Eight

Things had seemed a little awkward at first, but by the time they all took their separate cars to the airport things were comfortable again. Grace was a little worried that Eli had seemed baffled at her insistence on driving herself. 

It wasn’t intended as a slight. If things didn’t work out she didn’t want to have to rely on anyone else to get home when they came back. Frankly, it was just the smart way of doing things.

The little plane Eli was flying them in wasn’t as little as she’d expected. Rhys peppered him with questions about the Piper Matrix they climbed into. It was spacious inside and comfortable and the four of them chatted for the hour it took to get to the little airport outside of the town the business was based in.

Their bags were taken to the B&B they were being put up in, a place called Ruelle’s, while they went to visit the furniture store and meet the big boss, Mr. Germain and his wife. The business had to be doing well with the plane and the SUVs they were being driven around in. 

Grace fidgeted nervously holding onto her large purse and the canvas bag with the loaf of cheddar bread. “It was silly to bring bread wasn’t it?”

“It was sweet, I don’t think they’ll complain.” Jacob tried to reassure her but it didn’t seem like he was entirely disagreeing.

“They may not complain but it is a little nuts, I mean, who takes bread to a job interview?” Ashton’s tone made her wilt.

“My mom.” Jacob piped up making them all look at him. “My mom always did stuff like that and people loved it. Everybody loved my mom.”

“My granny does that, too.” Rhys spoke up as well. “If you’re going somewhere to meet anybody you can almost bet she has bread, or cake, or cookies in a box to take along. Hell, she took a pie to the car dealer and got a price two hundred less than they tried to give my sister.”

“What?!” Ashton was laughing and looking at him like he was crazy. “You lie!”

“Swear to God.” Rhys held up his hand. “Women can do that s**t. Bringing bread is smart, man.”

“I’m a decent baker, but a two hundred dollar pie, I’d love to meet her and get her recipe.” Grace laughed and Rhys shook his head.

“She doesn’t have recipes. Granny just puts it all together.”

“Nice! I wish I was that good a baker.” Grace smiled and she could see the pride on Rhys’ face. 

“She says it just takes practice.”

The rest of the ride was filled with talk about the best baked goods they’d ever had, by the time they arrived at the store she was starved. She hoped the boss would have some kind of food spread.

Climbing out of the SUV, the store looked like any other large furniture store. Their driver ushered them inside. Inside, the craftsmanship was clear. These weren’t people who imported half of their stuff from China. These people were serious about their products, and seriously skilled. 

“Welcome.” A very large, imposing man was smiling at them flanked by a pair of smiling women, Eli, and the men who had come with him to judge the glass. “Eli, if you would.”

“Of course, Mr. Germain. Let me introduce you to Rhys David, Ashton Turner, Jacob Solis, and Grace Lucroy.” He paused with a smile, “Who I think has brought something.”

“I, um, I brought cheddar bread.” Grace lifted the bag and the smaller dark-haired woman almost bounded forward to take it.

“Cheddar bread!” 

“Mrs. Coiro,” Mr. Germain snapped his fingers and the woman returned to her place with a twisted, embarrassed smile.

Jacob grinned at the woman, it seemed impossible not to, she looked like a child that had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “I don’t blame her, it’s good bread.”

“I’ll look forward to trying it.” Mr. Germain smiled looking expectantly to Eli.

“Right, this is of course, Mr. and Mrs. Germain, the owners of the business here, Mrs. Coiro, who’s been the one doing our glass, and you’ve all already met the rest,” Eli added hurriedly.

Grace’s stomach dropped. 

“They might like the reminder,” Mrs. Coiro gently prodded.

“Would you like to take over, Mrs. Coiro?” Mr. Germain inquired wryly.

“I just meant that not everyone is good with names, sir.” She looked at Grace with a faint smile.

“If anyone forgets they can ask.” Eli frowned at the woman. 

Mrs. Coiro must have noticed her making a face or something when he didn’t introduce the others again. Eli was oblivious, it didn’t bode well for him in their relationship. 

Jacob reached out and rubbed her arm, volunteering, “Asking makes some people nervous. They get embarrassed because they can’t remember names even after being introduced several times.” He nodded to the dark-haired woman, “Mrs. Coiro is thoughtful and observant.” 

“She is.” Mr. Germain patted the woman on the back and she beamed. “Rob and Aurel Preda, Victor Goode,” he turned, gesturing to the men as he named them, “Eli, after Mrs. Coiro has taken our guests to look at the new glass shop, give them a tour of the furniture workspace.” 

Mrs. Germain stepped forward with a smile, “I can take the bread if you don’t want to carry it around.”

“Yes, please. I brought it as a gift.” Grace was smiling nervously.

“Thank you.”

Mrs. Coiro seemed like a ball of energy and enthusiasm as she showed them to the new building that had been set up for glass work. She showed them the machinery and tools almost giddily and rhapsodized over the glass they had gotten in to work with. There were suits to go over their clothes provided, there was even an on premises shower.

“Are you working on anything right now?” Grace asked her curiously.

The woman nodded, then tilted her head, “In the old shop they set up for me outside of the woodshop, not here. This one hasn’t been used yet, the idea was to keep the professional equipment for people trained to use it.”

“That’s cold. You’ve been working glass and they won’t even let you in the new shop?” Rhys looked offended on her behalf.

“I’m supposed to leave it to the professionals once they get some. I can go back to doing it as a hobby.” Her smile faltered. “Honestly, as much as I love it, I can’t do as much of it in the kind of quality they need. I picked it up from my foster dad mostly, school was never my thing.”

“You should try again. I was terrible in school.” Jacob shrugged, “But in the Fine Arts Program for glass I’ve done better than I ever did.”

“Same.” Ashton spoke up. “I hated school, but this wasn’t bad.”

“I saw a picture of the big window you did,” Grace dug out her phone and pulled it up showing it to them. 

Jacob looked at the window and then back to Mrs. Coiro, “That’s really decent work. You should definitely do the program.”

“Kinda Art Nouveau meets church windows.” Ashton handed the phone back to Grace. 

“I worked really hard on that one.” Mrs. Coiro’s smile was almost shy.

“You work really hard on all of them.” A scarred, muscular man had managed to come in silently behind them. 

“I thought you were working, my angel!” Mrs. Coiro bounced through them to give him a hug as he grinned.

“I was. Eli said I could come see how the tour is going.”

“You’re Mr. Coiro?” Rhys sounded a little disappointed.

“I am. If you’ll be working here you don’t have to call me Mr. Coiro, almost everyone calls me Remi.” He was amused but she couldn’t tell if it was at Rhys or the way his wife was wrapped around his waist.

“I think the tour is almost done, I was going to see if there was anything they wanted to ask about.”

“I’d like to see what you’re working on, if we’re allowed to see the old shop.” Grace tucked her phone back into her giant purse.

“Yeah, same here. I mean, it would be nice to get an idea of what gets asked for.” Jacob seconded while Rhys and Ashton nodded their agreement.

“I’m working on windows, actually. The one I made for Mr. Germain was such a hit, a few of his friends asked for windows of their own.” Mrs. Coiro rubbed her face against her husband’s chest before letting go of him. “I have two almost finished. Trying to do them and the fiddly little inlays for the furniture was way more than I could deal with. I have fits with the tiny pieces of glass.”