cutter, she noticed it was sitting at an odd angle. The first thing she thought was that Rick must have whacked it getting the lawnmower out of the coach house. She tried straightening it so she could turn it on and back it out but had no success. It was definitely wonky. A closer look showed her the rear pivot wheel was out of alignment.
How had the sod cutter been damaged?
Heather tried not to panic, but the breath caught in her throat as she realized the implications. She was in charge of this contract, which meant she was in charge of the equipment. Any damage was her responsibility.
If the sod cutter was inoperable...how bad was it? Her hand shook as she pressed it to her chest. Oh, please, I hope I don’t have to replace it.
“Hey, what’s going on? Is something wrong?”
She whipped around to find Rick coming into the coach house. She could see that he’d left the lawnmower directly outside. He was still wearing his sunglasses, so she couldn’t read his expression.
“Yes, unfortunately there is. The sod cutter wasn’t like this when we delivered it last Friday.”
“Like what?”
“Broken.”
“And you haven’t used it yet?”
“No. It’s the pivot...” She indicated the damaged wheel. “You didn’t bang into it or anything when you moved the lawnmower, did you?”
“Hey, I didn’t touch it, honest.” He crouched down to inspect the damage. “It looks like it can be fixed.”
“I sure hope so. A new sod cutter would cost thousands of dollars. I don’t know how I would pay for it. I don’t even know how I can pay for the repair.”
She was still managing website orders for Sew Fine, mostly at home, but she might have to arrange more hours at the store to make extra money.
Rick straightened. “Hey, it’s going to be all right. Calm down.”
“I-I’m sorry.” Now that he was closer, she could see the part of his face not hidden by the sunglasses. He appeared concerned. “I’m a little strapped for cash lately, and I’m a single mother, so I have to worry about how I’m going to feed my kids.” Though she didn’t want to rely on anyone else, her family would come through for her if she ran into a financial problem. She took a deep, calming breath. It would all work out somehow.
“You have kids?” He sounded a little surprised. “Plural?”
She nodded. “Two. Twin girls. Addison and Taylor. They were six last month.”
“Six-year-olds?” Now he sounded amazed. “How old are you?”
Remembering he’d called her that community college girl, she asked, “How old did you think I was?”
“I don’t know. Nineteen. Maybe twenty.”
She smiled despite herself. “Thanks, but I’ll be twenty-five in a few months.”
“You could have fooled me. You did fool me.” He reached out and gently touched her shoulder. “I can see why you’re worried with kids and all. But relax already. Your company must have insurance on its equipment.”
“I—I guess.” Appreciative of his sympathy, she said, “I hate even telling them something’s gone wrong on the first day. I was hoping this would turn into a full-time job after we finished this project.”
“Maybe you won’t have to tell them anything,” Rick said. “I probably can fix the wheel.”
Thinking of the way he’d wrestled with the lawnmower, she asked, “Seriously?”
“Just because I don’t know my way around a lawn doesn’t mean I don’t have other talents. I used to take cars apart and put them back together for fun. Yes, seriously, leave this to me. I’ll take care of it.”
Starting to like Rick more than she thought she would, Heather let out a relieved sigh. “If you can do that, I’ll...well, you deserve some kind of reward. I’ll owe you.”
His mouth curved slightly in a ghost of a smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She blinked at him and swallowed hard. “Um, when do you think you might be able to get around to fixing it?”
“I have a couple of things to take care of first that won’t take long. If I don’t need to order a new part, I should have it to you early this afternoon.”
“Thank you!” She could hardly believe he was being so great to her after her negative thoughts about him. “I guess I’d better tell my crew our plans have changed. We need to build a composter anyway, so we can recycle the sod we remove. We’ll start on that.”
Luckily, she’d had her workers bring the materials to create a couple of large composter holding units—wood and galvanized chicken wire. Not pretty, the composters would be built at the far end of the property and hidden by native grasses that would reach six feet high by midsummer.
Shifting into a positive mode, she started to leave but turned back when Rick called her.
“Hey, Heather. If anything else unexpected happens—not just to your equipment but anything else that bothers you around here—make sure you let me know. I’m going to take care of everything.”
She suddenly felt warm inside.
“Will do,” she agreed, wondering why his assurances made her feel so good. Maybe it was because she hadn’t had the protection of a caring male in a very long time.
But as she headed back toward the beach area, she wondered what Rick meant by “anything else” that bothered her.
It almost sounded as if he expected something to go wrong.
* * *
A GUT FEELING convinced Rick that the sod cutter had been damaged by their mystery intruder. When he’d stooped down to get a closer look at the pivot wheel, he’d noticed a smear of dirt on the machine that looked like a footprint. Someone had stood on it, and perhaps the weight had bent the wheel.
The question was...why would someone stand on it?
After his discussion with Cora, he was pretty convinced the person was looking for entries to the secret tunnels. Maybe he’d had to climb over the equipment to search.
Who knew?
Rick had to admit the coach house was a perfect place for a secret entrance. Not much traffic in here, so low probability of any witnesses. He started inspecting walls for some indication of a hidden door, but the paneling made it hard to see any irregularities. And the lack of good light everywhere but in the storage area frustrated him.
And as he searched, he thought about Heather Clarke. At almost twenty-five, she was still eleven years younger than he. But why was he even thinking about the difference in their ages? He might like her, but he wasn’t looking for someone to date. He was looking to do his job—to stop whoever was up to no good around the estate.
Still,
