Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) (16 page)

"Are you here with us, Polly?" Lydia asked.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I was thinking about children, then I started thinking about Mary and my dad. Did I miss anything important?"

"Well, other than the fact that Sylvie is eloping and Andy is pregnant, no I think you're fine," Beryl laughed.

"You're kidding, right?" She looked around the room and saw that everyone maintained a straight face as they stared at her.

"You're kidding, right?" Polly asked again, looking each of them in the eye.

Finally Sylvie broke. "Oh, lordie, I hope so. I can't imagine what sort of man would convince me to run off and get married. I haven't met one in all these years and I don't intend to meet one now!"

Polly peered at Andy. "Are you pregnant? Because I'm calling the Associated Press in the morning if that's true."

"No, I'm pretty sure that if I were to get pregnant right now, there would be a lot of gynecologists out there trying to figure out what had just happened. And I don't like any of them well enough to spend that much time with them again," Andy laughed.

"Well, were you at least talking about Andy and Len Specek?" Polly pressed.

"Yeah," Beryl said. "I haven't seen hide nor hair of that man since I've been here. How have you been able to live without him all this time?"

"Will you please stop it!" Andy sputtered. "It's not that serious. We enjoy spending time together and he's nice."

"I think he's going to help Henry do some of the wood work in Beryl's studio," Polly said. "You know that means she will have access to him nearly every day for a month or so."

Andy rolled her eyes. "Oh kill me now," she said. "That's going to be a special kind of hell for me." She turned to Beryl, "Please tell me you won't torment him."

"I'll be as sweet as possible to that man. In fact, I'll be so sweet that you might even get jealous!"

Lydia laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" Beryl asked. "Don't you think Len could be interested in a woman like me?"

"You're a beautiful and wonderful woman, Beryl Watson, but that man would run far away before he even considered being interested in you. And anyway, I think he's so taken with our Andy that he wouldn't even notice you were flirting with him."

Beryl hung her head, "I've lost my touch. I'll turn into a dowdy old spinster and start collecting cats. No more life for me."

"Shall we apply for a room at the Senior Living Center for you?" Andy asked.

"NO!" Lydia exclaimed. "Those poor people are not ready for Beryl. The women would all want to kill her and the men would run screaming from her."

"No one is ready for Beryl," Polly muttered.

"What did you say over there?" Beryl demanded. "Are you saying bad things about me?"

"I mentioned that no one is ever ready for you."

"You're right about that and I'm proud of it. It's much more fun to be a little unbelievable than to be boring."

Polly looked at the time. Somehow the lunch hour had turned into several hours and she needed to get back to Sycamore House.

"Sylvie! I need to get going or your boys will wonder where I am."

"I could pick them up at school and you wouldn't have to worry about them this afternoon."

"No way. I like having those boys there to help with my animals. Jason is turning into a wonderful stable hand and he’s having fun working with Eliseo, too."

She stood up to take her dishes and silverware to the kitchen. Andy said, "Stop it. We'll take care of this. You girls go."

"Thank you so much for a wonderful time," Polly said, handing her dishes to Andy, "and Beryl, it's good to see you back to normal. I'm glad you are better." She bent over to hug her friend. "I love you!"

Beryl patted her on the back, "I love you too, girlie. Thank you for bringing me that steak today. That should give me enough strength to go to the bathroom by myself this evening."

"Stop it, you crazy woman," Andy said, coming back into the living room. "She's been going by herself all week long. I only had to pull her off the toilet once and that was only because she was dopey from drugs and started laughing so hard she couldn't move."

"Well, I looked at my scrawny legs, all red and gross looking and thought they looked like old chicken legs and not the good fatty part. It wasn't all that funny, but for some reason I lost control. I was just glad I was already sitting in a safe place to do that!"

Andy shook her head and walked both Polly and Sylvie to the door. "Thanks for coming over. She needed to see someone else's face. And thanks for bringing lunch, Polly."

Polly hugged her and poked her head back around the corner, "Bye Lydia. I'll talk to you later! Love you!"

"I love you too, girls! Be good!"

As they walked to their cars, Polly said to Sylvie, "You don't have to come to the school if you want some quiet time at home."

"Really? That would be awesome. I have some classwork I need to do. I'll come get the boys about five thirty, then."

Polly gave Sylvie a quick hug, jumped in her truck and drove home. She passed the boys who were running across the lawn toward the front door.

She parked the truck and called out, "Hello there!" then waited as they approached her. "Do you have any homework today?"

"I have another math test tomorrow," Jason said, "and I have to write a paper about Apollo 11 by Friday. Could I use your computer to look things up?"

"Sure," Polly said. "What about you, Andrew?"

"I only have spelling words to work on tonight. But, I think I know all of them."

"What was your favorite word in the list?" she asked.

