Hard Hat Man

by Curry, Edna

  Jan frowned. “Erick Andrews? Mom’s lawyer?”

  “Yeah, that’s the guy.”

  “But he arranged the sale in the first place, didn’t he?”

  “I know. Now he’s decided to take the farmer who is against me as a client.”

  “First he’s on one side, then the other? Is that ethical?”

  Kyle laughed derisively. “I don’t think ethics and Mr. Andrews fit into the same sentence.”

  “I’m sorry.” Jan swallowed more coffee, feeling guilty, as though somehow her mother’s lawyer’s actions were her fault. “Maybe if I talked to him…”

  “Don’t waste your breath. Money is the only language that man understands. Well, best I get back to work. I’ll send over Harry, who knows plumbing, to see if he can temporarily fix your water pipes so you can have some water up here again. He can replace the lock, too. I’ll stop back later to make sure everything is working okay for you.”

  “That’s not necessary,” she protested as they walked to the door.

  He opened the door, turned and gave her a grin. “Humor me. Besides, I like checking up on a pretty girl. It brightens up my day.”

  For a long second, their gazes locked. Jan drew a breath, sure he was going to kiss her, hoping he would.

  Then he stepped away. “See you around six,” he said and ducked out the door.

  She closed the door behind him, disappointed. He called me pretty! Does that mean he’s interested?

  “Don’t be silly,” she scolded herself. “You will be back in Chicago, swimming in the pool at this time next week. You can’t get involved with a rugged construction worker who wears a hard hat. Sure he’s attractive and interesting and the first man in a long time to light your fire. But you’re a teacher who lives in a city and neither of you is about to change.”

  So why were her panties wet with desire and her heart still pounding?

  Chapter 4

  With the power on, she decided to empty her ice chest into the refrigerator. But when she opened the door, a foul odor met her nose. Spoiled and moldy food lay on the shelves.

  Good gravy, had no one even come to Uncle Horace’s house to do the basics after he died? Surely a neighbor or friend would have cared enough to clean out the perishable food? Hadn’t anyone, like Horace’s lawyer, thought to hire someone to close up the house? Obviously not.

  Jan swallowed and rummaged in the cupboards for some large garbage bags. She emptied everything from the refrigerator into one. Several casseroles that were probably gifts from neighbors were so encrusted with moldy, rotted food that she tossed the dishes along with the rotted food. She carried the bag outside to the garbage can, but found it already overflowing with the bags she and Laura had taken there yesterday.

  She called Kyle. “Can you give me the phone number of the garbage company? I think we need a dumpster instead of a can.”

  “I’ll call them,” Kyle said. “We’ll need several dumpsters anyway, when we begin demolishing the house.”

  “Don’t you use your own trucks for that? I mean, I saw trucks with your logo working on taking down the barn yesterday.”

  “For some things, yes. Depending on the material, some of it goes to a different site for construction material, not to the regular garbage dump.”

  “I see. Okay.”

  She scrubbed down the refrigerator, but no amount of scrubbing got rid of the smell. Setting a dish of baking soda inside, she closed it, giving up. Her ice chest would have to do.

  Then she began going through the cupboards, throwing all the food that wasn’t canned. She hesitated over Esther’s large collection of spices, deciding to keep them for now, along with a few cans of food that she decided would be okay.

  Her cell phone rang and her caller ID said it was Mr. Andrews.

  “Hello,” Jan said. “You’re just the man I wanted to talk to.”

  “Oh? I hope that means you’ll have dinner with me tonight,” he said, sounding pleased.

  “No thanks, I have other plans. What I wanted to ask you is, why wasn’t this house properly closed after Uncle Horace died?”

  “Huh? What do you mean, properly closed? I called the utilities and had them shut off. My assistant stopped there a couple times to be sure the house was locked and nothing taken.”

  “Oh, right. How about emptying the refrigerator? Draining the water pipes properly so they didn’t freeze? Putting out insect repellant and mouse poison?”

