Armed and Devastating

by Julie Miller

  “And I’m in better shape than women half my age. Limber, too.” She reached through the steel framing and pushed aside the plastic tarp that captured the bulk of the dust and debris from the workmen’s sanding and drilling projects.

  Oh, no. “Come down and have breakfast,” Brooke begged.

  But Louise wasn’t listening. “Where do you think you get those long limbs of yours from? I’m fine.”

  Brooke puffed out an irritated sigh—and not just because she was fighting a losing battle with her aunt. Brooke’s arms and legs were long and gangly and considerably lacking Louise’s spider-like grace. Maybe by the time she turned sixty-five, she might finally manage to outgrow that uncoordinated adolescent phase that was still just as embarrassing now as it had been nine years ago when she’d turned twenty and had no longer qualified as a teenager.

  Or maybe she was destined to live out her days dealing with all of the Hansford family’s recessive genes. Timidity. Klutziness. Eyes that were too big and boobs that were too small.

  Tamping down the inevitable frustration, Brooke moved over to check the anchors on the scaffolding that framed the skeletal stairs and second-floor landing still under construction, fearing there was little more she could do to protect her daredevil of an aunt. “This is why we hired a contractor. If you wait half an hour, Mr. McCarthy and his men will be here to do that job for you.”

  “I like to keep an eye on their work,” Louise insisted. “Some men see three women living together—two of them retired—as an easy mark to take advantage of. That won’t happen on my watch. No, sir.”

  “No one is taking advantage of us.” Brooke had studied the numbers meticulously and done her research into the costs of blending modernization with restoration—and who could best do the work for them. Louise was the only thing worrying her right now. Brooke cringed as her aunt tested her weight on one of the two-by-fours that framed the upstairs landing before stepping on it. “Lou?”

  But the red-blond hair and overalls had already disappeared through the tarp. Only the creaking of the wooden bracings above her head told her what path Louise was taking to the opposite side of the church. Brooke followed the sounds of her aunt, wondering if she’d be able to catch her should she tumble through one of the open spaces above her.

  “I know as much about building and restoring things as any man.” Louise was a disembodied voice from the rafters overhead. “I’ve got a degree in architectural history, don’t I? Truman McCarthy doesn’t have one of those.”

  So that’s what had spurred this show of independence. It wasn’t really concern that the work wasn’t being done properly, but a regret that once upon a time, Louise Hansford would have been doing the work herself.

  Brooke’s heart went out to the woman who’d curtailed her globetrotting adventures the day she’d received a telegram telling her of the car crash in Sarajevo that had orphaned Brooke, and had come home to help her older sister, Peggy, take care of their parentless niece. Once a woman ahead of her time, Louise’s life had become considerably more mundane, serving first as surrogate parent and in more recent years as best friend. In time, as her aunts aged, their roles would reverse, and Brooke would gladly step up to take care of the two women who were the only family she’d ever known. That was one of the reasons she was creating this spacious home, so that her aunts could live independently on the main floor, while Brooke eventually moved upstairs to a private apartment.

  But the future would have to wait until she could get Louise down to a safer altitude. Hurrying back to the base of the ladder, Brooke hiked her skirt up above her knees. “I know you’re an expert.” She toed off her pumps and climbed the first rung. “But McCarthy and Sons is a reputable company. They don’t do shoddy work.”

  “Now don’t you go climbin’ up there after her,” Peggy Hansford chided as she stepped out into the main room and closed the bedroom door behind her. The elder Hansford aunt picked up Brooke’s jacket from the floor and brushed it off. She motioned Brooke down as she strode past the ladder into the nearly finished kitchen area. “No sense both of you breakin’ your fool necks.”

  “I can hear you up here, Peggy,” Louise hollered.

  “Didn’t say anything was wrong with your ears. Just your common sense.” Peggy draped the jacket over the back of one of the stools they were using for temporary kitchen furniture and turned to pull three mugs out of the dishwasher. “Now you come on down from there. You’re worrying Brooke, and we don’t want anything to upset her this morning.”

