Chapter 24
Hayden Lucht and Jared arrived about an hour later. She and Sid had swept, then vacuumed, brought Chiefy in, and got her food and water set up.
Sid leaned down and kissed her softly. ”See you later. How about I bring you some lunch?”
”That would be nice. Are you sure you don”t want me to bring you lunch?”
”Nope. I”ve got this.” He nodded to Jared and Hayden, ”See you guys later.”
They both waved or nodded and kept on working.
Jared stood. ”Grace, we”ll need to replace two of these floorboards. They’re soft and not able to be fixed as they are.”
”Okay. Do you need something from me?”
”Nope, we just have to pull the floor back to this point, replace the boards and put the floor back in. It”ll look like deconstruction for some time, but we”ll have it finished today and the glass will be here this afternoon for the windows, so we”ll get that fixed before we leave today.”
She smiled at them. ”You guys are a godsend. I don”t know what I”d do without you both here.”
Jared chuckled. ”No worries. Dad said to make sure we took care of you and we are.”
She”d make sure to tell Sid what Quinn said. He barely knew her, but Sid was his friend and they clearly stuck together, no matter what the task.
Grace painted her cabinet doors. They were all over the counters, the kitchen table, the stove, any surface she could lay a cabinet door, she did. But, the guys played music softly in the living room, they chatted about nothing in particular as they worked, and Chiefy was content to lay in her bed in the kitchen. She hadn”t slept much last night, so she was a tired girl today. So was Grace.
The door opened and Sid entered with bags of food. ”Hey guys. I brought you all lunch. Wash up, we”ll eat. Jared glanced her way. She smiled and pointed down the hall.
She looked around and shrugged. ”I don”t have a surface for us to set the food on.”
Sid grinned. ”I”ve got it taken care of. Hang on.” He set the bags of food on the coffee table, which was pushed up to the wall and stepped outside.
The door opened a few moments later and Sid carried in a long folding table. ”I got this from Jace.”
He unfolded it in the living room and set the food on it.
”Bring your kitchen chairs in here.”
Grace carried the first wooden chair into the living room as Sid unpacked the bags of food, which smelled amazing.
He handed out sodas for everyone, and paper plates. Jared and Hayden entered the living room with clean hands and sat across from her and Sid.
Jared grinned. ”What are we eating?”
Sid laughed. ”This morning Jace tried a chorizo recipe on Grace and me and we enjoyed it so much he decided to try out another one. These are chorizo tacos. Lime sauce, coleslaw topping, and lettuce. He wants to know what you all think of the food so you”ll need to give me an honest opinion.”
Hayden built the biggest taco she”d ever seen and shoved a good portion of it into his mouth. He chewed the best he could and finally swallowed then shook his head once, ”Damn, that was great.”
Sid chuckled and built his own taco and so did she. But nowhere near as big as Hayden”s.
She bit into her taco and it was delicious. Simply fantastic.
”Jace has a hit with these tacos.” Jared mumbled with a mouthful of food.
Sid nodded. ”Agreed.”
Jared built his second and devoured it just as fast as his first. They had worked hard today.
After she”d had two tacos she asked Sid, ”Did the bikers come by the Garage today?”
”Yeah. One is sitting there right now. I asked Coop to lock up for lunch and he did. He went home to eat.”
Hayden shook his head as he built his third taco. ”Those bikers are a pain in the ass. My parents own the Grocery Store and they”ve been causing trouble in there almost daily. Dad has kicked them out now, and they sit outside on their bike trying to scare the patrons as they come in.”
Sid asked, ”Is it working?”
”Not really. They don”t know us Florida people aren”t scaredy cats like some of those city slickers.”
Grace chuckled and tidied up her area, tossing the plate and napkins into the garbage can on the floor behind her.
Hayden continued. ”They”ve also caused trouble at my girlfriend”s hair salon on Main Street. One biker”s old lady came in and wanted a haircut without an appointment. No one had time to do her hair, so she walked over to the retail shelves and knocked all the products off of one shelf. Then left. Now they drive by every hour or so and rev up their engines to disturb the salon patrons.”
”That”s terrible. I sure wish the police had the authority to do something about them. I guess they don”t have the right to though.”
Jared finished up his third taco. ”Someone has to go to the city council.”
Jace mentioned that too. Grace thought about that for a minute. ”What has to be done at the city council?”
Sid turned and looked at her and grinned. ”I can see your wheels turning.”
”Well, I wonder what has to be done.”
Jared balled up his napkin and paper plate. ”I guess you have to go before the council during a meeting and ask for the municipal code of conduct of police and authorities to be amended to allow police to restrict troublemakers from coming into town.”
Jared stood and rubbed his belly. ”Thanks for lunch, Sid. Tell Jace, it was fantastic.”
Sid laughed. ”I will.”
Hayden stood and threw his paper plate and napkin away, slurped down the last of his soda and tossed it all in the garbage.
Grace went to the kitchen to get a clean cloth to wipe Jace”s table down. After wiping it, Sid folded it back up and kissed her lips once. He looked into her eyes. ”I”ll be back to take you and Chiefy to supper at the Sandbar if you like.”
”I”d love that. Chiefy would too.”