by Sue Pethick
As much as she might have protested that it wasn’t permanent and that Todd wasn’t even being paid, Emma had to admit that it looked bad. A handsome stranger from her past shows up at the inn and offers to work there for free? If she’d been in Jake’s shoes, she’d have thought it sounded fishy, too.
“He’s a little down on his luck at the moment,” Emma said. “But I’m sure he’s a hard worker. Can’t you find something for him to do?”
Jake crossed his arms and gave Emma a skeptical look. Only yesterday, he’d been telling her he needed help to fix the roof; it’d sound strange if he refused the assistance of an able-bodied workman. But Emma hadn’t said anything about the loan coming through, and the rest of his projects could be done by one man alone. The look on his face said there had to be more behind her request than simply accommodating a friend.
“I already got the place ready for winter,” he said. “Not much left to do around here ’cept fix the roof.”
Emma nodded. It was pretty much what she’d expected him to say. Jake wasn’t the sort to leave things to the last minute. Unless something extraordinary came up—like the roof repair—he could generally handle whatever maintenance the inn needed on his own. Still, she thought, there had to be some way to let Todd feel as if he’d earned his keep. The man might be down and out, but he still had his pride.
“What about the fence behind the cottage?” she said.
“I thought you said that could wait,” Jake said. “Besides, I’ll need lumber to shore it up.”
“How much lumber?”
She was thinking about the balance in her bank account. If at least a few of the ghost hunters paid their bills in cash, she’d have enough to cover the cost of materials. And as soon as the bank approved her loan, she could breathe easy.
“Not sure,” Jake said. “I’ll have to inspect what’s left of the old one, first. If we can salvage some of it, we might be able to save ourselves a bit of money.”
“That’s great! Tell you what: Why don’t you and Todd take a look at the fence and see what it would take to fix it? Once you know how much you’ll need, I’ll give you a check to take to the lumberyard.”
Emma smiled encouragingly as Jake shook his head. Before he could raise another objection, she stood and opened her office door.
“Let’s go out and see if he’s here,” she said. “Once you meet Todd, I think you’ll really like him.”
Todd was standing in the lobby, talking to the Van Vandevanders. As he finished his conversation and walked toward the front desk, Emma felt her breath catch in her throat. What had happened to the geeky bespectacled kid she used to hunt crawdads with?
He wasn’t just taller now; he was muscular in a way that suggested he spent a lot of time doing manual labor. Was it possible he was in construction? That would certainly explain the lack of steady work. It might also dispel some of the doubts that Jake had about hiring him.
Todd grinned at her and Emma had to struggle to keep from blushing.
“This is Jake, my handyman. He and I were just talking about how you might be able to give him a hand.”
She turned toward the stony-faced Jake.
“This is Todd Dwyer. His family used to come to the inn when we were kids.”
The two men looked like boxers in a ring as they shook hands. Emma felt her stomach tighten.
“Jake says he could use some help replacing the fence behind my cottage,” she said. “I thought maybe you could go down there with him and see what it would take to get that done.”
Todd smiled gamely. “Sounds good.”
“First, however, I think you’ll need some warmer clothes.” She turned to Jake. “Don’t we have some heavy jackets in the shop?”
He nodded. “Seems like there’s gloves and a parka out there might fit him.”
“Great. While you look for those, I’ll see if we’ve got some better work clothes and a pair of boots in the Lost and Found.”
As they headed down the hallway toward the back of the inn, Emma smiled.
“Don’t let Jake scare you. He looks tough, but he’s a softie inside.”
“Thanks,” Todd said. “I’ll remember that.”
They turned the corner and stopped at a door marked Maintenance.
“This is where we keep the things our guests leave behind. Honestly, some of the stuff would amaze you.”
As she unlocked the door, Todd hesitated.
“I don’t want to wear something that belongs to one of your guests.”
Emma laughed. “Don’t worry. Most of this stuff’s been in here for years. I doubt anyone’s going to come looking for it.”
She pulled a bin off one of the shelves and removed the lid.
“This one’s full of men’s clothing, and I know there’s at least two pairs of boots in it.”
They began digging through the contents, Emma checking for sizes.
“Here’s a wool shirt you can wear,” she said. “By the way, how was breakfast?”
“Great,” Todd said. “I don’t remember the last time I ate that well.”
In spite of herself, Emma felt disappointed. It was even worse than she’d feared. Todd was penniless.
“Aha!” he said, yanking a pair of Timberland boots from the jumble in the bin. He pulled up the tongue and smiled.
“Just my size, too. Mind if I try them on?”
“Go ahead.”
While Todd tried on the boots, Emma drew out a pair of carpenter’s pants and set them aside. Then she replaced the lid and slid the bin back onto the shelf.
“Those boots have been in there since before Gran died,” she said. “If they fit, why don’t you keep them?”
Todd finished tying the laces and stood, stamping his feet to loosen the stiff material.
“These are great,” he said, beaming. “No more numb toes for me.”
They went back out into the hallway and Emma locked the door.
“Now let’s go see what Jake’s got for you.”
