“And?”
Colton cursed under his breath. “There was a safe in the wall. Must have been a secret one because we didn’t see any access to it from the interior.”
“A safe? You’re freaked out over a safe?”
“Well...yeah,” Colton replied, still looking uncomfortable. “Fell on Danny’s foot and...I had Tom take him to the urgent care, but I know how accidents on the job are and I want you to know the guys were doing everything right! We had no idea there was anything in the wall, so…”
Unable to help himself, Jake laughed–an honest-to-goodness hearty laugh. Hell, he’d been expecting some sort of bad report from the engineers or something that was going to add on to the cost of the job or delay it. He’d take a secret safe in the wall any day of the week.
Well, except he hoped next time no one got hurt.
“Where in the room was it?”
“It was behind the bed. There was a picture over the spot, but you couldn’t access it from there–it had sheetrock completely over it–no secret panel or anything. It’s like someone put it in there and wanted to forget about it.” He paused. “If I were to put a safe in a wall, I know I’d want to get at it from time to time. Whatever’s in there, no one wanted to get to. Isn’t that odd?”
Beyond odd. But then again, everything seemed like that lately especially where the Coleman family and its descendants were concerned.
“Keep me updated on Danny and point me in the direction of the safe.”
“I had a couple of the guys put it around back by the door to the basement. It’s real heavy and rusted. Not sure how you’ll get it open.”
“Thanks, Colt.” With a wave, he walked around the back of the house and found the safe. Crouching down, he dusted it off with his hands and wondered if there was anything inside. The addition was done maybe thirty years ago so he knew it was Zeke’s doing, but...why had he never mentioned it? There were lots of little oddities with this house–secret room in the cellar, a moving bookcase in one of the upstairs bedrooms–but not once had he mentioned hiding a safe in the wall.
He stared at it for a long time and realized he needed to let Susannah know about it and then find some sort of locksmith or something to figure out how to open the damn thing.
So not what he needed right now.
Or...he could tell Susannah about it and let her handle it. Technically this wasn’t part of the job and the safe was part of her house, so...it would be better to let her be the one to take care of it. Plus, it meant he could focus on other things like the other job sites in town.
Like the roof on the building next to Barb’s Beach Buys…
Okay, maybe he had been thinking about going into town and looking around at that site because he wanted to make sure things were going all right. If it happened to be next to the place where Mallory spent the last several days then...it was just a coincidence, right? And if he saw her, he’d be polite–neighborly–and ask how things were going. There was nothing wrong with that. No one could misconstrue his intentions because he was merely asking how she was handling her new business.
Nothing untrustworthy about that.
Making his decision, Jake walked back around to the front of the house and up the front steps where he found Susannah talking with Colton. She was laughing at something he said, her hand was on his arm, and if he wasn’t mistaken, Colton was blushing.
Jake came up short and thought, “Oh my gosh...are they...flirting with each other?”
Instantly, he shook his head to push that thought aside because...just no. They spotted him and seemed to move a little farther apart and that’s when he knew they were definitely flirting. Clearing his throat, he looked at his foreman. “Did you tell Susannah what you found?”
“Uh...no,” Colton murmured, looking down at his feet. “I thought maybe you should be the one to tell her.”
Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Jake smiled at Susannah and told her about the safe and where it was found. “It’s in the yard right now by the cellar door. You’re going to need to find a locksmith or someone to open it unless you’ve found something that Zeke might have kept his records in and maybe a combination. I know you haven’t gone through all of his personal effects yet…”
“Georgia and I are doing that next week,” Susannah said. She was smiling but Jake could tell it was forced. No doubt there was going to be a lot of snark, sarcasm, and out-and-out fighting on that day.
He hoped he didn’t have to be around to witness any of it.
Or at least that he’d be able to kick back with a bag of popcorn while he watched.
“Well, if you need help finding someone to help…” he began but secretly hoped she wouldn’t take him up on the offer.
“I know someone who could probably help,” Colton said and Jake wanted to hug him for the save. He smiled at Susannah. “If you want, I can make some calls and let you know tomorrow.”
The shy smile Susannah gave Colton as she thanked him suddenly made Jake feel as if he were some kind of voyeur and he excused himself.
And it didn’t seem as if either of them even noticed.
For a few minutes, he walked around the property and pretended to be inspecting the work going on. It wasn’t necessary. His crew were top-notch and they had been keeping him updated every day on the progress. There wasn’t any need for him to be on site right now and that meant he was free to head into town and…
Groaning, he cursed himself for his lack of confidence and stormed off toward his truck. He climbed in and peeled out of the driveway with more force than was actually necessary.
The bad thing about living in a small town that was...well...small, was that he didn’t have any time to really clear his head before he parked in front of Barb’s shop. Spotting two of his workers up on the roof next door, Jake decided to go up and check on them first and see how progress was going with them.
Twenty minutes later he was back on the sidewalk without much memory of what his guys had even said to him.
“Jake?”
Turning, he found himself staring at Mallory and feeling a little stupid about being here. “Um...hey, Mal. How’s it going?”
She wasn’t smiling, but she wasn’t frowning either. If anything, she was looking at him cautiously. “What are you doing here?” Then she must have heard the hammering and looked up toward the roof. “Oh, are those your guys?”
He nodded. “I’m making my rounds and checking on progress.” Pausing, he wondered what he was supposed to say next. It felt ridiculous to be this nervous around her, but the last thing he wanted was to make matters worse than they already were. “So...uh...how are things going here at the shop? Things going okay between you and Barb?”
And then she seemed to relax a bit. “They’re going well. Their system is woefully outdated so I know that is the first thing I’m going to have to look into. Other than that, I’m pretty excited to start learning the business a bit.” With a small laugh, she went on, “But I have a feeling I’m going to be doing a lot of shopping for the house once I start looking at inventory and talking to buyers. It’s going to be a real test of my self-control.”
And he knew she was right. He remembered how much fun she had working on the boathouse all those years ago–she was a shopper extraordinaire and between the fun she was going to have with stocking the shop, she also had the house project to think about. More than likely, she was going to eat up her first month’s profits in the blink of an eye.