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"Since we're painting on Saturday night, if you have any down time in the next couple of days, let's get started taking stuff off the walls and cleaning. The more of the prep we can have done before Saturday night, the quicker it'll go." I spent the morning in the cafe helping out with breakfast and lunch while making a list of everything we needed to do in preparation for painting after closing on Saturday.
"What if the customers ask about the photos?" Sally asked.
"I'll put up a sign. Just tell them we're going to be painting, and they should come back next week to check it out,"
While I was in my office making an "Excuse our mess while we remodel" sign, my phone rang.
"Hi, Tom," I said.
"Hi, Everly. Are we still on for tonight?"
"As long as nothing catches fire." Tom was the local fire chief and also part of a hotshot crew that fought fires in the surrounding forests. Our first date was interrupted for a burning barn.
"The only fire I plan on dealing with tonight is the one between us," he said.
I wasn't sure how to respond to that. Tom was definitely hot. He was very tall, with lots of muscles, reddish brown hair, and a killer smile. There was no doubt that Tom Beckett could get me hot and bothered. The issue was how fast our relationship was progressing. I was trying to take things slow, but I hadn't had this much attention from a man since my divorce more than a year ago. I promised myself I wouldn't jump into anything with any of the three guys I'd gotten involved with since moving to Wilkins’ Gap. I call them my guyumvirate and often dream of them being my three bachelor contestants on that classic tv dating show.
"OK then. I'll see you tonight."
"Did I make you uncomfortable, Everly? If I did, I'm sorry."
"It's fine, Tom. It's just now I've got an image of you in fireman mode stuck in my head for the rest of the day. It's going to be a long afternoon."
"Good. I'll be thinking of you thinking of me. See you at seven."
After enjoying a couple of minutes to fantasize about my date, I headed out to the Quonset to check out more of the files that Chance and I had been going through. Of course, being back in the cryptid lab, turned my mind to Chance. Tom was hot and sexy, but if that were the only criteria, he didn't hold a candle to Chance Munroe. There was no shortage of heat between Chance and me, but the man was impossible. He drove me crazy, and I seemed destined to cause him bodily harm. I literally pushed him off a cliff on our first trip into the forest trying to reach a destination specified by my Uncle Harry in his will.
So far, we found files where Harry had been cataloging reports of cryptid sightings and evidence finds from around the world. We had yet to figure out why. I found a journal in an envelope taped to the bottom of one of the tables in the lab. We believe it details observations of a bigfoot family unit made by Uncle Harry and Chance's dad over a long period of time. After checking a couple of files from three different file cabinet drawers, I had more questions than answers.
I was trying to understand whether Harry just documented anything cryptid related that he came across on social media or if he only documented certain incidents. We moved all of Harry's journals, papers, and books from my apartment over the cafe, down to the lab, so it was all in one place. I gave up on the file drawers and went to the boxes. I stacked up the stuff that Harry left out on each table, clearing space to pile the stuff from upstairs. By the time I finished there were stacks for handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, printouts, journals, and books.
Tackling the books first would be easiest. At this point, I just wanted to leaf through the pages to see if there were any papers tucked inside. If not, I could box up the books, until we decided whether they would have a permanent home in the cafe, Harry's lab, or the cryptid museum if we decided to create one. Many of the books I checked had highlighted passages, but nothing inside. I was making good progress until my alarm sounded telling me it was time to head upstairs and get ready for my date with Tom. Before I left the lab, I looked through the box of journals. I'd like to tackle them in a systematic way, but I didn't have time to sort through them now. I pulled two from the box, locked the lab and the Quonset, and headed upstairs.