Pretend You're Mine: A Small Town Love Story (28 page)

“Why, Garrison Construction, of course.” Harper batted her eyelashes.

Frank nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“What do you need from me?”

“Yes or no on eating the cost.”

Harper blinked. Frank was asking her permission. She cleared her throat and reached for her calculator.

“Yes,” she said, looking at the total. “It’s a good idea, Frank.”

He nodded briskly and gathered up his papers before stomping out without a word.

“What was that all about?” Harper asked, spinning in her chair so she didn’t have to turn her head to see Beth.

“I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said, shaking her head.

Harper swiveled back to her screen. Maybe she was wearing Frank down with her boatloads of charm. Or maybe Luke told him to deal with her directly. Or maybe she was finally starting to fit in.

If she was starting to fit in there was no time to slack off. She would continue to show Frank and everyone how seriously she took this job, no matter how she had gotten it. She jumped back into job costing with energy.

A few minutes shy of noon, Charlie walked in.

“I was looking for two lovely ladies to take to lunch.” He was dressed in jeans and a Garrison polo, which meant he had just come from a meeting with potential clients on a job.

“I think I can scrounge some up for you,” Harper teased. “I just may need carried down the stairs. Beth, are you in?”

Beth was already waiting at the door holding her purse. “What?” she shrugged. “I’m starving.”

Harper snickered. “I’ll drive myself. I’m taking Aldo to PT after lunch.”

Charlie took them to the diner where the smell of grilled bread and coffee hung in a delicious cloud.

Harper slid gingerly into the booth next to Beth. “So what’s the occasion, Charlie?”

“It’s Tuesday,” he said, winking at Sandra as she arrived with his soda. “And I’m hungry for a tuna melt.”

“Looks like you’ve got two hot dates,” Sandra said. “You must be the infamous, Harper. I’ve been meaning to get over to Remo’s to check you out on a Friday. Just haven’t made it yet.”

Harper laughed. “I should have just called a town meeting to introduce myself.”

“Next time you do that. It’ll save us all the trouble of stalking you. Welcome to Benevolence. What can I get you ladies?”

They ordered and Harper wondered if she’d ever get used to small town expectations.

“You talk to Luke lately?” Charlie asked, taking the straw out of his soda.

“I talked loudly to him about neglecting to tell us about Aldo’s rescue. He said he’s going to try to call you guys this week.”

“My son, the tight-lipped hero.”

“I wonder where he gets it,” Harper wiggled her eyebrows.

“Probably Claire,” Charlie quipped. “But now that we’re talking about talking. I wanted to run something by you. I just came from an unofficial meeting with potentials. It’s a young couple with a plot of land outside of town on the edge of the woods. They’re looking for something ... unique.”

“Like missile silo unique or cookie cutter with a slightly different stone than their fifty neighbors?” Beth asked.

“In the middle. You all ever hear of tiny houses?”

Harper and Beth shared a glance. Both were obsessed with the new lineup of TV shows on the topic. “We’re familiar,” Harper said casually.

“Well they’re thinking small, not tiny. A cottage around five hundred square feet with geothermal, solar, the whole green design, plus all this built in storage. I think it would be a real interesting project to get. But I don’t want to do it if it’s some dumb looking box on wheels that they’re after.”

Harper held up a finger and reached for her phone. She opened her Teeny But Adorbs Houses Pinterest board and passed the phone over to Charlie.

“Something like this Craftsman, maybe?” She swiped the screen for him knowing he could barely work his flip phone. “Or, what about something modern like this one? Depending on the land you could position it so the whole front gets southern exposure. Nice for the heating bill in the winter.”

“Huh. Is there any way you could send those picture to me by email or something?”

Harper smiled. “Sure, no problem, Charlie.”

“So you think it’s something worth pursuing?”

Harper and Beth both nodded vigorously. “Homes like these are getting more and more popular. They’re not for everyone, but a lot of people are really looking for downsized luxury.” She made a mental note to have Claire record some of the tiny house episodes for Charlie.