"Wreckage. W r e c k a g e." he spelled. "I want to swim to the bottom of the ocean and find shipwrecks someday. That would be cool."

"Let's go upstairs and get you started on your homework. I might have made some brownies for you."

This was the age she enjoyed having kids around. Now, how could she make that happen without changing diapers along the way?

The animals were always happy to see the boys arrive and Andrew giggled every time Luke would weave around his feet, then flop down in front of him.

"He makes it hard for me to walk, Polly!" Andrew said as he tried to get in the living room from the entryway.

"I know. He does the same thing to me when I try to go to the bathroom sometimes," Polly said. "What do you want to drink today with your brownies?"

"Milk, please," Jason said.

Andrew rolled his eyes and said, "Duh! Milk!"

She chuckled and pulled things out of the refrigerator.

"We didn't have time to talk about this yesterday," Polly said, "how did you enjoy your gaming night on Friday?"

"Oh, Polly it was the best!" Andrew replied. He had followed her into the kitchen and took the two glasses of milk she had poured back to the table. She grabbed up the container of brownies and some napkins and followed him.

"What about you, Jason? What did you play?"

"I started out playing Sword Lords, but after Mom took Andrew home, I went into the other room and played with Billy and his friends. That was cool."

"Your mom let you stay?" she asked. "How late?"

"She came back and got me at ten." He looked up at her and grinned. "That's an hour past my bed time, but she said it would be okay since it wasn't a school night."

Polly patted him on the back. "She's a pretty good mom, isn't she?"

"She took me to the General Store for ice cream," Andrew taunted, but not too exuberantly. Neither boy was sure who had the better evening. "But I fell asleep while we were watching The Avengers. That's okay, though. I've seen it three times already."

"Some of them wanted to go out and see the horses," Jason said quietly. "Especially after they saw me come back in with you. I hope it's alright that I asked Eliseo to take us down there."

"That's fine, Jason. You did exactly the right thing. What did everyone think?"

"One of the girls, Rachel, I think, wanted to know if you would teach her how to ride."

Polly chuckled. "I'm not very good, but maybe I'll talk to Doctor Ogden and Eliseo and see what they think later this spring. I want the horses to have as much time as they need to heal up and get used to being around all of us. They were pretty solitary out on that farm, especially after Mr. Black died. But, I think they're doing a lot better. Those are pretty big horses, though. Can you imagine riding one of them?"

"I think it would be great!" Jason said. "I can't wait. When did you get those saddles in the tack room?"

"They came in last week. Mark says Daisy is going to be my best bet to start. Did you see I also got the harnesses to start exercising them as teams? Someday maybe Nat and Nan will pull a sleigh. How would that be?"

"Can I ride on the sleigh?" Andrew asked, bouncing in his chair.

Polly quietly pushed his milk glass back on the table away from the edge. "Absolutely. This summer, we'll start exercising them together as teams and before you know it, they'll be the talk of the town!"

"People already talk about them," Jason said. "My friends at school think it is so cool that I get to help you."

"I think it's pretty cool that you want to help," Polly remarked. "You work hard out there and I appreciate it. We'll see if Eliseo can teach us both how to ride those horses at the same time, how about that?"

"That would be awesome." Jason's face beamed. Before she knew it, he got out of his chair and hugged her, then he quickly backed up and sat down in his seat again.

Andrew had watched the entire interaction and said, "Mom says that in a year when she is done with school, we can get a real house. She told me I might get my own dog!"

"The dog would belong to the whole family," Jason protested.

"But I'll bet it will love me more," Andrew taunted.

"Will not!"

"Will so!"

"Will not!"

"Will so!"

"Whoa!" Polly said. They stopped and looked at her, both with sulky faces. "Well, that deteriorated in a hurry," she commented and standing up, picked up the empty glasses and brownies, then took them to the kitchen.

Behind her, she heard whispers.

"Will not!"

"Will so!"

"Stop." she scolded. They did so and looked at her, waiting for more to come. She shook her head. "Andrew, Obiwan hasn't been outside since this morning. Why don't you leash him up and walk him around for a while. Jason, we're going to the barn early. You can work on your homework after you've had some exercise. Give me a minute to get my clothes changed and we'll head out."

A cat purring on her chest brought Polly up out of a deep sleep.

“You know what time it is, don’t you sweetie,” she said to Luke, tumbling him off as she sat up. Today would be busy and she had to pick Sal up at the airport in Des Moines tonight. She pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt, shoved her feet into her boots and tied her hair into a ponytail.

"Come on, Obiwan. We're gonna have a great day!"

She and Eliseo had settled into an easy relationship in the barn. Once she decided there was no reason to be envious of his knowledge about horses, she stopped feeling like she needed to measure up to some unwritten skill set and they both relaxed. He let her have all the freedom she needed with the horses and only stepped in to make things easier for her.

