Hard Hat Man Read online

  “Come on. We can check the other rooms later.” Kyle put his arm around her and guided her back down the staircase.

  Embarrassed at her suddenly weak knees and queasy stomach, Jan allowed him to assist her out onto the front porch, grateful for his strong arm.

  She settled into a slatted wooden chair.

  “Put your head down,” he instructed.

  She obeyed and gradually began to feel better. After a minute, she raised her head and took a deep breath. “Sorry. I guess the stuffy air got to me.”

  “Probably,” Laura said, hovering anxiously.

  “I’ll open some windows. It’ll be aired out by the time you return.”

  “But what if it rains?” Laura asked, eyeing the cloudy sky.

  “It’s not going to rain until tonight,” Kyle forecast, and headed into the house.

  “How does he know that?” Laura complained to Jan.

  Jan grinned. “Maybe he listens to the weather forecasts, Mom.”

  Laura tossed her a disbelieving look. “You know, some of these outdoor types have a built in barometer.”

  Jan laughed.

  Kyle returned, and smiled. “Looks like you’re feeling better. Ready to go back to Lakeview for lunch?”

  “Yes.” Jan rose. “Shall we follow you?”

  “I have to come back out here anyway, to do some more measurements. Why don’t you leave your car and ride with me?”

  “Good idea,” Laura put in before Jan could say anything. She got into the back seat of Kyle’s car, as though it was her accepted place.

  Jan sighed at her mother’s ploy and got into the front. Once more, sitting close to Kyle raised her awareness of him. She avoided touching him, but had to fight herself to resist the urge.

  She found herself wondering about his life. Had he always lived here? Did he have a family? It was only her mother’s matchmaking antics bringing those thoughts to her mind, she told herself irritably.

  After a quick stop at their motel to change clothes and freshen up, they went to the local restaurant.

  The waitress obviously knew Kyle and gave him an extra smile as she poured coffee for them and took their orders.

  Jan and Harriet ordered Chef’s Salads while Kyle ordered a hamburger and fries.

  Over lunch, Laura plied Kyle with the same questions Jan had been thinking of earlier.

  “Yes, I was raised on a farm near here,” Kyle said. “I live in Lakeview now, though.”

  “Do you have a family?” Laura asked.

  He shook his head. “No. I’m single. I have a brother in California, but I seldom see him.”

  Jan found herself pleased with his answer, even though she wanted to kick her mother for asking. She could tell from Kyle’s grin that he knew very well what Laura was up to and it amused him. Well, why shouldn’t it? She was an unlikely candidate for the wife of a construction man. She knew nothing about small town life. And wasn’t about to learn, whatever Laura was planning.

  “Jan’s single, too,” her mother said.

  “Mo--om!” Jan gasped, glaring at her mother and feeling her face heat up. She glanced at him. What must he be thinking? That she was a hopeless old maid? “I’m sorry, Kyle. Mom does get carried away sometimes.”

  “No problem.” He grinned.

  Laura shrugged, not in the least chagrined. “It’s not natural for a girl to want to stay single.”

  “It suits me fine. And I don’t want to hear another word about it,” Jan said, sending a warning glance at her mother, and then fixing her gaze on her salad. She breathed a sigh of relief when Kyle changed the subject.

  “So, I understand Horace was your brother, Laura?” he asked.

  “That’s right. Though he was ten years older than I. We seldom saw him or Esther though. They didn’t travel much, and didn’t invite relatives here, either. After Nancy disappeared and Esther died, Horace became strange. He kept to himself after all the tragedy that summer.”

  Kyle frowned. “You said Nancy disappeared. I’m sure I heard about this years ago, but I’ve forgotten what happened.”

  “As I said, she just disappeared. They never heard from her again.”

  “Didn’t she even let them know she was all right?” Kyle asked, frowning.

  Laura shrugged. “No. She probably knew Horace would never forgive her. Anyway, Horace was furious, but it broke Esther’s heart.”

  Kyle frowned. “Didn’t they file a missing person’s report?”

