Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(10)

Within an hour, it was beginning to look like a dungeon.

Well, a large, dark grey room instead of a large white one.

They sat around a folding table and ate pizza and drank sodas as they admired their progress.

“We can start painting the faux rock pattern tomorrow,” Marcia said. “We should have the base coat finished in plenty of time tonight. We’re making good progress.”

“Not that I’m questioning your decisions, love,” Derrick started, “but how exactly are you planning on doing the rock pattern?” He was envisioning a mountain of work and dozens of hours—and maybe hundreds of rolls of blue masking tape—to make it look right.

“We’re going to cheat,” she said. “We’re going to sponge-paint the accent colors all over the walls. Then, once that’s dry, we’ll hand-paint lines to make it look like mortar between the stones. With this much surface area, that will be the easiest way to do it.”

“Oh.”

She shot him a smart-assed grin. “I know what I’m doing, mister.” She took a bite of her pizza.

“I never doubted you.”

“Bullshit, but good try.”





They wrapped up the painting party just after midnight, including getting a second coat of paint applied. Tomorrow, while Marcia and others worked on the painting, Derrick and another volunteer would rig lighting while they still had the scissor lift.

It was starting to come together.

For at least the first party, they’d use borrowed play furniture. Eventually they’d end up building their own, but that would take a little while. That was definitely something they didn’t want to half-ass, considering it was a safety issue.

The last thing they wanted was anyone getting nonconsensually injured on a shoddy piece of equipment.

Before Marcia, Derrick, and Kel left, they stood there, staring at the newly painted walls in the glow of the overhead fluorescent lights.

“I have the feeling this is the start of something big,” Kel said, nodding. “Something good.”

“I hope so,” Derrick said. “We really need this for our local community.”

Marcia poked him in the ribs. “Just remember our deal, mister.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kel laughed. “Wow. I promise, I won’t tell anyone I heard you say that.”

“I don’t care who hears me say that,” he said. “I’m no dummy. Hey, I was smart enough to marry her in the first place.”





“I don’t like the color,” Derrick said. “They’re way too light.”

“They won’t be after we sand and spray paint them black,” Julie said.

“We?” he asked.

“By which she meant us,” Kaden explained, smiling.

That Saturday morning, they were staring at the trailer full of donated cabinets from Julie’s brother. They would perfectly fit in the space, had come from exactly the layout the women were looking for…

Except they were a light blond oak. The good thing was, they were real-wood cabinets, not laminate, meaning they’d be easy to sand and paint.

“What about the countertop?” Derrick asked.

“The old one will do for now,” Marcia told him. “We’ll redo it later.” It was a dark, fake butcher’s block laminate finish.

Kaden had gone to pick up the cabinets from Julie’s brother. The story was they were for his workshop.

Technically not a lie.

It just wasn’t exactly the kind of workshop the brother was thinking it was. And with the walls now painted and looking like stone, and with a St. Andrew’s cross in one corner, no one wanted to try to explain to Julie’s brother why it was starting to strangely look like a dungeon.

They hadn’t boxed in the two large bay doors yet. Now that Kaden had picked up the cabinets, they could unload them, get them sanded and painted that afternoon, and move them inside once they’d dried. They didn’t have to be perfect, and they were going to paint them a semi-gloss black. They’d already picked up a kitchen sink and the accessories needed to put it in and tie the plumbing into the existing mop sink drain.

“Well?” Marcia asked. “You going to stand there all day, or are you going to start unloading them?”

Derrick playfully rolled his eyes at her as he walked toward the trailer. “I guess we have our marching orders.”

“I guess we do,” Kaden said.

Leah nudged Marcia with her elbow. “Who said old Doms can’t learn new tricks?”

“Not me,” Marcia said. “Mine’s highly trainable.”

“I think you were just insulted,” Kel teased as he also stepped in to help.

“Again, not like I care,” Derrick said. “I’m a happy man.”

“Come on, guys,” Marcia said. “Less talk, more moving. We have to have this place ready in a week.”

“What would they do without us subbies to keep them in line?” Leah asked.

“They wouldn’t. They would have still been debating how to handle the cabinet situation.”

The two women grinned at the men.

“Really?” Derrick asked.

Marcia planted her hands on her hips. “Try to deny it.”