  “But…well, I’m a lawyer. I don’t know about stuff like that,” Mr. Andrews sputtered. “And you know it was weeks after Horace died before we were sure what would become of the property, so no one really knew who was in charge.”

  “You wrote his will, didn’t you?” The weasel was trying to pass the buck. Jan’s throat tightened in fury. And he thought she’d want to date him? No way!

  “Well, yes,” he admitted. “But that was ten years before he died and we couldn’t be sure it was his last will, you know?”

  Jan swallowed, trying her best to keep her voice even and polite. “Shouldn’t you have assumed it was, unless and until it was proved otherwise?”

  Mr. Andrews sighed. “In hindsight, yes, I believe you’re right. Has there been a problem?”

  Holding her temper, she described the mess she’d found and told him about the broken water pipes and the break-in as well.

  “I’m sorry to hear about all this, but you really shouldn’t blame me. I did what I thought was right,” he said.

  Frustrated, she said goodbye and hung up.

  Soon after talking to Mr. Andrews, Harry appeared at her door. He was a portly man in jeans and a red Tee shirt with the words, “Minnesota Twins” on it. His belt hung very low under his pot belly and his brown hair had a large bald spot on top. “Kyle says you need a new lock and for me to see if I can jerry-rig your water pipes so you can have water temporarily,” he said.

  “Thanks, that would be great,” Jan said, showing him where the basement stairs were. “I didn’t see a problem up here, but Kyle says there is water all over the basement.”

  “Should be a drain down there to take care of that,” Harry said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Jan went back to repacking the boxes she and Laura had packed earlier and the burglar had dumped out. Then she moved on to sorting her aunt’s things in the parlor furniture. Much of that had been dumped out, too, but apparently the burglar hadn’t found much interesting, because it wasn’t so scattered as the papers in Horace’s office.

  She found boxes of yarn and books on knitting and crocheting in one cabinet along with a large, almost finished afghan in a lovely, rippling pattern in shades of yellows, oranges and browns. Her fingers itched to finish it, so she packed it and the matching skeins of yarn in a box to keep. The rest of it could go to the charity site.

  Later, Harry came back upstairs. He’d made several trips to his truck earlier, but this time, he sought her out.

  “I put in a new lock and bypassed the upstairs and basement pipes and made it so you can have water in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Will that work? You won’t be able to use the laundry facilities or the outside faucet, though.”

  “That will be great, Harry. I hope to only be here for a few more days.”

  “Okay. I’ll be going then.”

  “Thanks again.”

  A few minutes later, her cell phone rang again. This time it was Lani Mellon, her roommate at her Chicago apartment.

  “Guess what?” Lani said, the excitement in her voice dancing over the airwaves.

  “What?” Jan returned, trying to imagine the cause of her friend’s sudden happiness. She could just see the tall, willowy blonde girl dancing around their apartment, her cell phone glued to her ear as usual.

  “Billy Joe got that teaching job in China! And they’ll hire me as well, though my job is only part time at first. Can you believe it? We leave in just four weeks!”

  “What?” Jan’s heart plummeted. Yikes. Evidently good news for
Lani spelled bad news for herself. She was losing her roommate and best friend. “But…but I thought you were going to renew your contract here?”

  “I changed my mind. Billy Joe proposed!”

  “Oh. Well, that’s great, Lani. I…congratulations! So you’re getting married, too?”

  “Yes. In three weeks. Mom’s doing it all, can you believe it? She screamed that it wasn’t enough time, but when I told her then we’d just get married at a justice of the peace, she threw a fit and said, fine, she’d get it done somehow. So we’re having just a small garden wedding at Mom and Dad’s house. Every other place is booked up months in advance, you know.”

  “Oh, my goodness. I mean, I’ll really miss you! And what about our apartment?”

  “I’ll miss you, too. I’ll just store my stuff in the folk’s garage so I don’t have to pay for a storage unit until we get back to the states. I’m sorry about that, Jan. About leaving you without a roomie, I mean. But you know what a great opportunity this is…I really have to go. Maybe someone new at school will need a place, you know? I’ll pass the word around with the gals I know there.”