  Brooke returned to the floor and smoothed her skirt back into place, slipping into her shoes while she waited for Louise to join them. Listening to the woman-sized cat scrambling overhead, she nibbled anxiously on her bottom lip.

  But Louise didn’t have any speeds except go and go faster, and she quickly popped through the tarp and headed for the ladder. “That’s right. You start your new job downtown today.” Brooke had barely shrugged into her jacket when Louise pulled up a stool beside her at the black granite counter. “Is that what you’re wearing?”

  “Louise Hansford.” Peggy pointed a reprimanding finger from the opposite side of the island counter.

  “Well, she’s not even thirty years old yet, and she dresses more conservatively than either one of us.”

  “She’s dressed professionally, Lou.” Peggy’s soft green eyes expressed a clear opinion over the rims of her glasses. “Besides, I don’t think a woman wearing a tie-dye T-shirt and overalls has the right to criticize anyone’s wardrobe.”

  “At least my clothes have personality.” Louise plucked at the starched white collar of Brooke’s short-sleeved blouse. “Maybe just a scarf to soften things up? Or some funky jewelry to add a little pizzazz?”

  “I’m wearing the gold chain you gave me for my twenty-first birthday.” Brooke pulled the necklace from her cleavage and held up the nickel-sized charm that had been left to her by her father. “You said Dad asked the nurses to pin this to my diaper in the hospital before he died. I thought it’d be good luck to wear a family heirloom today.”

  “It is good luck. And very pretty, dear.” Peggy pushed the French vanilla creamer across the counter to flavor their coffee. “I wish you could have known Leo. I can’t tell you how many times he wrote me about you—even before you were born. Your daddy thought you were the most beautiful baby in the world. As beautiful as your mother, God rest her soul.”

  Aunt Peggy was being too kind. According to the one family photo that had survived the automobile crash which had killed her mother outright and put her father in the hospital for the last few days of his life, Irina Zorinsky Hansford had been a Slavic beauty with curling mahogany tresses and bold, dark eyes. Brooke, only six months old at the time, had survived the fiery accident, miraculously unscathed. She would have ended up in a state-run orphanage if these two strong women hadn’t come into her life.

  She’d heard the story dozens of times growing up. Her father had been feverish with burns and grief, too weak to even make arrangements for his wife’s hasty funeral, much less attend. But he’d been clear about one thing. Don’t let Brooke go with her mother, Leo Hansford had pleaded from his hospital bed. Don’t let my baby girl die.

  Brooke and her aunts had never even seen Irina’s grave. It had been hard enough proving guardianship and getting out of the country where her father had worked at the American embassy. As soon as they were able, Peggy and Louise had whisked her back to the United States. They’d promised their brother they’d take her home to Kansas City where they’d grown up. Leo Hansford had wanted Brooke to live. Love. Be loved.

  She was loved.

  But she was a pale shadow of the woman her mother had been.

  “Well, of course, we know what a beautiful girl she is.” Louise hugged Brooke around the shoulders, breaking the pensive mood. “But how is anyone else going to notice when she dresses like a nun?” Louise snapped her fingers, already turning for the bedroom she shared with Peggy as an idea hit her. “I’l
l be right back. I have a brooch in my suitcase that will add a shot of color and liven things up a bit.”

  Peggy tied an apron around her plump middle, shaking her head. “You know, sometimes I think we’re raising her more than she and I ever had to raise you. Thank God you have your father’s steady nature and good sense. And tact!” she shouted after her sister.

  Brooke tucked the medallion with the Cyrillic letter etched in gold back inside her blouse. As much as steady nature and good sense felt like faint praise, she had to grin at Peggy’s on-the-money assessment of their family dynamic.