What Jake had was a pair of coveralls and a North Face parka that smelled like it’d been sitting in a compost pile. In spite of Emma’s objections, Todd insisted upon wearing it. It smelled fine, he said, and thanked Jake for loaning it to him. From the look on her handyman’s face, Emma guessed that it was not the reaction he’d been expecting. In spite of himself, Jake seemed to be developing a grudging respect for his new assistant.
Maybe, Emma thought, if Todd did really well, she’d consider hiring him to help Jake with the roof. Provided, of course, the bank approved her loan. Which it was going to, any day now.
The two men were about to step outside when Todd pulled up short.
“Oh,” he said. “Before I forget, the Vander-somethings invited me to a lecture tonight.”
Emma laughed. “It’s Van Vandevander. Lars and Viv, right?”
“Right. Anyway, I’d kind of like to go, but it means I’d have to stay another night.”
She felt her pulse quicken. Was it possible that Todd was as reluctant to go as she was to have him leave?
“Um, sure. If you want to.”
“I’ll pay for the room,” he added quickly.
“No, that’s okay.”
Todd shook his head.
“I insist. I don’t want to be a freeloader.”
“All right,” she said. “You can pay for the room.”
He looked sheepish.
“There is one thing, though. You’d have to keep Archie another night.”
“I’d be happy to. He was so quiet last night, I didn’t even notice he was there.”
As the two men trudged off toward her cottage, Emma smiled. She’d fallen for some lazy hunks before. Maybe it was time to fall for a hardworking one, instead.
CHAPTER 13
Jake might be a softie, Todd thought as he followed him down the path to the cottage, but he had a pretty tough exterior. From the second they’d met, the older man had been sizing him up, and Todd had a feeling he’d fallen short
of whatever standard the handyman had been measuring him by. He didn’t think it was jealousy, exactly, but there was something about Jake’s demeanor that said he felt protective of his employer. Emma might be the boss, but she was still a woman, after all. Maybe Jake felt it was his job to keep her from being taken advantage of.
Todd, however, was used to having people underestimate him. He’d been small as a kid and something of a bookworm, reading science fiction at lunchtime and teaching himself computer code after he’d finished his chores at night. A late growth spurt had saved him from being the shortest boy in his senior class, but he’d been too busy working and taking care of his mom and Claire to capitalize on it.
The physical demands of maintaining his parents’ house had had at least one positive side effect, though, as it compensated for the long hours he spent sitting in front of a computer screen, studying, or writing code. Now that he could afford to pay someone else to labor on his own home, Todd kept himself in shape at the gym, but he’d never forgotten how to frame a wall or repair a fence. Which was a good thing, because he had a feeling that Jake was going to make him sweat for that “free” hotel room.
Emma’s cottage was in sight. As Todd glanced down the path, he saw the fallen remains of a fence he hadn’t noticed before. It ran three-quarters of the way around the cottage and had fallen in sections, leaving the posts that had held it still in place. If he and Jake could pry the pickets off the broken rails without splitting them, they might not need more than a dozen two-by-fours to repair it.
“How long has it been down?” he asked Jake, as they drew closer.
“Since August,” the handyman said. “Blew down in a storm.”
“Too bad,” Todd said, bending down to inspect a dilapidated section. “Some of these pickets look like they’ve got termite damage.”
Jake grunted. “Some, yes, but not most. We’ll remove the worst ones and treat the rest.”
The two men lifted the section in question and Todd was relieved to see that the damage was not as bad as he’d feared.
“You treated these with borate?”
The handyman looked up, surprised.
“It’s tough trying to stay green with all the rain we get up here,” Todd said, “but it beats having arsenic leach into your groundwater, doesn’t it?”
Again, Jake said nothing, but the look he gave Todd told him the comment had earned him some grudging respect.
The handyman had just begun calculating the amount of lumber they’d need when Todd caught a flash of white in his peripheral vision. Turning, he saw Archie trot across the yard carrying something in his mouth.
What the heck?
“I’ll be right back,” he told Jake, and marched off to see what was going on.
Archie was on the far side of the cottage, hunkered beneath a bush and enjoying what appeared to be a sandwich. As Todd approached, the little dog started wolfing down the remainder.
“What have you got there?”
He squatted down to take a closer look and Archie gulped down the last few bites of his prize, sniffing the ground to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.
“Looks like the kitchen staff’s been feeding both of us pretty well,” Todd said.
Archie sprang from his sanctuary and began covering Todd with grateful bacon-scented kisses.
“I guess I don’t have to ask what kind of sandwich it was,” he said. “Better enjoy it while you can, though. I have a feeling you won’t be getting any BLTs from Bob and Claire.”
The thought that he would soon be giving Archie away felt like a stab to Todd’s heart. Not only because he’d grown fond of the little guy, but also because he’d be turning him over to people who viewed dogs differently from the way he did. Living with Bertie, Archie had been a partner and a friend—the same way that Todd thought of him—but at Bob and Claire’s, he’d be an animal whose feelings were ignored, when they were considered at all. The boys might play with him for a while, but sooner or later they’d take their father’s lead and leave the little dog to fend for himself. As much as his sister had said she wanted their uncle’s dog, Todd knew that Archie would be viewed as an obligation more than anything else.
