I typed a short answer and slipped the phone back into my bag.

“I’ll ask him,” I told Ben.

“I’ll stop by the building supply store before noon.”

I didn’t have to look very hard to find him.

When I pulled into the lot of the hardware store at the south end of town to buy sealant for the bathroom sink, I spotted his white Ford diesel parked in the commercial loading lane.

Inside, the deep rumble of diesel welding trucks on gravel drifted in through the open loading bay doors.