Unexpected Love (White Oak-Mafia #2) (9 page)

“Is that damn bear after you?”

She bent over, gasping for her breath. “No…but Sam said a car was driving up the road. Has Mr. Barkman not arrived?”

“No, he hasn’t,” Helen stated and gripped Tess’s arm for support as they entered the house. “Is Sam already done with his delivery?”

“No…he’s got four more.”

“Well, call him up and ask him to swing by the road on the way back, and if there’s a bear on the road blocking a car, to hover above it until it moves. Tell him there’s a hundred-dollar bonus for doing so.”

“That’s too much.”

Helen snorted. “You really want Mr. Barkman eaten?”

Tess rushed to the phone and made the call. Sam refused the bonus, but promised he’d clear the road of the menace to Iowa’s finest state park.

Her gratitude lasted less than a second before she wondered if he wasn’t just kissing ass because he heard there’d be more lumber needed now.

Grams had clearly noticed her change in mood. “Did he refuse?” She struggled to push herself out of the chair.

“No, he said he’d do it, and he didn’t need a bonus.”

Grams relaxed and closed her eyes. “So what’s the puss about?”

Tess threw herself on the couch and explained her worry.

That earned her a weak wave from Grams. “You know why I’ve always paid Sam such a high price for my own lumber?”

“Because no one else can deliver it by helicopter and place it exactly where you want it?”

“There’s that. But it’s because when I first called him and told him I was looking for a new lumber yard to cut my wood, he questioned me in great detail as to what I needed done. He didn’t make grunting noises when I mentioned the poor condition of the roads around here. He just let me talk and then opened the possibility of taking out the trees and bringing back the lumber by helicopter.”

Grams grinned. “Before I could even ask how much that would cost me, he explained he was a licensed pilot and used to do it for a living. When his wife had a baby, he decided it was too dangerous and opened a lumber mill to serve the local area instead.”

“So why did he offer to do it for you?” Tess challenged.

“Turned out the baby wasn’t his, and the wife ran off with the real father once he’d sunk all their savings into a lumber mill. But all he told me was that things had changed, and he really needed the business. So he provided me a detailed breakdown of the cost he anticipated and then added a ten percent profit.”

Tess grimaced, glad she hadn’t yet tried to trim his price. That was a terrible profit for one damn tree. Then a thought occurred to her, “Were all those detailed costs real?”

“I’m not going to scold you for mistrusting people because there are more liars and cheats in the world than I wish to know. Fortunately, I’d done my homework before I called Sam, so I knew the costs of everything but the helicopter. And with a few calls to certain people, I discovered he had undercharged me given they had upped his insurance premiums when they learned he was using it to haul trees.”

“So you’re saying Sam is a good guy, and I shouldn’t be giving our future, more substantial work to anyone else.”

Helen breathed in deep, but a faint shudder at the end sounded more like pain. “I’m sure Tom will insist upon competitive bids, but give Sam a shot to match, and double-check the others bids. Make sure they don’t have added expenses in the small print. That’s what McAlister did. His stated cost was much lower since he planned to take the wood out by truck. Unfortunately, in the tiny print, it stated I’d pay a thirty percent penalty for any poorly maintained roads they had to travel…only it said it in such a convoluted manner that not even Jonas caught on to it. McAlister refused to release me from the contract, so Jonas took it to Judge Thorton, and when he read the section, he voided the contract since he couldn’t make heads or tails of it either.”

“So Sam writes a better contract?”

“He didn’t require one. He just gave me a detailed list of expected costs and his ten percent profit. I’ve had him revise the costs before every tree. We argued over the increase in the helicopter insurance. He didn’t want to add it, but I asked him how many other people were having their trees flown in and lumber flown back. Turns out I was the only one, and that was a huge cost increase.”

“How did he plan to pay for that?” Tess asked.

“He intended to take a loss on my business because I was a nice lady and I’d really helped him out that first year. I also had Jonas help him with his divorce. So I had to yell at him that he would charge me the full cost of his helicopter insurance or I’d find someone else. Otherwise, he was going to go out of business, and I really liked his service.”

“He does come at once,” Tess agreed.

“Yes, and make certain you put that in the requirements, because I assure you no one else will.”

The red light blinked by the hall door.

“That must be Tom,” Helen said. “Just check the monitor first. I’m not up to dealing with relatives today.”

The monitor showed Tom sitting in his car mopping his forehead with a handkerchief. Tess silently cursed Grumpy and ran upstairs.

When she exited the top cabin, Tom remained in his car. She opened his car door. “Tom, good to see you. Let me help you with the computers.” As she gathered up the boxes, Tom eyed the edges of the forest. Getting him out of the car was not a problem. The man literally ran to the porch and did not calm until they were inside with the door bolted.

“You look as if you encountered a giant black bear,” she teased.

“Yes. It had to be over six hundred pounds and possibly rabid.”

“I hadn’t considered that possibility. It’s the consensus of bear experts that he’s just unhappy because there are no female bears to be found. I asked Sam to check the road and scare him off if he was blocking you.”

“Blocking? If only. He was…well, let’s just say you are probably correct about him being in dire need of female bears.”

She tried her hardest not to laugh, but the image in her head of Grumpy trying to hump Mr. Barkman’s Range Rover was too funny. The best she could do was turn her face away and cough to hide the laughter.

“Tess, I apologize. I should have kept that detail to myself. But thank you for sending the helicopter. While honking my horn had no effect, the thumping sound certainly did.”

Containing herself, she led him downstairs where her Grams stood by her chair, greeted him, and invited him to sit.

“If I may use the restroom first,” he suggested with a tone of desperation.

