“Hmm.” She came up beside me. “Interesting. More interactive.”
“And the other side of the bar could be another TV so you could watch movies on a big sectional.”
“Yeah, that could work.”
“Speaking of sectional.” I pulled out a card from the pocket at the back of my phone case. “Since time is a factor and it keeps me working on the structure and making sure the building supplies are in order, I thought you might want to talk to a designer.”
Her face went blank.
“Macy worked with her. She helped with the café and The Haunt and her apartment before Macy did the whole Gideon and house deal.”
She took the card. “Dahlia McKenna.”
“Yeah. It’s up to you, of course, but you seem as busy as I am. Thought you might want help. I called her to see if she had any room for a new project, and she said a big job just fell through. She had put aside a lot of time for it.” I stuffed my hands back in my pockets. “So, if you wanted to talk to her…”
“Wow.” She tapped her nail against the top of the card.
“I don’t want to overstep, but you have some stuff to cover in the house too.”
“I sure do.” She slipped the card in her back pocket. “Thanks. That’s really thoughtful.” She frowned just before pulling a pair of sunglasses out of her inner jacket pocket and slipping them on.
I wasn’t sure if I should be offended or bask in the idea that I might have impressed her. Tough call.
“I’ll get out of your hair.” She took one last twirl before she strode out into the sunshine. Before I could trail after her, I heard the bleat of her Triumph engine.
My thigh vibrated again. I pulled out my phone.
Luna will haunt you if that bonfire doesn’t happen.
It’s gonna happen. Trust me.
We’ll see.
I laughed and stuffed my phone back in my pocket. I followed the sound of clacking and found the guys using the handles of the rakes as weapons again.
“Come on, guys, enough with the Star Wars fantasies, yeah?”
Win set the rake down into the stones. “Witcher is far cooler.”
I laughed. “Well, that’s true. Let’s get this done. I’ll treat you to a pie at Robbie’s if we can finish before four.”
Stone twirled his rake, then headed down to the end of the beach. “I’ll meet you in the middle.”
I headed for the haphazard pile of pallet shrapnel and got to work on setting up the perfect spot for a bonfire on the beach.
My Ruby could try being impressed with me twice in one day on for size.
Eight
The sun was just shy of setting as I turned into my drive. A Zoom meeting with a client in California had run long. I had about eleven text messages on my phone right now. Literally a record since I chitchatted with…no one.
Ever.
Now I had Luna, Lucky, and some chick named Ryan—whom I didn’t even know—blowing up my phone like I lived for small talk. Even my one-word replies didn’t seem to put them off. Actually, even more texts flooded my phone in response so that it was constantly pinging with annoying tones. The button on the side had gotten jammed from my repeated pressing to make it stop, so now I couldn’t even turn it to silent.
My jacket pocket buzzed again. Maybe I should just toss the stupid thing into the lake.
I turned off my engine and coasted silently down the drive. I didn’t want them to know I was there yet. Not that they could hear me over the ginormous speakers of Lucky’s truck.