CHAPTER ONE
THEO
NINE WEEKS LATER
I tap the steering wheel to the beat of the music coming out of the radio, my mind on autopilot as I make my way over to the office.
I pull up and see my cousin Caleb’s truck is here already.
I park behind him, leaning over to the passenger seat and grabbing the box of donuts from Ms. Maddie—the best donuts in town.
As soon as I get out of the truck, my ears fill with birds chirping and a lawn mower rumbling in the distance. The smell of freshly cut grass lingers in the air. The sun already shining down from the cloudless sky is another sign it’s going to be a nice day. I can’t help but grin.
I walk up the concrete path to the front of the building, climbing up the steps that lead to the big black-bordered door with the CW Construction logo shining in gold on the frosted glass in the middle, the phone number under it.
I came to Montgavin to help Caleb finish a few jobs since he was getting more contracts than he knew what to do with.
I planned to go back home, but the jobs kept coming in, so many that I stayed in town.
At first, I would stay at the local motel, but then I got sick of eating out, so I started renting an apartment, so it could be more like home.
When Caleb moved in with his girlfriend, Sierra, I moved into his house and just paid him the rent, so I could at least unpack my bag.
Finally, I caved and decided to officially live here.
When I admitted as much to Caleb, he made me his business partner.
He would not take no for an answer, but we agreed I would be a silent partner.
When I turn the brass handle of the door, the chimes sound from the bell on top of it.
I look to the right, where we converted the living room into the reception area.
It’s now our business manager Mikaela’s office.
She appointed herself with that title, which is just another way to say she’s our receptionist, secretary, and accounts payable and receivable assistant.
Caleb would have agreed to any title she wanted to give herself because we know that without her, we can’t run this business.
Her desk sits empty, but her footsteps approach from the back kitchen, and she appears with a coffee cup in her hand.
“Good morning, sunshine.” I hold up the donut box in my hand. “I come bearing gifts.”
“Is that so?” She tilts her head to the side, and the bun on top of her head flops. “That’s what you bring me after being gone a full month?”
“These are special donuts,” I walk to her desk and put them in the middle of it, “because they are all yours. You don’t have to share with anyone.”
She huffs out as she walks around me and behind her desk, putting her coffee down on her coffee warmer and then sitting in her chair. “Is this to pay me back for fielding all of your calls this month?”
“Yes.” I move back to sit in one of the chairs that are set up in front of her desk. “I’m sorry that I left you scrambling.”
“That’s putting it lightly.” She snorts.
My cousin, Caleb, emerges from one of the bedrooms he converted into offices.
“Holy—” he blurts, stopping in his tracks when he sees me. “I was not expecting you until next week.”
“Work got done faster than we thought.” For the past month, I’ve been helping my sister, three states away.
Her house flooded, and she was eight months pregnant.
I just couldn’t let her move into a rental or bring the new baby to that house.
“It was all-hands-on-deck. Your father sent out two shifts to make sure it got done. Anyway, I’m here for the morning meeting.
” I smile at him and then turn to Mikaela. “What’s going on?”
“So, does that mean you’re back now?” She picks up her coffee cup and takes a sip.
“That means I’m back, baby,” I joke as she rolls her eyes.
“Where do you want me to go?” I look over my shoulder to the great room, where there is a round table with four chairs.
It’s where she takes meetings with new clients to get an idea of what they need before sending in Caleb to give them a quote.
I get up from my chair and walk over to the three whiteboards lined up next to each other.
One has all the jobs we are working on now, with each crew at each site.
The second one has the next jobs coming up, and the third is the waiting list. My eyes scan the list, and I see it’s doubled since I’ve been gone.
“I’m going to go and get started at the barn,” Caleb says.
Mustang Creek Ranch has been around for about ten years, and they have tripled in size since opening.
They run one of the best equestrian therapy farms in the area, and the property they just bought to expand has a red barn that needs to be demolished and rebuilt.
We’ve been working on it for a couple of months and finally got a new roof on it. “We’ll catch up tonight.”
I nod as he heads out and then look over at Mikaela. “So where do you want me to go?”
She looks over at the board, and we go through all the jobs they have going on.
An hour later, she’s getting to the last name on the list that hasn’t been seen.
“Officer Burke called today to ask us to come and take a look at his garage.” She taps her fingers on her cup.
“He’s looking to fix it up and turn it into an apartment. ”
“Do you have notes or anything like that?”
She pffts as she rolls her eyes. “We weren’t all off for a month.
” She puts her mug down and moves the box of donuts to the other side of the desk, then pulls her keyboard in front of her.
She has two screens on her desk, one right next to the other.
I have no idea what she does on them, nor do I care to ask.
She asked for them, and she got them. I’m better with my hands than with technology.
It’s why I’m barely on social media. That, and the fact that the last time I went on there, I was informed the woman I loved for the last seven years was married and expecting a kid.
She clicks and clacks on her keyboard, and then the computer makes a swooshing sound.
“There, I just emailed them to you. You can call him and set up a time to stop by.”
“Sounds good.” I take the phone out of my back pocket and see her name in the middle of the screen.
