Home Improvement (A Pajaro Bay Short Story) (2 page)

"Not around here. Getting permission to build something in Pajaro Bay is harder than finding a parking spot in tourist season."

Kim sighed. "All I want to do right now is fix the bathroom floor. Why does it have to take six months to get permission for such a simple job?"

"I imagine if you hadn't knocked out a main support wall in the living room, they might not have given you such a hard time," Gage said dryly. He took another sip of coffee. "You're lucky Miss Z didn't come over and slap you upside the head in person."

"She scares me."

He laughed. "She's about 92 years old, you know."

"I don't care. She's still scary."

'Yeah. She is. Reminds me of my 5th grade teacher. I spent a lot of time in detention that year."

"You spent a lot of time in detention every year."

"How do you know?"

"Bryce always said that."

"Hey." He looked at her with a soft smile. "That's the first time you've said his name without crying."

"How do you know?"

"I've been keeping up with the rumor mill. So are you working through it?"

"I'm getting there. More coffee?"

"Nah. I'm already sloshing. I'd better take some measurements of the bathroom floor and see what other materials I'm going to need to pick up during the week."

"You really don't mind working on Saturdays?"

"Of course not. I'm making double the money this way, working one job during the week and yours on the weekend."

"If you're sure...?"

"Sure I'm sure."" He stood up from the table. "Let's go take a look upstairs."

They went out into the living room and he looked up at the gaping hole in the ceiling. "I can see how it would be a bit embarrassing to be caught in the bathtub while someone's downstairs."

"Nobody's ever downstairs," she said. "I live alone. Remember?"

"Yeah." He squeezed her hand. "I remember. Let's get those measurements done. Will you hold the tape for me?"

She nodded.

They headed upstairs together.

~*~

"So how's the home improvement coming?" Jazz asked her the next Saturday.

Kim kept on reorganizing the sunglass rack. "Nothing's happened yet. It's slow, since Gage's working on another job right now. But he'll be over at eleven to fix the floor and then at least I won't be in danger of falling into the living room."

"Too bad he's not marriage material."

"Why?" Kim said absently as she tried to untangle the blinged-out purple mini Yorkie shades from the Great Dane-sized orange eye-protection Doggles.

"Because you should get married again."

That made Kim look up.

"You look silly with your mouth hanging open," Jazz said serenely. "You're made to be married. You like to cook, and putter around the house, and take care of other people."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. It's your thing. Like mine is rescuing dogs. So you should get married and have a truckload of kids and join the PTA."

"I tried marrying once, remember?" Kim said quietly.

"So? Not every man is going to get in a car accident and die on you."

"I can't believe you just said that." Kim turned back to the sunglasses, but she noticed her hands were shaking.

"I'm talking to you like this because I'm your friend and you need to hear it." Jazz picked up Arrow and brought her over to where Kim stood, back to her. "You can't just hide out in your house."

"I'm here, aren't I?" Kim said quietly, still not looking her way.

"Yup. I got you out this far, and I'm going to get you all the way out."

"What's all the way out?"

The door chime jangled and saved her from having to hear the answer. Robin poked her head in (today's outfit was turquoise silk shirt, narrow cream trousers, and iridescent teal Jimmy Choos). "Coffee's on. Five minutes." Then she popped out again.

"Are you going to get the coffee, or should I?" Kim asked.

Jazz shooed Arrow into the back room, flipped the sign on the door to read
Surf's Up! Back in a Few
, and said, "we'll both go."

~*~

"When do you plan to pop, girl?!" Kim said to the extremely pregnant woman sitting with her feet up on a stack of real estate magazines in Robin's office .

Camilla Stewart-Knight, CPA from the accounting office at the end of Alvarado Alley, sported long, curly red hair, an abundance of freckles, and a belly that looked ready to burst.

"I still have eight-and-a-half weeks," she said. "Can you believe it? I think he's going for a world record." She patted her stomach. "No more coffee for me today, Robin. I'm over my limit."

Robin handed her a chocolate chip cookie. "No limit on these, right?"

Camilla took a big bite of the cookie. "Dr. Lil doesn't dare make give up chocolate. She knows I'd become homicidal without it."

Robin offered a cookie to Kim, and she shook her head. Instead she grabbed a cherry red mug and headed to the steel-and-chrome espresso machine to pour herself a cup of Robin's incredible coffee.