  Laura shook her head. “Horace said Nancy left a note saying she was eloping with a man she’d been secretly dating, so the police said she’d left of her own free will.”

  “But surely the police could trace her through the man’s employment records?”

  Laura shrugged. “They either couldn’t or wouldn’t. Horace said he was one of the crew that was building their new silo, but they didn’t know anything about him. The crew moved from farm to farm, building silos for farmers. Apparently the men were mostly transient workers and no one seemed to know or care who they were or where they came from or went.”

  “How sad,” Kyle said.

  Jan shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Did her mother have to tell everyone that old family story? “Mom, I don’t think Kyle is interested in our family’s history,” she murmured, glancing at him.

  Kyle met her gaze. “On the contrary. I find it fascinating.”

  “A few weeks later,” Laura went on, ignoring Jan’s objection, “Esther went into seclusion and died. It’s like the tragic plot of one of my movies.”

  “You’ve only done comedies, Mom. Never a tragedy.”

  “You’re a movie star?” Kyle asked, surprise and admiration in his voice.

  Laura beamed at his implied compliment. “Well, in a small way. Character parts, mostly,” she said modestly. “But that’s why I have to fly to London tomorrow night. My contract says I must be on the set Monday morning.”

  “How interesting.”

  “I find it so,” Laura said, smiling.

  Kyle picked up his coffee and turned to Jan. “And what do you do?”

  Jan smiled and told him, “Nothing as glamorous as Mom. I teach elementary school.”

  Kyle almost choked on his coffee. That explained her prim and proper attitude all right. “Ah, I see,” he managed to say. “You teach little ones?”

  “Third graders. The fun age.”

  Kyle saw her mouth twist in a smile. Her blue eyes sparkled with humor. She certainly looked the part of a professional woman, even dressed in simple blue slacks and white blouse today. Every hair was in place and her nails were perfectly manicured. Jan might not think her job was glamorous, but it was obviously a lot more civilized than working on his construction sites.

  Laura had better think again if she thought she was going to match her daughter up with a rough and ready, hard-hat construction guy like him. No way. A woman like her wouldn’t look twice at him.

  He glanced at his watch and said, “We’d better get a move on.”

  Anxious to get this deal closed, Kyle drove them to the realtor’s office.

  John Canby had an office in a small new strip mall on the edge of Lakeview. A slim, blonde receptionist sat at a desk with a phone to her ear. She waved her other hand, directing them to an inner office. “Go right on in. He’s expecting you,” she said, and continued her telephone conversation.

  They walked into the realtor’s crowded office to find a wiry, bald man sitting behind a table full of papers. Kyle introduced them to John.

  “Sit down, ladies,” he said, indicating chairs around the table. They sat down and John turned to Kyle, a bit nervously. “I’ve had a call from that guy on the next farm, Alex Porter. He’s determined to make trouble.”

  Kyle nodded. “I heard from him, too, John. Did he threaten you?”

  Mr. Canby nodded. “Says he’ll get a court order to keep you from building there.”

  “Oh dear,” Laura said. “Does this mean we can’t go through with the c
losing today?”

  “No, unless any of you has changed his mind?” John asked. “If we close, Kyle will have to deal with him later.”

  Kyle shook his head. “I haven’t changed my mind. Ladies?”

  “I really must leave tomorrow. I’d like to get this wrapped up if we can,” Laura said.

  Jan nodded agreement. “If Kyle is willing to take the chance of not being able to build there?”

  Kyle swallowed. She’d voiced the very thing he feared. He was taking a big chance, signing to pay Laura a lot of money for this land. If Alex succeeded in preventing this project from going through, Hart construction would be ruined financially. Could he trust the surveyor’s reports enough to risk everything?

  He drew a deep breath and nodded. The short realtor hitched his chair forward and began explaining each piece of paper as he presented it to them to be signed.

  John explained the terms of their deal. One item was that they had one week to clean out the farmhouse.

  At that, Jan drew a sharp breath and said, “No way!” in a very definite tone.

