Page 55 of Forever Yours
“What was your first big piece?”
“Pru requested a table from me. She needed something for her dining room and couldn’t find anything she liked, so she begged me to build her one.”
“She has great taste, this just proves that more.”
“Her pushing is what got me back into doing it on a regular basis.”
“What do you like so much about it?” She toyed with a lock of his hair as he spoke.
“Creating art from nothing is such a rush. When I’m working on a project, I feel like I’m meant to be there, in that exact moment, creating that exact thing.”
“That’s deep.”
“I can’t explain it.” He shrugged. “I get a vision when I look at an unfinished piece of wood. It could be a stump, a pile of boards or a huge slab of an old torn-down barn. I just look at it and I know what the final resting shape in its life will be.”
Devlin didn’t speak, then blew out a breath. “I take it back—that’s positively existential.”
“I don’t mean it to be, it’s just my experience. After Pru’s table, I’ve commissioned a few pieces for her clients that wanted something similar and made extra for the local furniture store that have sold well—side tables, coffee tables and chairs, too.”
“A successful businessman twice over.” A smile played on her lips. “You should have a guarantee when you sell your furniture that you tested it out and it won’t collapse, even with vigorous lovemaking.”
A laugh rumbled up and he shook with it at the thought of handing out ‘safe for sex’ certificates with each of his items.
“We’d have to test everything then.” His tone turned pragmatic. “Each chair, table and bed frame.”
“I’d love to be part of your quality control department.”
“Tell you what, I’ll make you the supervisor, as long as you’re willing to take on the important responsibility of being my number one tester.”
“Well hold on now, before I accept, I need to know more about the benefit package you’re willing to offer me. Will I have sick time or vacation time? I think insurance will be important, because even though I trust your work, I can’t guarantee that we won’t get crazy and go above and beyond the line of duty.”
“It’ll be a full time job, so I’ll offer insurance and we’ll roll sick and vacation into a very competitive personal time off bundle.”
“That’s an offer I can’t refuse.” As she spoke, an alarm went off on her. “Shoot, I need to be at judging in thirty minutes.” She turned off the alarm, hopped off the table and smoothed her skirt then her hair.
Gabe followed suit, setting himself to rights. “I can whip up something quick. We have time.”
“No, that’s okay. We’re going to be eating boatloads of chili and if we’re still hungry, we can eat something after.”
“I’m glad they decided to have this at the library instead of the community center. They can take donations and might increase the number of people with library cards at the same time.”
“Changing locations was Annabelle’s suggestion, I’m glad the council went for it.”
As they walked the few blocks to the library, hands clasped in solidarity with each other against the cold, Devlin spoke.
“We’ve talked a lot about the coffee shop, but not a lot about your bar. Why did you choose that business to open when you could’ve had a shop where you sold your furniture?”
He shivered against a strong gust of wind. “I worked in that bar every summer in college that I could and for a while after before I got an office job.”
“I can’t picture you wearing a suit every day, let alone cooped up in an office.”
“I stuck it out for a long time thinking that was what I was supposed to do after getting my degree. Then one day after work I was at the bar with some co-workers and the guy who owned it was talking about selling. I saw it as my opportunity to get off the corporate merry-go-round and do something else with my life.”
“What was your degree in?”
“Finance.”
“That must be serving you well still.”