She wrapped her hands around the mug and felt the warmth seep into her. She was trying hard not to be mad at Jazz, but it wasn't working too well. She raised the mug and took a sniff of the coffee. "Wow! What is this?"

"Half Fogchaser beans, half Chocolate Raspberry," Robin said with a smirk. She sat down at her desk and watched Kim inhale again. "Nice, huh?"

Kim took a sip. "Heavenly." She sat down in the padded chair next to Camilla. One look at the tray of Robin's special cookies and she gave in and grabbed one, dipped it into the coffee and took a bite. She smiled.

"Now that we're all here, we need to talk," Jazz said from her spot over by the front window.

Kim glared at her, but it was like glaring at a wall. It didn't do her a bit of good.

"Kim needs to start dating again."

Both Robin and Camilla turned to her with big smiles, and Kim looked down at her coffee cup. "Says Jazz," Kim muttered.

"Okay," Jazz continued, undeterred. "Who should she go out with?"

Camilla looked hard at Kim. "If she's not ready, we shouldn't push her."

Kim looked up at her. "Thank you, Camilla, for respecting my feelings. Not everyone does," she said pointedly.

"You're ready," Jazz said firmly.

"Don't you think I should decide that?" Kim asked.

"She's got a point," Robin said.

"What would one date hurt, Kim?" Jazz asked. "Just give me a good reason why you would rather not date, and I'll respect that."

Kim sat there, a bit stumped. She didn't want to go out with anyone. She didn't want to start thinking about her life as being without Bryce forever. But was that the way she wanted to live? Was that what Bryce would want for her?

She looked up and saw they were all watching her. "I will
consider
it. Possibly. At some time in the future. Just consider," she repeated when Jazz's face lit up in triumph. Then she found herself sitting back while they all plunged into a heated debate on the merits of every single guy in town.

"Mel Machado," Robin said.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Jazz said. "He's too old and he's a grump."

"Okay," Camilla said. "Hector."

That made all of them burst out laughing. Hector ran the local garage, and spent his spare time trolling the snack food aisle of the grocery store, trying to satisfy his constant craving for munchies.

"Don't reject him so quickly," Camilla continued when they all looked at her as if she were nuts. "He's sweet, kind-hearted, and I have never heard him say a bad thing about a single soul in town."

"He's also stoned out of his skull every day."

"Maybe he just needs the love of a good woman to straighten him out," Camilla said.

Everybody laughed.

"No," Jazz said, shaking her head. "We've got to find a nice man with no bad qualities. No rejects from the shallow end of the gene pool."

"Well, if you want perfect," Camilla said, patting her belly. "My son will be perfect in every way. You just have to wait about 30 years for him to be ready."

"Sounds good to me," Kim said. "I'm not in a rush."

"Now, everyone think," Jazz said. "Where can we find her the perfect man?"

"I had the perfect man," Kim said quietly. "I'm not going to find another like Bryce."

"Gavin Kelly's pretty perfect," Robin said wistfully.

"His wife and kids probably agree with you," Jazz said. "Too bad Gage isn't like him. Oh, why won't that guy settle down?!" she said in frustration. "He'd be great if he wasn't such a playboy."

"Isn't it always like that?" Robin said. "Two brothers. The wild one with the looks, and the sweet one with the wife and two kids. Guess it's too much to expect Gage to be a family man like Gavin."

"The Kelly Brothers are out. So who's left?" Jazz said.

"Ryan Knight has the whole sexy, macho cop thing going on," Robin suggested.

Camilla Stewart-Knight said, "I agree. But I'm not giving him up--even for you, Kim. How about Oliver?" Oliver was her nine-year-old adopted son. "Nah," she added, reconsidering. "He wants a Play Station, not a girlfriend."

"That's okay," Kim said. "Like I said, I'm really not in a hurry."

"Yes you are," Jazz said firmly.

"Okay," Robin said. "I've dated pretty much every single guy in town, so I can give you all the details. Let's see, do you want the party boy type, or the guy who sits in front of his TV eating pizza every night? How about the commitment-phobe? The super-athlete who thinks kayaking 40 miles across the bay is a fun first date? The momma's boy? The rebel without a clue?"

