by Trisha Grace
“So, you’re kind of a computer geek?”
He smiled. “I’m good at developing software and equipment that keeps people safe.”
“So you’re a geek.” Kate flashed him a wide grin. “Kidding. Then, Mr. Hayes, do you actually know how to fix the equipment? Or were you just poking your nose around, pretending to know what’s going on.”
“I fixed up the system at the mansion, didn’t I?”
“True.” Her head bobbed up and down. “How do you make sure that everything is running smoothly when you’re not in the office?”
“I have an assistant. Don’t you?”
Kate shook her head. “Never found the need for one. Maybe because I’m actually working in the office most of the time,” she teased.
“You shouldn’t be rude to someone who’s trying to make your house safe.”
“Someone once told me that life will be tiring if you have to do everything you should.”
He laughed.
Kate grinned and turned back to her computer. “All right, then. Give me your details. I’ll book the flights and all.”
“Why don’t you give me yours? I’ll settle it.”
“No, I’ve got it.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but changed his mind. Respect.
Kate smiled when she saw his reaction. “It’s my business trip. I don’t want to trouble you.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “But do it later. Since we’re here, you can play the piano while we wait for the system to be up,” he said.
“I don’t like playing when there are others around.”
“You played for me.” He saw her scowling, but he knew exactly how to get her to play. “If you don’t want to play, then I’ll just go back to watching them work.”
“Are you blackmailing me?” Kate narrowed her eyes and feigned anger. “What makes you think I’ll care?”
He shrugged and stood, turning toward the men who were installing the security system. Kate sighed and stood after him.
“All right,” she said, trotting to the piano. She sat on the right side of the chair, lifted the cover, and waited for him to join her.
Tim watched in amazement as he saw his boss conversing with Miss Mitchell. He’d never heard so many words coming out of Mr. Hayes’s mouth. And to top it off, he was laughing.
Laughing!
Tim couldn’t even remember a time when he’d seen Mr. Hayes smile.
A joke had once gone around the office that Mr. Hayes probably had some muscle dysfunction, making it impossible for him to smile.
Tim thought back on those times during staff meetings. No matter how good the sales figures were, he would only give a nod of approval. Sometimes, he wouldn’t even have any reaction.
He always appeared bored or angry.
And that same aloof boss was now sitting, chatting, smiling, and laughing with Miss Mitchell.
Maybe Mr. Hayes was only stern in the office. Maybe he was a different person when he was with his friends. But Tim doubted it.
Tim was certain there was something special about Miss Mitchell.
Not only did he personally arranged her installation, he’d taken time off to be here with her. And that was on top of the specific instruction he’d given about not charging Miss Mitchell.
He stood behind one of the men and took another glimpse of Mr. Hayes and Miss Mitchell. His wife would definitely be at all ears for this story.
“Let’s play a duet,” Kate suggested the moment Tyler sat.
He placed his hands on the piano and pressed down on random keys again. He hadn’t played the piano since his parents died, hadn’t even touched one until the last time he was here with Kate.
Playing the piano was something he did with his mother. Since that night of their death, he had refused to play. Though there was a piano in the house that his grandfather had dumped him in, he never once touched it.
Somehow, everything that reminded him of his parents made him angry. Every one of those things only reminded him that he would never be able to see or spend another moment with his parents.
If Marianne hadn’t stood in his way, he would’ve thrown the piano out without a second thought.
The mansion used to have a piano, too.
He guessed his grandfather had the same reaction toward the piano as he had. The only difference was that no one could stop him from throwing anything out of the house.
“You know how to play,” Kate said, almost in accusation.
He looked up at her, wondering how she came to that conclusion.
“Your thumb; you placed it right at the beginning of a new chord. And you bend your fingers the way you should instead of placing them flat on the keys.”
His eyes dropped back to the keys. “I haven’t played for a while,” he said softly.
Kate didn’t reply.
He turned and saw her pursing her lips, clearly worried that she’d hurt him. He reached over and pushed her hair behind her ear, getting her attention. “I’m fine.”
“I can teach you if you want. It’s okay if—”
“Why not.” He wasn’t exceptionally keen, but she’d seemed so happy when she was playing the piano, and he wanted to be part of that.
She beamed and placed his hand on the correct keys. “Heart and Soul. Have you played it before?”
He gave a wry smile at the pure coincidence of Kate picking the one song his mother had taught him. He tried out the keys, playing the first few notes. “This is all I remember.”
Smiling, she showed him a few notes at a time, then let him repeat after her demonstration.
“I love this song. My grandmother used to play it with me even when she was at the elderly home, except she thought I was my mother,” Kate said, shaking her head indulgently.
Tyler had spent his whole life avoiding anything that held any link to his parents. Any memories of them only made his heart ached, so he refused to allow himself to remember.