  “You know, we’ll have to nail her shoes to the floor when we start painting the bedrooms. The fumes will go straight to her head and make her dizzy. Dizzier,” Brooke amended, eliciting a smile and reassuring Peggy that Louise’s remarks had no lasting effect on her ego. Brooke sipped her coffee and reached for one of the English muffins Peggy was toasting for breakfast. “I told her that I was going to hire someone specifically to do odd jobs like that around here. At lunch today I’m interviewing a man Mr. McCarthy recommended.” She thumbed over her shoulder toward the ceiling. “When we agreed to cut a few costs by completing the finish and landscaping work ourselves, I didn’t mean having either one of you hanging from the scaffolding or doing some other dangerous thing.”

  “I’m already ahead of you, dear.” Peggy winked and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I’ve let the weeds grow in my garden and we’ll have to turn up the soil before anyone can lay new sod, so I’ve got plenty lined up for her to do outside while you’re painting.”

  Brooke winked back and reached across the island to squeeze Peggy’s hand. “You’re the real smart cookie of the bunch, aren’t you?”

  Peggy turned her hand and squeezed back. “You can have Lou’s long arms and legs. My brains will get you further any day of the week.”

  “I found it.” Louise beamed with the satisfaction of a fairy godmother admiring her magical handiwork when she returned. Urging Brooke to stand, she pinned a silver brooch with a lapis, turquoise and coral mosaic onto her lapel. “I got this on a trip to New Mexico when I was in college. A young gentleman classmate insisted I have it. There. That brightens things up. Smile for me.” As generous as she was honest, Louise cupped Brooke’s cheek and smiled back. “Now that, my dear, is your most beautiful asset.”

  “Thanks.”

  Lou twirled her finger into a tendril that curled over Brooke’s cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “Have you thought about one of those short, kicky hairstyles? Maybe some golden highlights?”

  “You can’t tell I put in highlights?”

  “Leave her alone,” Peggy reproved. “Brooke looks just fine.”

  “Fine, sure.” Lou climbed onto the stool beside Brooke and doctored her coffee with a spoonful of sugar. “But what about sexy? Or hot? I mean, I was never drop-dead gorgeous, but I always knew how to work what I have.”

  “Enough.” Blushing around her last bite of muffin, Brooke stood and checked her watch. Though she was in no danger of being late, she could only handle so much of her aunt playing Cinderella with Brooke in the title role. “Even if you dolled me up, I could never pull off hot. Besides, I’m going to work, not to some fancy ball to pick up a man.”

  Lou cradled her mug between her hands, shaking her head. “All those men in uniforms and badges and she’s not trying to pick one up.”

  “Lou…” Peggy warned. “Don’t put that kind of pressure on her. Brooke is just a late bloomer. When the right man comes along, he’ll see her real beauty.”

  “Yes, but you know how dense men can be. It doesn’t hurt to help them find their way.”

  Brooke’s blush heated her clear down to her toes now. Louise didn’t have a shy bone in her body—she’d never understood how it made Brooke’s perfectly intelligent brain seize up whenever she tried to break out of her shell and try to get a man she was attracted to to notice her.

  Buying herself some time to gather her thoughts and slip her newly forged assertive armor back into place, Brooke picked up her purse from the card table that served as living-room furniture, and dug out a tube of copper-colored lip gloss. Only after she’d put her professional game face back in place did she loop her carryall bag over her shoulder and turn to Louise. “Tell you what. I’ll make a deal with you.” She pointed across the main room. “You stay off that ladder and I’ll make the effort to talk to… three…men today.”

  “About something not work-related,” Lou qualified, setting down her mug and smiling with hope.

  “Agreed.”

  “Then you’ve got a deal.”

  “You’re a hopeless romantic, Lou. But I love ya.” Brooke squeezed her aunt in a hug. She traded another hug with Peggy at the back door. “Love you, too.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll keep her out of trouble. You just concentrate on the new job and have a wonderful first day.”

  “I will. See you tonight.”

  Brooke crossed the sundeck that had yet to have a railing added, and bopped down the stairs at the opposite end. The sun was warm on her face as she crossed the yard to where her car was parked at the curb. The tall, broken grass packed into the dry dirt where Truman McCarthy and his construction crew drove their heavy equipment and supply trucks up to the house reminded her to start pricing carports. When winter hit, it’d be a bear to have to trek through the snow or shovel a path out to the street. And the historical value of the church’s turn-of-the-century exterior wouldn’t allow her to attach a modern garage.

