The Lakeside Inn, Leeanna Morgan [rosie project TXT] 📗

guests and using her amazing cooking skills to create mouth-watering dishes.

Wyatt leaned forward and smiled. “You’re already ten steps ahead of me, aren’t you?”

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself. We have more than enough room and, if we cleared out the attic, it would make the perfect honeymoon suite. We could showcase local crafts and food, and organize sightseeing trips for anyone who wanted to explore the lake. Thank you for your amazing idea.”

“You’re welcome. If you need a glowing review of your home baking, just ask. I haven’t tasted muffins and cookies as good as yours in years.”

“I’ll let Barbara and Diana know you’re impressed. They do most of the baking.” Penny held up her coffee cup. “To great ideas, good friends, and an exciting twelve months.”

Wyatt clinked his coffee cup against hers. “I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.”

Penny smiled. “Even if it means more noise coming from our house?”

“Make as much noise as you want. I bought a pair of earplugs from your mom.”

The teasing light in Wyatt’s eyes made her sigh. Remembering that he would only be here for another couple of months was even more important than telling her sisters about his idea.

Wyatt looked through his studio at his neighbors’ house and frowned. The earbuds he’d bought silenced most sound but, for the last fifteen minutes, an almighty screech had set his teeth on edge.

The painting he was working on was going nowhere so, instead of wondering what on earth Penny and her sisters were doing, he cleaned his brush and headed across the lawn.

Charlie was lying on the back veranda with his nose pressed to the ground and his paws over his ears. If Wyatt had to be in the same house as the noise, he’d cover his ears, too.

With a quick knock on the door, he let himself into the kitchen. No one was there, so he followed the noise into the dining room.

Ten feet up a rickety ladder, Penny’s jean-clad figure was perched on a rung as she cut through the drywall. Under any other circumstances he would have taken a moment to appreciate what she was doing, but not today. He hurried across the room, grabbed both rails of the ladder, and choked through a cloud of plaster dust.

The screech of the reciprocating saw stopped and Penny looked down. “Wyatt? What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see who was making so much noise. I should have known it would be you.”

Penny unhooked her face mask. “We needed to do a little reorganizing to make your Bed and Breakfast idea work. What do you think?”

“You’ve cut an enormous hole in the wall. My only question is why?”

“If five couples stay at the same time, we’ll need more space in the dining room. So we’re opening this wall to make the dining room larger.”

Wyatt could see the sense in what they were doing, but it didn’t make the job less messy.

Penny handed him the saw. “I just need to pull off the last piece of drywall and then I’m done.”

“Be careful.”

“I’m always careful.” With the saw and Wyatt out of the way, Penny grabbed hold of the drywall and twisted it sideways. It hit the floor with an almighty bang.

From where he stood, it was easy to see why they’d removed part of the wall. Large French windows in the unused room opened onto the veranda, letting in lots of natural light and a view of the rose garden. It would make an impressive addition to the dining room, but it would take more than a hole in the wall to finish it.

“Do you know how to frame the hole you’ve created?”

Penny pulled a hammer out of the tool belt strapped to her waist. “I wouldn’t be my father’s daughter if I didn’t.”

He couldn’t help smiling. The hammer in Penny’s hand was pink. Bright, in-your-face pink that stood out like a neon sign in Las Vegas. “Where did you find your hammer?”

“Dad gave it to me for my last birthday. It’s a limited edition and really hard to find. Were you going for a walk or did I interrupt your painting?”

“I was working, but it doesn’t matter.”

Barbara and Diana walked into the dining room carrying two long lengths of wood.

“Hi, Wyatt,” Barbara said. “I told Penny we’d have to cut through the wall quickly so we didn’t interrupt you.”

“It was no problem. I needed a break, anyway.”

Diana lowered her end of the wood to the floor. “That’s good, because so do we.”

“We do?” Penny asked.

Holding out her hands, Diana showed Penny the blister on her palm. “Chopping firewood is hard work. I understand why we need to get ready for winter, but doing it now seems a little crazy.”

“It always pays to be prepared,” Penny insisted. “Once we open the Bed and Breakfast, we’ll be too busy with our guests to worry about having enough wood for the winter. I’ll bring in the rest of the timber framing while you and Barbara make coffee.”

“Diana can make the coffee,” Barbara said. “You’ll need someone to help you carry the wood inside.”

“I’ll help Penny,” Wyatt said.

“Sounds good to me,” Diana said. “Can you bring in the cans of paint, too? I left them in the back of the truck.”

Penny raised her eyebrows. “Is there anything else you want us to do?”

“You could stand outside and give your T-shirt a good flick. You’re covered in plaster dust.”

Penny looked down at her shirt. “It’s not too bad.”

Diana’s scrunched up nose told Wyatt exactly what she thought of her sister’s comment.

“It was okay when you pulled it on this morning.”

He didn’t have any issues with Penny’s clothes. In fact, he thought she looked positively cute in her ripped jeans and baggy T-shirt.

Penny picked up an old piece of drywall and threw it in the bag of trash. “If you want the room finished, you’d better be nice.”

With an impish grin, Diana brushed the dust off her sister’s shoulders. “I’m always nice. Especially