That was the only way he could cope.
Seeing how fondly Kate could speak of the memories that her parents and grandparents had created for her, it felt safe for him to remember as well.
Though he would never see his parents again, perhaps he could still smile at the joy they’d once given him.
“And your sister?”
“She wasn’t interested and never learned. Now I have someone to play the song with.”
He smiled, pleased to be the someone she was talking about.
“Mr. Hayes, we’re done,” Tim said.
“Go ahead and play. I’ll check it through first,” he said to Kate before getting up and moving over to Tim.
Instead of playing, Kate swiveled around and watched him scrutinize the system.
Her attention on him lingered for a minute. Then she got up and attended to his staff, bringing out more glasses and a flask of water.
He rolled his eyes when he heard her apologizing for the lack of snacks. “Kate,” he said, cocking his head to the side, gesturing for her to come over.
“Yeah?” she asked as she walked over toward him.
Nothing. He simply didn’t want her to fuss over the men. He was worried that if he hadn’t called her over, she might head out to buy some snacks for them.
He didn’t answer her question. He walked around the house with Kate by his side, explaining how the system worked while checking it.
Pointing to the corners where the small, thumb-sized cameras were, he continued his orientation of the security system. “There’s one camera in every room, except bathrooms, of course.” Pointing toward the window, he continued. “There’s another one right outside all your rooms. The cameras will activate if you don’t key in the correct password on the pad, but will be deactivated once you key in the correct code. When you leave the house and lock the door using the security pad outside, the cameras will be activated if the motion sensors detect movements.”
With his hand on her elbow, he led her down the stairs. “As with the mansion, a
ll the windows and doors are wired. If someone tries to open it or breaks the glass when you lock down the house, it’ll set off the alarm. Do you want to give it a try?”
“You want me to break the window?”
He blinked, then cracked a smile when he saw the mischievous glint in her eyes.
“I’m sure it’s working fine. Is that all?” Kate asked.
Tyler nodded as he glanced around the house, satisfied with the security in place. When they returned to the living room, he nodded to Tim and the team started packing up.
Kate thanked his staff for their hard work as they trotted out.
“Have the codes been set?” she asked, closing the door behind his staff.
“Yeah. The password for the door is your phone number. The security code for the phone call will be your sister’s number.”
“Thanks. I wanted to use your number, so I’ll only have to remember one set of password. But that would mean Evelyn and Lydia will know the password to the mansion as well. I didn’t think you’d appreciate that.”
He hadn’t given Dan, Joseph, and Ryan the password to the mansion either. He was fine with them having the keys to his own house, but with Kate living in the mansion, he didn’t want them entering and leaving as they would at his house.
“Do you want to choose the hotel?”
He frowned, and for a moment couldn’t figure out what Kate was talking about. “Oh, the bed and breakfast trip …” his words trailed off at the end. “Have you read the fine print of the will?”
Kate shook her head, her eyes still on the laptop. “No, why?”
“We have to stay in the same room, separate beds are fine.”
He laughed when he saw the shock on her face as she took in the news.
“Does Mr. Sawyer have to come along?”
“No, guess he figured the lawyer will be busy.”
Kate sat in front of her laptop and started searching for plane tickets and hotels nearby.
He sat beside her and watched her multitask through the various taps on her web browser. “Don’t you think it’s kind of weird to be staying in a hotel so close to where the new bed and breakfast is?”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“Why don’t you deal with the tickets while I settle the accommodations.”
She took out her spectacles and placed it on the table. “Sure.”
They were done in less than an hour. It would’ve been much faster if they hadn’t debated on who should foot the bill.
In the end, it was a concession. Kate paid for the flight while he paid for their accommodation.
When they were done with that, they began chatting about their work.
He realized Kate knew plenty about him, but he didn’t know much about her. So he asked her question after question, finding out how she and Evelyn started their company in her grandmother’s garage and how they had grown their company from scratch to having five teams of designers working for them.
Though she still worked on her own projects, she would advice and improve the designs of other teams, making the final decisions.
“That sounds like a lot of work,” Tyler commented.
“Yeah, but I love my job.”
He was about to ask another question when Kate interjected, “Enough about me. My turn to ask the questions.”
“You already know plenty about me.”
“No. I know plenty about the young Tyler, not the one sitting with me.”
He smiled. “What do you want to know?”
“How did you get that scar on your hand?”
Flipping his hand over, Tyler stared at the bite marks on his arm. “Got bitten by a dog.”
“Ouch. What happened?”
He shrugged and said, “It came out of nowhere.”
“Did it hurt?”
“It was so long ago. I can’t remember.”
“Am I boring you?”
“No, why?”
She laughed softly. “Your answers are really short.”
