Storm Warning. Linda Hall

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      The fire was already warming up the place and it felt good. She got a tin of coffee from her pantry, measured fresh grounds into her coffeepot, poured water into the reservoir and switched it on. He said nothing while she did this, and she didn’t know whether she should be talking or not. He seemed to be a quiet man, a nice man, but the silence was beginning to make her uncomfortable. She began talking, her back still to him. “I want to start with this kitchen. Since I plan to live here, this is where I want to begin—”

      “For the summer?”

      She turned around to face him. “Excuse me?”

      “You plan to live here for the summer?”

      “Year-round,” she said.

      “Year-round?”

      “Yes, year-round. This lodge is fully winterized. Maybe not the cabins, but the lodge, certainly. The real estate agent told me the road is plowed regularly. And the place is quiet. That’s what I’m looking for. A quiet place to live year-round.” A place to call home, she wanted to add.

      Steve said, “He told you they plow the road?”

      “Yes. He did.”

      “Well, I don’t know where he gets his information….”

      “I’ll hire someone then,” she said quickly, turning away, her face becoming hot.

      A few moments later he said, “Pretty isolated out here.”

      “I’ll manage.”

      “I’m sure you will. You strike me as a strong woman.”

      Thankfully her back was still to him. She didn’t know what her face would reveal with that comment.

      As she got a couple of mugs from the counter, she heard a loud crash behind her. She jumped and turned, put a hand to her mouth.

      “The chair,” he said rather sheepishly. “I’m sorry.”

      Steve was on his backside on the floor, his left leg caught in a broken chair leg, his right stuck out in front of him. He had sat on a wooden rocking chair and gone right through it. It was a chair that had been here when she moved in.

      She put a hand to her mouth and started to giggle. She couldn’t help it. He managed to disentangle himself and hoist himself up. He was laughing, too.

      She said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. Are you okay?”

      “Only my dignity is tarnished,” he said, rising. “And this chair. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength.”

      “I should’ve told you that chair might be questionable,” she said. “I brought it in here because I was trying to figure out what to do with it. You didn’t break anything that wasn’t broken before.”

      He picked up the broken front leg and ran his hands over it quietly for a while. Finally, he said, “Can I take the pieces of this chair with me? I might be able to do something with it.”

      “Be my guest. I wasn’t sure it was worth fixing. It’s kind of plain.”

      “This chair? This is a great old chair. It looks like an antique Shaker rocking chair. Their chairs were plain because their lifestyle was plain. I’d love the chance to be able to work on it.”

      “You sure know your chairs,” Nori said, pouring coffee into two mugs.

      “I love carpentry.”

      They sat down at the table across from each other and she spread out her lists and Internet printouts on the table in front of her.

      “I’ve looked at some new cupboards online and found out that a company can deliver them from Bangor. I’ll just need someone to bring them out here and install them. Can you do that?” From her stack of papers and home repair and decorating books, she unearthed pictures she had printed from the Web of the kitchen cupboards she was looking at.

      He picked up her printed sheet and looked at it for several minutes, frowning before he put it back down on the table. “You don’t want those things. They’re factory mass-produced. Not for this grand old place. I’m a cabinetmaker. I could make you cupboards. Nice ones. From scratch.”

      “Great. Okay, well.” She felt a jittery jangle of nerves. She knew the price of handcrafted cupboards. Her budget only had so much in it. “But we’ll need to talk price.” She added quickly, “I also have to order new appliances—dishwasher, fridge, stove, one with two ovens and a separate warming oven. And I’ve got my budget down to the penny.”

      “What’s wrong with that stove?” Steve pointed at the stove up against the wall.

      She stared at him. “That’s a wood stove.”

      “Yeah? So? It’s a classic.”

      “I know it’s a classic. And it’ll stay there. I just don’t think I’ll be using it to actually cook things.”

      “No,” he said. “You gotta use it. It’ll really warm up the place, too.”

      “Well, even if I use that as a stove, I still want a new, proper, energy-efficient oven. And dishwasher. This washing dishes by hand is for the birds.”

      Before she had even finished talking Steve was up and examining the cupboard next to the sink. It was empty inside. He closed it, opened it again. She watched in silence while he ran his fingers over the wood as if reading Braille.

      He turned. “I can fix you up with brand-new cupboards. We can look at woods. I would recommend something dark. I think that would fit in with the decor of the rest of this old kitchen.”

      He went on. “If you’re going to run a guesthouse and retreat center you’ll want the best. Nothing prefab for here.”

      She furrowed her brow and looked at him. “How did you know I plan to open a retreat center?”

      “A little birdie told me.” And then he chuckled deeply. “Actually, Marlene may have mentioned that.”

      “Oh. Right.” Marlene at Marlene’s Café was one of the few people she’d gotten to know. Nori didn’t have Internet access at Trail’s End yet, so took advantage of the free Wi-Fi at Marlene’s Café at least once a day.

      While Steve and Nori drank their coffee, she went over the rest of her list and pictures. Next was a tour of the lodge. Steve had a lot of good ideas. When she asked him how he had learned so much about interior design he told her it was the influence of his parents. “My dad did the carpentry work and my mother did the designing.”

      “So, you worked with your father?”

      He didn’t answer her question and the tiniest of frowns settled between his eyes.

      After they’d gone through every room in the lodge, they decided to take a look at the cabins since the rain had lessened.

      The sun began to glisten through wet tree branches as the two of them headed СКАЧАТЬ