Unbreakable (20 page)

“Look guys, I’m tired and want to go back to
bed. We have a long day tomorrow,” I tell them hoping that there
will be no argument.

Jacob rubs his forehead so hard it looks like
he is going to take the skin off, but finally lets his hands drop
to the table and nods his head in agreement. I can tell that they
both don’t have it in them to go any further with this tonight.

I hop off of Luke’s lap and go around the
table to Jacob giving him a kiss on the cheek. “It’ll be fine.” I
pat his back, but I know this is not over. Tomorrow I am going to
be more adamant in finding out what the boys were discussing this
morning at Georgia’s Stone.

Luke wraps his arms around me when we are
back in bed and I feel so safe. I am asleep in seconds.

Chapter 24

I wake up and roll over, squinting as the
sun beams through the window. The bed’s empty and I sit up seeing
that it’s eight thirty. Crap, we agreed to be on the road by now. I
get up and use the bathroom. Still in Luke’s Polo, I walk
downstairs hearing talking and laughter in the kitchen.

“Good Morning, baby,” Luke greets me.
Getting off the stool at the island, he comes over to hug me. Emma
and Jacob are sitting there eating pancakes also, and Miss Finnegan
is standing over the griddle flipping some fresh ones on a plate.
Luke leans down to kiss me. I can smell his wonderful smell and his
kiss tastes like maple syrup.

“Good morning,” Emma greets, smiling at my
attire. I blush as I stand there in Luke’s shirt. It’s long enough
to reach above my knees, so I figure what the heck. I sit next to
her grabbing a plate and dish me up some pancakes. I realize I’m
starving.

“The guys were telling me all about the
excitement last night,” she says taking a bite of pancake. “My bet,
it was Simon,” nodding her head and looking at me with a
see-I-told-you-so look on her face. “You should get rid of him,”
she exclaims.

Luke sits on the other side of me, “Emma’s
right, Lil, better safe than sorry,” he nods in agreement with her
and she smiles from ear to ear.

“I think you all know how I feel,” Jacob
says not looking at me.

“Thank you!” Emma blurts slamming her hand
on the counter, “Four to one, counting Miss F. Sorry, Lil,” she
seems pleased with herself. “Think about it. The first night he’s
here someone is staring at you through the window,” she explains as
she sees the look of annoyance on my face. “I mean you can’t get
more coincidental than that, can you?”

“This isn’t a democracy! We are not getting
rid of him,” I yell because I am sick of this conversation and the
ganging up. “He hasn’t done anything other than look at me and he
has stopped doing that. I refuse to be like Jane and fire someone
for looking at me wrong,” I add, my voice still loud. “We don’t
know it was him in the window,” I finish and all eyes are on me
shocked at my outburst.

“Lilly, calm down. I can’t help my gut
feeling I get about him,” Jacob states and all the heads in the
room nod in agreement.

“This conversation is over! I don’t want to
hear any more about it!” I shout at them as I walk out of the
kitchen and head for my room to get ready.

As I stand in the shower, I start to get
more upset even though I know they are just trying to protect me.
I’m not going to be bullied into doing something that I don’t feel
is right.

After seeing that place, I think we will be
getting dirty today, so I dress in jeans and a t-shirt. It seems
everyone had the same thought as me. I had noticed at breakfast
that they were all dressed the same way with sneakers.

I walk outside and Luke and Jacob are
loading the truck with all kinds of big tools to break in with. It
looks like they’re bringing the whole shed. Emma is standing by
Jeffrey and Miss Finnegan telling him about the intruder last
night. I see Simon walking up the lane with the weed whacker in his
hands. He’s been working hard already this morning. He’s sweating
and there are little bits of grass stuck to every bit of bare
skin.

“There’s my feisty girl,” Emma says as I
join them and she puts her arm around my shoulder giving it a
squeeze. “I don’t like it when you argue with me, but I am so glad
you found your voice Lil,” squeezing my shoulders again, like I’m a
child, who she’s proud of. I roll my eyes at her. Simon walks up to
us, and I feel her tense up like she is on guard.

“What would you like for me to do now, Mr.
Hansen?” He asks Jeffrey not looking at Emma and me at all, and
keeping his distance. Jesus, Luke and Jacob scared the shit out of
him. Jeffrey starts giving him orders on his next task and I
interrupt.

