Love Under Construction (The Love Under Series Book 1) (17 page)

How could this happen?
I leaned back against the cool tile wall and waited for my nausea to subside. As the realization hit me, I saw his brown loafers against the white tile as his body cast a shadow on me blocking the light from the vanity. 

“I told you not to embarrass me,” he growled before the world went black.

How the garage got to be in such disarray was beyond my comprehension. It was easy to blame someone else, but it was only me and my dad. Mom never ventured into the garage besides to dump the trash in the dumpster can. I knew I had at least three boxes of nail strips for my nail gun in the garage, it was just a question of finding them. In the process, I hung the tools that were left out and jumbled on the workbenches. 

“I thought I heard someone out here.” The sound of my dad’s voice startled me. 

“Have you seen the nail strips for my Thule nail gun?”

“What color are they?”

“Silver, Dad, what other color would nails be?”

“I meant the boxes smart ass. I was just trying to help.”

“Sorry. The box is blue and black and has a plastic window on top.”

“What’s got your nuts in a twist today, son?” my dad asked as he joined in the search. 

“Nothing. I was just starting to get some progress made and came up short on nails. Now here I am wasting time looking for them.”

“So just go buy some more.”

“I know I have three boxes. Those things are not cheap. Besides, I just bought some stuff so my funds are running low.”

“Need some money?”

“No, I’m good. I just bought that next lot next to mine at the last auction. The one with the small barn on it.”

“The old Weaver place? That’s a nice piece of land.”

“Well, he is only selling it piece by piece. I got it for a sweet deal, and it borders my property I have now. Hopefully, I can convince him to sell the rest to me and Aunt Kelli.”

“You know the city offered him a lot of money about fifteen years ago to buy his land. They wanted to build a road. He refused. That’s why you have to go five miles down the road to cut west. That’s all old man Weaver’s land. He didn’t want a road running through his property.”

“I didn’t know that. That means it would have run into and behind Aunt Kelli’s land too.”

“It’s probably why he is selling it piece by piece. Also, he is really particular about who he keeps for neighbors.”

“Well, he can keep the lot with his house on it. I will take the rest when he is ready. I won’t let them run a road through it, either.”

Finally, I found the nails at the bottom of a five-gallon bucket, still in the black plastic grocery bag from the day I bought them.

“A-ha. Found them.”

“You headed back out to the house?”

“I don’t know. By the time I get back out there and start working again it’s going to be dark. The electrical is installed for the most part but won’t be live for a couple days. I called them and I saw a guy on the pole, but they still have to connect to the house.”

“Let me know if you need a hand.”

“I’m finishing up the floor bases and wall studs now.”

“The house is coming along quickly. When do you think it will be done?”

“I don’t know; I’m just taking my time. In a rush to get rid of me?”

My dad fumbled with his words and shuffled around handing me two wrenches to hang on the peg board. “No, of course not. I just figured you would want to live in the house you built.”

“I will get there. I need to finish it first. Next, I need the water turned on. They have to drill a well.”

My dad huffed at the obvious. “That sounds like a project. What’s up with that Suzie girl?”

“Nothing.”

“She go back to Dallas?”

“No, she still out at Aunt Kelli’s. She is working over at the auction house.”

“She seems like a nice girl from what your mother told me.”

“How would Mother know anything?”

“What you don’t think those hens talk? Oh, and what was all that mess down at the Taps?

“Nothing. Just a tag chaser causing a ruckus.”

“Well, I don’t want that mess in my bar.”

“I banned her. Memaw put her name behind the bar.”

“Banned? That bad?”

“It was Jenny Johnson. She tore into Suzie for no good reason and followed her to Stocks and Plots.”

“What about? Why would she tear into Suzie?”

“Because I dropped her off to work.”

“Don’t tell me you are messing with Suzie
and
Jenny?”

“No. Suzie isn’t even talking to me after Jenny got a hold of her.”

“Son, you don’t shit where you eat. Suzie is a nice girl. That Jenny is a whore. You should know better than to go anywhere near a girl like that. Running around with Jenny, you don’t want anything that Ajax can’t scrub off.”

“I wrapped up. Trust me, I don’t want nothing to do with her.”
I just wish Suzie would talk to me. 

“I think you owe Suzie an apology.”

“When she decides to talk to me again, I will.”

“Come on, supper is ready. You don’t want to be on another woman’s shit list.”

I turned off the lights in the shop and followed my dad inside the house. Maybe Mom had some insight. After all, women talk.

