re all so busy. I can’t ask you to do that.”

  “You didn’t ask, we offered,” Robin insisted. “I bet we can talk Jay into helping, too, if he can get away from the kitchen.”

  “Like if he’d ever give the new assistant cook we hired more responsibility?” Lillian shook her head.

  “Yes, just like that.” A wide grin overtook Robin’s face and she shrugged. “Though I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen.”

  “If we can get the house painted this weekend, for sure I can have it finished by the wedding.” Gary nodded his head decisively. “That’s the one part I was worried about getting finished in time.”

  “Perfect. I’m going to set it all up. Saturday at nine in the morning.” Sara grabbed Robin’s hand. “Let’s go tell Charlotte and make some phone calls.”

  The two women hurried away and Lil looked at Gary. “I hate for all of them to give up their weekend.”

  “Doesn’t seem like they mind.”

  “I guess not.” Lillian sat back, pleased that things were coming together and Magnolia House would soon be finished.

  The only bad part about that? The time was quickly approaching where Gary’s job would be finished, too. And once again she wondered, and then what?

  She looked across the table as he concentrated on making a note on the pad of paper beside his plate. Always organizing, always making lists. He glanced up and caught her watching him and smiled.

  She’d miss their nightly dinners, talking to him… and that smile. The one that made her heart flutter and her pulse race.

  Soon, all of that would be over when he finished his job.

  Chapter 21

  Lillian looked around at the crowd at Magnolia House that weekend. Charlotte and Ben were chatting away and painting the front room. Gary was up on a ladder painting ceilings a bright, crisp white, covering up the dingy yellowed color. Robin and Sara were painting the kitchen with Robin in charge of cutting in around the cabinets and windows. Noah had claimed he would do the bathrooms and headed off to do both the downstairs and upstairs baths. She helped wherever she was needed, bringing more paint, moving drop cloths, and painting the window frames and sills.

  Robin had brought along a speaker, and music spilled through the rooms along with laughter.

  Her heart swelled with gratitude and love for these people she cared so deeply for. And Gary, though of course, she didn’t care about him in the same way.

  But she did care about Gary, didn’t she? She frowned slightly. She did care about him.

  When had that happened?

  Or was she just now admitting that to herself?

  Jay walked in carrying a large box and broke her thoughts. “I thought I’d bring lunch over.”

  Robin turned and smiled at him. Lillian didn’t miss the special smile Jay gave Robin in return.

  “I’m famished. You’re just in time.” Sara put down her paintbrush and called out to the others. “Hey, Jay brought food. Come and get it.”

  Everyone poured into the kitchen and grabbed sandwiches and sodas, then piled out on the deck and sat on chairs and the long bench Gary had built along the railing.

  “Looks like we’ll have most of the painting finished today with all the help you’ve gotten.” Gary sat beside her on the bench with Lucky at his feet. “I should be able to finish up what’s left.”

  “I’m so grateful to all of them for the help.”

  “You’ve got a lot of great friends.” An easy smile played at the corners of his mouth.

  “I do. I’m very lucky.”

  Lucky looked up at her and wagged his tail at hearing the word lucky. She and Gary laughed.

  “Look, he knows his name,” Gary said. He reached down and petted the dog.

  Everyone finished their lunch and then went back to work. By five or so everyone had headed out and she sat outside with Gary sipping sweet tea, glad to be off her feet.

  “That was a long day.” She let out a long sigh and kicked off her shoes.

  “We got a lot of work done.”

  “That we did.” She took a sip of her drink. “Are you hungry? We could go to the inn for dinner.”

  “There are some left-over sandwiches from all the food Jay brought. I think I’ll just grab one of those in a bit. I want to get some more work done this evening.”

  Disappointment flitted through her that he’d turned her down, but that was silly because she’d spent the whole day with him. She finished her tea and stood. “I should head home and let you get back to work then.”

  He stood and took her glass. She grabbed her shoes. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  He nodded. She turned and headed down the stairs to the beach, not wanting to leave but not wanting to keep him from his work. She turned
for one last look and he stood on the deck with Lucky right by his side. He waved, and she turned and headed back to the inn. She should probably help with the dinner rush anyway, though what she truly wanted to do was spend all the time she could with Gary before he finished the job.