  Jan’s stomach tightened. She hated getting acquainted with a new roommate’s quirks and habits. It usually took her months to become comfortable with them. But Lani had been a good friend for years. She couldn’t spoil her happiness with her own worries. “Sure, Lani, don’t worry about it. Someone will need a roomie.”

  “You’re a sweetheart. Oh, someone’s at my door. Probably Billy Joe. Gotta run.”

  Jan pocketed her phone and sank into the nearest chair. Yikes. Her budget was always tight, now it was in big trouble. Without Lani paying half the rent and utilities for the apartment, how would she manage? Heat, electricity and phone would likely remain nearly the same.

  Where could she cut back? This trip was taking most of her savings. She glanced around. Harry had the water working to the kitchen and downstairs bathroom, he’d said. She could check out of the motel and stay here. That would save some money at least. She could use the laundromat in town for what little she needed to wash. Yes, that would work.

  She went to the bedroom, gathered up sheets, a blanket and towels. Then went back to the kitchen and took dishcloths and towels, then loaded them all into her car. Back in town, she found the laundromat, put them in the washer and went back to check out of the motel. Then back to the laundromat to move her laundry to the dryers.

  When her cell phone rang, she was surprised to see Kyle’s name. “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi yourself. I came to pick you up for dinner and the motel’s attendant says you checked out.”

  “Oh. Yes, I did. I’m going to stay at the house.”

  “Okay. Wish I’d known that. I just came from the farm. I’ll come back out and get you there, then.”

  Jan glanced at her watch, amazed to see it was almost six-thirty. Yikes, she should have changed before going to dinner. Cleaning up a bit at the rest room here would have to do. “No, Kyle, actually, I’m in town at the laundromat, just finishing up some wash. How about I meet you at the restaurant in fifteen minutes?”

  “Fine. I’ll go ahead and get us a table. See you then.”

  It took twenty minutes before she arrived, and the restaurant was again crowded. After scanning the many faces, she found him at a back table and hurried to join him. A pot of coffee and two cups sat in front of him.

  “Sorry to be kind of a mess,” she apologized. “I decided to move on the spur of the moment and lost track of the time.”

  He frowned at her and lifted the pot and a cup. “Want some coffee? You were doing laundry?”

  She nodded to the coffee. “Well, yes. The sheets, towels and dishcloths were pretty dusty. Besides, there were mouse droppings in the kitchen drawers and I couldn’t see washing and drying dishes with those…”

  He grinned and held up a hand. “I get the picture. But what made you decide to stay at the house? I thought you were going to stay at the hotel so as to get done out there as soon as possible.”

  She grimaced. “The best laid plans…and all that. My roommate in Chicago called and dropped a bombshell on my budget.”

  “Oh?”

  Jan explained the new situation. “I really like my apartment and it’s close to the school where I teach. But it’ll take me a while to find another roommate, so money will be tight through the summer, at least. So saving the cost of the motel by staying in Esther’s house is important right now. Do you mind?”

  The waitress interrupted to take their orders. They both ordered the special, walleyed pike dinners and she retreated to the kitchen.

  Jan eyed Kyle, who sipped his coffee. “You don’t mind my staying there, do you? I mean, I guess it is your house now, so I should have asked. I didn’t think…”

  He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “No, I don’t mind if you stay in the house while you’re sorting stuff. It’s just that I was hoping you would be done in just a few days, but if you’re spending time doing cleaning and laundry and cooking…”

  “Only what I have to, to make it livable,” Jan protested. “Harry said he’d fixed the water problem so I could use the kitchen and downstairs bathroom, but not the rest of the house. And the refrigerator is beyond salvaging, so I’ll continue to use my ice chest for food and drinks. Or eat out.”

  “But you were doing laundry. You didn’t bring enough clothes for a week?”

