* * *
Hunt and Ava stayed later at her parents’ house than she’d intended. By the time Hunt was walking her up the steps at her house, it was close to eleven. He went inside with her to make sure everything was okay, then hugged her.
“You know I want to stay with you again, but you need to rest. What you need to know is that this was one of the best evenings I’ve spent in a long time…except the times I spend with you.”
Ava leaned back in his arms. “They love you. I love you. You can do no wrong.”
Hunt grinned. “If only the rest of my life was this easy.”
“Sometimes easy gets boring,” Ava said.
“I don’t know about that. Loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done, and you’re too ornery to ever be boring,” Hunt said.
She sighed. “I have a couple of days off coming up. I’ll make it up to you then.”
Hunt cupped her cheeks. “Honey…there are going to be times when I’ll be just as tied up with my job as you’ll be with yours. But as long as I have you to come home to, it will be worth it.”
Then he settled his lips on hers and kissed her—slowly, then harder—until they both groaned.
“I give,” Hunt said. “Night, sweetheart. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” Ava said, and watched him leave before she locked up and went to bed.
* * *
Hunt was up by daylight and ready when the roofing crew pulled up. His brother Ray wasn’t sure how to approach a relationship that was no longer there.
“You climbing today, too?” Ray asked.
Hunt shook his head. “Obviously, I’m fine with heights, but only when I’m flying. I’ll leave all this to the experts.”
Ray nodded, then began helping unload their equipment while Hunt went back inside to wait for Billy.
The carpenter pulled up about an hour later, and soon he and Hunt were pulling up the old flooring in the kitchen. Once the tiles were removed, the sag in the subfloor below was more obvious.
Hunt stood with his hands on his hips, surveying what looked like the beginnings of mold and rot.
“Birdie said this house didn’t flood inside during the hurricane, but there was water under the house.”
Billy nodded. “It happened to a lot of houses here. We had to shore up Mom and Dad’s back porch after the water receded. So, let’s get a few of these boards up and see what we’re dealing with below.”
Hunt got a pry bar and a hammer and began working on one of the blackened areas. The board came loose and then broke off.
“Rotten,” Billy said.
Hunt nodded and pulled up a few more—enough so that Billy could shine a light down into the opening.
“Well, right here’s your problem,” Billy said. “A couple of floor joists are broken, and two or three more look about as rotten as this subfloor. I’ll make a quick run to the lumberyard and get the material we’ll need. In the meantime, why don’t you go ahead and pull up the rest of the subfloor just in this area so we can get into the space.”
“Sure thing,” Hunt said, and when Billy went out the back door to get in his truck, Hunt began prying up rotting wood and tossing it aside.
And so the morning passed, with roofers stomping and hammering above their heads, and Hunt and Billy sawing and nailing on the floor. Billy left to get the plywood to patch the subfloor, leaving Hunt outside putting new treads on the back porch steps.
When the workers took a lunch break, Hunt stayed home and made a sandwich, grateful for the momentary silence within. While he was eating, someone knocked on the door, and then he heard a voice call out.
“Hunt! It’s me, Emma! Okay if I come in?”
“In the kitchen!” When she walked in, he pointed at the floor. “Sidestep the hole. We’ve been replacing floor joists, but we’ll have subfloor back down before quitting time.”
Emma glanced down, remembering the sag, and once again felt guilty that none of them had thought to address the issue.
“I can’t stay, and I know I’m probably the last person you want to see, but I brought something I want you to have.”
“What’s that?” Hunt said.
Emma took a small ring box out of her pocket and opened it, revealing a ring with a gold band and a ruby setting.
“This was Mama’s engagement ring. She gave it to me when Gordon and I got married. It was my something borrowed, and then she told me to just keep it. But Birdie said you and Ava were seeing each other and that it might be serious.”
“It is,” Hunt said.
Emma nodded. “I want you to have it for her. Even if it’s not the engagement ring you give her, you’ll both have something of Mama’s.”
Hunt saw the tears in her eyes and felt a sadness for what they’d lost, and then she put the box in his hand and he got his first good look.
“Lord…I remember this ring, but I never knew it was her engagement ring. Are you sure you want to give this up?”
“I’m sure. If Ava is the woman you love, remember Mama helped raise her, too. She will love it, and I’ll bet she remembers it, too.”
Hunt closed the box. “Thank you for thinking of her.”
“I was thinking of you, too,” Emma said. “Mama would be really happy to know it was being passed on to another member of the family.”
“Then, I thank you, and this is so going to be Ava’s engagement ring. Next time you see it, it’s going to be on her finger.”
Emma sighed. “I’m glad you approve. Now I’m going to get out of here so you can finish your lunch. I can’t wait to see what this place looks like when you’re through with it, and I keep wondering who’ll live in it next.”
“It needs to belong to new people who’ll put good energy into it,” Hunt said.
“Agreed,” Emma said. “So, Birdie said we were all coming over soon to get what we want of Mama’s stuff before the auction.”
“She said something about coming this Saturday,” Hunt said.
“Then Saturday it is. You and Birdie are the only two take-charge, organized people in the family.”
Hunt walked her to the door, then after she was gone, took the ring and put it in an inner pocket of his duffel bag. Now he needed to figure out the perfect way to give it to Ava tonight.
* * *
A new shipment of cattle cubes had just come into the store, and Arnold Hollis was getting ready to move pallets to the far end of the building. But when he got on the forklift and started it up, the lift wouldn’t work. He got off, saw oil leaking out of the hydraulics, and sighed, then went looking for Dub.