When Stede wakes up in his new house, it’s with a smile as he sits up to rub the sleep out of his eyes, then gets up to get his day started.
First things first, he puts an assortment of pictures all along the mantle in the room he’s designated to be his writing room, then takes his cup of tea to the desk.
“It’s only a silly romance, Bonnet.” he tries to hype himself up as he sits down. “Colin Firth in Love Actually comes to mind.”
He pulls his laptop put of his bag and gently sets it on the desk, along with a miniature notepad.
“Romance. Romance romance romance.” he mutters. “People destined to be together just by a glance. Or because they bought the same pair of gloves.”
He opens the laptop, still musing, “Or because they were in love in a past life.”
He takes a breath, ready to start, but before he can, a loud noise grabs his attention.
“H-hello? What’s going on?” he calls out, and when Jim walks into the doorway, asking, “Yes?” Stede repeats,
“What is all that racket I’m hearing?” Stede asks, but surprisingly, Jim doesn’t appear to know either, and as they come further into the room, the noise resumes, ruling out Jim as a suspect, but still able to determine,
“Is there some construction going on?”
Stede is stunned on top of confused, “What construction could they possibly be doing here?”, then stands up, shaking his head, “Ridiculous.”, then going to the window to see for himself, “Utterly—”
The word goes unsaid as he’s met with the startling realization that no, it’s apparently not ridiculous at all, as a construction crew has set up outside in plain view of the house.
Stede shares a look with Jim, before looking back at the crew, and realizing with a start, “No, they can’t be!”, and rushing out of the room.
“Hello! Yes, hello!” Stede calls out as he runs out of the house to where the construction crew is looking over blueprints. “Scuse me, pardon me!”
He’s barely grabbed a dressing gown and not bothered with shoes when he finally reaches them, demanding, “Just what do all of you think you’re doing here?”
The crew’s barely stopped to look at him when Stede blurts out, “It’s you?”
The bearded man from the coffee shop laughs before he replies, “I think I’m the one that should be asking that about you.”
Blushing, Stede moves to wrap the dressing gown around him tighter in embarrassment, before repeating, “What in the bloody hell do you think you’re doing out here?”
The bearded man doesn’t appear to understand, and says as much, “Sorry?”
“What could you possibly be doing on my property?” Stede enunciates.
That seems to surprise the man, “You own this place?”, as he rolls up the blueprints in his hand. “We were informed the property wasn’t occupied.”
“It wasn’t until recently.” Stede tries to explain, to which the bearded man nods.
“Place is a real beauty.” he starts, before gesturing around him. “But the rest of this is property of Barbados leased by the power company.”
Stede repeats in shock, “Did you say the power company?”
The bearded man nods, “Indeed. We’re in charge of building the dam.”
YOU ARE READING
A Pirate and a Gentleman
RomanceStede Bonnet, a successful novelist, buys his dream home on a beautiful beachfront. However, Edward Teach, a project manager, is in charge of building a hydroelectric dam on the beach, so Stede has 30 days to change his mind.
