“Of course we do. We’ve gone to another one a mile down the road from where your cottage is, Adel,” Steve told her.
“If you guys want to come along you can. I think we’re trying to organize the food and some hibachis to BBQ down there and maybe set up a campfire in the evening. It should be fun,” Mercedes added.
“We can bring along some food and an extra grill,” Taylor chimed in and Mercedes looked at him and tightened her lips.
“Oh this will be a lot of fun with so many of us. Maybe you want to come along, too, Will, Leo?” Adel asked because she felt funny not asking them as everyone else around them started inviting themselves along.
“We’ll see. Maybe,” Leo said.
“I’ll be there. I’ll bring some stuff with me to your place and my brothers can meet us there if they decide to go, too,” Will said to her and she smiled.
She looked around at the others and felt a bit of tension still and wasn’t certain why. One look at Mercedes and she seemed to know as a small smile formed on her lips and she winked at Adel. What did Mercedes know that she didn’t know?
* * * *
At 10:50 in the morning, Adel heard the pickup truck pull up in front of her cottage. She could see the truck reversing backward up the small driveway and the big box in the back of the truck. The picture of the ceiling fan looked big and she wondered if it would fit.
She opened the screen door and greeted Will as he got out of the truck. He smiled wide. She was wearing a sun dress with her bathing suit underneath it.
“Hi, Will.”
“Good morning, Adel. You look pretty as always,” he said to her.
She smiled and said thank you as she met him at the back of his truck. Will of course looked amazing. He wore a pair of jeans and a tight navy blue T-shirt that showed off his pectoral muscles. He towered over her as she stood in flip flops and asked if he needed help as he let the tail gate down.
“Not at all. You just stay looking beautiful while I get this thing inside.”
She noticed the picture on the box and she gasped. This fan was an expensive fan. More like five hundred dollars than fifty dollars and that was at wholesale prices for large numbers of inventory.
“Will, I can’t take this. That’s got a copper finish and real wood and those light covers are made of hand-blown glass. The covers alone are more than fifty dollars.”
“Adel, don’t worry about it. The fans are just sitting there collecting dust and eventually will be tossed out or used elsewhere. This is a great fan and will help keep you comfortable on those hot, summer nights,” he said and lifted the box.
She held the door open as he brought the box into the small living room. She was embarrassed about him seeing her small place. His place was big. He and his brothers had a huge house with lots of property and only a block from the beach.
“I don’t think the box is going to fit down this hallway. This is cute, Adel,” he told her as he looked at her. He appeared so big, too big in her small living room.
“It’s perfect for me, considering I live alone. I don’t need much,” she said, feeling embarrassed as she lowered her head. She felt his fingers under her chin and she immediately looked up toward him.
“Hey, it’s perfect for one person. So where’s your bedroom?” he asked and she gulped.
Since leaving Spencer’s last night with Mercedes she was feeling a bit nervous. Mercedes believed that Will and Leo were setting the groundwork for claiming Adel as their woman, and Steve and his brothers were pissed about it because they liked her, too. The thought had her up most of the night. Where Steve and his brothers showed their interest in her, or at least Steve did at work by flirting, Will, Hank, and Leo did not. They complimented her here and there and seemed to be concerned whenever she wasn’t smiling, and even now, Will offered to help with the fan, but he did agree that he wasn’t flirting with her. He didn’t want Steve installing the fan because Steve was a flirt. That was the only reason why Will volunteered.
“I just need to grab my tools. Also, do you know where the main circuit breaker box is? I’ll need to turn off the line going to this fan.”
“Sure. I’ll show you. It’s in the small room in the back.”
She calmed herself down and rationalized the situation as Will grabbed his tools. Fifteen minutes later he was struggling to get the old fan down and noticed some faulty wiring.
“This isn’t good, Adel. The wiring is all bad. I’ll have to replace this but I don’t know if I can do that without breaking into the sheetrock to get to the main hookups. It looks like the previous owner must have swapped out the new fan with an old one.”