Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Hazel stepped inside The Lighthouse Grill, taking a deep breath of the familiar smells of garlic and fresh bread. She always felt extra sleepy on Monday mornings, and she’d decided to stop by her family’s restaurant on her way to work to get some coffee.
She looked around the bustling dining room, hoping to spot her mother. A moment later she saw Vivian standing behind the counter, pouring coffee for customers.
Perfect, Hazel thought with a chuckle. Coffee and Mom in the same spot.
She sat down at the counter and grinned at her mother.
“Good morning, Mom.”
“Hazel!” Vivian’s face lit up in surprise. “I didn’t know you were going to drop by this morning.”
“I didn’t know it myself until a few minutes ago.” Hazel laughed. “I’m feeling extra sleepy this morning, so I decided to stop here for a cup of coffee. Besides…” She began to rummage eagerly in her large purse. “I wanted to show you something.”
“Yeah?” Vivian said curiously. “Show me what?”
As Vivian poured Hazel a cup of coffee and pushed a basket of creamers toward her, Hazel laid a home décor magazine down on the counter.
“I wanted to show you some of these designs,” she said eagerly. “I was looking at them last night, and I think they’re absolutely darling. I want to try to incorporate some of them in my house. What do you think?”
“Ooh.” Vivian leaned over the counter and took a look at the pages that Hazel was showing her. She was clearly excited to give her input. “These look adorable, Hazel.”
“Don’t they?” Hazel beamed at her mother. “I was thinking I could do a tile backsplash like that behind the stove. Aren’t those colorful tiles just the cutest thing? They look so cottage-y.”
“I think that would be perfect.” Vivian nodded. “Your home already looks cottage-y.”
“So true,” Hazel sang out cheerfully before taking a sip of her coffee.
“What about this picture here? What if I rearranged the picture frames in the living room like this and added a mirror or two? I love that look, where they’re arranged in a kind of circle.
It’s like the whole wall is turned into art. ”
“Yes! I have a mirror I could give you—that one with the gold frame that we used to have hanging in the upstairs bathroom before we remodeled it. It’s still sitting up in the attic.”
Hazel lit up. “I remember that! Oh, I would love that, Mom. Then I would have part of my childhood home in my house.”
Hazel continued to show Vivian the pictures in the magazine that she liked, and Vivian was delighted by all of her ideas.
“I think that’s thrilling, dear,” Vivian said warmly. “These sound like fantastic renovations for your house.”
Hazel laughed. “Thanks, Mom—but you’re thrilled with everything these days because you’re in love,” she teased gently.
Vivian blushed a bright shade of pink. “Love does have a way of giving a person a more positive outlook on all sorts of things in life.” She laughed.
Vivian had been dating her good friend Terrence Rawlins, the health inspector, for a few months.
Long before a romance had officially blossomed between the two of them, the Owens children had suspected that there was a chemistry between their mother and Terrence, and they had been hoping that the friendship between them would eventually blossom to love.
Now that it had, Vivian was often teased by her children, but she seemed to love it.
Any mention of Terrence made her eyes light up.
“If you want help with any of these projects, just let me know.” Vivian tapped her finger on one of the pictures. “This idea of hanging twinkling lights around the bathroom mirror is just adorable. I bet you’d need someone’s help for that.”
Hazel grinned. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll definitely need some help with all these things, but I’ll ask Jacob to help me with some of them too. I don’t want to take up too much of your free time. I know you want to spend that with Terrence.”
Vivian waved her hand through the air. “Terrence can come with me to help with your house. We love doing projects together.”
Hazel chuckled. She had a feeling that there wasn’t anything her mother and Terrence didn’t like to do together.
Since they’d started dating, they’d played tennis, gone kayaking, started a two-person book club, gone to see foreign movies at the movie theater, and experimented with recipes neither of them had ever tried before.
She loved to see how much of an unexpectedly adventurous side her mother was able to bring out of the straightlaced, no-nonsense health inspector.
“Oh look!” Vivian said eagerly, looking toward the front doors of the pub. “It’s Sally.”
Sally was the owner of Ocean Breeze Café, and a long-time friend of Vivian’s.
