“Fixed. It was nothing for a pro like me,” he says. “I’m working on helping Dave with the appliances now.”
“Cool. Let me take a—”
“Nope!” Winnie blocks my path. “Pretend it’s a design show on HGTV and you don’t get to see it until the final reveal now.”
“But I’m not the client. You’re the client,” I remind her.
She winks at me with a sassy little smile on her face. “Role-play. You’ve got a wild side, Holden. Aren’t you into role-play? I’m your naughty little contractor and you’re my sexy…sick client.”
I laugh, but it just makes my muscles start to ache again. “You wait until I’m healthy, Winona, and then we’ll see how you feel about role-play.”
“You aren’t going to get healthy if you keep disobeying doctor’s orders,” she says in her favorite snarky tone and points her paintbrush at me. “Back to bed. I will be in at lunch with an update. I ordered and Cat’s delivering.”
I’m instantly sad at the thought of missing out on lobster rolls. “Fine, fine,” I grumble and leave the cottage.
Almost two hours later at a little before one in the afternoon, I’m dozing on the bed when there’s a knock at the trailer. Winnie’s pretty face appears in the open door. “Hi you. How you doing?”
“Not great but better than yesterday,” I reply and pull myself up to a sitting position.
She walks up and into the trailer but doesn’t close the door behind her and then I see someone else—Cat. She’s frowning but holding a brown paper bag. “Winnie, my ex lifelong friend, ordered lunch for the crew and included a lobster roll and lobster bisque for you.”
“Which you wouldn’t have made if you knew it was for me,” I say and she nods.
As soon as Cat is fully in the trailer Winnie takes a subtle step back toward the door. I get off the bed and grab the necklace out of the night table. “Well, how about you give me the soup and sandwich and I give you this.”
I hold out my hand and let the pearls dangle. Cat stares at it, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Behind her Winnie slips out of the trailer. Cat doesn’t notice as she puts the paper bag down on the kitchen counter and reaches out for the necklace. “You bought me a new pearl necklace?”
“No. I found your grandmother’s,” I reply, and she looks absolutely baffled. “It wasn’t fenced. It was given to someone. I just had to track that person down, and luckily they still had it and were willing to give it back.”
“It can’t be the same…” She lifts it up to examine it in the light streaming in through the windows. She fiddles with the clasp. “Holy shit! It has her initials engraved on it. It’s actually hers!”
Her face lights up and tears swim in her eyes as she looks at me. “I can’t believe you found it!”
“I meant it when I told you I would change things if I could,” I say and shrug. “So I found a way to change things.”
The next thing I know she’s hugging me. “Thank you.”
“Cat, I have the flu. You might want to stay away,” I warn.
“I got a flu shot,” Cat explains and squeezes me harder. “I’m not a dummy like you.”
I laugh as Winnie appears in the doorway again, sees the hug and smiles. “Everything okay in here? Is he getting his soup and roll or do I need to share mine?”
“He gets whatever he wants,” Cat declares and lets go of me to turn to Winnie and hug her. “You were right about him.”
My heart swells and I feel a wave of relief.
We all eat lunch together on the porch, and by the time it’s over, I’m feeling wiped out again. God, this sucks. I have no choice but to go back to the trailer and sleep. When I wake up again the sun is setting and the trailer is almost dark. I feel better, but I know I’m not one hundred percent. I’m, like, fifty, tops.
I hear Winnie talking and then Kidd’s voice. Neither sound angry, although I can’t make out what they’re saying. I start to sit up just as an engine roars to life. Winnie opens the door and steps inside. She walks right over to the bed and flops down on it face first. “I’m so exhausted,” she mumbles into the pillow.
I rub her back. “How’d it go? Was Kidd a jerk at all because if he was…”
“No,” she murmurs and slowly rolls over. She looks exactly the way she says she feels—exhausted. She has flecks of paint in her hair and on her cheeks. “He was…decent. He worked pretty hard actually, and guess what? It’s all done.”
“All of it?”
She nods and her eyes start to droop as she yawns. “Well, except putting everything back like the dishes and artwork and crap. I wanted you to approve things first. You are the boss.”