The next morning, I pulled into Stocks and Plots and Kristi was elbows deep in paperwork and ear tags. Mom said to suck it up and go talk to her. Actually, her exact words were, “Don’t be a stubborn ass like your father. Kiss some ass and don’t be afraid to beg.” I had business at the auction house; I was looking for a tiller and a riding lawn mower to maintain my property. Dad had a riding mower for the 20 x 20 swatch of grass in front of his house in town, but there was no way he was gonna let me take it. That was his pride and joy and you would think it was a Lamborghini the way he treated it. I needed a work machine, not a trophy. 

“Hey, Kristi. Auction happening today?”

She looked up from the stack of papers and held her elbows down on the stacks to prevent them from blowing all over as the breeze from the door opening again. 

“If I get these papers in order by seven there will be. Need a paddle?”

“Only if there is a tiller or a riding mower somewhere in that mess.”

“Couldn’t tell ya either way, Max. I’m waiting on Suzie to come in and give me a hand.”

“She not here?”

“No, no yet. Probably just running late. I never really did give her a set time to show up. She usually comes in around eleven.”

“It’s after two already.”

“Is it? Crap, I am far behind. I should give her a call and see where she is.”

Kristi put two spurs down on the paper stacks before picking up her cell and dialing Suzie’s number. I watched her face as the phone rang before she pulled it away from her head as the voicemail message came through the speaker. 

“She isn’t picking up. She is probably driving. So you need a paddle?”

“Yeah, but I will grab it later. I’m gonna go swing by the house and make sure she is okay. I wanted to talk to her. Maybe she is helping my Aunt Kelli.”

“If she is out there, can you tell her I could really use her help in here?” She pointed to the two stacks of papers held down by the spurs and another stack behind her on the desk. 

“Will do. Thanks, Kristi.”

“Sure thing, Max.”

Something didn’t feel right. I raced to the ranch hoping my gut was wrong. 

I pulled into Aunt Kelli’s driveway behind her truck, and Suzie’s Beetle was parked in front of her porch. I let out a sigh of relief at the sight of it. Where my worry ended, my nervousness began. How would I explain and apologize? What was my excuse for being there? It was my Aunt’s place. I was allowed to be there. Shaking off my racing thoughts, I bounded the porch steps and knocked on the door. 

“Suzie! It’s Max.”

I waited for her to come to the door, but the house was silent. I looked in the window to the right of the door and saw her purse on the counter. She must have really overslept. I banged on the door again louder that time and called her name. I held my ear to the door to listen for movement within the house. It was still and silent. 

“Max? Is that you?” I turned around to the sound of Aunt Kelli’s voice from the main house.

“Hey, Aunt Kelli. Is Suzie with you?”

“No. I figured she was sleeping in. She should be home. Haven’t seen her since yesterday.”

I knocked on the door, pounding harder and harder with each hit.

“Suzie, open up! Wake up. Suzie!”

“Is everything all right? Max, what has gotten into you?”

“She should have been at work by now. Kristi said she didn’t show.”

She crossed the driveway joining me on the porch and knocked on the door.

“Suzie, sweetie, I have lunch ready.”

We both stood there waiting for any sign of movement from within the house. Finally, Aunt Kelli turned the knob on the door and let herself in calling out her name. Her purse was on the couch and a forwarded mail and her car keys were on the floor. I picked them up and set them on the counter. Aunt Kelli called out her name as she walked in and out of the rooms of the guest house. 

“She’s not here,” she said, shaking her head joining me at the counter. 

“Her stuff is here though. Her purse, car keys, everything. Something is not right.” I reached in my pocket and called her cell. The side pocket of her purse lit up and rang the Marimba as my name flashed across her screen. “Her phone is here too.”

I checked her phone, and the last missed text was from yesterday afternoon. She was definitely gone, and something was not right. Suzie always had her phone on her. 

“Call the Sheriff.” Aunt Kelli grabbed my phone and dialed before I had a chance to react. That was not how I planned my day. 

It had been two days from what I could tell by the rise and setting of the sun I was locked in this old barn. It could have been more, but I couldn’t tell because when I woke up with a blazing headache it was already dark. Who knows how long I had been knocked out, but I wasn’t in my house. I had no idea where I was, but it was not good. 

Bill was completely out of his element and looked weathered and dirty drinking straight from a bottle sitting against the opposite stall. He sat on the ground with his back to the wall with his knees erect and arms hanging over them, a gun in one hand, and a half empty bottle of Evan Williams Whiskey hung loosely from the other. I tried to wiggle free of my restraints, but he had both my hands and feet bound. My hands were tied behind my back, and my feet tied at the ankles. I laid there on my side like a pig waiting to get raised to the spit as he stared at me through the bottom of his bottle.