“Oh, yeah, I can work with that. I’ll have to order it. I don’t keep big glass in stock, since it doesn’t sell often enough to be worth the shelf space. I can have it delivered to your place. Idon’t charge for local deliveries above a certain cost threshold, and the window will pass it.”
She grinned. “That would be amazing. The door stuff you have here, though?”
He nodded. “I should. I guess if you don’t like any of the doors we have in stock, you could order a different one, but we have a few options…” He moved through the store with the ease of many years’ practice, grabbing the things she’d need. When he finally rung up her purchases, she had a big bag full of things, and a door, which he helped her strap securely onto the top of her car.
She’d asked several smart questions about installing the door, ones that had made him think that she’d have better luck with this project, and potentially any ones after, than she’d experienced with the sink.
The thought was bittersweet, he found. As he bid her farewell, he almost smiled after her. Her energy was infectious. Her excitementalmostbecame his excitement. He wanted the project to go well for her. It would be good for Eleanor, and it would be good for Magnolia Shore.
But part of him couldn’t help but hope that she would have just afewmore problems. Because maybe then he’d arrive to find her on his doorstep again, seeking help or advice. Maybe she’d even ask him to come by and show her how to fix something up. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done that for half the town already. It wouldn’t be that unusual or anything.
Even if it would, he had to admit, he wanted to help out. If only because he hoped to see another one of those bright, sunshine smiles.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Diana might not have loved much about her condo, but shelovedher couch. It was a great couch, overstuffed, oversized, worn in all the right places. She had the perfect arrangement of throw pillows for lounging and reading a book or propping her feet up while she watched tv or a movie. It hadn’t been outrageously expensive, but it had been an investment, and she’d bought it at a time when her business was still new, meaning that she’d scrimped, saved, and budgeted in order to buy the couch of her dreams. She sat on it every day.
She wasn’t sitting on it now. Instead, she was sitting in the chair across from it, the one that she’d always found just the slightest bit too firm to be comfortable.
She just could not stop staring at that darn painting.
She supposed that she saw why Cadence found it beautiful. The colors were striking. But it was just too much for Diana. She felt her eye constantly drawn to the art, and not in a way she found she liked.
“Being a good friend is for the birds,” she grumbled, surging to her feet. She stood briefly on her beloved couch and hooked the painting off the wall. It simply could not stay there. Not if it was going to distract her from one of her favorite places inher home. She held it up against the far wall, testing that idea out. No, that wouldn’t work either. It would constantly catch her eye while she was trying to watch cooking shows, a hobby that relaxed her immensely. She couldn’t lose the peace she got from watching someone else make a recipe she planned to recreate later. No way.
“Where do you belong?” she muttered. “Dining room? Kitchen? No, that won’t work… and now I’m talking to a painting,” she said, dropping her head back against her shoulders.
Diana had still not come up with an answer to her question when she glanced at her watch and saw that it was time to head out. She was meeting her friends at Captain’s Crest for dinner, a fancier restaurant than what they usually frequented, but then again, tonight was a special occasion. Eleanor had told them that she was officially committed to turning the bottom floor of her house into a bookstore, so the rest of the group was taking her out to celebrate her new venture and to wish her all the luck in the world.
Plus, it was a chance to dress up, and Diana never passed up the opportunity to put on a gorgeous dress and some fun lipstick. Shedidown a boutique, after all.
She might have fussed over choosing accessories for a little bit longer than was advisable, for when she arrived at the restaurant, all her friends were already seated.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, kissing cheeks and giving hugs. “I got caught up getting fancy.”
“Well, youdolook gorgeous, darling, so we’ll forgive it this once,” Miriam said with a playful wink.
“Howterriblybenevolent of you,” Diana drawled, just as teasingly.
“All right,” Cadence said, clapping her hands together like she was calling them to order. “We’re all here. First thingsfirst. Let’s order something delicious for drinks, because we absolutelymustcelebrate Eleanor as she deserves.”
Their newest friend blushed.
“Oh, stop it,” she said, although she looked pleased. “I want to celebrate what everyone has going on, not just me.”
“In that case,” Miriam said grandly, “we will order a bottle of champagne to toast Eleanorandthe rest of us, yes?”
Eleanor squinted at the older lady, like she knew Miriam was trying to get something over on her. And knowing Miriam, that was almost certainly true.
“Fine,” Eleanor said. “But I want it on the record that I could not have gotten this far in my plans without all of you, so my success trulyisyour success.”
“Well, I’ll toast to that,” June said cheerfully. The waiter, with that kind of highly efficient service that always seemed to transpire at high-end restaurants, had already poured flutes of champagne around the table. “To friendship, to lifting one another up, and to celebrating the wins when we have them.”
“Hear, hear!” Cadence said approvingly.
Dutifully, they all reached toward the middle of the table and clinked their glasses together.
When they’d alloohed andaahed over the bubbles and had placed their orders for their dinners, they returned to their discussion about how things were going for each of them.
