Page 48 of Finding Forever

“The plumber’s already installed everything,” she said. “I called the store, but they won’t take the faucets back now that they’ve been used.”

“You don’t need to take them back,” Dave told her.

Beth looked at him. “We might not have a choice.”

He cleared his throat. Maybe upgrading the faucets wasn’t such a good idea. “I’ll sort it out.”

“I should have checked the boxes when they arrived.”

Beth’s worried frown undid all the good Dave thought he’d done. “You had a hundred other things going on.”

“That doesn’t make eighteen hundred dollars disappear.”

No, Dave thought. But his credit card receipt would.

He probably should tell her. It would be easy enough. He could explain that the project hadn’t paid anything extra. He’d covered the difference because he wanted her to have the faucets she liked.

Except he could already imagine her reaction. She’d tell him it was too much money. Then she’d insist on paying him back. And when he refused, she wouldn’t be happy.

“I know the manager at the plumbing store,” he said. “Let me call him.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know. But I buy a lot from them. It’ll be easier if I talk to him.”

Beth looked down at the invoice again.

She cared about every dollar they spent on the center. She’d spent hours comparing prices, accepting second choices and finding savings wherever she could because she wanted as much of the money as possible to go toward the people who would use the building.

That was one of the reasons Dave had upgraded the faucets in the first place.

Beth rarely chose something simply because she liked it. For once, he’d wanted her to have the first choice instead of the sensible one.

“I’ll call him today,” he said. “Don’t pay this until I’ve spoken to him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

Some of the tension left her shoulders. “Okay.”

He folded the invoice and put it in his pocket. “I’ll give this back to you as soon as I’ve sorted out the issue.”

“Thank you.”

Their eyes met, and for a moment, Dave forgot about plumbing stores and invoices. Sunday night came rushing back, and he wondered if she was remembering it too.

The faint color on her cheeks suggested she might be.

Hank cleared his throat and Dave resisted the urge to throw the tape measure at him.

Beth looked away first. “I’d better get back to the office. I’ve got another stack of invoices to go through.”

That caught Dave’s attention. “If anything else seems strange, bring it to me.”

Beth gave him an amused look. “Why? Do you have friends in every store in town?”

“Not every store.”