  Kyle jumped and turned to stare at her. “But, my whole project turns on tearing down the farmhouse and building houses along the perimeter of the property,” he explained patiently. “The strip mall I’ve planned, with a grocery store at one end and a large health club with swimming pool at the other end will come later. I haven’t finalized the deal with the new owners yet on those.”

  Laura was looking at her disapprovingly.

  Jan frowned at them both, and said, “I don’t pretend to understand what you are trying to do here, Kyle.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Laura said. “I only want this signed and done with.”

  “No, Mom.”

  “But we must...”

  “I can’t clean out all the stuff in the house in a week,” Jan said firmly. “You saw the whole room full of books and all those boxes of stuff. And we didn’t even get a look at the other rooms upstairs. Who knows what else is in there? And there’s no electricity, so I can only work in daylight.”

  “I’ll have the power connected tomorrow as soon as I move my crew onto the site,” Kyle said. “We need it for our power tools anyway. It’ll be a simple matter to connect the house.”

  “There, you see?” Laura said. “That should help.”

  “I suppose it will,” Jan said. “What about water? If I’m going to spend hours there, it would help if I had water, so I don’t need to keep driving back to town to use the bathroom, you know.”

  “Of course. My men will have a portable toilet on site, but there’s no reason for the house bathroom not to work. Horace had his own well and septic system. I’ll have one of my guys make sure the pump still works.”

  “Thanks,” Jan said. “Everything is very dusty, though if you’re going to tear the house down, I’ll only need to clean the things I plan to save or donate.”

  “I’m sure this will all take time. How about changing the wording to, ‘as soon as reasonably possible,’” Kyle said, meeting Jan’s gaze. “Will that be all right?” He’d get her some help, or even help her sort out stuff himself if he had to, but the house had to be ready to go soon. He was pleased to see her waver, then nod hesitantly.

  Laura smiled and patted Jan’s hand. “It’ll be okay, Jan. You’ll see.”

  Jan nodded and Laura smiled and went back to signing.

  Kyle wondered what he’d gotten himself into as he listened to John explain the next set of papers. A wave of pleasure ran through him at the thought of spending time with Jan at the house, helping her clean it out. On the other hand, she didn’t look pleased with the idea at all. And when would he find time with all the things that kept going wrong with this project?

  When they finally finished all the legal details and stepped back outside, rain was falling steadily. The June day had turned hot and muggy. As they dashed across the street to his car, he pressed the remote to unlock it and quickly opened the doors and helped them inside. They stopped at the store in town for cardboard boxes and cleaning supplies, then drove back to the farmhouse.

  There, they got the supplies they’d bought from the trunk. He helped them carry it all inside. They thanked Kyle for the ride and ducked inside out of the rain. He went back to his car, watched them disappear into the house and let out a sigh. Was he going to look back on this day’s happenings with deep regret? He hoped not, but doubt remained.

  As he backed out of the drive, he noticed Jan’s red Chevy looked odd. It sat low to the ground. Yikes. All four tires were flat! No way was that an accident!

  He eased back into his parking spot and got out to investigate, careful to not get close enough to the car to destroy any possible evidence. Though the rain coming down was sure to obliterate any tracks the perp might have left. A definite slash in each tire told him this was definitely done on purpose. He pulled out his cellphone and called the sheriff, who promised to send an officer to investigate very soon. “Your project is definitely giving me trouble,” he told Kyle.

  “Then the sooner you catch whoever is doing this nasty stuff, the sooner you’ll have less work, right, Sheriff?”

  “Humph,” the sheriff said, and hung up.

  Kyle went back inside to tell Jan and Laura about it while he waited for an officer to respond.

  “Bad news,” Kyle told the women. “Someone slashed all the tires on your car.”

  “What?” Jan asked. They hurried out to the porch and stood staring at the damage. “Why would they pick on my car? What do I have to do with all this?”

  “I’m sorry,” Laura said. “I shouldn’t have gotten you into this.”

