"Have you been talking to him?" she asked.
"He's a hard man to talk to."
It was true, ever since his wife left him and his best friend, Carl, had died, Silas had turned into a hermit, barely ever emerging from his studio. "I know that. But have you been talking to him?"
"You and I are in competition, aren't we? You really think I'm going to answer that?" Joe had leaned in again, his face too attractive and far too close to hers.
Vanessa held herself perfectly clear. "I'm not worried."
"I think you worry all the time, Vanessa," Joe murmured, his tone different now, almost intimate.
"You don't know me at all."
He smiled. "Yeah, but I do."
"I'm not going to sell out to you."
"I'm not expecting you to sell out. I'd be happy with a partnership."
"I'm not going to partner with you."
"You might enjoy it."
Her breath hitched at the thickness of his voice. Her cheeks flushed, and her heart raced. "It's not going to happen."
"My loss, then." He drew back again with a familiar, relaxed smile. "I guess it's not my day. I'll try again tomorrow."
"Nothing is going to be different tomorrow."
He chuckled. "You never know. I don't give up."
She wondered if that was true-if she was always going to be plagued with Joe Coleman hanging around, getting on her nerves, making her feel things she shouldn't be feeling.
"I've got to go," she said, more rattled by this encounter than she should have been.
He reached over to open her car door. "Of course, you do. I'll see you later."
She was never sure how much of what Joe said was true, but the last comment obviously was. They were on this job together for the next couple of months. And they both had a lot to do this week to get ready for the arrival of Harrison Damon.
She was going to see Joe around a lot, whether she wanted to or not.
Tuesday
The next morning, Vanessa drove over to Silas Vance's workshop.
For the last three years, he'd been holed up in an old cabin in the woods, with his workshop in a separate building he'd constructed himself. She knew from experience that mornings were the best time to catch him. Once he'd started working for the day, he wouldn't come out, and he wouldn't talk to anyone.
She parked her car at the top of the dirt driveway and took a deep breath before she stepped out.
She might know Silas better than anyone else in town, but he still made her a little nervous.
"Silas?" she called out. It was always better to give him warning that someone was approaching. He worked with heavy, sharp tools and had reflexes like a panther.
She heard a grunt from the back of the cabin, relaxing as she realized he hadn't yet gone into the workshop for the day.
She walked around the corner of the cabin, finding Silas sitting on a bench, drinking coffee out of a rustic mug, staring out at the dense woods that surrounded his home. Without saying a word, she approached until she could sit on the bench beside him.
She didn't lean back. The bench was positioned against the back of the cabin, and the wood siding was very dirty. She wore a white shirt today and didn't want to get the back of it dirty so early in the morning.
"There's coffee over there," Silas said in his normal, slightly rough voice. He was big and well-built with a long, squared-off beard and gray eyes that seemed to look right through you. He'd been in the same class as Carl all through school, so she knew he was thirty-three. There was nothing young about him. Or soft. She wasn't surprised his ex-wife had left and never come back.
"I'm fine. Thanks." She didn't try to smile or make small talk. That never worked with Silas.
"What d'you want?"
"Are we still on for the stained glass windows in Eden Manor?"
He narrowed his eyes. "I said we were."
"I know. Is two weeks from now okay with your schedule?"
He gave a grunt that she interpreted as a yes.
"Good. When it's time, I'll have someone remove the windows and bring them out to you here." He never left his workshop to do jobs. Anything he worked on had to come to him.
"We covered all this already," he muttered. "What's your problem?"
There wasn't any sense in being sensitive to rudeness around Silas. He was rude to everyone. She slanted him a look. "I was talking to Joe Coleman."
"What's that to me?"
"He...implied that you might start doing jobs for him."
Silas's lips parted slightly beneath his beard. A small gesture, but one she understood as enlightenment, as if he finally understood her presence here. "He's been pestering me."
"Yeah. I get that, and I'm not surprised. I thought you didn't work for him, though."
"I don't."
"Are you thinking about changing your mind?"
"What's that to you?"
She cleared her throat. "Obviously, you can do anything you'd like. You have no obligation to me. I'd just like to...to know, so I can plan accordingly. You working exclusively for me gives me an advantage, so I'll need to compensate if that's changed."
He stared at her for a long time. "It's business."
"I know that."
"Carl is dead."
"I know that too," she said, swallowing hard. She could talk about Carl now without getting emotional, but it was still hard and sometimes shocking to hear his death spoken of so bluntly.
He'd be so disappointed in her if she lost Silas.
"We all need to move on."
She glanced around at the dingy, soulless space that acted as a backyard for him. This small piece of earth he almost never left. "Is that what you're doing? Moving on?"
She'd gone too far. She knew it as soon as she spoke the words. His eyes narrowed again and his expression was colder than ever. "It's only business."
"I know it is." She'd worn out her welcome and maybe blew her one chance to keep Silas on her side. She stood up. "But the business was Carl's, and so it's personal to me. Obviously, there's no obligation. I was just hoping you'd be straight with me, if anything is changing."
He didn't reply, so she turned around and walked away. She'd reached the corner of the cabin when Silas said from behind her, "I'll tell you."
She let out a shaky breath. "Thanks."
As she returned to her car, she tried to take comfort in the fact that Silas had spoken in the future tense. The decision wasn't already made.
If he started working for Joe, she'd make do. She'd have to. But it hadn't happened yet.
***
She drove to the hardware store to pick up supplies for Ruth, and then she headed over to Eden Manor. Ruth had already arrived, and the two of them were unloading the back of Vanessa's SUV when Kelly Blake made an appearance.
Kelly was young, friendly, and pretty with long dark hair and glasses. She was several years younger than Vanessa, but she had an intelligent, practical air about her that Vanessa liked.
"Do you need some help?" Kelly asked.
Before Vanessa could say they were fine, Kelly reached into the car and grabbed several pieces of wood.
"You don't have to do that," Vanessa said.
"What else do I have to do?" Kelly grinned at her. "I was working on my grandmother's home since I was five years old. I don't know how to just sit around and let other people do all the work."
"That sounds familiar. My folks were consummate DIYers. Yours too?"
Kelly chuckled as she held the front door for Vanessa with her foot. "I never knew my parents. I was raised by my grandmother. She never did any work around the house herself, but me and my sisters did, mostly because we couldn't afford to hire anyone to help us." She set down the boards on the floor. "I didn't mind. I always enjoyed it."
"Me too."
"Is that why you became a contractor?"
Vanessa shook her head. "To tell you the truth, it never even crossed my mind. My husband started the business, and I helped him out. Then, when he died, I just took it over."
Kelly let out a long sigh and gave her a little smile. "It's funny how life happens that way. It just keeps turning you away from any plans you try to make."
"Yeah." Vanessa felt a surge of connection to the other woman, like they understood each other for real for the first time. "That's exactly what it does."
Kelly watched as Ruth started to set up her tools, evidently lost in her own thoughts. Then she finally turned back to Vanessa. "Joe says he's trying to get you to partner up with him."
Vanessa stiffened before she could tell herself not to react. "He told you that?"
"Yeah. He said both of you would bring assets that would make it a really profitable partnership, and I can kind of see it myself, with the way it's worked out with Eden Manor."
Forcing herself not to sound as defensive as she felt, Vanessa murmured, "It's a lot more complicated than that."