Obiwan followed her to the first gate and waited as she unlatched it and headed for the barn. She pulled the door open and saw Eliseo walking toward Demi's stall with his breakfast.

"Good morning!" she said.

"You're up early today."

"I have a lot going on and since I couldn't sleep any longer, I thought I'd get started. I'll begin in Nan's stall, alright?"

"I can do that if you'd like to finish feeding Demi and Daisy. I don't mind the work."

"Twist my arm," she replied, as she took the bucket from him and opened the door to enter Demi's space.

"Good morning, sweet boy," she said and poured the feed for him. She took care of Daisy and grabbed another rake. Demi was quite polite and allowed her to work around him as he ate his breakfast. Soon everyone was fed and heading out of the barn. She and Eliseo finished cleaning up and he hauled a bale of hay outside and broke it up for the horses.

"Miss Giller," he said, stopping her as she walked back to the feed room to get another bale.

"Yes?"

"There isn't much going on here today and I need to take care of a couple of things. Would it be alright if I took the day off?"

"That would be fine, Eliseo. Just let Jeff know that you're going to be off-site, okay?"

"I texted him late last night and he asked me to tell you this morning."

"Then, we're cool. Thanks for helping with the horses, though. Jason and I will take care of them this evening."

"Thank you. I'll be sure to be here tomorrow morning, but I appreciate not having to hurry back this afternoon."

"I hope you have a good day," Polly said.

"It will be fine. Thanks again."

Wednesday was generally quiet around Sycamore House and Polly had managed to schedule her workouts with the horses so that even they were free today. Jeff had begun coming in late on Wednesdays and usually only spent a few hours to ensure their guests were cared for. Sometimes Sylvie would show up in the afternoons to plan for wedding receptions, but otherwise there wasn't much to do.

This morning Polly wanted to head over to Beryl's studio to see how things were coming along. Henry would be at Sycamore House tomorrow to get started on the garage, but today, he was either at his workshop building cabinets, or supervising reconstruction. She thought she'd try the studio first.

Obiwan wasn't thrilled to have to go inside early, he never was, but they got upstairs and she fed him and the cats, then took a shower and dressed for the day.

When she pulled up in front of Beryl's house, there were several vehicles already there, including Doug's Grand Am. That made her smile. She didn't know why she liked him and his friend Billy as much as she did, but those boys had been with her from the beginning and had stayed at Sycamore House to protect her from the boogie man several times.

Their boss, Jerry Allen, passed her as she made her way around the house to the studio.

"Good morning, Polly! Are you here to check on the boys?"

"Should I be?" she asked.

"Well, I think they might always need a little checking. We're only here for a couple of hours this morning and I think we'll have everything wired and ready to go. I believe Henry has drywallers scheduled for this afternoon. It's going to come back together!"

"Fantastic!"

She walked on around back and was stopped again by a man she didn't recognize.

"Are you Polly Giller?" he asked.

"Yes, I am," she said and put her hand out to shake his, "You are?"

"I'm Larry Storey. I live next door. We had some damage from the explosion and I need to make sure it gets paid for. When will Ms. Watson be back?"

"She should be back this weekend. Have you contacted your insurance agent?"

"I'm not contacting my insurance agent. She is responsible for this mess."

"If you contact them, I'm sure they will work things out with hers."

"I don't want my rates to go up because of this."

Polly looked at him and took a deep breath. "I'm sure that Beryl would want everything to be taken care of. Who is your agent?"

"Well, it's Mr. Conyers downtown."

"Why don't you give him a call? He will handle it and make sure you are satisfied with the outcome. That's probably why you work with him, isn't it?"

"I suppose so. How long are you going to be working back here? Everyone is making quite a racket and there's a lot of traffic. This has always been a quiet street."

"Has anyone started making noise before eight thirty in the morning or after five o'clock in the afternoon? Because if they have, I will be glad to change their hours," Polly calmly replied.

"Well, no. It's just that they're tying up traffic."

Polly laughed to herself. There were probably only four or five cars that ever traveled the street in front of these homes and right now, most of the vehicles were in Beryl's driveway and in front of her house. The poor man obviously needed someone to pay attention to the fact that he'd been involved in the explosion, no matter how minor that involvement had been.

"I'm sorry if they are making things difficult for you. The worst of it should be over this week. Would you like to come in and see what they're doing today?"

He hesitated and then nodded, following her to the studio.

Doug and Billy glanced at her as she walked in.

"Hey Polly!" Doug said. "What's up?" He was pulling cord through the open studs while Billy was working on an outside wall.

"This is Mr. Storey from next door. I wanted to show him what we were doing in here. He had some damage from the explosion, too."

