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With that, he pulled her to him for a fast, hot kiss, then walked away, saying something over his shoulder that sounded like he was taking another cold shower. Rogen wondered how many he’d had and laughed. Before she could catch herself, she was bent over with humor. Thatcher Robinson was frustrated. By her.
Skipping just a little, Rogen went back to the office that was hers. It seemed better now. Bigger too. And it was hers. Going to the monitors again, she started hooking up the next one in line. With the way they were bringing in more and more equipment, she was going to need something more to keep her from being found out.
Rogen paused in her work when she thought about all the things she was going to have to do to keep her place of work quiet
. She thought of Thatcher and his family. How, now that she was working in such close quarters to them, they’d be targets as well. She saw Jamie just as she was going to find Winnie.
“There you are. Where have you been hiding yourself.” Jamie hugged her for the third time, and she wondered if Thatcher’s cat would smell him on her. Rogen would make a list of things that she needed to figure out. She realized she’d missed some of what Jamie was telling her. “I’m sorry. You know me, I zoned out for a moment.”
“I got me a place to do my projects too.” She asked him if he was working in the garage. “No, I have a big barn that I can work with. Come look at it. You won’t believe the things that Thatcher got me. But I can’t use some of it unless he shows me how to use it and I’m safe. He’s a nice man. You should marry him.”
“Marry him? Where on earth did you get something like that from?” He laughed and said he was joking. “You shouldn’t say things like that, Jamie. Someone might think that you’re serious. But show me your barn. I want to see it.”
They were nearly to it when she realized that Thatcher had had this barn built recently. Not only was it brand new, but it also had heat and air conditioning. As soon as she entered, she had to hold onto the chair right inside the door. It was a woodworker’s dream shop.
“He told me that this was all mine, and when I sold some of my stuff, I had to only pay him one percent. He even showed me how to figure that out. Isn’t this really nice, Rogen? It’s so pretty. You have to let me stay here with him. Thatcher is so nice to me.” She just looked around. “Look over here. It’s my own special place to take a snooze, like you call them. He said that taking a nap isn’t for babies. He takes them all the time when he’s working too hard. Thatcher told me that being too sleepy can make you hurt someone or yourself, and that taking a power nap will save a life.”
“He would know. Thatcher is a doctor.” There were stacks of wood, all the different types, put into neat piles with the names of the wood on them. “This is really nice, Jamie. I hope you thanked him.”
If he answered her, she didn’t know. She was looking at the art that Jamie had already been working on. And he was good at it too. Even with his mind just a little fuzzy on some things, he could take wood and make it into beautiful works of art that he sold all over the world.
“I’ll have to get you someone to help you with the labels and money, you know.” Jamie told her that Thatcher had hired him one of the pack to help him.
The door opened and closed, and she looked over at Thatcher when he joined them. Rogen noticed right away that his hair was wet. Turning away, she had to wipe tears from her eyes. He’d done this for her brother, without wanting anything in return.
“Did you see his latest project?” She nodded but didn’t look. “Come here, Rogen. Just let me hold you for a moment or two.”
She went to him, laying her head on his chest. After she told him she was sorry, he lifted her head up by a finger to her chin. He smiled. It was sexy, and yet still little boy charming.
“Thank you. For this and for my office. It’s really nice in here.” He laughed and told her that he had an ulterior motive for doing this for Jamie. “You want something from him?”
Rogen stiffened and started to pull away when he pulled her tightly against him again. “Cool your overactive mind. I don’t want anything other than a piece or two of his work. I was showing you this one because it’s my parents’ home. Before they moved to where they are now. It had been in their family for decades before my mom hit the lottery when we were still in high school. And he’s doing it from photographs for them.”
She looked at it then. The picture was blurred a little, black and white with a curl of smoke coming out of the top. It was stuck to a clipboard, just as her brother always did his work, and there were notes all around it. The color of the shutters, the wood that had been used, as well as the kind of trees; all of them, unrecognizable in the photograph, were apple trees.
The work that Jamie had finished so far was amazing. He had the strips of wood in the form of the house nearly finished. The curl of smoke was just the right color of grays and white. There were trees too, without the fruit just yet, and there were a couple of clouds in the sky that made her think there was impending rain.
Once Jamie had the entire thing cut out the way he wanted it, he would then fit it together perfectly before putting the wood in the correct order in the frame. Rogen ran her fingers over the front door to the little home. It was as smooth as she had expected it to be.
“I don’t think he’s ever done anything with a photo before. Usually he does things that he thinks up.” Thatcher told her that Jamie had been very excited about getting a start on it. “It’s beautiful. You lived here? All eight of you?”
“Yes. It was tight, but we were family, so it didn’t matter that we were nearly on top of each other. I know that Mom was glad for the large yard to toss us out into when things got bad for her. But she loved us and made the house a nice home. I don’t miss the smallness of the house, but there are times when I wish I had the same homey feeling that was there. This house, it’s large and somewhat cold to me at times.” She looked up at him. “I hope with you and Jamie here, it’ll be what we need. A home. Shelter, as well as family.”
“I don’t know that much about making a house a home. I just put things in the places we’ve stayed that made me feel good.” He said that he’d made sure that all of her things were brought here. “Thank you for that. Jamie, he can be picky about how his things are put in a box.”
“I noticed that too. When my dad was trying to help him pack up his clothes, he had to stop when Jamie had a meltdown.” She looked over at her brother, who was working on some wood. “He’s not violent, but he is loud, isn’t he?”
“But he can be. Violent, I mean. He doesn’t know his own strength sometimes, and he will hit rather than let you touch him.” Thatcher nodded as he watched her brother. “He thinks a great deal of you, Thatcher.”
“How do you feel about me? You don’t have to tell me what you think I want to hear. I mean, your undying love would be nice, but I can handle it if you only like me a little.” She laughed, telling him that she liked him a little. “Then I have something to work on. Oh, before I forget, Winnie gave me a cell phone. She said that there was one in your office for you in the safe. Took me a few to figure out that she’d had one put in. She’s sort of scary smart too, isn’t she?”
“Yes. As I mentioned before, I trained her for the job she has now. Winnie is smart and can do anything you wish her to do. If you need anything, including something for me, you’re to call her direct. Donaldson, as we’ve talked about before, is a moron, but he’s easy to fob off most of the time.”
“You don’t trust him.” She said that she rarely trusted anyone. “Me? Do you trust me? Again, I would rather you told me the truth than something I want to hear.”
“Yes. I don’t know why, but I trust you. And your brothers, the ones that I met. Your mom, she’s wonderful. Your dad is too, but he’s a little...I guess you could call it out there. Where does he come up with those outlandish sayings?” Thatcher said that he made most of them up. “Yes, I can see that. But I trust him too. I don’t know why, so don’t ask me, but I trust your family. If not, I’d have you killed.”
She walked away from him then, to see what Jamie was doing. Rogen knew he was trying to figure out if she was joking or not. She wasn’t, but it would be good for him to think that she was for a little while. Rogen wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to have him dead if he ever did anything to hurt her or Jamie.