He slid her phone back to Harper. “All right then. I’ll take that under advisement and see if I can put together some plans.”

“I
want to learn to run,” Harper announced, bouncing on her toes. Aldo squinted up at her mid-stretch.

“What brought this on?”

“You and Luke run. I’ve seen him leave the house with his brain full of crap and come back from a run smiling. I want that. Plus, I’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately and I helped Gloria move and couldn’t walk for three days.”

Aldo shrugged. “Okay. So run to that tree over there and back.”

“That’s not very far. I want to run miles.”

“You’re not ready for miles yet, smart ass. I’m going to check out your form and tell you how to do it better. Besides, for someone who sits at a desk and eats pizza all day that tree is far enough.”

Harper snorted. “You’re missing part of a leg and you’re already working on slow jogs on the treadmill. I think I can handle running to the tree and back with two regular legs.”

Aldo flashed her a grin. “Quit stalling. Run. I’ll watch and judge mercilessly.”

Harper stuck her tongue out at him and started to run towards the tree on the bank of the lake. The park was one of her favorite places in Benevolence. She and Aldo had been hitting the trails almost every day as extra PT for him and some much needed not-sitting for her.

Watching his steady recovery had made her take stock of her own health. Especially after noticing she was more winded at the top of a hill than Aldo with his freaking bionic leg.

She could totally do this. Be healthy, be strong. There was time now to focus on what her future could be. More salads, some running, maybe even some weight lifting, and when Luke came home he would find a ripped woman with goals and plans.

The tree was marginally closer now even though she felt like she had been running forever. It must be an optical illusion.

Her breath was coming in shorter bursts now and her legs felt heavier. Oh my God. She was running downhill. She was going to have to run uphill on the way back.

Finally, the tree loomed in front of her. She stopped a few yards shy of its trunk and bent down pretending to tie her shoe while she desperately tried to catch her breath.

“Let’s go, Harp!” Aldo’s shout carried down the hill to her.

“Please don’t throw up. Please don’t throw up,” she chanted as she headed back up at a much slower pace.

She yelped when a stabbing pain shot through her side.

Clutching at her ribs, she finally stumbled back to the start and collapsed next to Aldo. “That wasn’t so bad,” she gasped.

He chuckled. “You sound like a pack-a-day smoker, Harp.”

“I think I have appendicitis. It hurts like a bitch.”

“Welcome to your first side stitch.”

“Side stitch?”

“Come on. Help me up and I’ll tell you all the things you did wrong.”

“Like saying I wanted to learn to run?”

They worked through Aldo’s exercises and ended with a leisurely walk to the lakefront.

“So how are you doing?”

“Good enough that I’m moving back to my place this weekend. The doc cleared it.”

“Aren’t you going to miss your mom?” Harper teased.

“Me moving out is the only way we’ll both live.”

“Are you sleeping better? Is the pain still keeping you up?”

He shrugged and the pause was so long Harper thought he wasn’t going to answer her.

“Sometimes it’s like my mind can’t tell the difference between what’s happening and what’s happened. It’s like this blur between history and present, and sometimes the only thing that clears it is pain,” Aldo said.

“Maybe that’s why you push your therapy so hard?”

“Maybe that’s why I push everything so hard.”

***

S
ummer was in full swing in Benevolence. Harper’s weekends were filled with cookouts and dog walks and running, which was getting marginally less painful. After she hit her first full mile, Aldo bought her a sleeve for her cellphone and downloaded a 5k training program on it for her.

She still wasn’t getting the blissful happy brain from running yet, but the relief she felt when each run was over was enough to keep her lacing up her running shoes almost every day.

Her latest project was sprucing up the outside of Luke’s house. She had repainted the banister and railing on the wraparound porch and was slowly adding flowers around the existing greenery.

Today she was going to tackle the overgrown groundcover on the side of the house that was starting to climb up the siding.

She dressed in gym shorts and one of Luke’s old paint-splattered t-shirts, grabbed a baseball hat, and went to work.