He wasn’t bored; it was his habit to keep his sentences short. He paused for a moment, thinking of something else to add to the story. “I do remember it was a complete pain to start learning how to play basketball with my left hand.”
She grinned, appreciating his effort. “Ryan said you were really good at basketball.”
“And when did he say that?”
“First day at the mansion.”
“So you were checking up on me?”
“No, I merely asked him how you guys became friends.”
He nodded, saying nothing else.
“Tell me about your work.”
“You already know what I do. Like I said, I inherited it from my parents and improved the system. Now I just make sure nothing goes wrong.”
“And when things do go wrong?”
“My assistant tells me about it. I’ll come up with the solution, and she hands out my instructions.”
“So you don’t work with anyone else but your assistant.”
“That’s why I have an assistant.”
“So you don’t have to talk to anyone else at work?”
He shrugged. Things were simpler that way. He didn’t have to entertain stupid questions and unwanted attention. It was more efficient, too. He didn’t have to explain his actions. Instructions would be passed down to the different departments, and everyone got to work to solve the problem quickly.
“Your grandfather used to go on and on about how smart you are. He said the company was growing fast with good, quality products that you’ve worked on.”
“He was good to you.”
She smiled, seemingly embarrassed. “Yes, he was.”
“What did the two of you do together?”
“Nothing much. He tells me lots of stories about you. I think I know the young Tyler better than you do.”
She was probably right.
After so many years of pushing his memories aside, they had started to fade. He couldn’t remember much about his younger days except the night his parents died.
His brain seemed determined to torture him with those memories.
No matter how he tried, he could never forget the horror on his parents’ faces.
Sighing, he pushed those thoughts from his mind and returned to their previous topic. As they chatted, he mentioned that Hayes Security regularly hired ex-policemen for their security team or as trainers for their new recruits.
“So you have contacts in the police force?”
“More goodwill than contacts,” Tyler corrected.
Kate fiddled with her locket.
“What is it?”
“Do you think your goodwill can help me find a retired detective?”
He looked at her, studying her expression. “I’ll help as long as you’re sure that’s what you want.”
She chewed on her lips while she began winding and unwinding the chain around her index finger. “I don’t know. I can’t help but feel that if I were to do nothing, I’m betraying my parents.”
“Those are strong words.”
Kate sighed. “I just feel guilty.”
“Have you been happy?”
She thought about his question.
“It isn’t a difficult question,” Tyler stated when he saw her struggling to come up with an answer.
“I’m not sure. I’m proud of my achievements and grateful for what I have, but I’m not sure if I’m … happy.”
“Then I’m sure your parents would rather you work on that.”
She nodded slowly.
“But I’ll try to get the information anyway.”
She gave him a small smile. “Thanks.”
“Out of curiosity, what makes you happy? You—not about other people—just you. Like playing the piano; I can see that makes you happy.”
“Yeah, I love playing the piano. I play whenever I get the time. I think that’s the one indulgence I allow myself to have. And I love designing, especially old houses. I love being able to
keep the memories alive while giving the house a newer and more contemporary look.”
“Are you happy at the mansion?”
“Yeah, I am,” she said without hesitation. “It’s the first time I don’t have to be the one in-charge.” Then chuckling at her own thoughts, she added, “And who wouldn’t be happy to have Marianne cooking their meals?”
Tyler grinned and shook his head. “She’s the only reason the guys are always gathering wherever I stay.”
“I can’t blame them. I’m thinking of poaching her from you after the one-year stay at the mansion. You’d better start treating her better or she might leave with me.”
Or you can stay. Tyler didn’t voice out his thoughts. He didn’t even know what he was thinking. “If she makes you happy, I’ll let her go. Then the guys and I will just be here a lot.”
Kate laughed. “I don’t think my table can fit her groupies,” she said. “And I don’t think she’s good for me, I might get really fat. That’s the only reason I haven’t asked.”
After Kate cleaned up the house, he drove both of them back to the mansion. As usual, the road wound uphill with both sides flanked by trees as far as the eye could see. Kate stared at the trees, at the elongated shadows caused by the setting of the sun.
The orange tint that filled the sky filtered through the trees, beaming into the car as they drove.
“This is the first time I actually paid attention to the woods,” Kate said.
“Still find it creepy?” he asked.
She stared out at the trees and smiled. “Not so much, not when there’s someone beside me.”
“It’s peaceful.”
“Hmm …” Kate continued gazing out of the window. “It’s somewhat nostalgic.”
“Nostalgic?”
“It feels as if the trees have many love stories and secrets that are waiting to be discovered.”
His lips curled. No matter how many crime shows she watched, Kate was still a romantic at heart.
He loved the woods.
It was a huge playground that he could spend hours in. His favorite thing to do was to run around in the woods and watch how his shadow change as the sun retired.
With all his love for the woods, he’d never thought of it as a place that held love stories.
