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It was truly humbling.
He choked out, “Thanks so much, everyone. You have no idea how much I appreciate everyone showing up.”
Chris shrugged and spread his hands. “Not much happening downtown on Mondays and Tuesdays,” he rumbled.
Summer gripped Brock’s hand tightly. “I’m overwhelmed, you guys.” Her voice shook, and she sounded as stunned as Brock felt. “We never expected… thank you. Thank you so much! Most of you already know that I’m not very handy,” she continued. A soft ripple of laughter moved through the onlookers. “But I promise you I will cook you agreatlunch and dinner.”
Everyone clapped and cheered.
“I guess we should go unload the lamps from the back of your truck,” Summer suggested to Brock. “Then I’ll check the walk-in to make sure we have enough supplies to feed everyone.”
∞∞∞
The next few hours flew by. Autumn, with Jayden in tow, showed up to take photos and film video snippets of the renovation work for the diner’s social media feeds.
“Given our connections toRestoring Seattle, I’m planning to hashtag the heck out of these renovation postings,” Brock overheard her promising Summer.
As promised, Summer spent most of the day working in the kitchen, with Marlene’s son Austin helping her prep the fixings for lunch and dinner.
Brock and a few others, including Summer’s dad, set to work under Jason’s guidance, installing the barn wood wainscoting along the walls and on the front of the breakfast counter.
The loud whir of the saw from outside and the machine-gun rapid tat-tat-tat of multiple nail guns provided a constant level of background noise in the crowded dining room, interspersed with bursts of country music blaring tinnily from someone’s boombox.
Mid-morning, Summer emerged briefly from the kitchen to supervise the removal of the junky cowboy memorabilia from the dining room walls. She’d warned Brock beforehand that she intended to whittle the current collection down to a few, carefully selected pieces.
He was on his knees, wielding a nail gun as he fastened vertical strips of barn wood to the front of the breakfast counter. He stopped what he was doing to admire Summer’s sweet ass in her jeans as she went up on a ladder.
With an air of satisfaction, she hauled down the bison head mount from its longstanding place over the kitchen door. When she descended, the huge, shaggy, dusty head cradled in her arms, she began marching towards the front door. Brock got a bad feeling.
“Hey, wait a minute, Ms. Fancy Pants. Where are you taking that?” he demanded. “You’re not seriously gonna throw it away, are you?”
“I’m taking it out to the dumpster, where it belongs.” Summer replied, confirming his fears. “Unless it has some kind of sentimental value?”
Brock scowled, fighting the temptation to tell her it belonged to his grandfather.
Bob Snowberry, who was working nearby, laughed. “Don’t let him fool you, Summer. That old thing was already here when Brock’s mother Pamela bought the diner from Jack Peterson’s grandpa.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Summer gave him a brilliant smile. “And now it’s gone.”
Brock sighed loudly. “Great. Thanks for the support, Mr. S.”
Bob only chuckled and went back to nailing wood strips against the diner’s wall.
By the time lunchtime rolled around and Summer began setting up a taco bar buffet on the breakfast counter, the dining room already looked dramatically different.
Half of the barn wood wainscoting was now installed, and the upper part of the walls had been painted a soft sage color. And the bison head over the kitchen door had been replaced with a stenciled image of The Yummy Cowboy Diner’s new logo.
Autumn had created the logo, and Brock loved it. It was the stylized silhouette of a cowboy kneeling next to a campfire, coffee mug in hand, and an old-fashioned coffee pot hung over the flames.
Meanwhile, Jenna and Vince were leading the efforts to lay the vinyl plank flooring. It had the same weathered look as the salvaged barn wood, but it provided a non-slip, easy-to-mop surface. By lunchtime, they were nearly finished with the flooring, which meant that Jason and his team could install the new banquettes as soon as Brock, Bob, and the others finished the wainscoting.
Rick, his dad, and his two brothers were perched at the top of ladders, busily removing the old ceiling fluorescent lights and hanging the barn lights from long cables.
Outside on the street, Jason directed the reconfiguration of the diner’s booths into long banquettes that would line the dining room’s walls.
Staple gun in hand, Summer’s mom Priscilla had taken charge of reupholstering the banquettes, chairs, and stools with new vinyl fabric in a darker shade of green that complemented the wall color.
Marlene, Katie, Terri, and Autumn were busy covering the Formica tabletops with the custom wallpaper Autumn had designed and printed using a collage of old Snowberry Springs newspaper clippings and advertisements.
