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I quickly walked around the bar, through the kitchen door, and then found my way to the basement door. It was much quieter; although the floors above were wood, the scraping of chairs and hard-soled shoes echoed down to me. I didn’t mind, though. It kept me from getting spooked by the sounds from the HVAC unit.
Was it strange that a girl who hated basements spent a lot of time in them or crawling under houses to inspect footings and floorboards? You would think it would be. I got myself rattled a few times by weird sounds while working. Once, I felt like I was being watched and kept hearing this crunching noise. Come to find out, a four-year-old child was hiding behind something, eating crackers. He scared the daylights out of me. In another house, I swear it was haunted. My equipment kept turning itself off, and it took me three times as long to get the estimate done. When I returned to work, I had someone check my instruments, and they all worked perfectly.
I set up the machine and then confirmed my measurements. The laser ran a level light around the entire area, and you could tell where the cinder blocks had shifted up or down. If there had been no movement, the line would have consistently hit the blocks in the exact same place. That was not the case here, and it took me a while to work the numbers. Because there were solid shelves in the center of the room, I had to move the laser around the room and do it in four sections.
I was almost done when I felt that someone was watching me, and I turned to find Michael leaning against the wall at the bottom of the steps with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh, hi.”
“Hey. You’ve been down here for a while. Thought I should check on you, make sure you hadn’t crawled into the corner and fallen asleep.”
I scoffed. “Not yet, but I might need to do that soon.”
“How much longer?”
I glanced at my watch. “Holy crap! It’s after eleven!”
“It is. The last customers just cashed out.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll finish this and get out of here so you can go to bed.”
“Don’t worry about me, Candy. I’ll be up for hours still. Take your time.” He started to head back up the stairs. “By chance, did you eat anything tonight?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t have time, but I’ll grab a protein bar when I get home.”
“Bullshit.” His gaze drifted down my body and back up. “It’s no wonder you are so thin. I’ll have something light for you when you come up.”
He walked away without waiting for my reply, and I hated to admit it, but he was right. I was always running from one place to another, and I ate more meals on the go. Most of them were in my car or at my counter at home before or after work. I couldn’t remember how many bowls of cereal I had eaten standing over my sink at ten or eleven at night before I crawled into bed and willed myself asleep, and I kept protein bars stashed everywhere just in case.
It took me another twenty minutes to finish what I needed to do, and then I packed my stuff and headed up. It was quiet in the bar, but I could hear noise in the kitchen area. I set my gear down by the bar and heard Bollard in the back, laughing about something.
I wandered to the kitchen and found him turning around with two plates in his hands. “Aw, perfect timing. Let’s go sit at the bar.”
I glanced at the plate with a small helping of angel hair pasta, a light sauce, a chicken breast, and some grilled vegetables.
“Wow, that looks good.”
“Thanks.”
“You will have to tell the chef,” I said as I followed him to the bar.
“You just did.”
I frowned. “You cooked that?”
“Well, I did the chicken. David already had pasta and veggies that I warmed up.” He set the plates down. “If I’m not mistaken, you prefer white wine over red with your meals, correct?”
“How do you know that?”
He tapped the side of his head as he went behind the bar. “I have a good memory.” He poured two glasses of wine and then collected silverware as I took a seat. “And when you are out to have a good time, you and your sisters slam down the chocolate martinis. When I see you all come in, I always pull out the chocolate syrup and make sure I have it ready for you.”
“That’s why we never have to wait.”
He grinned as he took a seat, and I tore my gaze away from him. I did not want to find this man who cooked me dinner and remembered what I drank to be attractive.
“How did things go downstairs?”
“Well, I have all I need to do an estimate, but that will take a while, so I will have to do that tomorrow between appointments. I can call you or Howard or drop something off later in the week.”
