“I do, as a matter of fact. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
Grabbing four bottles of water after putting her phone in her back pocket, she made her way to the elevators. All of them were now working, she could see.
There were things going on in the building that she had ordered worked on. The elevator to the main floors had been out for some time now and was causing people to be at their job site anywhere from ten to twenty minutes late, depending on how many were in the queue to ride it.
She was in the bright sunlight in just a few minutes, and Caleb was there to greet her. He’d been talking to one of the employees who was also on the lot and seemed to be enjoying their conversation. When he took her hand into his, Tabby almost missed what he’d been saying to her.
“That was Mr. Carper. I think that’s what he said. He was telling me you’re doing a bang-up job as the new plant supervisor, and he was glad someone was making sure you were eating. I didn’t know what to think when he told me that you’d been working day and night on getting things in a better position.” She handed Caleb the water bottles as he guided her to the woods. “I must confess, I’ve been trying my best to figure out a way to bring you out here to talk to you. I’m not shy by any means, but I am a little rusty when pursuing a woman.”
She was still standing there when he turned and looked back at her. “You’re pursuing me? I mean, this isn’t a business lunch where you’re going to tell me what I need to do and not do concerning your grandparents’ business?”
“Okay, first of all, yes. I am pursuing you. I like you a great deal, and I’d like to take you out. Also, a great deal. As for telling you what to do here? I haven’t any idea why you’d think I’d have any say in what you do. But the Andersons are only my grandparents because we share a bloodline that comes through to me. I know them less than I know what goes on behind the doors of that building.” Caleb grinned at her as he came back to take her hand again. “Besides, I doubt very much that many people get by with telling you what to do when you have an idea in your head. You seem pretty headstrong. Not stupid, never that, but you know what needs to be done and have no issue in getting on it right away.”
There was a table set up with cloth napkins and placemats. Along with the two chairs that looked much too comfy to be considered outdoor chairs, there was a large picnic basket and a bowl of what looked like fruit on the table. She looked at him when he helped her push her chair up to the table.
“You keep pursuing me like this, and you might get lucky.” He nearly fell on his way to his chair. Coming back to her, he lifted her chin up and kissed her quickly on the mouth. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I don’t think about what I’m saying until something outrageous comes flying out of my mouth.”
“I love it.” He poured their waters over the glasses of ice that were there. “Yes, by the way, Kylie told me you liked the subs there. I have to confess, I never enjoyed a meatball sub when I was a kid. Mom made meatballs one time, and they were a complete disaster. After that, she would buy a bag of them for us to have for pasta. Mom could cook when she had specific recipes. However, she was never any good at winging it, as Mary says.”
“I enjoy the art of cooking—however, it’s the cleanup I loathe. And usually, when I’m in the kitchen for more than microwaving some popcorn, which I burn nearly half the time, I have a huge mess going on.” He asked her how she burned popcorn. “I get distracted. Not like I would zone out or anything, but I’d think of something that needed to be done, and instead of waiting until later to do it, I’d just wander off and start on it. It’s why my apartment is in disarray right now. I’m cleaning out my closets and my pantry at the same time. The pantry was easier. All the things in it had expired years ago.”
Enjoying her time with Caleb, they talked about themselves a great deal. Mostly it seemed that she was doing the talking, but Tabby did know a little more about him than she thought the people closest to him knew. He was still grieving hard for the loss of his mom, too.
“I’ve put my house on the market. It was a good home for Mom and myself, but I’ve decided I don’t want to live there with the memories we had. It’s not something I had to think hard on. Mary and Ben, my friends as well as staff, have decided they’d like to move out west. Ben has some health issues, and the weather would be better for him. I’ll miss them a great deal. Will you have dinner with me tonight?” She stared at him with her mouth open. “You can say no, you know.”
“I do know. And yes, I’d love to have dinner with you. Another round of subs?” Laughing, Caleb told her he could do better than that for her. “All right. I’d love that. I’m sort of rusty on dating myself just so you know. I do date, but it’s mostly just blind dates, or one of my friends needs a second person there in the event things get wonky. Usually, they don’t, but they’re cautious.”
“As everyone should be.” Cleaning up the papers that they’d used, Caleb pulled some grapes off the bowl that they’d both been munching on since they’d finished the subs. “My mom set me up. Not with malice, I don’t think, but having me come out here and meet her parents was her way of getting us together.”
“Are you upset with that?” He shook his head and smiled. “Ah, so you like them. That’s as good a start as anything, I guess. I didn’t know them either. Shep rarely spoke about anything but himself. And that was usually his way of bragging about what things he’d been up to. He’s not a bad person, I don’t think. I’ve said that before. But I do think he’ll come around. I have no idea why I think that. Perhaps I just want to believe it. I can see the two of you coming to terms over a great many things.”
“I’d like that too. I have a meeting with him tomorrow morning. I just realized I’d like you to be there.” She said she could do that as long as it was before ten. “Already working me into your schedule, are you?”
