Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)

Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)

Tymber Dalton





Chapter One



Now…



A fine patina of drywall dust covered the ten men sitting around the table. Since the club was closed for business, and they were there to work, it had been Derrick who’d brought several six-packs of beer and stashed them in the club’s fridge.

It was the least he could do for his friends in return for them volunteering to help. Later, they’d be eating pizzas, on him.

“Wow,” Seth said, staring at the large doorway now opening the dungeon play space to the unit next door. “That’s so weird seeing that there. Good-weird, but weird.”

Even weirder, seeing all the play equipment shoved against the back wall, covered with cheap, plastic drop cloths to protect as much as they could from the drywall dust and to make cleanup easier later on.

Kel nodded as he took a long pull on his bottle of beer. “Good thing the landlord isn’t a ballbuster about shit like this.”

Everyone else laughed.

Kel was the landlord.

They’d framed in the doorway, making sure the wall separating the units still maintained its structural integrity. Through it, illuminated by daylight let in by two large, opaque skylights in the roof, they could see the empty warehouse space next door, which was now directly accessible via the new doorway.

Derrick slowly shook his head. “I never in a million years dreamed we’d be doing this,” he said. “I just wanted to get the parties out of our houses so we could invite more people. So we could have larger classes. This…”

He took a swallow of his own beer to buy him some time. “I wish Kaden was here to see this,” he quietly said. “He was one of our biggest supporters when we first started. He was always in here, helping us get stuff ready before we opened. He even contributed some money that he wouldn’t let me refuse to help buy equipment. Discounting his fees on the incorporation paperwork and stuff. Everything he did. He would have loved this.”

“Yes,” Seth said. “He would have.”

Derrick held up his bottle. “To Kaden,” he quietly toasted.

Everyone reached in with their own bottles, or bottles of water, depending on what they were drinking, and clinked with him.

“To Kaden,” they echoed.

It was a melancholy moment. And they’d only been at it for a couple of hours this Monday just a little past noon. They had plans to work all day until late in the evening. Several others would be helping throughout the week as their work schedules allowed, to assist with painting and prepping the new space, but this had been one of the critical parts—joining the new unit to the existing club, giving them even more space, as well as another bathroom.

“Remember that night when we first started talking about this?” Derrick asked.

Most everyone there nodded, except for Seth. He hadn’t been there.

“We were sitting around Kaden and Leah’s pool,” Ross said.

Mac and Sully laughed. “Man. That was a wild night,” Sully said.

Seth wore a melancholy smile. “I heard about some of those nights,” he said. “From Kade and from Leah.”

Tony chuckled. “Wow. Feels like forever. Hard to believe it wasn’t even eleven years ago.”

“Whose crazy idea was it for me to open this dang place, anyway?” Derrick joked.

“Kaden’s,” they all responded.

Well, everyone but Seth, who looked particularly contemplative at the moment.

“Then a few months later,” Ed said, “he asked you about it again.”

“Yeah,” Derrick said. “I’d talked to a few people but hadn’t really done anything concrete yet. I’d even gone as far as to have Kaden go through the zoning laws and stuff. I talked to the sheriff’s office and the zoning board.”

Derrick snickered. “I didn’t tell Marcia any of that at the time, because I didn’t even think I was really going to do it. It was more out of curiosity than anything. I knew we were outgrowing the house parties and it was only a matter of time before something bad happened. Then I didn’t find any spots at first, and just kind of…let it drop.”

“And then Kaden stirred the pot again about six months after you all first talked about it,” Tony joked. “‘Hey, Derrick. You still thinking about opening a play space like we talked about? I think I know a perfect location.’”

“Oh, yeah.” Derrick sighed. “Then Kel had to say…what was it you said?”

Kel grinned. “Hey, yeah. That industrial complex I just bought has an empty double unit. I was thinking it’d be the perfect place to hold parties.”

Derrick pointed a finger at him. “Ah, yes. That. Then Kaden piled on that he’d looked into the zoning already, and it was golden. And then Mike Foster piled on about what a great idea it was, and what did I need to get things started.” He took another swallow of beer. “Rat bastard. Then they went and moved up to Crystal River not too long after that.”

Derrick grinned. “Man, that was a fun first party before we really got serious with it.” He pointed at Ed. “You, you killjoy. You had to go spoil it for us. Here I’d fooled myself that I’d gone overboard and didn’t need any paperwork. That Kaden was just being an overzealous and overprotective friend.”