Second Chance Pass (Virgin River #5)(106)

For Preacher, he had added to the existing apartment. Downstairs the current quarters were enlarged into a great room with fireplace, no need for a kitchen but a serving area with sink, counter, dishwasher and cupboards for their own dishes and glassware that fronted a large dining room. They would use the bar’s kitchen for their cooking, but should have a private place for meals. He designed a big master bedroom and enlarged the existing bath. The larger downstairs could support two more bedrooms upstairs, a Jack and Jill bath and a loft, connected to Christopher’s room by a short hall. There was a wide-open staircase from the great room to the loft. It turned those little quarters into a real four-bedroom, three-bath house that could be filled with family and friends.

For Mike and Brie, twenty-five hundred square feet of living space, another five hundred attached to the house as office space for Brie with entrances from the outside and inside. Four bedrooms, a great room, a spacious kitchen, three baths including the master, and some beautiful features from vaulted ceilings, a large marble shower without doors, granite counters, stone hearths in the great room and master, slate and hardwood floors, a long, deep deck.

By the time they’d gotten familiar with the designs, Paul arrived. Joe felt awkward until he saw his old friend, and then it was natural to grab him, give him a hearty greeting with slaps on the back. “I’ve really missed you, man,” Paul said.

“Yeah, me, too. Hey, I brought some drawings for you and Vanni to look at. Maybe something will work. I did it based on what you said she liked about your Grants Pass house.”

“Bring them to dinner.”

“I don’t want to impose….”

“You’re kidding, right? Joe—we gotta get past this. Seriously. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

“Maybe it was mine,” he said, dropping his head briefly. “Whatever, it’s in the past. It’s over. We should try to move on.”

Paul glanced at Brie and Mike, Paige and Preacher. Seeing they were absorbed in their house plans, he quietly asked, “Have you moved on, brother?”

“Yeah,” Joe answered with a laugh that even he knew was insincere. “Sure.”

“Come to dinner,” Paul said. “Please.”

“Okay,” he said. “But you have to take the plans home first, give Vanni a chance to have a look before I get there. So she can work up her questions and complaints.”

“We’ve got the homesite all picked out,” Paul said. “We can build right on the other side of the pasture, along the river. We’ll share the stable.”

“Have you surveyed it?”

“Done.”

“When we have a design you like, we’ll walk it. Maybe tomorrow before I leave.”

The back door to the bar opened and the sound of someone carrying supplies into the kitchen could be heard. “That’d be Jack. He went out for supplies so I could stick around Paige,” Preacher said, getting to his feet.

“Let’s do it,” Joe said, and all the men present went through the kitchen to help unload Jack’s truck. Work done, they settled in for a beer and a little catching up. At around four, Joe shoved Paul out the door, telling him to take the plans and drawings home to Vanni and he’d see him in a couple of hours.

It wasn’t long before the dinner hour approached, which brought Mel and the little ones to the bar. Joe held the baby for a while, had a few words with Doc, said hello to Hope McCrea while she had her Jack Daniel’s, passed the time with Doug and Sue Carpenter, Brenda’s folks from just down the street. He checked his watch, asked for a cup of coffee from Jack and sat up at the bar.

“Business good?” Jack asked.

“Great,” Joe said. “I’m staying busy.”

“This stuff down here—is this extra?”

“Yeah, but it’s nice to have it. It’s great that my friends want my designs. Good for my ego,” he said.

“So then,” Jack said, “what’s eating you?”

“Not a thing, my brother.” He sat up a little straighter, took in a deep breath.

“Who’s eating you?” Jack said.

“You’re missing the signals, man. I’m good.”

Jack lifted his coffee cup. “Whatever you say.”

Joe knew what Jack was seeing. Joe had always been carefree. A grinning fool, a quick laugh, a lot of jokes, nothing in the world bothered him. He had a good family, good business, women when he bothered, plenty of money, lifelong friends like the boys. He knew there was a smudge on his personality, a sadness that now occupied his eyes and hadn’t been there for a long time, not for a good ten years.

“It’s just that, it seems like something’s bothering you,” Jack said.

“Yeah, maybe. Not a big deal. It’ll pass.”

“You ever want to talk, you know where I am.”

Joe smiled. “Thanks, buddy.”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe she’ll come around.”

“Who?” Joe asked, a little stunned. He would be genuinely pissed if Paul had talked about this.

“Whoever she is. Men have a lot of looks, pal. They have a look for business worries, family worries, ego worries. Combat worries—I got good at spotting that one. And there’s a real special look when a man wants a woman and she’s out of reach.”