Hazel was always happy to see the older woman, since she was a beacon of fun and optimism.
She hadn’t let her age stop her from wearing bright colors and whimsical hair pieces, and that morning Sally was wearing a sparkling purple butterfly clip in her hair and her signature bubblegum pink lipstick.
“Hey, cuties!” Sally called out eagerly as Vivian waved her over. “You got any food here that I could eat?”
Hazel laughed. Sally was always trying to make everyone’s day better, and her sense of humor was well-exercised for that reason.
“Good morning.” Hazel gave the older woman a hug. “You’ve got the kind of energy I could only dream about having on a Monday morning.”
“Well, I’ve been up for four hours already,” Sally said cheerfully, sitting down at a stool next to Hazel. “It helps.”
“Look at this magazine with us,” Vivian said, starting to get coffee for Sally without even being asked. “Hazel wants to use some of these ideas for her house. Don’t you think they’re adorable?”
“Oh, I do.” Sally nodded as she peered down at the page in the magazine that Hazel was showing her. “Yes! This wall of pictures? So whimsical.”
“That’s what I thought.” Hazel glanced down at the page as well. “I’ve got a bunch of pictures in rows right now, and they look nice, but I think this would be even better.”
“You’ve got a smart kid,” Sally said to Vivian with a grin.
“I’ve got four smart kids,” Vivian said, grinning back.
Hazel smiled as she watched the comradery between her mother and Sally.
Although the women had been friends for many years, they were both so busy with running their businesses that they seldom had time to intentionally hang out together.
It was clear that hadn’t dampened how much they liked each other, however.
The affection between them was abundantly clear to see.
I wish they could spend more time together, Hazel thought. I feel like this is a really solid friendship just waiting to happen.
“Yup, these are all wonderful,” Sally said, after looking at the pictures again. “I approve.”
Hazel laughed. “Perfect, that’s you and Mom sold on my ideas. Now I just have to ask all of my siblings.”
Sally smiled, suddenly looking a bit sad. “It must be nice to have family to bounce ideas off of like that. I bet it helps make decision-making easier.”
Vivian and Hazel exchanged a brief glance, both of them feeling bad for Sally, before Vivian hurried to make her friend feel better.
“Our family is here for you too,” she said warmly. “You’re always welcome to join us in discussions like this one. The more the merrier, right?”
“Absolutely.” Hazel nodded emphatically. “It’s always nice to talk with people about your ideas. Both of you giving me your approval has bolstered my confidence. It makes me more optimistic that Jacob will also approve of all of my ideas.”
“Oh, I’m sure he will,” Sally said, patting Hazel’s hand.
“I hope so.” Hazel tapped her finger against her lips.
“It’s essentially his home too, so I don’t want to just do whatever I want without asking him.
I love the idea of us living together, and part of what that involves is me not doing whatever I want to the house without asking him first. He has a say in what everything looks like too. ”
Hazel’s heart lifted up as she spoke. She couldn’t wait to live with Jacob and deepen their relationship even further. Even if he told her that he couldn’t stand any of her ideas, she’d still be happier living with him than getting to do whatever she wanted to her home.
Although I’m sure he won’t hate them, she thought with a grin. Jacob is so easy-going, and so sweet! I bet he likes these ideas just as much as Mom and Sally did .
“Hey, Vivian,” Sally said, looking down at her coffee cup and swirling the liquid around in a circle for a moment.
“Have you been having any trouble with distributors?” She looked up.
“I’ve been experiencing communication difficulties with my food distributors, and I’m wondering if you’ve run into any of the same problems.”
“I was having that same problem!” Vivian nodded emphatically. “Oh, and it was so annoying.”
“So annoying.” Sally laughed, nodding as well. “Did you get it to stop?”
“I did. I managed to wrangle my way to the direct cell number of the man in charge and I got it all sorted. I’d be happy to share his number with you if you want, so you can get things sorted too.”
“Would you? That would be so lovely. It’s not quite at the level where it’s making me tear my hair out, but it’s been frustrating for sure.”
“That kind of thing always is!” Vivian agreed. “Why don’t you come on back with me to the office? I’ll give you all the information that helped me.”
