7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Beck
Why I let myself get all concerned and poetic about Dallas Olivia Cardon is beyond me.
I shouldn’t have even taken the bait and shown her the beach and the sea turtle nest at all. Because that hour is still messing with my head, especially now that she’s completely changed her tune towards me.
It’s good that she’s not the fun person I thought she was. We’re working together and I can’t be all in my head that we’d had such a nice moment together and now we’re forcing ourselves to be polite. It’s better that we’re borderline enemies now.
The problem with it is, something weird came up when she was so disapproving of the mansion. I got all…I don’t know…territorial. Protective of the place.
Renovating the mansion is a dream come true for me. The chance to strip it down and build it back up the way it should be was too much of a pull to ignore.
When I heard Mayor Dobbs was buying it after it sat unused for six years, I was happy. I used to hang out there as a kid. It’s like every big, public-facing event in town used to happen at Willow Wood. And though I’m not one to care too much about ceremony, it sorta sticks with you when you get to work on the building that housed your yearly high school basketball and football banquets, school dances, family reunions, and even some family weddings years ago.
Not that I’m a weddings guy. I do not care for them one bit, actually.
Dallas—or Ms. Cardon as I’m suddenly now calling her—frowning and fussing over everything about the venue irked me. I don’t have a problem with strong women. Love them, actually. But I do have a problem with people who stick their noses into my business and try to tell me how to do my job. If you’re a designer? I’ll listen, sure. But a party planner? The structure of the building just isn’t in your wheelhouse.
I didn’t need her to gush over how gorgeous it is…or I guess how gorgeous it will be when I’m done with it. But some respect for the building would have been nice.
I get home from the construction site past six, so I microwave a pot pie, one of those extra unhealthy ones. I didn’t have lunch today because Ms. Cardon’s reaction lit a fire under me, and I didn’t want to take the time. I’m just running a sponge over my plate under the faucet when Leo walks in.
“Dude. She said yes.”
Leo’s my next-door neighbor. I hired him to work part-time for me this summer at Integrity. Yeah, he’s only sixteen, but he lost his dad to cancer last year and his older siblings have all moved out. He needs something to do besides mowing my lawn and driving his mom crazy.
I give him a high five. “What movie are you going to go see?”
This is the fourth girl he’s asked out since he started dating last year, and he’s always taken them to our one-screen movie theater and out for ice cream.
He slouches into a chair and rests his elbows on the table. “Movie? This is Prom, Beck.”
“Oh. Right.” And then I remember. He was trying to get up the courage to ask his crush. “Wait. She said yes? ‘She’ as in… the ‘she’?”
My golden retriever, Ace, is begging for attention from Leo, so he starts scrubbing his snout and head. Leo tips his head back and stares me down. “Ella. Her name is Ella. And yes…she’s the one I’ve been talking about.”
Leo’s father, Byron, was on my city’s adult-league beach volleyball team for years and I haven’t felt quite myself since he died. Leo reminds me so much of him.
I chuckle. “Okay, Casanova. Is she…older than you?
He scowls, his brown eyes narrowing. “She’s in my grade. But it’s different with her. She’s different, you know?”
“I do know.” I nod. An image of Dallas pops in my head. “So where are you taking her?”
Leo gives a wry smile. “That’s where you come in.”
I laugh. “Okay. I like that you’re trusting me on this.” I rub my hands together. “Um. Alright. Let’s think for a minute. You could set up an intimate table on the beach.”
“No.” The way he’s saying it has me guessing he has something completely different in mind.
“Um. You could bring food to the park and have a picnic?”
His eyes get a starry look, one I recognize. It’s the international symbol for Help. I’m in love…bad.
I remember when I broadcasted that very look when Chloe and I were together. Bad move on my part because when she broke off our engagement, the whole town took it upon themselves to try to heal me.
I quickly realized, after she left, that Chloe wasn’t the right woman for me. We were too different and wanted different things out of life. No amount of reassuring everyone else about that fact worked because I became the town project.
“So you need some ideas on where to take her?”
“This has to be good.” Leo gestures with his hands. “And the other guys in our group don’t know what to do. All they’ve come up with so far is having a big Fortnite playing party.” He grimaces.