“No. I think I could easily clear an entire day to spend time with you.” He reached for her hand, and she interlocked her fingers with his. “This is going to get out of hand quickly, isn’t it, Caleb?”
“Out of hand? No. I think it’s going just where we both want it to be.” He leaned over and kissed the back of her hand. “Yes, I think this is going to be just fine for us.”
Tabby hoped so. She really was liking this man. But she also knew it would only be until he found someone more like him. Sophisticated. Wealthy. A beautiful doll-like person that would hang on his arm and worship him in ways Tabby didn’t think she was capable of doing for anyone.
Chapter 4
House hunting wasn’t going as easily as he had thought it would. As soon as he stepped into the third house in as many hours, he realized something. He was an architect. Laughing, he told the realtor he’d changed his mind.
“I’d like some land to build on. The more, the better.” He told him he had plenty of land in this town that he could get cheaply. “Great. I want you to buy it all. I have plans of expanding some things around here.”
“So, you’re staying?” He looked at Arthur and told him he supposed he was. The man had been the perfect match for him over the last couple of days. “Good. I think the women will be happy to hear that. Kylie was telling me the other morning that she thought you were good for us. I have to admit, I love working with you. You’re not at all what I imagined it would be like working for a wealthy man.”
“Your grandda didn’t tell you anything about me?” Arthur told him he’d said they’d have to form their own opinion but that he was a nice man. “I guess that’s a good idea. He didn’t tell me all that much about you two either, now that I think on it.”
The realtor came back and said he had several pieces of property that could show Caleb. As they were headed out the door and to their cars, he thought of something else. Silly, he knew, but he wondered to himself what Tabby would think of his idea of the perfect house.
He and his mom would write down things they’d been ask
ed to put into a home for someone. Things they had thought were a good idea and things they didn’t think would work on any scale. The list had been very long when they’d started, the one about things that they wanted, but almost as soon as they saw the way it worked, whatever it was, they decided it wasn’t for them. The most hilarious thing they’d thought every household would love was two sets of washers and dryers. It turned out that the two of them thought there should be one on every floor. Doing laundry was a pain in the butt when it had to be carried up and down the stairs all the time.
The first tract of land was near the little town. He didn’t know what he’d do with it but thought it was too small to build much of any kind of business on. Purchasing it with the knowledge that he had to use it or lose it made him think the town was more desperate for businesses coming in than he’d first thought.
The second strip was much more in line with what he wanted.
“There is water and electric on this property that runs over to the next land for sale. There had been a house here as well as a large barn, but according to our records, lightning hit the house and took it and the barn out.” He purchased both of those, too, glad for Arthur’s input on some of the things he was to ask for in return for paying cash. “Mr. Anderson, there is a house with two hundred acres that just came on the market about two minutes ago. My boss told me to let you know.”
“Let’s go see it.” It wasn’t far, he was told, but just on the outskirts of town on the same end that the Andersons lived in. Tabby called him as they were headed there. “I’m looking at houses. What are you doing?”
“Not looking at houses. I have an apartment.” He convinced her that she could meet him at the property he was headed to. “All right. But I have no opinion either way. And you still owe me for putting chairs together.”
“I’ll get to that too.” He was laughing when he pulled up in front of the house. “I’m waiting for you to see this. I think you might be willing to live in a house when you see this one.”
As soon as she got there and stood outside her car, Caleb watched her face. She was as excited to see the inside as he was. It took him a moment or two to realize that the realtor, he thought his name was Cain, was telling them the history of the house.
“Mrs. Bundy died last night in a nursing home. The family, her husband’s, wants to take the house and live there as a group. There are provisions for this not to happen in the laws of the county, I’m to understand. Since she was in the nursing home for just a little over a decade, the family, both sides, I guess, haven’t paid the taxes or any of the utilities since they expected the money to come from the estate. There was none.” Tabby asked why the power was on. “That too was supposed to have been paid. However, no one did. The city left it on hoping that when anyone moved into the house, they’d not have the expense of having to replace pipes and such when it froze up.”
Caleb was handed a long list of information, which he simply handed to Arthur. As soon as he walked up the wide long steps to the wraparound porch, he knew he was going to make this work. Tabby took his hand into hers, squeezing tightly as the door was opened for them. Arthur read off what had been sent to Cain.
“Furnace and air conditioner are eleven years old. It seems to work well, it says here. I’d still replace it. The furniture has been well maintained. Once a month, the bank sends someone over to check for mice and other creatures when the lawn is taken care of.” They were entering what he could only assume was the library. “There are books that belong on the shelves. They’ve been put into storage nearby to keep them from being harmed. It says here it’s ‘as is.’ What are they talking about, Cain?”
Nodding, he put his phone away before answering him. “As in the furniture that is here goes with the house. They don’t believe they’ll be able to sell it for any profit anyway. There are some things in storage, as you’ve heard. I’m not entirely sure what that might entail, but I’ll find out. The bank is talking to my boss right now about a price they’ll need to cover the expenditures that have been accrued with the house since Mrs. Bundy was put into the nursing home.” Arthur asked about the family. “The will is to be read in a few days. As far back as anyone can remember, Mrs. Bundy didn’t care all that much for either side of the family. She had no children with Mr. Bundy, and the house was hers before they wed. I believe this might be the first case of a prenup I’ve ever heard of.”
