“Well don’t just stand there, be some use and help me with this,” she said, tugging the rest of the boards off the roof of her car.
He walked slowly over to her side of the car and looked down at the board on the ground. Then at the setup she had on her car.
“Who did this?” he asked.
“Ash Dennison.”
“I should give him a ticket just for this.”
“It wouldn’t be his fault. I talked him out of delivering the boards. Come on. Help me.”
He lifted his hands. “I thought you said you’re an able-bodied woman.”
“So much for chivalry. I’m a woman in a dress.”
“I can see that.”
His face transformed right before her eyes. She saw mixture of desire and appreciation and she liked it, which surprised her. It had been a long time since a man looked at her with any kind of appreciation. But then Caleb retreated into professionalism as if he were panicked by his own reaction.
It was an awkward moment to say the least. They hadn’t been exactly friends in high school. He was a few years older than Katie. He was Kasper’s friend. But they did have a history growing up in the same town, knowing the same people, and getting into all the things kids in Sweet got into in their youth.
“What you plan on doing with one two by four?”
Embarrassed by her bright idea to handle the situation herself, she decided to forgo giving Caleb the real explanation why she was testing out her sedan. She’d figure out the truck situation later. Instead, she said, “I figured if it was easy enough for me to break in to the chapel dressed the way I was the other night, then it would a breeze for someone else to do it. Now that I own the chapel, I don’t want any more damage done, so I thought I should secure that doorway a little so that the teenage kids won’t come down here.”
He nodded, seeming satisfied by her explanation.
“I’m not quite sure what you will be able to do with just a few boards. That’s a pretty big opening. What do you have for power tools?” He glanced into the backseat of her sedan. “Are your tools in your trunk?”
Her shoulders sagged just a fraction. “I forgot them back at the house. I know my father and Kas had some in the garage. I just…didn’t have time to look through them. And…I wasn’t quite sure what I needed so I figured I’d get the boards here first and then figure it out and come back.”
He nodded. But he didn’t believe her. That much was evident in the slight twist of his jaw.
“If I had my toolbox in the cruiser, I could help you a bit. But you need a saw to cut some of these boards. Do you even know how to use a saw?”
“No. But that’s okay. I’ll learn.”
“I can show you—”
“It’s not your job to do that. I’ll figure it out.”
He seemed taken aback by her sudden stubbornness. The same stubbornness that had her insisting at the lumberyard she could transport this wood herself.
“I wasn’t offering because it was my job, Katie. I was just…offering to help. There is a difference.”
Warmth spread through her and mixed with a sense of guilt that was deserved. She’d hurt him. Or at least offended him, and that didn’t feel so very good given the breaks he’d given her over the past week. When had she gotten so suspicious of men and their intentions? She knew the answer to that. She just didn’t like it.
“Thank you, Caleb.”
Caleb looked up at the sky and then back at Katie. “It’s going to be dark in about an hour so there really isn’t much time to get tools, and get back here before we lose light. I’m not on duty until noon tomorrow. I can meet you here early and we get that door secure. That is if you want me to help.”
“I appreciate that. Thank you.”
“Don’t touch anything.”
“Why?”
He gave her a devilish smile. “Katie, you’re a storm. I’d like to think this chapel will still be standing when I get back.”
Sweet Home Montana: Chapter Three
It had been a long time since Katie had seen Caleb Samuel out of his police uniform. Somehow she hadn’t been paying attention to much this past year since she’d returned to Sweet. But she had to admit he was quite striking wearing dress blues. He wasn’t bad in a pair of blue jeans, a sweatshirt, and a pair of cowboy boots either.
Now she understood the talk amongst the women she worked with. But there was something about him today that made Katie’s heart do a little flip. It wasn’t the clothes at all. It’s what they did to the man who was wearing them.
Give a man a toolbox and he could play all day. That’s what her mother used to say. Of course, in these parts rodeo and ranching went hand-in-hand. People needed to know how to repair things that got broken. There were plenty of women who knew how to hold a hammer and saw a board. They knew how to string fence and untangle barbed wire without cutting themselves up. Katie had done those things on occasion herself. But only as a hand at the Lone Creek Ranch where she used to go riding when she was in high school. That is how she met Bruce. And that’s how things in her life went awry.
None of that mattered now. Bruce was no longer a part of her life. She had a new course in life. Her job at the bank had been a transition and it would still serve her well for these coming months while she needed to save money in order to continue to renovate this chapel. But it wasn’t her future. It was just a job, a means to an end.
Her future and her dreams had been in design. This chapel was still in shambles but she could easily envision