“The guys in your group are probably amateurs, Leo. You gotta show them the ropes. Teach them how to take a woman out on a proper date.”
Leo ducks his head. “I was thinking maybe the Willow Wood Mansion? Like, maybe we could bring in some food and eat it in there. Please?”
Oh boy. I was not expecting him to ask that. “Willow Wood is a trainwreck right now. You do not want to have a date there. Trust me.”
“But Prom is in three weeks—plenty of time to spruce it up. And we don’t need anything fancy. I mean, it’s fancy enough. We just need to bring in a table, some chairs, and some food and call it good.”
Images of the chaos of mixing the kids in Leo’s Prom group and construction equipment fill my mind. “I don’t know. It’s a construction site. Kids aren’t supposed to be there.”
Leo sobers. “First off, we’re not kids.”
I roll my eyes.
“Second of all, it won’t be a construction zone at that point because you’ll be done renovating it. Third of all, I’ll even let you chaperone if it makes you feel any better. As long as you’re not Mister Awkward sitting at a table with us. Just be in the vicinity, please.” His eyes light up as he thinks of another point. “It might be nice to sort of have a trial run before you have weddings in there.” He’s waggling his eyebrows now. How has he already learned the subtle art of persuasion? Probably from his mother, Rosie. His father, Byron, wasn’t like this.
“No, Leo.” I start drying my dinner plate. “I think you need to mow my lawn for free next time, just for making me listen to this crazy talk.”
“There is no other place around here to take a date to a nice dinner before Prom,” he insists. “Nowhere.”
“There are some good restaurants in Wilmington.”
“You don’t pay me enough to be able to afford Calla Lily or whatever that fancy place is called.”
I let out a low whistle. “Can’t argue with that.”
Leo’s smile is triumphant. “And yeah, a lot of kids go to Wilmington, or they just eat dinner at one of their houses. But I can’t do that. Can you imagine my mom?”
“Aw, she’d love it.”
He fixes me with a look. “That’s the problem.”
Leo has a point. Rosie is a great lady and is friends with my mom. But she gets overly excited and overly protective over all things involving Leo. I could see her doing something crazy like dressing in a clown suit and serving a circus meal to the
rom goers. Not cool.
“I see your dilemma.”
“So, we can use Willow Wood Mansion?”
“I never said that! It’s not ready.”
“But it’s supposed to be by then,” Leo counters. “It’s what you’ve been saying all along. ‘The first wedding is in May, so it’s gotta be done.’”
“Yeah, and I don’t want you guys messing it up or trashing it beforehand.”
“You know that wouldn’t happen, Beck. Besides, like I said, I’ll let you chaperone that part of the date.”
“ Let me?” I thread the dish towel back through the hanging loop and shake my head. “I’d rather streak down Main naked than do that.”
“Please don’t streak down Main,” he deadpans, and then brightens. “You could bring a date. It’ll be great. As long as you stayed mostly out of sight.”
“That’s a great idea.” I turn on the mock excitement real thick. “Hey, whoever, since I wouldn’t know who to ask.” It’s a lie because Dallas pops into my head. Which is crazy considering how she and I do not get along. “But hey, let’s go on a date to babysit a bunch of teens before they hit up their junior Prom. And we have to stay out of their way.” I give an emphatic shake of my head and lift the plate to its place on the shelves above the counter. “I’m not doing that.”
“Just think about it? Please? If I tell my mom we don’t have a place to eat yet, you know what she’ll do.” Leo’s eyes plead with me. “It’s Ella, man. Ella!”
I don’t respond because I don’t want to disappoint him. I guess the unspoken resolution is that we’ll resolve this later? We start talking about sports, and I appreciate that he and I can have an intelligent conversation about today’s news. But before Leo leaves, with a few mini donuts I offer him, he gives me a look, his wicked grin growing across his face.
“What?” I demand but can’t hide a little smile. Leo’s a great kid who loves his mother and is too smart for his own good.
Still, I’ve had about enough of him for one day.
He keeps chewing. “You’re not a very good liar,” he says around a piece of donut, powdered sugar on each corner of his mouth. “I saw the look on your face when you pretended not to know who’d you ask to help chaperone the dinner for Prom.”