  Charlotte and Ben headed to the Lady Belle after leaving Magnolia House. They climbed aboard and Ben opened a bottle of wine. She sliced up cheese and apples and they went outside to sit and enjoy the evening breeze. They sat on the seats on the stern and she propped her feet up, glad to finally be sitting down.

  A marina worker came hurrying up to the boat. “Ben? You got a minute? We have a mess-up on an order. The customer is here and angry. He wants to speak to you.”

  Ben sighed and rose. “I’ll be back.” He climbed off the boat.

  She sat and sipped her wine for a while until she got a bit chilled. She wandered inside to Ben’s cabin and opened his drawers in search of a sweater to wear. She rooted around in the top drawer and took out a gray sweater and shrugged it on. As she started to close the drawer, a small gold box caught her eye. She reached for it and opened it. A gasp wrenched from her lips. A sparkly diamond set in a simple gold setting rested in the box.

  “What are you doing?” Ben’s voice caused her to whirl around.

  She stood there holding the ring box while guilt swirled through her. “I—I was cold. I came in here to borrow one of your sweaters. I didn’t mean—I—”

  He stepped into the cabin and took the ring box from her. “Well, this sure isn’t the way I planned it.” A rueful look crossed his face. “I got this a while ago, but I was going to wait and ask you after Sara and Noah’s wedding. So it would be more special or not take away from either your engagement or Sara’s wedding. I mean if I had asked you and if you’d said yes.”

  Her heart pounded in her chest so hard she could barely move and she semi-realized she was holding her breath.

  “But now that you found the ring…” He dropped to one knee. “Charlotte Duncan. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

  She didn’t even pause. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.” Tears trailed down her cheeks.

  He stood and slipped the ring on her finger and took her into his arms, holding her close. “I do love you, Charlotte.”

  “And I love you, Ben Hallet.”

  He kissed her gently then laughed. “This was definitely not how I’d planned to ask you. I had this whole romantic day planned so it would be really special.”

  “But I ruined it by finding the ring.”

  “You didn’t ruin anything.” He hugged her. “You said yes. That’s all I wanted.”

  “And you asked me to marry you. That’s all I wanted.” She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head against his chest. His heart beat in rhythm with her own, connecting them as if they were two parts of one being. His hand slowly trailed up her back, and she basked in the perfect moment.

  Chapter 22

  The next evening Gary got cleaned up and dressed into nicer shorts and a collared shirt. Lillian had finally insisted on making good on her offer of a home-cooked meal. He didn’t know how she’d made the time to do it, but he was all for home cooking. Not that Jay’s meals at the dining room weren’t great. But it would be nice to be alone with Lillian instead of in a room filled with diners. She’d also promised they wouldn’t talk work the whole time.

  He sat down at the table and quickly checked his email. A brief message from Mel said he was making some progress and might have found a clue to where Brian had gone. That was good news. He hoped this lead panned out. He shut the laptop and stood.

  His phone rang and he quickly answered it.

  “Dad, hey, how are you?”

  “Mason, good to hear from you. Everything going okay back there in Seattle?”

  “Yes… but I wanted to let you know that the insurance company settled. A large settlement.”

  “Good, it was the right thing to do.”

  “Our liability premiums are going to shoot through the roof.”

  “Can’t be helped at this point.”

  “Oh, Dad, that’s Gelco company on my other line. Gotta get it. Just wanted to let you know about the settlement.”

  The line went dead and he clicked off the phone and sighed. He was glad the insurance company had settled for a large amount, though it did little to assuage his guilt.

  Lucky looked up from where he was resting near the doorway and came over to him as if the dog could sense his unrest. He leaned down and petted him. He’d taken the dog to the vet this morning and no chip had been found. He’d bought the dog a collar and tag with Lucky engraved on it. After debating, he’d added his own cellphone number, not that he really considered Lucky his dog.

  Suddenly he needed to get out of here and into the fresh air. He’d just walk slowly so he wasn’t too early. “Lucky, you want to go see Lillian?” The dog walked to the door, wagging his tail. “I guess that’s a yes.”

  They headed over to The Nest and Lucky trotted up the deck stairs as if he owned the place.

