A Nantucket Affair (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #4)(17)

Beth took a deep breath before speaking. “I know that. We’ll figure it out.” She tried to stay calm and not let her irritation show. Hopefully, Chase would relax about it. She knew he was just worried and she was, too. Neither one of them could afford to lose money on the flip. But she didn’t think that was going to happen, as long as they were smart about how they allocated their budget.

“Yeah, it’s still early days. You’re right. No need to panic yet. Sorry, I’m being grumpy. It’s been a long day, and I’m hungry. How do you feel about pizza for dinner?”

She relaxed and smiled. “Pizza sounds good to me.”





Beth called in the pizza order before they left the office so that it was ready for them to pick up on their way home. She and Chase liked their pizza the same way—plain cheese, extra sauce. They also got a Greek salad to share.

Once they were home and happily eating pizza, Chase seemed to relax a bit. Beth couldn’t remember ever seeing him so stressed before. She worried that the flip house and its unexpected expenses were making normal stress from his job seem worse than it was.

“So, tell me what’s going on with the Johnson project?” Last she knew they were running a little behind, but she thought Chase was going to catch up this week.

“Well, I was hoping to get back on track this week, but we’ve fallen further behind. Two of Shaw’s guys missed work this week, both sick and they didn’t have anyone else to send, so until they get their part of the job done, it’s holding up moving forward on other stuff. It’s just frustrating. Ben apologized up and down, even said he’ll come help himself when he’s done with his current project.”

“Well, that’s good then. That should help them get it done faster.”

“It should.” Chase reached for another slice of pizza. “You know how I am about finishing on time.”

Beth smiled. “Yes, I know.” Chase had built his reputation on doing quality work and meeting project deadlines. It was somewhat unusual in an industry when so many workers were self-employed and were often either stretched thin by taking on too many projects or took too much time off fishing when the weather was good. It was so bad that when someone like Chase came along that was reliable and good, word spread quickly. It also helped that Chase was an island native and most people either knew him or his family, so there was added trust there.

“I’d like to go with you tomorrow when you meet Rick at the flip house.” Beth had been thinking about it all afternoon. “I think it could help me to better understand everything that goes into doing a renovation like this. And I want to get some more pictures of all the rooms and measure the counters and floors.”

Chase hesitated for a moment, caught off guard by the request, but then nodded. “Sure, that’s actually a good idea.”

“I have them now and then,” she teased and was pleased when he cracked a grin. His earlier bad mood was totally gone.

He put his slice of pizza down and leaned in to give her a quick kiss.

“I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You’d fall apart, totally.”

He laughed. “Seriously, I might. I don’t want to ever find out.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. I’m not going anywhere.” She stood and cleared her paper plate and glanced at his. She wasn’t sure if he was going in for another slice or not, but he slid his empty plate toward her and she threw them both in the trash. Then she went to the freezer and pulled out a carton of vanilla fudge ripple.

“Did you save room for ice cream?”

The easy smile that she loved so much slid across his face.

“What do you think?”

She scooped ice cream into two bowls, and they took them into the living room and settled on the sofa to watch a little television. Beth sat sideways and rested her feet on Chase’s lap. His ice cream was gone in two seconds, and as she’d hoped, he started rubbing her feet while she slowly savored the rest of her ice cream. Chase gave the best foot massages.

A few minutes later, she was feeling totally relaxed and glad that they’d both managed to help the other to relax. She’d always thought they’d make a good team and they had for years, but now that they were together romantically, it was even better. They complemented each other and she’d been pleased to point out to Chase recently that she’d looked at the numbers and since they officially became a couple, the business was more profitable too—up 10% overall. It could be a coincidence, of course, natural growth of a solid business. But she liked to think that it was partly because they were now a team, in all ways, and that carried over to the business.

That was just an added plus, though. It had been somewhat of a risk for the two of them to date and work together. But Beth had known in her heart that it would work, that they would work. She’d know long before Chase had. He’d finally came to his senses and she had to give him credit—he’d tried to make up for lost time. They got along great and never fought about anything. She’d admitted that to Abby once. She and Chase’s younger sister were best friends, and Abby had been surprised.

“You never fight at all? No disagreements ever?”

“Well, of course we disagree occasionally, but it’s always little stuff. Nothing important and there’s never any anger there.”