“Email has been received.” I smile at her before getting up to my feet.
“I’m assuming there is no reason for me to go to my office.
” I motion with my chin to the stairs that lead to the two offices we have upstairs.
One is Caleb’s, and when I decided to stay in town with him, he immediately had an office set up for me.
“Only if you want to choke on the dust,” she laughs at her joke. I must have been in there a whole five times since he’s done it. And that is only because we had family come to town to visit and check in.
“I shall leave that for another day”—I nod my head at her—“and bid you adieu.”
“I don’t even want to know which girl you got that saying from.” She shakes her head. “Just don’t use it with me.”
“I have not been on a date in over eight weeks,” I tell her, and she gasps. “I know, you and me both.”
“Well, now that you’re back home, I’m going to bet you one hundred dollars that you have a date by Friday.”
“It’s Wednesday.” I shake my head.
She leans back in her chair. “Yes, but tomorrow is Thursday, and you usually hit up Thatcher’s.
Then you’ll look over at one of the girls who is visiting for the weekend, and you’ll have a date.
” I smirk at her. “Don’t give me that smirk, you’re wasting your time.
” I clap my hands and throw my head back, laughing out loud.
“So, a hundred bucks, you have a date Friday night, followed by breakfast Saturday morning.”
“Well, prepare to pay me a hundred dollars because I plan on resting and relaxing this weekend.” I grin at her and run my hand through my hair. “I accept cash and cash. No credit.”
“We’ll see tomorrow.”
“You never come to the bar,” I point out to her.
“I do when I’m about to win a hundred dollars,” she snaps back at me, and I just shake my head and walk out the door.
“Call me if you need me.” I slam the door behind me and pull up Officer Burke’s number. I’ve seen him a couple of times at Thatcher’s when he was off duty. I think he just got divorced. From what I remember of the gossip, she cheated on him and is set to marry the other man soon.
He answers after two rings. “Hi, Officer Burke. This is Theo Williams from CW Construction.”
“Hey, Theo, what’s up?”
“I was wondering if I could pass by and see the garage you are looking to renovate. Are you free now?”
“I’m on call,” he says, “but I’m at the house, so you can swing by at any time. If anything happens, I’ll have to leave.”
“Got it.” I make it to my truck, stepping up to get in. “I should be there in about twenty minutes.”
“Sounds good. If I don’t answer the front door, you can come around the back.”
“Great, thank you.” I’m about to disconnect the phone when I see I have an incoming call from Caleb. I switch the calls and then put the phone on speaker.
“You miss me already?” I joke.
“No.” His voice is tight. “Listen, I just got off the phone with Carl.”
“The wood guy?”
“Yeah.” Carl does all our wood cabinets and recently did library shelves for Caleb’s girlfriend, Sierra. A truck door slams on Caleb’s side of the phone. “Listen, I can’t explain now, but he’s on his way here. I just left the barn job.”
“Got it,” I confirm. “Do you need anything from me?”
“Not now.” I can feel he’s keeping something from me just by his tone. “But I’m going to need you to go to the site and see if anyone needs anything.”
“Yeah.” I pull away from the office. “I’m going to meet Burke now, and then I’ll swing by.”
“Sounds good.”
“Hey.” My voice goes low. “You okay?”
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” he deflects, “but so far so good.”
I have a funny feeling in my stomach.
“Talk later,” he says and hangs up the phone.
I stop at the end of the street, turning right, and head over to Burke’s house.
Burke’s brown front door has a peephole and a brass knocker.
I walk up the steps and see the swing on the side sway softly with the breeze.
I ring the doorbell and wait a couple of minutes before walking back down the steps and toward the back.
I can hear an electric saw. I knock on the fence and then open it, stepping in.
Burke looks up from what he’s doing and gives me a chin lift.
“Hey,” I greet, seeing the pieces of wood all around the yard, “what’s all this?”
“Playhouse,” he answers. “Sorry, treehouse.” He takes off the protective glasses he’s wearing and tosses them aside. “Thought I would surprise Asa. Told him about the one I had growing up, and he asked if I could make one for him.”
I put my hands on my hips. “That sounds”—I look around—“like it’s a lot of work.” He laughs at me. “I hope this wasn’t a ploy to get us out here to build it for you.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “But—”
“No.” I hold up my hand. “Absolutely not.”
“Okay, fine,” he gives in. “Then let me show you what I want done.” He takes off his gloves and puts them to the side.
“It’s over there.” He motions to the detached garage off to the left.
“I had this built when I had the whole house gutted. But I was just going to use it as a big shed.” Opening the door, I see that the only thing they have is plywood on the wall, and the base is concrete.
“Asa is going to be staying with me this summer. I’m going to need to hire a nanny, and well, I don’t know if it will be a live-in position or what, but either way, I thought it would be better if they had their own space. ”
I’m about to say something when his phone rings from his back pocket, and he pulls it out.
“Sorry, I’m on call . . .” he mumbles and puts the phone to his ear.
“Burke.” He listens, then he’s running. “On it.” He puts the phone in his pocket without stopping.
“Got to go. Shots fired at Sierra’s house. ”