  “Is vandalism covered in your insurance policy?” Kyle asked.

  “I have no idea. I’ll call my agent and ask.” Jan looked up the number on her cellphone and rang her agent in Chicago. After talking a minute, she hung up and said, “Yes, it’s covered. She says to have a garage replace the tires and send her the bill.”

  “Good,” Kyle said. A police car pulled into the farmyard and a slim uniformed young woman stepped out, clipboard in hand. “I’m Deputy Carol Hendricks.”

  After answering all the officer’s questions, Kyle gave Jan the number of the town’s only garage and she called for a tow truck.

  The garage promised to put on a new set of tires and return her car by the end of the day. Thank goodness for small town service.

  “So who do you think is the perp?” Deputy Hendricks asked.

  Kyle stared at her. “You think I should know who did this?”

  “Well, all these dirty tricks are apparently connected to your project in some way,” she snapped back, her dark eyebrows dipping at him.

  “If I knew who was behind all this, I’d be happy to press charges so you could lock the guy up.”

  “Oh, then it’s a man?”

  “How the hell should I know? I just used ‘guy’ to mean person,” Kyle shot back.

  “Humph,” she said.

  “Now you sound just like the sheriff.”

  “Yeah? Well, if you find any usable evidence, let me know,” she snapped. “I’ll be in touch.” She nodded at Jan and Laura, then strode back to her car and left.

  Shaking himself, he got back in his car and drove on. Why was whoever was doing this stuff now expanding it to include Jan? What could he do about it? Success wasn’t worth anyone getting hurt.

  Think positive, man. And take one problem at a time. That’s the only way to do it.

  There was little Kyle could do in the rain at the farm, so he drove back to his office to set the details of his project in motion. He had a lot of details to iron out before he could turn earth at the site. But first on the list, he’d get the utilities working at the house to speed progress there.

  Chapter 3

  First, Jan and her mother did another quick walk through the farmhouse, looking for any pieces of furniture they wished to keep. Jan found an antique chest of drawers and a lovely wooden carved jewelry box she wanted. La
ura turned up her nose at everything she saw.

  “Okay,” Jan said. “Then except for my two pieces, let’s leave all the furniture where it is and just let the lady from the Historical Society choose what she wants and then donate the rest. I’m quite sure they’ll be happy to send a truck to pick it up.”

  “Sounds good to me. And that will save us a lot of work, too,” Laura agreed.

  “How about using the dining room down here to sort the smaller items?” Jan asked. “These big windows let in plenty of light. And we should have water and electricity by tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” Laura agreed. They began by removing the dust from the dining room table and chairs.

  Laura swept the floor while Jan began bringing items to the table. It was slow, dusty work, but had to be done.

  Jan took a box to the family room and brought several loads of books down to the table where her mother began sorting them into piles. “Be sure to label the boxes, Mom,” she said. “Do you want their family Bible?”

  Laura shook her head. “No. I’ve got too much junk already.”

  “Their Bible isn’t junk, Mom. It has their family records in it.”

  Laura shrugged, not swayed by that argument.

  “Then put it in my box to be saved, okay?” Jan said. “And I’d like some of these crocheted doilies, too.”

  “Really?” Laura said, turning up her nose. “They’re so old-fashioned.”

  “I know. But Aunt Esther and Grandma made them, so I’d like them for a keepsake, okay?”

  “Suit yourself, dear.” Laura wrote, ‘Jan’ on a box and put the Bible and doilies in it.

  As Jan went back to the living room with another empty box, she heard crying. She glanced at the easy chair beside the fireplace and froze. Aunt Esther sat in the chair, crying. This time, she looked up at Jan, sending her a beseeching look, as though asking for help. But she didn’t say anything.

  “Mom!” Jan yelled.

  “What is it?” Laura peered in the door. “What’s wrong?”

  Jan pointed at her aunt. “A-Aunt Esther! See?”

  Laura looked at the chair, then back at Jan. “Impossible. Esther is dead. I don’t see anything, Jan.”