"Oh, that had to have been scary!" Billy said. "Can you imagine having that thing blow up and fling shrapnel at you? Poor Miz Watson. You never expect your appliances to go all insane on you! Is she doing alright, Polly?"

"Thanks for asking, Billy," Polly said, trying hard not to look pointedly at the man beside her, who hadn't bothered to ask about his neighbor. "She's doing a lot better. I think she'll be home on Friday."

"Back here, Mr. Storey," Polly began and led him to the back, "is where the worst of the damage happened. We're going to enclose the next water heater in a smaller room, along with a protected cabinet for her more flammable items. This wall will be perfect for her to store canvases and right now, Henry Sturtz is building cabinets and shelves for all of her paints and brushes and anything else she uses. It's pretty cool to have a famous artist right in your back yard, isn't it!"

He nodded and walked over to a window, "I used to do stained glass work a long time ago," he said quietly.

"Really? Have you thought about doing something like that now?"

"Oh, I gave all of my tools away. It would be too much trouble to start again."

"I think there's a cool studio in Ames. Have you ever been down there?" Doug interrupted.

"No."

"You should check it out. They have classes and everything. I'll bet you could start slow and get back into it." Doug continued enthusiastically. "I thought about doing it, but haven't had time to start. I don't know where I'd work on it. My Dad's shop takes up the garage and my mom's junk takes up the basement. Dude," he said to Billy. "We have got to get out of our parent's homes. I need a place to be me!"

Polly giggled, "Have you heard from Henry?" she asked.

"He said he was going to be here about eleven," Jerry Allen said, coming in the door.

"Thanks. I'll see you later," she said. "Mr. Storey?"

He followed her back outside and broke off as they approached his back yard. "Miss Giller?" he said and she turned around.

"Yes?"

"Tell Ms. Watson that it wasn't that bad. All I need is a new window. I'll take care of it."

"She'd want you to give her the bill for it," Polly said. "When you get it finished, let her know."

"It's not a problem. Thanks for showing me the studio."

Polly went back inside the studio and strode over to Doug. "You are wonderful sometimes, you know that?" she said.

"Sure! I'm wonderful. What did I do this time?" He stood up from where he was pulling cord and ran the back of his forearm across his face.

"Well, you deflected Mr. Storey and gave him something to think about. That was pretty cool, but I also want to thank you and Billy for letting Jason and his brother play games with you."

"Oh, that was nothing. They're good kids and they might as well be downstairs with us rather than up in your apartment bothering you."

Billy interjected, "We were once little dudes. I would have loved to have older dudes let me play with them."

"They thought you were a dweeb," Doug laughed, poking his friend's arm. "And you were. But hey, they don't have a dad around right now and since our dads are pretty okay, it's good to pass that on. Besides, their mom feeds us good food."

"She does that?" Polly asked. "I'm so glad!"

"Yeah. She came in Friday night with tons of cupcakes. They were like those Ding Dong things, only better, because they were homemade."

Polly huffed, "She's never made those for me."

"Well, you should ask her, ‘cause they were awesome. She told me that whenever we had a game night, she'd come up with something fun for dessert if she's around. Now, how cool is that?"

"That's pretty cool. I know she appreciates you hanging out with her boys."

"The new dude you have helping out is okay, too. Some of the kids were a little weirded out by his face, but when he started showing them the horses, he got all relaxed and it got cool," Billy interjected. "You should totally keep him around."

"I'm trying,” Polly said. “I'm trying. Well, thanks for everything."

They went back to work and she headed to Henry's shop. As she approached the front door, she heard the buzz of a saw. When she walked in, there were several people working. Henry looked up from the table saw and waved. She stood in place and watched the activity. Leroy was working with Sam Terhune, assembling boxes for base cabinets. Jimmy Rio was working with a man she didn't recognize and Ben Bowen was running some wood through a planer.

Henry finished what he was doing and came over to greet her. He gave her a quick hug. "What 'cha up to?" he asked.

"I came from the studio and spent a few intimate moments with Larry Storey, Beryl's neighbor."

"Was he complaining?"

Polly laughed. "Huh. How did you know?"

"It's what he does."

"Well, I showed him the inside of the studio, and Doug and Billy chatted him up a little bit. I think he left in a better mood than he arrived. He'll be fine."

"That's my girl. You keep fixing people around here, don't you! Do you know Len Specek?" he asked pointing at the man working with Jimmy.

"That's who it is!" she said. "I remember him from the dance, but I haven't seen him since then."

"He's going to help with the installation at the studio. Would you like to meet him?"

"Sure! But, I have a quick question first."

"What's up?"

"Sal Kahane is coming in to town tonight. What do you say about going out on Friday night? I thought I'd be a little evil and set her up on a blind date with Mark Ogden if he's available. That way it's just for fun since she's leaving on Saturday. No one has to make any long term commitment."