Page 59 of Unlikely to Stay
“Well, then.Let’s make a list.Please tell me you have paper and a pencil somewhere in all of this,” Brant said, motioning to the piles of items scattered in haphazard piles around them.
“I do…somewhere,” she said sheepishly.“I just forgot where I put them.”
Brant looked around and ran his fingers through his hair.“This should be…well…not easy,” he said with a laugh.“But I’ll find them…eventually.”
He began digging through the sacks on the floor by his bucket, CC following suit and digging through the ones by her.After a few minutes, he let out a triumphant, “Aha!”and held her yellow legal pad and pencil up in the air.
“That wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.Now, on to the list.”Brant rolled up the sleeves on his gray and white plaid button down shirt and leaned against the pillar in the middle of the room, stretching his legs out in front of him.“Let’s start simple.What should we do first?”
CC looked around the room and thought.“Probably paint so we don’t have to worry about messing up the floor.Right now it’s just concrete and it’s not staying that way.I’m putting down different types of tile in different places.It won’t matter if we get paint on the floor now.”
Brant wrote the number one in the margin and then paint beside it.“Okay.What next?”
“I’m going to build a room in the front by the windows on the right for yoga, Pilates, and Zumba classes, so we’ll need to build the walls,” she said, smiling as he wrote down a number two and walls beside it.For a person in the medical field, he had surprisingly good handwriting.“That way, it gets all the natural light.And I want to do recessed lighting instead of the fluorescent crap that’s in here now.”
The ideas started flowing now.“We’ll need to install all new baseboards and put down the tile.Most of the floor is going to be easy-to-clean peel-and-stick, but in the weightlifting area I want those cushiony, foam tiles for some give.”
“Good call,” he said.“Let’s keep going.”
“I’ll have to get Kent to come install the wiring for the surround sound and make sure all the electrical is up to code.He can do the can lights, too.”
“Who’s Kent?”
“Wyatt’s dad.He’s an electrician.”
“He’s never sick, is he?”
CC laughed.“Not usually.Why?”
“That’s pretty much how I know a lot of the people in town.If they don’t come to the clinic, I don’t know them.”
“I can get his son-in-law, Jacob, to come to the plumbing for the bathroom.He works with his dad in the family business.I’ve already gotten some of the workout equipment but I’ll need to get a lot more.I need TVs for the wall and a key card thingy for the door.I’m just going to have people come to the salon to pay for their memberships.It will make things easier.”
“Key card thingy?Is that the technical term?”
She stuck her tongue out at him.“I want people to be able to access the gym whenever they want, so I planned on getting one of those swipe your card and unlock the door things.Like hotels have.”
Brant’s eyes twinkled with amusement.“Key card thingy.Got it.What about a security system?”
“In Parker?”
“You never know who might try to take advantage of it.Small towns have crooked people, too.”
CC shrugged.“You really think I’ll need it?”
“I think it’s a smart decision.”
“Okay, then.I’ll do it.”CC took a deep breath and let it out slowly.She hadn’t really thought about how much there was to actually do.
As if he could read her mind, Brant put the legal pad and pencil on the floor, got up and walked over to her.Pulling her off her perch on her bucket, Brant placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes.“Hey, I know it’s a lot, but it’s doable.I’ll help you.”
“When?You have to work at the clinic.”
“Not on the weekends.And I can work after five, too.I’m all yours whenever you need me.”
CC rested her forehead on his chest and took a deep breath.He smelled like leather and spice and all things deliciously male.He placed his chin on top of her head.They stood there for a couple of minutes, each wrapped up in their own thoughts.CC wished she could read his because hers…well, hers were thinking nothing about the gym and everything to do with the steady beat of the heart of the man who she always thought was better than her and was proving her wrong one small step at a time.