“Simon, I think you need a little break.” I
interject and everyone stops to look at me. Except for Simon, who
keeps his eyes down. This breaks my heart. “Simon, will you look at
me please?” I say and Luke and Jacob stop what they’re doing to
watch what’s going on.

Emma elbows me, and mumbles under her breath.
“What are you doing?”

He keeps his eyes to the ground and I take a
step closer to him. I can see Jacob tense up and Luke drops the
bolt cutters in the back of the truck with a loud bang then walks
our way.

“Simon, I am your employer and I am asking
you to look at me,” I repeat myself and he looks up at Luke
nervously for direction. Luke shrugs and throws his hands up in a
“whatever” motion.

He turns and looks me in the eyes. He has
such sad eyes. “Now, I want to get something straight, okay?” I say
calmly. He just stands there frozen, staring only at my eyes. “You
can look me in the eyes, but that’s it, okay? You will treat every
woman with that same courtesy. Do you understand?” I continue to
look at him, and I can feel everybody’s eyes me.

“Yes ma’am. I’m sorry if I ever made you
feel uncomfortable,” he apologizes, still only looking in my
eyes.

“Apology accepted. Now you know what is
expected of you, right?”

He nods yes to my question. “You look like
you’ve been working hard, and I think you need a little break,” I
say and can still feel ten eyes boring into me.

“Thank you, Miss Sumner,” he nods and walks
around to the back of the house, not making any eye contact with
anyone as he does.

“Well, maybe I’m not so glad you found your
voice,” Emma scoffs. “There’s something wrong with that man, Lil,”
she just won’t give it up.

Luke shakes his head at me and goes back to
his work. I can tell he’s pissed too. Giving him permission to look
at me, there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s a human being for
heaven’s sake. I ignore them all and go back in the house to grab
the cooler Miss. Finnegan packed for us. This should be a fun trip
with them all being against me on this. I refuse to judge him like
Jane would, and I hate that everyone else has.

I roll the cooler to the back of the truck
and Luke lifts it up on the tailgate, his arm muscles rippling.
He’s ignoring me right now and won’t even look at me. I hop up on
the open tailgate letting my legs dangle as he returns from the
shed with a saw. He is really mad. He puts the saw in the back of
the truck not even acknowledging me. I grab his arm as he starts
walking away again and he stops.

“Talk to me,” I plead. I didn’t think what I
did was that bad at all. “What part made you so mad?” I question
him.

He finally turns around and places his hands
on the tailgate on either side of me.

“You told him it was okay to look at you,”
he says with fury in his eyes. “It’s not okay, you’re mine.”

“Apparently you didn’t hear the whole
conversation, Luke. I told him it was okay to look at me here,” I
say pointing to my eyes. “He’s a human being. He can look at me
when I’m talking to him.”

“I don’t think you understand the
seriousness of the situation, Lilly,” Luke says with deep concern
in his eyes. “He might have been watching you last night, and by
you telling him that you want him to look at you, it’s like your
inviting him to………” Luke stops and looks down shaking his head.

“Like I said last night, if it was him he
couldn’t have possibly known I would’ve been in the kitchen at that
time. He only would’ve been watching me for a minute. I wasn’t in
there long before I saw him,” I try and comfort Luke. Everyone
seems to be making it way more serious than it should be.

“If that is the case, why didn’t he just
fess up? Why would he lie?” Luke’s eyebrows rise as he asks.

“Probably scared to death after what you
said to him yesterday.” I raise my eyebrows also. “Even if it was
totally innocent and he was out walking, and he noticed me in the
window, and then ran when I screamed, you wouldn’t have believed
him would you?” I state knowing he knows I’m right.

“Let’s go, we can talk on the way to
Lafayette, okay?”

I take his face in my hands and stare in his
eyes. “Are you still mad at me?” I stick out my lower lip
pouting.

“That’s not fair! You know I can’t resist
that,” he kisses my pouty lip. “No, I’m not mad at you, I just want
him gone.” I feel as if there is something he’s not telling me.
“Please, Lilly, did you not mean it when you said you wanted me to
do part of the decision making around here?” He says using my words
against me.