The groundcover proved a formidable opponent with deep roots and long runners, but Harper enjoyed the physical labor.

The summer sun teased a trickle of sweat down her back and Harper sat back on her heels to take a water break. She had cleared more than half of the long bed already. If she could keep on pace, tomorrow she could mulch.

She wondered if Luke would be proud of the care she was taking with his home. She wanted him to come home to a smoothly running office and household.

At work she had finished converting all their client and jobs data to a new system that integrated with their accounting software, cutting the paperwork down for everyone. She also convinced Frank and Charlie to host a monthly staff meeting where everyone from foremen to high school interns participated in discussing project updates and roadblocks.

At home, the porch was painted and offset by colorful planters overflowing with summer flowers. With Claire and Sophie’s help, the vegetable garden in the back yard was really taking shape. Inside, the staircase had shed its skin of dingy age and now shone like new.

Last week, she had cleaned all of the windows inside and out. She had nearly given James a heart attack when he came over to mow the lawn and caught her on the extension ladder she found in the garage, busily wiping away the winter’s grime from the second floor glass.

He proceeded to show her that replacement windows hinged open inside for easy, ladder-free cleaning and then buried the ladder in the back of the garage under a canoe and several bags of potting soil.

“You’re not a klutz,” Luke had once told her. “But you invite trouble.” He must have relayed that message to his brother.

The only windows still to clean were the basement level. Harper swiped her fingers through the grime on the glass closest to her. It looked like several years’ worth of dirt. On the other side of the glass, was a plastic tote at window level that she could just make out.

Harper frowned. She didn’t remember any window height shelving on this wall in the basement.

Unless ...

She found a window to Luke’s secret room.

She hastily wiped away more grime and peered through the glass. The room was empty except for a set of metal shelves with boxes and totes.

Harper sat back on her heels. Whatever Luke had in that room under lock and key was important. Maybe a better woman would have let it go and respected his space and secrets, but a better woman wasn’t here. Harper was.

The basement window wouldn’t open from the outside, so she hurried inside to examine the lock on the door.

Where would Luke keep the key? Harper paced the floor.

She went back upstairs to the table in the foyer and grabbed both of his key rings from the drawer. There were about a dozen keys between the ring with his truck and house keys and the one for work. None of them were labeled Secret Basement Room.

Back downstairs, she took her time fitting each one into the lock. But none of them opened the door. On tiptoe, she felt along the top of the doorframe, but came up empty. She checked his truck in the console and glove box and found nothing.

She returned to the kitchen, spinning the key ring on her finger. Where would he keep a key to something he didn’t want easy access? God, she hoped he hadn’t buried it somewhere.

She might need some backup brainpower. Harper grabbed her cellphone and dialed Hannah’s number.

“Hey, H! What’s up?” Her friend’s chirpy voice always made Harper smile.

“I’m about to go all out crazy person here and I either need talked down or walk-through.”

“Okay, shoot. What’s the sitch?”

Harper quickly filled Hannah in on the situation. “So first of all, am I nuts for desperately needing to know what’s inside? And secondly, how far can I go to get inside without being a completely crazy?”

Hannah snickered. “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to want to know what’s behind door number one. But I wouldn’t go clawing through the drywall if I were you. I’d try to find a minimally invasive way to get in there. Depending on what’s in those boxes, you might not want him to know you know.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not dead bodies or used sex toys.”

“Maybe he’s just a hoarder and it’s every report card he ever got?” Hannah offered.

“I know it’s something big. Something that he doesn’t want to deal with. He built literal walls around it and locked it all away.”

“So maybe he’s not hiding something per se, but keeping it separate.”

“That’s what I’m thinking, too,” Harper agreed.

“Maybe it’s mountains of cash?”

Harper snorted. “He already has mountains of that. So I already tried all the keys on his key rings and didn’t hit the jackpot.”

“Well if it’s something he doesn’t want to deal with, he wouldn’t put it on something he uses every day, right?”

“No, he’d put it somewhere he doesn’t run across it all the time. Have I told you lately how super smart you are, Hanns?”