The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck

Author:Rachel Hauck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2016-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

COLE

A fresh snow whitened Heart’s Bend Wednesday morning as Cole and Gomez, along with Haley and the crew, finished cleaning up the shop from the demo. Now all they had to do was wait for the permits.

He’d run into political red tape for permits before, and he hoped this project wouldn’t fall between the cracks at the Department of Codes & Building Safety.

Was it too good to be true that the council gave Haley the shop so easily while Akron barked on their heels?

He’d keep an eye out. In the meantime, he called on a couple of the bids he put in before Christmas. But everyone said, “We’re holding.”

Yeah, the winter was slow but this was ridiculous. No one wanted to pull the trigger on new projects?

Standing on the front steps of the shop, he stared toward the freshly plowed streets. He had a whole day ahead with nothing to do.

Cole waited for the rise of anxiety, the shiver of panic, but instead, a warm it’s-gonna-be-all-right wrapped him up.

The shop door closed behind him and Haley came out, zipping up her jacket, taking her gloves from her pocket. “I hate waiting.”

“I’m president of that club.” He roped his arm around her shoulders, purely in a brotherly fashion, and gave her a squeeze. But touching her made his heart hammer in his chest. “Want to be my vice president?”

“I don’t know. How much work is involved?”

“Ah, not much. A little worry here, a little worry there, a sleepless night or two.”

Haley laughed and he peeked sideways at her. She’d always fascinated him, the pretty little sister of his friend Seth. The baby girl in a family of boys. She grew up rough and tumble but she looked like a china doll. Petite, but with wide eyes and full lips cast in her delicate features.

“What?”

He’d stared too long. Cole shook his head, stepping off the porch. “Nothing.”

“Do I have something on my face? You looked like I might have something on my face.” She followed him, wiping her hands under her eyes, across her cheeks, and down to her chin.

“No, your face is fine.” Beautiful.

Cole made a beeline for his truck. What was this sensation? Wanting to stare at her, touch her, think about her. For crying out loud, she was Tammy’s best friend.

Tammy’s not here.

At the truck he pulled his keys from his pocket, an idea rising. “Hopefully we’ll get the permits next week.”

“We better. It’s already the middle of January and the town council’s clock starts ticking in a couple of weeks.”

“If they take too much longer we can ask for an extension.”

“We can, but I get the feeling Linus Peabody won’t budge. Not with Akron willing to pay so much for the land.”

“So what are you up to the rest of the day?” Cole said, his idea solidifying.

“I have no idea. I wanted to head down to Birmingham to see Charlotte Rose, but she’s out of town. I’ve been working on design ideas for the shop. I want to capture some feel of yesteryear.

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