I said, "But that didn't stop you today."
Her mouth tightened. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, just now, you opened the door without one."
"Right, because today it was unlocked." She threw up her hands. "And why am I explaining myself to you?" She turned to Brody. "Did you know it was unlocked?"
"Yeah," he said. "Because I unlocked it."
"Oh." She perked up. "So? Was there rain damage?"
He gave a half-shrug. "Some."
With obvious disappointment, she said, "Just some?"
"Well, it's not like the ceiling caved in," he said.
She was frowning now. "Oh."
Brody glanced toward the house. "But we've got major damage on the third floor."
At this, she brightened considerably. "Really?"
"Yeah. The way it looks, the damage has been there a while."
"Thank God," she breathed. Turning to Roy, she said, "Go ahead and start setting up. Remember, we've got only two days to get the 'before' footage."
I asked, "What happens in two days?"
"Isn't it obvious?" she said, turning once again to beam at Brody. "We get straight to work."
Chapter 22
Brody
We. There was that word again. I gave Waverly a long, penetrating look. "So, you're gonna help?"
The question made her pause. "Excuse me?"
"You said we'd get straight to work. You mean fixing the house?"
She smiled. "Right."
I didn't smile back. "So, what are you gonna do?"
"Me?" she said. "I was thinking I'd help supervise."
It was time to set her straight. "Nope."
Her smile faltered. "What?"
"That's not gonna happen."
With a shaky laugh, she said, "Well, I mean I know that you're in charge of the actual work, but it's all a team effort, right?"
Normally, I might see it that way. But I'd come across Waverly's type before. She was the kind of person who'd never get her hands dirty, but would gunk up the gears for everyone else.
I told her, "You deal with your crew. I'll deal with mine."
She frowned. "You mean the film crew?"
"That is your crew, isn't it?"
"But what about everyone else?" she said. "Like plumbers and…" She made a vague waving motion with her hand. "…other construction people?"
"They're part of my crew," I said. "And I'm telling you up front, they take orders from me. Not you. Got it?"
Her fade reddened, and she lowered her voice. "Surely, you don't think I'd cause trouble? I mean, you and I – we…" Her words trailed off, and she glanced toward the front porch, where the others stood watching us.
Waverly barked out, "Hey! What are you looking at?"
None of them answered.
But hey, I had something worth saying. "And that's why you're not in charge."
Waverly whirled to face me. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I won't have you barking at my crews."
"What?" she sputtered. "Like a dog?"
A female dog, maybe. But I wasn't into name-calling, so all I said was, "Just stay in your own lane, and we'll be fine."
Her lips pursed. "We'll see about that." With a huff, she turned and stalked toward the familiar white SUV.
I watched with only mild interest as she yanked open the passenger's side door, pulled out her cell phone, and climbed into the passenger's seat, slamming the door shut behind her.
The sounds of muffled yelling quickly followed.
I didn't know who she was calling, but I wasn't worried. She was replaceable. I wasn't. And we were killing it in the ratings.
I was on firm ground, and the last thing I needed was an uptight rookie acting like she was in charge. It was the kind of thing that led to mistakes, or worse, accidents.
That wasn't going to happen. Not on my job.
And already I had more than enough trouble with Arden Weathers, who was proving to be more persistent than I'd expected.
Still, I had to give her credit. She'd done a decent job of stalling the film crew while I finished up with the hoses. And she'd kept her mouth shut, too.
I glanced toward the house. Sometime within the last minute, the film crew had disappeared inside. But Arden, she'd moved away from the front door, and was now standing alone on the edge of the porch.
Her jeans were loose, and her shirt was nothing special – a basic blue pullover, thick enough to be decent regardless of what she was doing.
Still, I could see the rising and falling of her chest and the tilt of her chin as she eyed me with a look that I'd never seen – or at least, not on Arden, and never directed at me.
As our eyes met, I had to ask myself, "What was she thinking?"
Chapter 23
Arden
He was magnificent. It was true that I didn't like him, but I had to respect the way he'd handled the situation with Waverly.
My grandpa had been a tin-knocker. In construction, those were the guys who ran the heating and cooling ducts from one end of the house to the other, with lots of places in-between.
Bending sheet metal – it wasn't an easy job, and his hands – even long after he'd retired – had retained plenty of scars to prove it.
And the stories he'd told – about bad bosses, unsafe conditions, and people who lost their cookies when things didn't go their way.
All of those twisted tales had been enough for me to know that Waverly would be the worst kind of person to have in charge of anything that involved power tools.
But Brody? He was turning out to be something different than I'd expected. When he turned to look in my direction, I should've looked away. But it felt cowardly to be caught staring and not own up to it.
So I gave him a little wave and an unsteady smile. His eyebrows furrowed for a long moment as we stared across the distance. But then, he did something that I never would've expected.
He actually smiled back.
It wasn't a big smile, but something about it sent my traitorous heart fluttering to dangerous new levels.
And now, I was embarrassed.
To cover my sudden