  “Lillian, you here?” he called through the screen door.

  “Come on in.”

  He and Lucky found her in the kitchen. Her face was flushed—adorably so—and she had on a teal apron covering her simple sundress. Her feet were bare, of course. He’d noticed she took every opportunity to have bare feet. She looked so at home and relaxed in her kitchen.

  “Smells good.”

  “Chicken dish, green beans simmered for hours in onion and bacon, and homemade bread. I love to make bread. Don’t know why I don’t do it more often. Oh, and a pie. Peach.”

  “That all sounds fabulous.”

  “It needs about thirty more minutes. Want to go sit outside? I made some sweet tea if you’d like some.”

  “That sounds good.”

  He followed her outside, and they sat on the loveseat. Lucky roamed around the deck until he settled at their feet.

  “I hope cooking this meal didn’t cut into your day too much. I know your days are busy.”

  “They are, but this was a welcome break. I sometimes forget how much joy cooking brings me. But I did squeeze in some work at the kitchen table while the pie was baking.”

  “I finished up the plumbing repairs in the downstairs bath today. New faucet and it no longer drips.”

  “Glad you got it finished.” She tilted her head. “But we’re not going to talk business all night, remember?”

  He laughed. “I remember. So what do you want to talk about?”

  “I see Lucky has a collar and tag now. So he’s officially yours?”

  “No, not officially, but he didn’t have a chip. Someone might still claim him. I just… well, if he gets lost and can’t find my house, it has my number on it so someone can call me.” Though he realized he wouldn’t be there much longer, and it wasn’t his house.

  The thought of leaving the island and leaving Lillian didn’t thrill him any. He’d gotten used to his life here on Belle Island. Enjoyed working with his hands. Enjoyed his nightly dinners with Lillian.

  And it seemed easier to hide from his past here than in Seattle…

  “You got quiet. What are you thinking about?” Lillian interrupted his thoughts.

  “I—” He wasn’t going to tell her about Seattle and the mess he left there, that’s for sure. He settled on, “About how much I like the island. And this job. And…” He took a deep breath. “And how much I really enjoy spending time with you, Lillian Charm.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise at his candor. “I enjoy our time together, too.”

  He turned sideways in the seat and reached out and touched her jaw, trailing his finger along it, then cradling her face in his hand. She pressed her hand against his. He leaned close, so close he could feel her breath. Her eyes closed and with one last battle against any of his hesitation, he kissed her.

  A gentle kiss, tentative. She kissed him back, her hands coming to rest on
his shoulders. He deepened the kiss, then slowly pulled back.

  A sigh escaped her lips and a smile spread across his face at the sound.

  “That was… nice.” And the totally-in-charge, self-confident woman looked at him almost shyly.

  “It was. It was very nice.”

  He sat back and took her hand in his, enjoying the smooth feel of her skin against the rough skin of his own. She leaned close against him and they sat silently watching the waves.

  All through dinner Lillian had to concentrate on their conversation. Concentrate on his words. Concentrate on eating, one bite at a time.

  Her thoughts kept floating back to the kiss. The very nice kiss. The unexpected kiss.

  Though had she expected it? Her cheeks flushed at the memory of it…

  … and the thought she wanted another one.

  “This pie is delicious.” Gary’s words interrupted her thoughts of the kiss and hopes for another one.

  “Thank you.”

  “How about I help you clear the dishes and if it’s not too late, we’ll go sit outside for a bit?” Gary asked.

  “That would be nice.”

  Very nice. Maybe he’d kiss her again.

  They cleared up the dishes and headed outside. Lucky looked up from where he was dozing by the railing, then closed his eyes again.

  Gary turned her slowly to him and took her in his arms, pulling her close. “You are the best thing to happen to me in a long time,” he whispered in her ear.

  He placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face up to his, then kissed her again, exactly what she wanted. Her heart pounded in her chest and she clutched at his shirt as he pulled her even closer. He finally let her go and she wanted to demand he kiss her again. He must have read her mind because he did kiss her again. Then once more.

  Contentment mixed with a restlessness flowed through her. A very strange combination.

  He finally let out a little laugh. “We should go sit down… or I’ll just stand here all night kissing you.”