Maybe I do need to call Henry back about sending meanother wire. I’ll have to fly to New York to pick out the perfect ring. And I’ll need to consult Cheri.
My cousin is looking at me now, tears welling up in her eyes. She laughs, wiping them away. Amelia is digging in the sand, oblivious to the shift happening between the adults right now.
“Well, in that case, what were we so worried about?” Summer leans back into me.
January throws her hands up. “Beats me. Guilt is a waste of precious time. Live your life, sugar puss.”
chapter thirty-eight
Summer
three weeks later
“These are pretty, but I feel like white barstools are so impractical.”
Frank’s wife, Janice, nods. “You can get stain-resistant fabric, but if someone with kids buys it, it’ll be impossible to keep them true white. Let me make a note to see what other fabrics are in stock.”
I flip the page of the design book. “Wow.”
A giant, double bed-sized porch swing fills the page. It has a mattress on it, a stack of plush pillows, and it’s hanging from the back porch ceiling in the photo. I immediately picture a cute family lounging and swaying on it for an entire Sunday afternoon.
The price next to it says five thousand dollars.
“That one is well made. Every client I’ve sold it to has told me it was worth every penny.”
There would be plenty of room for it on the porch, but I can’t justify the cost, knowing we’re selling the house.
Silvie turns from staring out the back door and walks over to where we’re standing at the marble kitchen island.
“You’re so talented. I can’t believe how good this place looks after the dump it was before.”
I look, peering around the house and trying to picture how it looked before. It was falling apart, with rotted wood and water-damaged floors from the roof leak. It was already halfway demolished when I saw it.
Now, the ten-foot ceiling that stretches from the kitchen into the living room has thick natural wood beams and rattan pendants, shaped like teardrops, over the island. The living room is empty right now, except for a slowly spinning fan.
The walls are a warm white, and the wood flooring that was meticulously restored and kept covered has been scrubbed clean. It’s my favorite part of the entire renovation. I mixed the stain color myself, trying different ones together until I found the perfect warm coastal beige color.
The windows were all replaced with black-framed casement-style windows that crank open with a lever, except for one. In the kitchen over the sink, we were able to salvage the original stained-glass window that depicts the Sunrise Beach lighthouse by the ocean with a sunrise in the background. January said it was designed by an artist years ago and gifted to the original owner.
The pale yellow color I chose for the upper cabinets is the same shade as one of the sunbeams in the stained-glass window. Half of the upper cabinets were replaced with open shelves, except for one wall, where we used the same wood stain as the beams and had an eight-foot-tall cabinet built for storage.
Throughout the bathrooms, I chose a range of tile designs. The half bath in the hallway near the study is the boldest. I chose a colorful wallpaper with pink and red cranes and a deep crimson for the vanity. The oval gold-framed mirror was so heavy that it had to be double-anchored into the wall.
Dayton’s favorite room is the office right off the foyer. I had custom acacia wood bookshelves designed that stretch from the floor to the ceiling. The arched window overlooking the garden has a hydrangea flower bed outside of it and an original stone bird fountain with a bench.
He and Cal are walking down the hallway from the direction of the foyer, Dayton’s voice echoing through the empty house.
“… big solid desk and cognac leather chairs.”
“Just add a box of cigars and a crystal decanter, and you’ll be set,” Cal says.
Dayton grins, nodding. He walks over to me and looks over my shoulder at the catalog.
“We have to get that.” He points at the swing.
I laugh, shaking my head as I turn the page. “Where’s the budget police I had to sweet-talk the last six months?”
He nuzzles my neck, inhaling. The sliding back door opens, and January walks in with Birdie on her heels.