“Certainly. You remember where…” Helen smiled at the disappearing man. “I guess he does.” She sat down and breathed out deeply again.

While he was gone, Tess shared the story of Grumpy humping the Rover. It only brought a faint smile to Grams’ thin, tight lips.

“What can I make you for lunch?” Tess asked.

“Whatever you want,” Grams whispered and closed her eyes.

Sensing her pain, Tess said, “Perhaps you should take a painkiller.”

“I did. It should kick in soon.”

Pressing her lips to Grams’ forehead, she then whispered, “I love you.”

That earned her a soft pat of the hand and a faint smile.

She was seconds from bursting into tears when Mr. Barkman returned.

“Did Tess tell you I was taken hostage by a giant bear?”

Not wishing for him to see her tears, she hurried to the kitchen and stuck her head in the refrigerator.

Helen spoke from her chair. “I do apologize. However, the Minnesota Bear Sanctuary has assured me they will be here today. Hopefully, I won’t have to shoot the damn menace before they arrive.”

“Do they know the size of this creature?”

“I told them six-hundred pounds. If they believed I exaggerated, they’ll have to deal with that problem on their own. I paid my donation, and it came along with a six-hundred-pound bear.”

Noticing Mr. Barkman’s look of concern, Tess gave him the website of the bear sanctuary so he could see where Grumpy was going.

“Dear God. The bear will kill every male bear they have,” Mr. Barkman said.

“Steel said the same thing.”

To Tess’s shock, Grams made her way to the kitchen and joined them for lunch, although she ate very little of the salmon.

After lunch, she saw them both off and locked up. Tess had no doubt she’d returned to her chair the moment Tess secured the door. Her grams was going south so quickly. The thought released a flood of tears.

“Tess, what’s wrong?” Mr. Barkman asked, pulling her to a halt. When she wouldn’t answer, his grip grew firmer. “Has Steel done something to upset you?”

Tess shook her head.

He sighed heavily. “If this isn’t going to work, I’ll find someone else.”

“I’m not crying about Steel. He’s perfect for the position. You couldn’t have chosen better.”

“If that’s true, why are you… Oh God, did he infer that I thought you or Helen built those mounds because I absolutely do not think that. In fact, the only rational answer to whom might have built them would be Indians, just perhaps not Paleo-Indians.”

“It’s not that. It’s a family thing, which I can’t talk about. But I assure you I won’t let it affect my work.”

“Oh…Oh!” he stated with more emphasis. “Well, I’m sorry for whatever has happened that has distressed you.” After a short pause, he added, “It doesn’t involve Steel, does it?”

“No,” she replied softly. He no doubt thought her father had discovered Steel lived in her house.

“Good. I’m rather fond of my friend. I’d never forgive myself if this job were the death of him.”

“It won’t be,” she promised. “Our relationship will be nothing but professional.”

Tess had never been happier to arrive at the mounds and be immediately dismissed. Mr. Barkman had to be the nosiest man in the world.

She ran the whole way back to the house. Grams was asleep…or dead. What if she’d died? She didn’t want to wake her if she was sleeping, but what if she wasn’t sleeping?

“Grams, you need anything?” she whispered.

A faint answer of “no” calmed her. She quietly rose, gathered up her new computer, and sat down to examine the planning software.

It was the same software they’d used in last year’s college course. She created the plan with as much detail as she could contrive, knowing it would later assist in daily and week scheduling. As her professor had explained, while building a service road might be the first core objective, cutting trees would have a higher prioritization since the road couldn’t be built before the trees were removed.

Some of the students ignored his warning, and he had great fun embarrassing them as their main objective failed because they didn’t plan the items needed to get it done.

She smiled with pride as she recalled him claiming her project was the best plan he’d ever reviewed in his classes or out in the real world. She only hoped Mr. Barkman and Steel would be equally impressed.

For her, planning in detail was easy. Grams insisted upon a plan for each day. Otherwise, the wrong things would get done. And because there were always surprises, a plan should have recovery time set into it.

Grams always had a list of prioritized improvements that required lumber to build, so when Sam dropped off the lumber, Grams would go down the list and select the first one that needed slightly less than the quantity of lumber delivered.

Tess recalled Grams’ frequent lecture. “A half-bridge is worse than no bridge. Never start a project you can’t finish.”

She’d lost track of time when she heard the door unlock and her two bosses enter. She saved her work and closed the computer.

Placing her finger to her lips, she smiled at her two bosses and whispered, “Grams is sleeping.”

“No, I’m not,” Grams replied. “So did you boys acquire samples for carbon dating?”

“We did. And in doing so dislocated a small bone fragment that I will have DNA tested and carbon dated as well.”

“You think it’s human?” Tess asked.

Steel smiled, the excitement in his eyes evident. “I am optimistic it will come back human and date to the Woodland Era of the Paleo-Indians.”

“Let’s keep this between the four of us,” Mr. Barkman warned. “These mounds are different than any that have ever been discovered before.”

Tess realized how different. “Then you think there are human remains residing under the two animal-shaped mounds?”

“Possibly. Unless I just happened to come upon a bone fragment that had been in the dirt they used to build the mound. We’ll know more once we get GPR equipment in. But for that, I’ll need people.”

Tom groaned. “Anyway you can get me even a partial plan that I can use to hire your help?”

“How far out in planning do you need?” Tess asked.

“For this? First month in detail, both milestones and staffing requirements, plus a general layout of the first year.”

“Tom, that will take months to do!” Steel yelled.

“Can this be a preliminary plan, subject to change?” Tess asked.

“Absolutely,” Tom replied.

She returned to her computer and turned it back on. “Now this is just on the forest side, but I’ve got a rough draft of my first four months, including time to train them on my procedures.”