“The comforters and accessories are being delivered first thing tomorrow,” Maddie said.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Jules said. “Dex is going to paint those two rooms. Rose messaged me that he volunteered.”
The motel rooms had vintage grass-cloth wallpaper on one wall and paint on the others. They all needed a paint refresh with modern colors, but there wasn’t time to do all of them before the guests came. Two of the rooms, though, had peeling wallpaper, so it was a must that they redo them right away.
“Dex? How much will that cost?” Maddie asked.
“Rose said he’s doing it for free, part of volunteering for the town.”
Gina turned around in time to see Jules cast a knowing look in Maddie’s direction. Maddie was frowning as she looked at her list.
Gina had noticed Maddie and Dex had a certain chemistry. Maddie seemed intent on denying that. Gina wasn’t sure why. Maybe her cousin had had a bad experience in the past like Gina had with Hugh. But Dex seemed nice, even though he was one of those charmers who usually ended up breaking girls’s hearts. Maybe Maddie had had her heart broken one too many times already.
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. Doesn’t it take a while for the paint to dry?” Maddie asked. “We only have a couple of days before guests check in.”
“It’s latex paint, so we can get two coats up in eight hours. Dex is bringing a friend, so it should be no problem,” Jules said.
Gina slipped in between two storage shelves while Maddie considered the paint situation. She didn’t have an opinion and needed some more items to make her space cozy. She spotted a cute, round white side table with turned legs behind some boxes and pulled it out.
“I guess that will be okay,” Maddie said finally as Gina emerged from behind the shelves and placed the table beside the bed.
It would be perfect to hold a glass of water and a book at night. She stood back to assess then moved it a few inches back toward the wall.
“Looks good.” Jules seemed as surprised at herself for voicing the compliment as Gina was to hear it.
“Thanks.” Gina glanced at her cousin, and she felt a truce starting to form. Did she want a truce? She would think about that later. Right then, she needed a lamp for that side table.
“So I was thinking we’ll lay all the accessories out in one spot then do the rooms one at a time. I think that will make it go faster,” Maddie said as Gina rummaged the shelves and boxes.
“Okay,” Jules said. “We can work on the ones that aren’t being painted, then by the time the painted rooms are ready, we’ll know exactly where to put everything.”
They’d decided earlier to rearrange the rooms, as they put on the new bedding and pillows, so that each room was a little different. Gina was looking forward to that. In her staging role for their real estate company, she’d developed a knack for figuring out where to place furniture and accessories, and it would be a nice challenge to figure out how to make each room slightly different.
She already had some ideas for bed placement and bureaus. It felt good to be doing something creative and productive—she’d spent too many years having other people do those things for her. She let her cousins make the plans as she poked through the boxes. There was a lot of stuff in there. Some of it brought up sweet memories of Gram. One old, tall cardboard box held a seahorse-shaped lamp that would be perfect for her bedside table.
She struggled to pull the lamp out, careful not to break it. Backing out from the space between two shelves, she heard Maddie say, “And you guys can work together on arranging the rooms while I get the plants for the porch from Lorna. She said she’d give us some.”
Wait. Work together? Gina glanced at Jules, who looked as uncomfortable as she felt.
“We can split up the rooms,” Jules suggested.
“Good idea.” Gina put the lamp on the table. It looked perfect.
“Oh, I don’t know if that will work,” Maddie said. “It’s going to take two people to rearrange the furniture. I was picturing that you could work together. You have different strengths in decorating that complement each other and will make a great team. Now won’t that be fun?”
Gina turned to stare at Maddie. Surely she couldn’t be serious. She knew about the deep rift between Gina and Jules. But the gleam in her cousin’s eyes told Gina she was indeed serious. Maddie was up to something, and Gina doubted it was going to end up the way Maddie envisioned.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jules awoke bright and early the next morning feeling optimistic. Perhaps she’d caught it from sharing the room with Maddie. They’d fallen asleep early, exhausted from the day of planning, moving, and working on the exterior painting project, which was almost done.
Maddie had arisen about a half hour ago. She’d thrown open the window, letting sunshine and sea air spill into the room, then rushed off to the kitchen, mumbling something about coffee.
Jules kicked the covers off and got out of bed. There was a lot to do that day, so she didn’t waste any time, throwing on the T-shirt she’d worn the day before and bunching her hair into a ponytail before giving her teeth a quick brush and heading to the motel kitchen in the hopes that Maddie had mastered the ancient coffee machine. It wasn’t as good as the coffee from Ocean Brew, but they didn’t have time to run into town, so it would have to do.
She ran into Dex on the way over. He was carrying a tray of coffees from Ocean Brew.
“Good coffee saves the day!” Jules took the container he offered. “Thanks.”
