before the next cold snap

The wedding was not exactly on Ezra's mind. Besides, he felt he'd worried too much already about it.

No, this was more important. He had the heating service over at Gage and Sage's place. They were deep in the basement talking about the old furnace.

"Well, we need a better one." He'd see somehow it was paid for. He was working part-time now at the high school. He hadn't exactly taught anything yet, but he was the keyboard player for every little concert that came along. It was extra money. Actually, it paid really well which still shocked him.

The old man agreed. There was something in the van. A couple of the younger fellows pulled something out. Honestly, Ezra didn't know furnaces were that compact. Then he figured out, it was mainly parts.

He stayed out of the way as he watched with his arms crossed. Finally, he heard Gage upstairs, who made his way down to see what was up.

"What's this?" Gage grinned as if it were so unexpected.

Ezra told him he felt bad about the furnace. It had been on his mind. Besides, Gage felt more like a brother to him than anyone he knew, and after all this was Ezra's house.

The men were busy with the furnace.

"Come upstairs, want to show you what we did." Gage lead the way. "You didn't have to go to so much trouble, really." He showed him the new windows in the bedroom and the kitchen.

"Me and Trev put them in over the weekend. Sally's husband down at the grocery store works down at Menard's. He knows this stuff. So he showed us how. He helped me measure, and we did it." Gage was all grins. Of course, the old bay window in the livingroom would probably take a professional job. They'd put plastic over it and taped it up. It really wasn't all that visible with a curtain over it.

"And look, Sally gave us this heater that looks like a fireplace, that we put in the fireplace." Gage acted as if Christmas came early.

"But the furnace needed to be fixed." Ezra was still concerned with carbon monoxide. He'd hate for anything horrible to happen to them, especially with a baby on the way.

"Yeah, it did." Gage nodded. "I'm glad you want to help, but you've got a wedding coming up."

"You guys are coming, right?" Ezra guessed it was too late to ask him he wanted to be a best man.

"Of course, we're coming." Gage patted his back. "We wouldn't miss it."