They walked through the living room and to the dining room. The room needed work—the window in the big window had been broken and then boarded up. But it hadn’t been able to keep the rain from coming in, so there was some damage. This time it was Tabby that was taking notes.
The house was in good shape, considering that no one had been in it for a decade. He noticed the way Tabby eyed the furniture, the way she seemed to be checking for mouse droppings. He admired the fact that she was showing how unimpressed she was with the place. However, every time she held his hand, the way she was trembling told him that her desire for the place was huge. There was very little needed to convince him to buy it—even less when he got to factor in that the house was Tabby’s dream too.
“Are you a good negotiator?” He told Arthur he wasn’t too bad at it. “Good. I suck. I can do it in a courtroom, but when something is for sale, like at a garage sale or an auction, I just pay what is asked of me. I don’t do value in furniture or homes well.”
“I’ll do it.” Tabby looked at him when he laughed. “You don’t think I could get the best price for us? I mean you?”
“I think you can do whatever you set your mind to. I think I’ve said this to you before.”
She nodded.
When Cain found them in the kitchen, he sat down at the country table that had seen better days and laid his head on the table before Caleb sat across from him when Tabby did. “Bad news?”
“Depends on how you look at it, I guess. Mr. Shimer at the bank and Mr. Douglas, my boss, said they’ve worked out a deal that will make everyone happy. Not including you. You, they said, are just a pain in their ass right now. I haven’t any idea. But since you’ve been really honest with me and have given me this chance to work with you, I’m going to be straight up with you, Mr. Anderson.” Caleb nodded, unsure where this man was going. “I need a job, and I have a feeling that when you put your head to something, you get it done. Like what you said earlier about buying up the land to make more business for the town. Anyway. I’m really great at this job. I know that, as does Mr. Douglas. That’s the only reason he keeps me around, I think. That way, he can take half of what I should make in commissions as well as his cut.”
“Did he say something to you that has you telling me this?” Cain said it was water under the bridge. “Not as far as I’m concerned it’s not. What did he tell you? Or threaten you with.”
“I’m probably going to be fired anyway after this. But if you want the house, I’d not pay any more than about five grand for it. You could, I suppose, but that’s the total cost needed to care for the bills from here.” Tabby asked him what they wanted him to pitch to them. “Fifty grand. There is a lot of land here, as I said to you before. Enough that you could do just about anything you wish, and no one would know. The other parcels of land that you’ve told me you were going to purchase were earmarked, not my idea, for the bank to use for prospective buyers from out of town.”
“You were told that you were to tell me I can’t buy them. That someone else has, weren’t you?” Cain nodded. “I see. Arthur, can you take care of this for me? And see to it that any other plots of land around and near here are purchased as well. I’d like it to be filed now if there is a way for you to do it.”
“I will have to contact some people out of town to make it work for us.” Tabby said that would be fine, and Arthur walked away, already pulling out his cell phone. They both looked at Cain when he thanked them. Arthur turned back. “The house too?”
“Yes.�
�� Both he and Tabby answered at the same time. She smiled at him and called him a jerk—why he had no idea. “For bringing me here so that I’d have to move in with you. I know we’ve not had a date yet, but I want to live here with all that I am, and if I have to put up with your ugly mug to do so, then I guess I will.” She turned to Cain. “I have six job openings at the place I’m running right now. Any one of them I think you would be suited for. Also, the pay is good, and I can offer you benefits right up front.”
“I’ll take it.” Cain shook both their hands. “The property at the end of this land is for sale as well. I’m sure Arthur will find it. It’s another five hundred acres that also has been earmarked.” Nodding, he called his attorney back, and he had indeed found it. “I have a wife and a new baby on the way. Working for her dad, Mr. Douglas, isn’t anything I ever wanted to do. But I was one of the hundreds cut from working at the grocery store warehouse a few months back. I’ll be honest with the two of you again here. My wife and I are being treated like indigents by Mr. Douglas. That’s what I was told to call him. He comes into the house whenever he wants. Somehow he has a key, and every time I change the locks, he just gets another one. I finally gave up on that. A cleaning service comes by the house the day he’s coming for dinner, which lately is nightly. Nothing we ever do is right or safe for his grandson. We’re having a girl, and he simply refuses to believe it. Lily, my wife, is afraid that when she has our daughter, her dad will bully or pay someone off to make sure we come home with a son rather than what we have.”
“Does he pay for your house? Rent or something like that?” Caleb wanted to know that as well and was happy that Tabby had asked. Cain said Mr. Douglas owned the house, and they were required to pay rent. “Well, that’s not right.” She turned to him. “I don’t suppose you know of a place he can live until we get this fixed, do you?”
Caleb Anderson: Berkley’s Bastards – Billionaire Romance (Berkley's Bastards Book 1) Page 5