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The following evening as Tim waited in his truck for Kevin in the cul-de-sac in front of the Shora sales office, his phone vibrated with an incoming email notification.
He turned his radio down and queued up the query, figuring the note was from Heidi, confirming his ETA at work. They had a late meeting at the factory to discuss management issues, including some pressing personnel concerns.
The message wasn’t from her, though. It was from the airline.
“Forgot all about that,” he muttered to himself as he scrolled through the message.
He’d had his administrative assistant arrange an open-date plane ticket for Valerie to take her anywhere she wanted to go—no strings attached. The email was the confirmation that Valerie had redeemed it. The message didn’t say where she was going, but that was fine. He was just glad she was going to use it, wherever she was.
Frank’s work crew trudged up the path toward their vehicles laughing and cutting up but looking so tired. The money was good in construction, but nobody could say the work was easy.
And maybe that was what Kevin needed—hard work that would make him sweat.
Tim spotted Kevin at the back of the pack between Frank and…
Tim pushed up his sunglasses and squinted. He didn’t need to get his eyes checked. He knew that redhead.
And he knew that architect with her, too.
“Thought she was gone. What the fuck?”
He got out of the truck, slammed the door, and jogged through the dispersing crew.
“Hey, Timmy,” Frank said as he approached.
“Frank. Carine.” Tim turned to the lady and nodded at her.
“Good evening. Haven’t seen you in a while.” She smiled coyly at him. “What have you been up to?”
She knew damn well what he’d been up to…or at least what hehadn’tbeen up to.
“Nothing interesting.”
“Well, I won’t hold y’all up. I need to…” She snickered. “Be somewhere in a couple of hours.”
Tim knew exactly where thatsomewherewas, and he wasn’t going to be there. Not only did he have that meeting, but there was Kevin to deal with, and…
He turned to Valerie and nodded to her as well, trying to keep his expression neutral, though given his frustration at the moment, he was probably unsuccessful in the attempt.
“Good evening, Mr. Dowd,” she said blandly.
If that’s what you want to call me, then fine.
“Kevin, why don’t you wait for me in the truck?” Tim said. “I need to talk to Frank about some plans.”
“You know I need to be home by six-thirty, right?”
“I know exactly what time you need to be home. I’ve been keeping up with what you need to do better than you have, and maybe that should change. You’re a big boy, so maybe you don’t need your daddy helping you with your probation anymore.”
Kevin rolled his eyes, muttered something vulgar under his breath, and stalked to the truck.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Frank put up his hands. “I swear, he didn’t give me any problems today. He put his earbuds in and got to work. It was mindless work, hauling stuff and holding stuff up, but sometimes folks need that. That happens all the time with these kids.”
“How long do you think that’ll keep up?”
“Shit, in my experience it keeps up just fine for as long as they’re here, but I’ve never had one for longer than three months, so I can’t speak on the long-term efficacy on this kind of experiment.”
In Tim’s periphery, Valerie shifted her weight and moved the notebook she was holding to her other hand. “Frank, I’ll talk to you tomorrow about the revisions on that new zone and also the Phase Three house plans,” she said. “I’m heading home for the night.”
