Summer Nights (Fool's Gold #8)(73)

For a while she’d assumed she was simply one of those women who wasn’t destined to find love. That she would make her life fulfilling in other ways. But now, with Shane, she found herself wanting her happy ending. Wanting him to be the one.

She just wasn’t sure it was possible.

* * *

“IT’S A FAUCET,” Shane said. “For a kitchen. Don’t I only need one?”

“Yes,” Annabelle said patiently. “One is great. So which do you like?”

He stared around in obvious bewilderment. Normally she would have taken advantage of the situation and mocked him, but right now she sort of understood his confusion.

On the advice of his contractor, they were in Sacramento at a bathroom and kitchen fixture specialty store. They were going to be able to make all the decisions regarding plumbing at once. There was only one problem. The store was the size of a grandstand and there were hundreds of choices for each option.

Shiny, brushed, stainless, copper-colored, brass, black, white. There were tall faucets and stubby faucets. Faucets that bent or sprayed or filtered water. She was half expecting to see one that talked.

There were even more choices for the bathrooms, along with sinks and tubs and shower fixtures. Oh, and there were rows and rows of toilets.

They were being assisted by a well-dressed thirty-something man named Marcus who had received the contractor’s email with the list of what Shane should be buying.

“We’ll start easy and work up to what’s difficult,” Marcus said, attaching their list to a clipboard and then handing it to Annabelle. He pulled out a touch-pad device and started entering information.

“What’s easy?” Shane asked warily.

“The kitchen. A faucet and a sink.”

Annabelle knew that wasn’t exactly true. There would be appliances and lighting, not to mention countertops, backsplashes and flooring. But none of that was Marcus’s problem.

“Farm sinks are very popular,” Marcus told them, leading them over to the kitchen area. Several displays showed the sinks and faucets in an actual kitchenlike setting.

“They’re large, which gives you a nice working space. Deep enough for pasta pots. Some people don’t want their sink split into two parts.”

Shane stared. “It’s a sink.”

Marcus gave a little sigh and pushed up his rimless glasses. “Yes. I hear that a lot.”

“This is important,” Annabelle told him.

“Why?” Shane looked genuinely confused.

“Are you going to be washing any small livestock in the sink?” she asked.

“No.”

“Then let’s get a traditional two sink configuration. With the one side deeper.”

Marcus nodded and led them to that part of the display. They debated stainless versus the other materials. Marcus asked about a faucet over the stove. As Shane laughed, Annabelle told him, no, that hadn’t been ordered.

She quickly narrowed the faucet selection down to three and he picked the one he liked best.

“Why that one?” she asked as Marcus led them to the bathroom fixtures.

“It was the biggest.”

“I figured,” she said, linking arms with him. “You’re such a guy.”

“It’s one of my best qualities.”

They reached the showers. Before Marcus could explain much, his cell phone buzzed.

“It’s one of my suppliers. Would you excuse me please while I take this call?”

“Go ahead,” Shane said.

“Thank you. There’s coffee over there, if you’d like.”

He quickly walked away.

Shane stared at the displays of showers.

“Don’t,” Annabelle told him, looking down at the inventory list. She couldn’t remember if the house had two or three full bathrooms.

“Don’t what?”

“Say ‘it’s just a shower.’ You were going to.”

“I wasn’t,” he said, but he sounded a little defensive.

She glanced at him and grinned. “You so were.”

“Maybe on the inside.”

She found the right part of the list. “There are three full baths, including the master, a half bath and a sink in the mudroom.”

“I need coffee.”

She followed him over to a coffee station complete with a sofa, a small table and chairs and several plates of cookies. Shane poured her a cup, then a second for himself.

“It’s too much,” he said. “We should have gone somewhere with a smaller selection.”

“Most people appreciate all the choices.”

“Most people are idiots.”

“You’d rather be back doing horse stuff,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows. “You did not just say horse stuff.”

She held in a smile. “I did.”

“You’re in big trouble now.”

“Are you going to punish me?”

Instantly his features sharpened as his gaze centered on her mouth. “Have you been bad?”

“Very.”

“I like your honesty.”

He continued to look at her. She felt the temperature in the room rise about ten degrees and her skin got the pre-kiss, tingly tightness. It sure didn’t take much for Shane to get her distracted.