“It seems I’m not such a good liar after all. I’m having contractions. Looks like the baby wants to come early.”
Four
I’d barely slept at all last night between worrying about Tam and trying to figure out what I was going to do without her at TBS.
Shading my eyes against the early morning sun, I sur-veyed the Lockharts’ backyard and wondered if it was too early to call the hospital.
All my other calls had resulted in the same outcome: No change in Ms. Oliver’s condition.
A truck rumbled in the distance. I hoped it was Kit with the skid loader. The yard was going to take a while to clear out, but luckily the first dump truck had arrived on time, so we were all ready to begin when Kit showed.
The doctors put Tam on some sort of medication to stop the contractions until they had time to give her steroids to help the baby’s lungs develop.
She could be in the hospital for days, possibly weeks.
I just prayed that the baby would be okay.
“Nina, you’re here!” Lindsey said. “This is so exciting.”
Even with my Tam worries, I was excited too. I loved the buzz of the actual makeover day. The adrenaline, the challenges, the fast pace. This yard would definitely be a challenge, but the end result would be a job well done.
32
Heather Webber
Bright sunshine highlighted every flaw of the yard. Thank God the Lockharts had finally called someone for help, even though it had taken a lawsuit to provoke them. I looked at Lindsey. “Bill make it out okay this morning?”
“What? Oh! The fishing. Yes, yes.”
I noticed she wrung her hands. My eyebrow quivered.
What was going on? “Is there anything you need to tell me?”
“What? No. Nothing at all.”
Overall, I loved surprises. It’s one of the reasons I loved my job so much. However, I didn’t like feeling as though Lindsey was keeping something from me. Especially if it might be something that put my reputation or company at risk.
“There’s a big truck out front towing a trailer with a Bob-cat on it,” she said.
That had to be Kit. “We’ll be using the skid loader most of the morning, clearing all this out.” I gestured to the quar-ter acre of overgrown grass and weeds and a couple of rotting trees. (Okay, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised to not find a rusting car resting on four cinder blocks amidst the weeds. Yes, it was that bad.)
I looked to my left, over a small picket fence. The house next door had a beautifully kept lawn, a trimmed boxwood hedge, nice planting beds, and an adorable little greenhouse.
To my right, the neighbor’s yard was enclosed with a six-foot wrought-iron fence. Tall fountain grasses provided privacy all along its perimeter. There was no seeing in, and no seeing out.
It was easy to imagine why. No one wanted to view the Lockharts’ yard in its current state. Not even me.
“Does the HOA know about the work going on here today?” I’d had issues with homeowner associations before and didn’t want to deal with that kind of hassle today.
Lindsey shook her head. “No.”
33
“Are they going to be up in arms over it? We’ll be making a lot of noise.”
“They want the yard fixed up more than anyone.”
I just hoped there wouldn’t be any problems. My stress level couldn’t take any more.
“I’m going to, uh, go grocery shopping,” she said, already stepping away. “You have my cell phone number?”
Again my eyebrow twitched. Something just wasn’t right about this whole job. Most clients liked to stick around, watch our progress. Some even baked us cookies and brought us lemonade. I was bummed. I’d wanted a chance to poke around her house, see if there were any pictures of Leah Quinn lying around. “Yes.”
“What time will you be done?” she asked, looking somewhat worried.
Both eyebrows lifted. Uh-oh. Something was definitely wrong. “Six.”
“Right. Six. Okay. ’Bye!”
I heard Kit unloading the skid loader and went down to the curb to see if Jean-Claude had showed.
He hadn’t.
I growled.
That was it. He was so fired when I saw him.
