Author's note: Chapter 3! Well if you're not excited for it, at least I am! :D
Thank you, though, if you have stumbled into chapter 3! Your support is much appreciated :) Please do leave reviews and tell me what you think - every read, review, follow and favourite means a lot to me!
Chapter 3
To: Iris Hammenbolt540Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcQ8C3hHRO
From: Marley and Clarissa Marl&ClarHammenbolt540Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDgEX2Jz5Wz
Subject: The weekend
Iris,540Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS3fQph51JJ
Your father and I want to know if you're coming back next weekend.
Your mother,
Clarissa
To: Marley and Clarissa Marl&ClarHammenbolt540Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXjAgHnUvP
From: Iris Hammenbolt540Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDn2yFEY0f
Subject: RE: The weekend
Sorry, busy this week.
Iris Hammenbolt
I'd done the dreaded job of calling Mrs. Hines a few days ago to confirm that I was coming to the lake house trip. She was 'ecstatic' that I would be coming along and couldn't wait 'til Friday evening. At least that made one of us.
Friday had approached sooner than I had liked and with Stephanie out of the house, I was left alone in the quiet of our townhouse. The silence seemed to drag time on as I waited for Chance and his mother to come pick me up. At quarter past five, I heard the sound of a car pulling up outside the house. A knock on the door shortly followed.
"Good evening, dear!" Mrs. Hines greeted me in her cheerful voice and extended her arms towards me. For a few seconds, I just stared at her outstretched arms, not knowing what to make of the situation. We'd met but once and she was greeting me with a hug. I reached forward and awkwardly put my arms around her. The moment was ruined by the teasing voice of Chance Hines.
"Do I get a hug too?"
I scowled at him as he walked towards us with an easy grace. Not even five seconds in and he was getting on my nerves. This was going to be one hell of a long weekend.
"Just joking," he laughed, reading the frown across my face. "Glad you decided to come along," he smiled, his eyes twinkling. Did he do that just to rub it in? He reached forward for my bags as if to help me carry them but I pulled back.
"I can carry them."
"Ok."
I sat in the back seats along with Mrs. Hines while Chance took off for our two or so hour drive. Mrs. Hines never failed to keep up light conversation. I nodded to what she said, entranced by her vigour and enthusiasm.
"So how long have you been in the design industry?" she asked.
"Coming up to two years now."
"Are family here?"
I shook my head, "They live out in the countryside a couple of hours from the city."
"Oh do you go and visit them much?"
"Occasionally, when I get the chance to."
"Your parents must miss you, do they ever come and visit then?"
"They've… never been out here."
"Really, they don't know what they're missing out on! You must get them to come visit you one day so you can show them around. Why, there's plenty to see and do here in the city, more so than in the countryside, I can imagine – oh, that's not to say anything against the countryside, of course."
I smiled but didn't comment, wondering if she'd be saying the same if she actually knew my parents.
"So why here then? You must have picked this place for a reason. A boyfriend? Friends?"
If only she knew.
I shook my head. "I heard this place is great for designers."
"You've definitely come to the right place," Chance piped in from the front.
"It's not easy in the design industry, is it? Chance would know, being in the design industry himself."
Curious, I caught Chance's eye in the rear view mirror. Smile lines by his eyes indicated he was grinning.
"Surprised I'm in design?"
"What do you do?"
"I'm an architect."
'Architect'… With that word, a pang suddenly sunk in my chest. Darren, he would have been one now too…
Mrs. Hines continued her banter as the car coasted along. I watched the passing greenery that hugged either side of the road - It was more of a dirt track than a road, really. We'd been driving for just over two hours when night started to fall. The dark silhouettes of the trees on either side of us had gone, revealing a clearing in the distance.
"Ah, we're here!" Mrs. Hines cheered.
The car pulled to a stop and everyone got out.
"Well, welcome to our lake house!" Mrs. Hines announced.
Chance stretched out his limbs with a satisfied sigh. In the dark, I could just make out the outline of the lake house.
"Now, you know, Chance designed this house himself."
I looked from Mrs. Hines to Chance. He smiled.
"What can I say, it's my job. No charge for this one though," he winked.
We grabbed our belongings and headed for the lake house. As we approached, lights flickered to life outside, bathing the house in a warm yellow glow. Quaint and cosy, the house looked like a cottage centred in the warmth of the lighting. Chance unlocked the front door and we followed him in. My eyes roamed the open space surrounded by wooden walls. Directly centred before us was a fireplace.
"Cosy," I commented.
"Don't you think? This is all of Chance's fine work," she smiled.
I stared, awed by the enthusiasm and pride emanating from Mrs. Hines.
"I just don't know about the décor, hence I hired your help."
"I'm sure we'll bring it up to your expectations."
Chance showed me around the lake house- all two stories of it, including the four bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen.
"So, that's the grand tour, what do you think?"
I paused and admitted, "It's rather unique."
He grinned, "So you like it then?"
"Right."
We reached the doors of our rooms, opposite each other's.
"Well, if you need anything, just give me a knock, alright?"
I nodded and went into my room.
My body clock woke me up at seven o'clock the next morning out of habit. After showering, dressing and going downstairs, I caught sight of Mrs. Hines working in the kitchen.
"Morning," I greeted.
"Oh good morning, dear! Did you sleep well?"
I nodded to conceal the lie.
"I know it's different from your own bed so you may not be used to it but I hope it was alright."
I smiled, "It was fine. Do you need any help?" I asked while surveying the array of utensils and ingredients littering the kitchen bench.
