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Jace knocked lightly on her office door with Ari standing next to him. She invited them in. Jace held the list up. “I’ve done a few things. Thought you might like a status update.” He handed her the paper, which he’d added columns to. There were check marks in red indicating the tasks he’d completed, the date they were completed, what was decided on and finally his initials under the approved column.
She looked at it, then up at him. “You’re very thorough.”
“Comes with the job,” he said.
“I helped,” Ari stated.
Kelly smiled at him, a smile she’d never given Jace.
“What did you do?”
“I held the light so dad could look at the...the...” He faltered.
“Joist,” Jace provided.
“Joist,” he repeated.
“I’m sure you were a big help,” Kelly told him.
Ari beamed.
“Since it’s the end of the day, I thought I’d finish that library for you, but I see you’ve already done it.”
“I plan to put the books back in another week. The paint needs time to really cure.”
He nodded. “I’ll start on the other things on the list tomorrow. In the meantime, I promised Ari I’d take him into town. He hasn’t seen anything of Windsor Heights, except the Kendall, since we arrived.”
“You can come with us,” Ari said.
“Yeah, you can,” Jace imitated his son.
Kelly glanced at the spreadsheets on her desk. The office was full of unopened boxes. Jace noticed a brochure taped to one of them. One chair had several post office and courier boxes stacked, ready for tomorrow’s pick up.
“You have to eat sometime,” Jace prompted. He wanted to see her away from this place. She worked all the time, as if she had an impending deadline.
“Well, I suppose I can finish when I come back.” She shuffled her papers together. “Let me freshen up. I’ll meet you at the front door in five minutes.”
Twenty minutes later they were sitting at the Hamburger Palace, a fast-food place where Ari was stuffing himself with a huge hamburger and a plate of french fries.
“Chew, Ari,” Jace cautioned. The boy was shoveling food into his mouth as if he hadn’t had a meal in days. “They don’t have hamburgers where we were living,” Jace told her.
“That must have been interesting. Living in a different country, I mean.” Kelly took a bite of her burger.
“It was. I’ve lived in a few countries, actually. But, obviously, Colombia’s meant the most to me.” He used a napkin to wipe the side of Ari’s mouth. “Too much relish.”
“What did you do there exactly?”
“We put in a water treatment plant. It had just come online when Ari and I left.”
“The job was over?”
“My part in it. The plant was completed, outfitted and online. The maintenance crew was in place and it was time for me to be transferred to another project. But I opted to return here.”
He looked at Ari. Kelly followed his gaze and he knew she understood his meaning. She reached for the bottle of catsup and poured a little on the side of Ari’s plate. Then she dipped a French fry into the sauce and offered it to him. Ari bit it.
“Mmm,” he said, and picked up his own fry, repeating the procedure Kelly had shown him.
“Have you inquired about pediatricians, yet?” she asked.
“Before we left, I’d looked into some, but I haven’t visited them. Would you know of any?”
Kelly shook her head. “I’ve never been around children or anyone with children, so I can’t help you there. But I’m sure there are services you can call to inquire about specialists. You can use the computer to look up the types of doctors who are part of the insurance plan.”
Again he looked at Ari. “It’s amazing that since he’s been here, he hasn’t had a single episode.” He shrugged. “I think he’s happy.”
“Many people with asthma live without episodes,” she said.
“Ari used to have them regularly.”
Hearing his name, Ari paid attention to him. “I have my inhaler,” he said. His hand went to his pocket to prove it.
“I know you do,” he said.
“I never go anywhere without it.” Ari was shaking his head and speaking slowly, the way Jace had spoken to him when he was old enough to understand that he needed the inhaler to help him breathe.
Jace smiled and Ari tucked it in his pocket before returning to his food. Turning back to Kelly, Jace looked at her hair. It was loose and flowing down her back. He wanted to run his hands through it, but she was his employer and he couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. He needed the job in order to keep the insurance.
“I need a favor,” Jace said. He changed the subject to take his mind off Kelly’s hair.
“What is it?”
“I have to return the car. I hoped you could find it in your schedule to follow me to the airport and bring me back to the Kendall?”
“I forgot it wasn’t yours. Of course, I’ll drive back and forth. I can drop off some of the brochures I have along the way.”
“Brochures?”
“It’s one of my marketing ideas to get the Kendall to be self-sustaining. It’s been a lot of hassle, but I think it’ll be well worth it.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve negotiated a deal with the Maryland tourism people to include brochures in all those places that people stop along the highway. When I go to the airport we’ll pass right by the tourism offices. I can deliver the brochures.”
Jace remembered the boxes in her office. “Why?” he asked.
“Why what?”
“Why are you distributing brochures for tourists?”
“Oh.” She smiled widely and leaned closer to him. “I’m opening the house for tours.”
“What!” Jace recoiled. “You can’t.”
“You forget,” she said. “I own the Kendall.”
* * *
AFTER EATING DINNER with Jace, Kelly was having second thoughts about him staying on at the Kendall. He came with baggage, lots of it. She knew it when he arrived, but she’d misjudged how much he could interfere with her plans. He’d grown up on the farm and was having a hard time thinking of it as belonging to anyone except him or his family.
Ari was the one bright spot, but she wouldn’t let her affection for the child obscure her vision. She was doing what had to be done if she wanted to not only live here but make the place successful again. She had to make Jace understand that. She’d worked through several plans and she’d had to discard most of them as not producing enough income to warrant the effort.
As soon as Ari was asleep, she’d asked Jace to come to the main living room. She had coffee set up on the small table and was prepared for the discussion. This was no different from the presentations she used to make when she was at her New York firm. Only this time she was speaking from the heart about something that had a lot of meaning for both of them. She was worried, too. If he didn’t agree with her, their employment relationship could be over.
Kelly poured coffee into her cup and added cream. Jace’s footsteps on the hall floor alerted her to his presence. Her heartbeat jumped and she took a long breath. He stepped inside the living room and stood there a moment looking at her. He’d changed his shirt, replacing the earlier short-sleeved one for a sweater.
“This is a pleasant room,” Jace said. “I see the furniture has been changed. I like this better.” He came forward and poured himself a cup of coffee. He drank it black and made a face at its taste.
“Isn’t it strong enough?” she asked.
“It’ll do,” he said. He didn’t sit, but carried it around the room as he appeared to inspect everything in sight.
“Should I apologize or should you make the coffee from now on?”
“I’m sure I’ll get used to it over time.”
Kelly frowned. “Time. That’s what I want to discuss.” Kelly stood up. “I mentioned that I have certain plans for the house. Plans you are opposed to.”
“It did come as a surprise. I never thought anyone would want to let strangers into their home and have them roam around.”
“They won’t be roaming around. All tours of the house and property will be escorted.” She waited.
Using both hands, despite the coffee cup, he signaled for her to continue. “I intend to open the house one day a week to tourists. I’ve hired a crew of college students who will be dressed in period costumes to provide the guided tours. As you know I’ve designed and printed brochures, and distributed them to tourist bureaus throughout Maryland and the four states that border it.”
“Just for the record, don’t expect me to don a costume and play lord of the manor.”
“I won’t, but I also expect that you won’t get in my way.”
He said nothing and his silence was irritating. Kelly decided to go on. “I also have plans in the works to help to attract events to the Kendall.”
“Attract events?” He stepped forward and set his cup of coffee on a table. She couldn’t figure out if he was closing his mind to everything she had to say. It didn’t matter. She didn’t need his approval.