“If you really meant it, then I don’t see
why you are arguing with me,” he looks at me pathetically.

“For heaven’s sake what has he done,
really?” I am so sick of it I feel like I’m fighting a losing
battle.

“I don’t trust him, and after last night…”
Luke stops and shakes his head and looks like he is trying to get
an image out of his mind. “…I just want him gone okay, and Dad says
it’s not working out anyway. He keeps messing up.” Luke continues
to add reasons that justify him. “You’re the only one who doesn’t
see it. Jacob, the man you hired to protect you, doesn’t trust him
either.” Luke looks at me as if it should be an obvious
decision.

“Fine, whatever, I’m so sick of the ganging
up. Do what you want.” I finally give in. It is never going to stop
and they are all so adamant about it I don’t see any other
choice.

“But I’m not doing it. If you want him gone,
you do it!” I shout and hop off the tailgate and storm to the front
of the truck where I see Emma, Miss Finnegan, and Jeffrey still
gossiping about Simon, which makes me more mad.

“Let’s go people!” I shout and climb into
the truck slamming the door behind me. Emma jumps at my outburst
and hurries over to the truck. She walks over to Luke and I can see
them talking. Then Emma starts smiling from ear to ear.

Jacob climbs in the backseat behind me.
“Sorry, Lil’, but I think it’s the right choice,” Jacob defends
them.

I don’t want to hear it, I am so mad at all
of them right now I just want to go. Luke and Emma are still in
deep conversation next to the truck. I reach over to the driver
side and lay on the horn making them both jump. Neither one of them
say a word as they get in the truck.

I sit quietly staring out the window chewing
on my thumbnail as we make our way toward Lafayette. I feel nothing
but guilt at the fact we are firing someone. I’ve seen Jane do it
hundreds of times, but I’ve never done it, and I swore to myself
that I never would unless I had a really good reason.

I’m going to give Simon a very large
severance check, and I am not going to tell Luke, Jacob, or Emma
about it. This makes me feel better, and my mood lightens a little.
I still don’t talk yet because then they’ll think they were right,
so I continue to sulk and look out the window.

Luke and Jacob are talking strategy on how
they are going to get through the chains and the padlocks. I zone
out and think about the mansion that has been vacant for so long. I
know there’s a story and I hope we get some answers today, but I
have the feeling that there is some stuff that I am never going to
know.

“Hey, Lil!” Emma yells up finally braving a
conversation with me knowing I’m still mad. I feel Luke looking my
way to see what my reaction is going to be.

“Hmmm?” is all I say, I don’t want to give
them too much yet.

“So what do you think we’ll find in the
house?” she asks a stupid question, just to get me talking. She
knows I have no idea what were going to find in the house. Stupid
question gets a stupid answer.

“I don’t know!” That’s all I give them and
the truck goes silent. For the rest of the trip no one talks and
this makes me happy. Let them suffer a little too. Maybe he is a
little creepy, but he hasn’t done anything. I can’t stop thinking
about it. They are way too happy firing a man that has been a hard
worker so far. Maybe I will tell them about the huge check I’m
going to write Simon after he’s cashed it that is. I win and I
smile to myself.

We reach the lane of the property and Luke
pulls to a stop in front of the gate. Everyone hops out and Luke
and Jacob head to the back of the truck to get some tools. I walk
to the gate clasp my hands on two metal rungs and rest my forehead
on the cool wrought iron staring at the house. What I can see of
it. It looks like the windows are boarded up. It makes me sad.
Something bad happened here, I can feel it.

Emma comes up beside me and mirrors me
standing at the gate. She whispers, “I love you, Lil, and it’s all
because we love you,” she says as she looks at the house also.

“I know.” I just want to drop it now. “Look
at it, it’s so sad.”

“Yeah, I think something bad happened here,”
she says like she just read my mind. We stand at the gate like this
for a while just staring.

Luke stands beside me and I turn to him. He
stares into my eyes and they look sad. “I love you,” he sighs. I
grab his waist in my hands and rest my forehead on his chest
looking down at the ground. He lifts my chin up with his finger so
I’m looking up at him. He leans down and kisses me softly on the
lips. I know he’s sorry, and that he is trying to protect me.