  “Of course I did. Though I misjudged the work clothes I’d need, so bought more at the farm store. But I didn’t plan on needing clean towels and sheets and dishcloths, you know?”

  “I understand.”

  The waitress brought their salads and rolls. Jan buttered one and bit into it. “Oh. Delicious. I’m starved.”

  “Me too,” Kyle said, helping himself to a roll as well. “I missed lunch. The guy who’s taking down the barn was having problems with his help. Seems like one thing after another is going wrong lately.”

  Jan raised an eyebrow. “Unusual problems?”

  “More like sabotage, I suspect,” Kyle said. “Somebody doesn’t want me to build this project, so they buy off the help or cause trouble in one way or another.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “Yeah. Welcome to the world of business. Cut-throat tactics aren’t that unusual.”

  Jan shuddered. “In that case, I’m glad I’m only in education. Though, come to think of it, some dads get pretty nasty over their son’s little league positions, too.”

  Kyle laughed. Their waitress brought their walleye dinners and they dug in. “Oh, this smells great,” he said as he forked up some of the flaky white fish.

  “Sure does. Tastes delicious, too,” Jan agreed, savoring a bite. “Have you lived here long, Kyle?”

  He nodded. “Not right here, but in the metro area. I grew up about an hour west of here, and got started working in construction during summer breaks. I did mostly grunt jobs, at first.”

  Jan raised an eyebrow. “What’s a grunt job?”

  “You know, hauling things around, picking up stuff the other guys throw off a roof and putting it in the dumpster, fetch and carry jobs.”

  “Ah. We call them gofer jobs.”

  Kyle made a face. “Well, in construction, they usually involve a lot of muscle power. Everything in construction seems to be heavy or messy.”

  “Yes, I noticed them taking down the old barn today. Looked like a lot of work. Are they trying to save some of the lumber?”

  He nodded. “Yes. The guys taking it down sell old barn lumber for people who use it to make picture frames and other crafty projects. Apparently it’s in high demand in some circles.”

  Jan made a face and shrugged. “That doesn’t appeal to me.”

  “Me either, but it’s a good thing everyone has different tastes, or it would be a pretty boring world.”

  The waitress appeared to take their empty plates. “Would you like dessert tonight?”

  “No, thanks, I’m stuffed,” Jan said.
/>   “Me too.” Kyle handed her his credit card and told Jan, “I’ll see you home.”

  “Oh, that’s not necessary,” she said. “You’ve had a long day already.”

  “Humor me. I want to make sure everything is working okay for you to stay at the house.”

  Jan shrugged. “Okay. Thanks.”

  The waitress returned his card.

  As they walked outside, Kyle’s cell phone rang. He talked a minute then pocketed it, his face grim. “Let’s go. There’s a fire at the farm.”

  “Oh, my God. What’s burning?”

  “The barn. Or what was left of it, anyway. The fire trucks were already there, fighting it, before someone found my cell number to call me.”

  They drove to the farm in record time and parked off to one side of the farmyard. Fire trucks were spraying water on the charred remains of the barn.

  The fire chief and county sheriff came over to consult with Kyle. After talking a bit, the fire chief went back to talk to his men.

  “What’s happening?” Jan asked when Kyle came back to her.

  “It’s too far gone to save, so I’ve given them permission to let it burn down,” Kyle said. “They were worried I’d not be able to claim insurance on it if they did that, but I told them I won’t be filing a claim on it anyway, since we were in the process of tearing it down.”

  “Do they know what started it?”

  “Not yet, but the chief said he smelled gasoline when he first came, so arson’s a pretty good bet.”

  “Oh, no. More sabotage then?”

  Kyle nodded, his face grim. “Come on, let’s get you settled at the house.”

  They drove on to the house and parked, then went inside, Kyle helping her with the baskets of clean linens.

  Kyle walked through, making sure there were no more water leaks or other problems. Smoke from the fire on the other side of the farmyard hung in the air, making them cough.