Sally downed the rest of her coffee in one gulp. “Sounds incredible. See you later, Hazel.” She hopped off her stool and followed Vivian into the kitchen, which led to The Lighthouse Grill’s back office.
Hazel watched the two women leave with a smile.
She went back to thoughtfully sipping her coffee and looking down at the magazine.
She felt butterflies of excitement as she thought about implementing the designs in her home.
Visions of repainting her kitchen cupboards and her upstairs bathroom filled her head, and she felt a surge of energy.
If she didn’t have to work that day, she would have gone straight home and started working on her projects right away.
I need to speak to Jacob about it all, though, she reminded herself. After all, what if he wants to paint the upstairs bathroom a different color than the one I have in mind? Maybe I’ll like his ideas even better than mine.
“Hey, beautiful.”
She jumped when she heard someone speak directly behind her. She whirled and gasped in delight when she saw Jacob standing there.
“Hey, you!” She sprang up and gave him a hug. “Don’t you look handsome this morning.”
He laughed. “I look messy and dirty, and in a few hours, I’m going to look even more messy and dirty.
” Jacob was a handyman, so the clothes that he wore to do his odd jobs around town had seen better days.
He was often wiggling into small, unclean places like the cupboards under kitchen sinks or the dusty spaces behind furnaces.
Hazel shook her head. “You look so handsome. You always do.”
They shared a sweet kiss, and he sat down at the counter next to her.
“What’s this?” he asked curiously, looking down at the magazine that was still lying open on the counter.
“Oh, I wanted to show you these!” she said eagerly, swiveling around in her stool so that she could flip through the magazine to show him the images she liked.
“I have all kinds of ideas for renovating my house—our house.” She grinned.
“What do you think about arranging the picture frames like that? Or—adding a tile backsplash like this to the kitchen? I’m just in love with those tiles.
Don’t you think they’re adorable?” Her voice trailed off slowly as she saw that Jacob was frowning slightly at the magazine pictures she was showing him.
He didn’t look upset, exactly, but he didn’t look excited either.
Mom and Sally loved my ideas, Hazel thought with disappointment. They were so enthusiastic. Is Jacob less excited about all this just because he’s not a woman?
She had a feeling that wasn’t the case, however. Jacob was usually quick to be enthusiastic about whatever she was excited about. There was clearly something else on his mind as he looked down at the pictures with a frown. A moment later, he pressed his lips together.
“What do you think?” she prompted after a couple of beats.
He looked up, almost as if he’d forgotten she was there for a second.
“I think they’re really cute,” he said, but his tone was somewhat flat.
“But maybe we—maybe you should wait on all of this. Take some time to consider other options. I mean, you don’t want to jump into anything too quickly.
Some of these ideas look as though they might require a substantial amount of time and money. ”
“Well, it’s not like I can’t afford it,” she said slowly, confused by his reaction.
“I didn’t mean that,” he assured her. “I just mean… well, I think you should give all this some time. That’s all.”
“Okay.” She forced a smile, but she still felt disappointed by his reaction and confused about what it meant.
He didn’t seem to dislike the ideas, exactly, but there was clearly some reason why he was reluctant to endorse her suggestions.
She wished she had some idea what it was, but she felt utterly clueless.
It’s not like he’s against renovating, or the way I like to decorate my house, she thought. I know he likes both of those things very much.
She was just about to ask him if there was something on his mind when Vivian returned to the counter with a radiant smile.
“Jacob! So nice to see you. What can I get for you?”
“I’d like a ham and cheese skillet,” he said with a smile. “With extra onions and tomatoes please.”
“You got it.” Vivian turned to Hazel with a smile. “What about you, sweetheart? Do you want something other than coffee before you head to work?”
“Oh!” Hazel looked down at her watch. “I got so wrapped up in showing everyone these design ideas that I lost track of time. I’ve got to go now or I’m going to be late.” She stood up and kissed Jacob. “Talk to you later?”
“Can’t wait.” He kissed her nose, grinning. Clearly whatever had been on his mind before had now vanished.
Hazel gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek and then left The Lighthouse Grill, still feeling confused but determined to not be late for work. The mystery of Jacob’s unenthusiastic reaction would have to wait for another day.