"This is what you want for me?" Kim said to Jazz.

"Drink your coffee, you cynic," Jazz said to Robin. "You're scaring her."

"I'm not scared. I'm just not ready."

"But I have a perfect guy," Jazz said. "And Robin's never dated him, so he's pure as the driven snow."

"I'd resent that if it weren't true," Robin said calmly. She wiped the cookie crumbs off the paperwork on her desk. "So who is this perfect guy and where has he been hiding?"

"He's tall, with dark wavy hair. Nice looking. He just graduated from college. He's a local boy. He has a great job with Cordova Computing."

"Ah, they only fire the best," Robin said, saluting Camilla with her coffee cup.

"Thank you very much," Camilla said, returning the salute with a wave of her third cookie. "Great employer. So who's the guy?"

"Ben Freitas."

"Little Ben?" Robin said. "He's just a kid."

"He's 24 now, and Felix Cordova's personal assistant. He's cute, too."

"He's definitely that," Robin agreed. "And smart."

They all smiled and looked expectantly at Kim.

She sat there trying to think of a reason to say no, without telling them what she was really thinking. She finally said quietly, "I'm just not ready."

Everybody got quiet.

Then Jazz jumped up and gave her a big hug. "I'm sorry, Kim. We didn't mean to push you."

"Yes, we did," Camilla said. "But only with the best intentions."

"I know. I appreciate that. But I'll let you all know when I'm ready for you to start throwing men at me."

Robin took her coffee cup and went over to the espresso machine. "In the meantime, have another cup."

Kim looked up at the clock on the wall behind Robin. "I can't. I've gotta meet Gage at the house, or I won't have a working bathroom tonight."

Jazz took her coffee cup from her and shooed her out the door. "Go. Don't let him rip you off. See you tomorrow."

~*~

"You know," Gage said as he followed her into the house, "taking that wall out really opened up this place." He stood inside the front door and looked at the view from there all the way through the kitchen to the glimpse of back yard visible through a wavy glass window over the sink. "If we put a proper frame on your hole in the wall and add the pillar Ms. Z wants, I think it'll look really good."

"Maybe after the bathroom is done you could start on that," she said. "So how long will the bath floor take?"

"About two days. I've got to move the claw foot tub so I can work under there first, then move it back and finish the rest of the floor. It'll go faster if you help."

She had always helped Bryce when he worked on the house, and Gage knew that.

"And just think," he added, handing her a little paper bag, "two more days of maple bars." Gage had a thing for doughnuts. Kim did too, as a matter of fact, but she couldn't afford to indulge in her craving as often as he did. He still had the fit body he'd always had. Probably from working construction all day.

"Okay," she finally said. "I'll help. The work'll burn off the doughnut calories, anyway." And it would give her another excuse to avoid Jazz's pressure. She could say she had to work around the house instead of making a fool of herself on some embarrassing blind date.

"How about some coffee?" she asked. "I left the pot plugged in this morning--it might still be good." She poured the last of the morning's pot in his mug. The dregs swirled to the bottom. "Sorry," she said. "That doesn't look too appealing. I'll make a fresh pot."

"Don't bother." Gage grinned. "I'll just strain out the coffee grounds with my teeth."

She sat down at the table and smiled weakly, her thoughts still distracted.

"Come on, Kim. What's up?" Gage asked. "I'm being really charming here."

She had to laugh at that. He was being charming, as usual, but she couldn't get her mind off what Jazz had said.

"Tell me about it," Gage said.

"About what?"

"Come on, Kim. Something's bothering you. Let it out. What are friends for if you can't drag them down to your level of misery?" He laughed again, deep smile lines framing those not-so-innocent hazel eyes.

She took a deep breath. "Do you remember your first date?"

"Are we changing the subject here, darlin'?"

"No. Not really. Do you remember?"

"Sure." He sat back in the chair, reminiscing. "I was twelve. Her name was Lulu. What a bod."

"Oh, Gage!"

"—I'm kidding, I'm kidding. She was a nice girl. I was terrified, and I accidentally knocked her glasses off when I tried to kiss her goodnight. Very embarrassing. Almost as bad as the time my trunks fell off at the swim meet—but that's another story." He looked at her. "So, what about your first date? Was it a disaster or what?"