He heard footsteps behind him.
“I’m finished here,” Jake said. “Time to give Miss Emma the bad news.”
“Just a minute,” Todd said. “I want to put this guy back in the cottage.”
He grabbed Archie’s collar and walked him to Emma’s front door. When the little dog was safely back inside and on his pillow bed, Todd closed the door firmly, testing it to make sure it couldn’t open on its own. Archie might not be so quick to come back if he escaped a second time.
As the two men headed back up the path to the inn, Todd sensed a change in Jake’s mood. For a while, it had seemed as if the two of them were establishing a friendly rapport. Now the man was no longer willing to engage in even a few words of conversation. Todd wondered what had prompted the switch. Was it something to do with the job? Perhaps Jake had been hoping there’d be more work for them to do. As puzzling as the change was, however, Todd wasn’t about to mention it. Jake seemed like the sort of person who preferred to keep things to himself.
Emma was in the lobby when they returned with their estimate. Todd hung back and let Jake present her with his list of materials, feeling it wasn’t his place to be involving himself in their deliberations. He was still painfully aware of Jake’s protective attitude toward Emma. By hanging back, he hoped to show the older man that he wasn’t interested in encroaching on their relationship.
Jake and Emma finished their discussion and she went back to her office, emerging a few seconds later with a check in her hand. Jake gave it a dubious look before folding it in half and tucking it into his wallet. Then he turned and headed for the front door, saying nothing to Todd as the two men walked out and got into Emma’s truck.
Jake put his key in the ignition but didn’t turn the engine over. Instead, he sat and stared at the dashboard. It seemed like such an obvious invitation to talk that Todd decided to risk it.
“Something wrong?” he said.
The handyman nodded.
“I don’t like being sent on a fool’s errand.”
Todd frowned. They were going to the hardware store for lumber. It didn’t sound foolish to him.
“What’s the problem?”
“She gave me a check.” Jake’s look remained inscrutable. “The last one bounced.”
“Oh,” Todd said. “Well, one bounced check—”
“And the one before that, and another one about six months ago. Last time I was down there, they told me the inn would have to be cash only from now on.”
Todd was stunned. He’d assumed that Emma was flush, that the inn was making money and that she was doing well. Now it seemed as if that assumption was wrong.
“I take it you didn’t tell her?”
Jake shook his head. “Didn’t have the heart.”
Here was the softie Emma knew, Todd thought. The handyman who shielded her from bad news and protected her from heartbreakers. No wonder Jake looked crestfallen. He’d run out of options.
“Why don’t I take the check and see if they’ll let me pay?” he said.
“What difference would that make?”
“Well, they told you no more checks, but they didn’t tell me, right? Maybe if I just hand it over, the clerk will accept it. It’s good this time, right?”
Jake nodded. “She swore to me it was.”
“Then it’s no problem,” Todd said. “We’ll get the things we need, and when it’s time to pay, you head out to the truck and wait. I’ll give the clerk the check and see what happens.”
The older man thought about that for a second.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It won’t work.”
“Maybe not,” Todd said. “But it’s worth a try, isn’t it? People tell me I’m pretty persuasive.”
The comment earned him a deeply skeptical look, but no
argument. Jake started up the truck and put it in gear.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “But when we come back empty-handed, you’ll have to be the one to tell her.”
The trip into town was an eye-opener. Jake’s revelation about the bounced checks had apparently breached a dam that had been holding back a flood of concerns, and as he drove he shared them freely with Todd.
The Spirit Inn was faltering, he said. Business wasn’t bad, but even at the busiest times, its profits were elusive. Neither Emma nor Clifton could figure out what the problem was, but if they didn’t discover it soon, the place would go under. Even the loan she was counting on might not be enough to keep Emma from having to sell the place. By the time they pulled into the hardware store’s parking lot, Todd was worried. After all her hard work, it was sad to think his old friend might lose it all.
Talking about the inn’s imminent demise had had the opposite effect on Jake, however. Being able to unburden himself to someone must have been cathartic, Todd thought. As they walked through the lumberyard, checking the two-by-fours and loading them onto their utility cart, the handyman whistled. Maybe the thought of having someone else try to deal with the manager for once had lightened his mood.
When everything they needed had been gathered, Jake handed over the check and headed out the door.
“I’ll be waiting in the truck,” he said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Todd waited until he was sure Jake was gone before pushing their supplies up to the counter. As the cashier totaled his order, he fingered the check, wondering what she’d say when he presented it. Was Jake right? He hoped not. Todd wished with all his might that Emma’s situation was not as dire as it seemed and that her check would be accepted without question. But Todd was a businessman, and he knew that no one who accepted bad checks could stay afloat for long.
When the cashier finished ringing up his order, he filled in the amount on the check and handed it over. The woman glanced at the business name on the front and back up at Todd before calling for the manager.