"Oh no, dear, you're a guest here. I couldn't let you do any work."
"But you're letting me stay here for free, at least let me do something to help."
She laughed, "But you're doing me a great favour by helping re-design this place."
"That's my job."
Mrs. Hines shook her head, "Instead of my own son helping me, I have the guest helping me. That boy, he's probably still asleep from all that driving and the late nights he does. Let's get started on breakfast then and then we can have a chat about the re-design."
I helped Mrs. Hines with breakfast and soon we were seated at the dining table.
"It's nice to have someone to share a meal with for once."
I looked up at her, "Do you live alone?"
She nodded and sighed, "My husband passed away so it's just me now."
Surprised, I suddenly didn't know what to say. For all the cheerfulness she exuded, I never would have guessed that she was a widow.
"I'm sorry," I replied.
"Oh, no, dear, you weren't to know. Besides, I think I'm pretty well off anyway. I'm lucky Chance lives close by so I'm not all alone. He's a good boy, he is. You know, I'm glad you could come along with us for this trip. It's nice to have some female company for a change," she laughed.
"Thank you for inviting me on this trip."
We continued the light banter over breakfast and soon found ourselves talking about the re-design. It had been a seamless transition – a natural progression of the conversation that didn't need forcing. It was like Mrs. Hines was as equally interested in the design as me. A couple of hours later, we'd still not moved from where we sat and the chatter continued. Then Chance Hines appeared. He was half-naked from the waist up, chest barely covered by a towel around his neck and his hair was silky wet.
"Mornin'."
"Morning sweetheart. Oh, put a shirt on will you? You're not at home anymore," Mrs. Hines chastised.
"But this is home, isn't it?" he smiled, his voice light and teasing. Only it wasn't funny - at least not to me. It was annoying.
"We have a guest here!"
"Alright, I'll go put on a shirt. I'm sure I won't scare off your interior designer that easily though," he chuckled before going back upstairs.
"Well, look at that, he's just gotten up and it's nearly time for lunch! Well, it'll be brunch for him. I better go make something."
"Would you like any help?"
"Oh nonsense, dear! What did I tell you before? You're a guest here, just enjoy yourself and make yourself at home, alright?"
I smiled as Mrs. Hines went off to the kitchen. As she worked, I decided to make the most of time and start measuring out the house. I was on top of a chair, attempting to measure the width of a window when the sound of Chance's voice startled me into dropping the tape.
"Here."
I turned and looked down at him as he bent down to grab the measuring tape and hand it to me.
"Thanks."
"That doesn't really look like a one person job."
I didn't reply as I made my second attempt to measure the window.
"You know, if you want to know the measurement of anything, you could just ask me. I did design this place remember, I probably remember a lot of the measurements."
That finally got my attention and I stopped what I was doing.
"This window, for example, is one thousand six hundred millimetres wide, if I recall correctly. Want to check?"
Without waiting for an answer, he stepped up. The next thing I knew, he was right next to me, standing on the chair. And the chair was only so big.
"What are you doing?" I hissed – or tried to, it was more of a surprised gasp.
"Helping you measure," he replied, attention focused on measuring.
"Chance Hines, if you don't get off, you're going to break the chair!"
He laughed and I could feel the reverberations of his chest from how near he stood, "Relax, will you?"
Relax. Was that a command? Was he telling me what to do, again?! My moment of anger was replaced by an overwhelming nothingness as I froze, standing awkwardly between his bracketing arms. This was way too close for comfort. So close that I could feel the heat emanating from him, see the rise and fall of his chest. The overpowering nearness of him was almost suffocating. I didn't know what to do. Thankfully, the moment was over in a flash.
"One thousand six hundred millimetres exactly!" he announced, retracting the measuring tape and setting me free. I was finally able to catch a breathe of fresh air. Immediately I got off from the chair, claiming back my personal space.
"So, you want to tell me what you guys got up to during those last few hours?"
"Not particularly," I muttered, though more to myself than to him.
He laughed, "Let me rephrase then, show me what you got up to in those few hours with my mom. I'm curious to see what you both came up with."
I scowled at his demanding tone. Was he always commanding people to do things?
"Come on, I might even have some suggestions."
"Fine. We went through some colour swatches. I suggested some of the warm colours to achieve the cosy feel your mum wants."
"Ok, what colours have you got?"
I handed him a pile of colour swatches. "I suggested having a few rugs in the lounge against the wooden floors."
"Nice. I like rugs." I gave him a dry look. "No seriously, I do. The polished wood gets cold sometimes so the rugs are a nice idea."
Oh. He was actually being serious for once?
"These are what we came up with for the curtains."
He nodded while looking at the colours. "I like this colour," he said, referring to the pale yellow.
"Really?" Because I did too. Bright and warm but not too much. Not that he needed to know I liked it best - that we were in agreement about something.
"Yeah, it's a nice colour, bright, warm, but not too bright."
I scowled. What was he, a mind reader now?
"Did Iris tell you what we discussed while you were asleep?" Mrs. Hines asked, coming out from the kitchen.
He nodded, "Seems like you guys are making good progress."
"You should take Iris out for a hike around the lake soon, the view's absolutely stunning."
"Won't you join us?" I asked.
"Oh no, my old bones wouldn't be able to take it," she joked. "You two go."
"But –"
"You'll be able to keep me company," Chance grinned.
Keep him company? Who wanted to keep him company?
"I wouldn't mind going out to the lake for a look but-"
"The two of you can set off after Chance finishes his brunch."
"I-"
"It's settled then," Chance grinned.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