  But the remodeling notes were only a minor diversion from the real concern at hand as Brooke dug her keys from her purse. She’d made a promise to her aunt. Now she had to keep it. Talk to a man. Pick one up, if Louise had her way. It could happen. Right. Brooke nearly snorted, squelching her ironic laughter.

  Think positive. Be positive. The new and slowly improving Brooke could do this. She just needed to break the task down into smaller, less-daunting goals, and not psych herself out over the bigger challenge of transforming into the social butterfly Aunt Lou believed she could be.

  Three men. She could do that. “Hi” qualified as speaking to a man, didn’t it? “I’m Major Taylor’s new administrative assistant” could be an entire conversation at a busy office.

  Sure, she’d love to have a man notice her for something more than her computer skills, to have him think she was something special. But she’d pick smaller battles, savor lesser victories, instead of setting herself up for failure. She wasn’t going to let Louise’s fairy-godmother fantasies make or break her day. Or her life.

  She’d have plenty of interesting things to do at the Fourth Precinct, meeting coworkers and learning new routines. Plus, there was the work here at home. She had love in her life from her aunts and friends. She didn’t need Prince Charming to make her happy or make her feel complete.

  Still, it wouldn’t hurt a girl’s ego to…

  A subtle, external awareness seeped into Brooke’s thoughts, short-circuiting the endless debate. The sun was already bright in the cloudless sky, yet a chill slunk down her spine and she halted beside her car.

  She slowly turned, seeking the source.

  It was that same odd sensation she got watching a DVD by herself late at night, when she was reminded of how Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful timing combined with her ever-churning imagination could totally spook her. Only this wasn’t something she could turn off with the remote.

  She zeroed in on a dented tan pickup truck parked a block down the street. Brooke adjusted her glasses at the temple and squinted.

  Who was that? She didn’t recognize the vehicle or its occupant behind the steering wheel, though she could make out little more than the man’s snow-white hair. But he wasn’t old, not if the ripples of muscle beneath his T-shirt were any indication. He was almost faceless with his head hunched down into his shoulders and his purple K-State ball cap pulled low over his eyes. Was he lost? Sleeping?

  Watching her?

 
; He shifted in his seat and Brooke quickly turned away, avoiding any possibility of eye contact by staring down at her fingers on the door handle. “Paranoid much?”

  Her nerves about starting the new job had gotten the better of her common sense, that was all. This was a regular old Monday morning in the middle of July, not a Hitchcock movie. And the Wildcat fan was nothing more than a man in a truck.

  Brooke lifted her chin, determined to dispel her suspicion. She saw her aunts through the tall, narrow church windows, moving inside the house. There was a trio of boys two houses down, marking the bases for an early-morning whiffle ball game. Farther down the street, she spotted another neighbor, Mrs. Boyer, hanging on to the leash of her Labradoodle puppy as they practiced their daily walk.

  All normal. All familiar.

  Except…

  Him.

  “Stop it.” Brooke yanked open the car door and tossed her bag across the seat before she was tempted to look his way again. The man was probably one of Truman McCarthy’s construction workers, who’d shown up early for his shift and was waiting for his foreman to arrive. She was the only one who spent so much time with the thoughts inside her head that she could turn a harmless observation into a threat. No one else in the neighborhood seemed to think anything was out of place. Why should she?

  Dismissing the man, the truck and the creepy sixth sense her imagination had concocted, Brooke hiked her skirt a notch and climbed inside to start the car and drive away.

  But only a few minutes later, she began to wonder if her imagination had been playing tricks on her, after all. Stopped at a light before turning onto the highway which would take her into downtown Kansas City, Brooke checked her rearview mirror. Her breath hitched and she looked again.

  Three vehicles behind her. Waiting to turn onto the same highway.

  The stranger in the dented tan pickup truck.