Page 23 of Through the Dark Night
“I’d love to. I’ll take a look at that while I’m there as well.”
“Thanks again for the invitation. Just being here tonight has made me feel so good. And knowing that these ladies are my friends and neighbors has eased my mind considerably.”
“It’s not easy to move by yourself to an entirely new spot, even if it was the town you grew up in. It’s changed a lot since you left.”
“It certainly has, and you’re right. It’s been a lot harder than I even anticipated, and I never thought it was going to be easy.”
“Just remember, we’re all here for you.”
Vera gave her a hug, and Shannon was hard-pressed to let go. She wanted to hold on and simply enjoy the feeling of being surrounded by someone who loved and cared for her.
But they pulled back and said good night, and Shannon got in her car and drove away, considerably happier as she left than what she was when she came.
It had also been very good for her to see that everyone else had painful times that they went through, and to see God’s grace and God’s goodness in each of their lives, how He’d taken the hard times and turned them into something amazing. It gave her the feeling that if He could do it for them, maybe He would do it for her too.
Nine
“Can we talk to you for a minute?” Dominic stuck his head in the door where Shannon and Lance were working.
“Sure, Dominic. Do you want to come in here?” Shannon asked, glancing at Lance, who did not seem surprised to see Dominic.
“Sure. This will be fine. Do you mind if we sit down on the buckets? It might be an extensive conversation.”
Shannon had no idea what he might want to talk about, although there were plenty of things to discuss as there was tons of work to do on the inn. And they were only getting started.
She made herself comfortable as the men sat down and only glanced at Lance once. He didn’t seem to be trying to look innocent, and he didn’t seem to avoid her eyes either.
She stopped trying to guess what he might or might not know, and what he might or might not have told her, and just watched Dominic.
“I told you when we started that I would be doing an extensive assessment of the electrical and plumbing systems in the inn. There’s no point in patching drywall if we only have to take it apart in order to rewire or replumb things. Things like closets and windows are fine to take care of immediately, since there’s typically no electricity in there.Along with the roofing crew that is even now planning on totally redoing the roof starting tomorrow.”
“Oh my goodness. I didn’t realize it was going to happen so soon!” Shannon said, excited despite herself.
Part of her was terrified that Dominic was going to say that there was too much work to do and they just absolutely could not do it without a major check from her.
“The good news is the foundation is secure and in really good shape. I couldn’t find a thing wrong with it, and I told Trevor and Josiah that as soon as they wanted to start redoing the porch, they could. I think they said they would order the material and start tearing the old one off immediately.”
“Wow. Things are really happening,” she said.
“Yeah. We can re-side the house when they have the porch off, and that should be done by the end of next week or possibly two weeks, depending on the weather. I… I really wanted to get as much done outside as we could before the weather gets bad. Snow could put an end to our work for a while.”
“Do you think you can get it all done before the snow comes?” Shannon asked, realizing that they were closer to that than she wanted to admit.
“Yes. I think we can. As long as nothing unexpected comes up. I wouldn’t have been able to say that until we did a thorough investigation into all of the other systems, but since the foundation is good, and the roof has not been leaking long enough to rot any of the rafters, I think we’re in really good shape. Better shape than I would have hazarded to guess when we first looked at the inn.”
“That’s excellent news,” she said, realizing that he had said that he was going to give her the good news first. By default, that meant there was bad news.
“Yes. And the bad news isn’t terrible. Lance?”
“Oh, you get to deliver the good news, and I get to talk about the bad. Is that the way it goes?”
Dominic just laughed, and Shannon smiled, but her eyes narrowed. So Lance did know something, and he hadn’t told her.
“Dominic asked me to go and look at the wiring and the plumbing. I have more experience in that than he does.”
“Okay,” she said, trying not to hurry him along. He could take his time and say what he wanted to.
“So the electrical system seems to have been replaced on the first and second floor, but on the third floor, it looks like about 1930s work.”
