Lucky 13

by Jillian Dagg

  "This is a great house,” Luke said, leaning against the kitchen counter while the coffee dripped into the carafe. “Your sister has obviously done a lot of work on the interior."

  Cally smiled as she put mugs on the table. “Essie has architect friends, interior decorator friends, you name it. Now a lawyer friend."

  "According to Paul he's more than friendly. He's in love with her."

  "He told you that?"

  Luke nodded. “He's been crazy about her from the moment he set on eyes on her. I doubt if Essie will find it easy to drop him."

  "I'm not sure she wants to,” Cally said. “She's taking him with her on a business trip to Chicago next weekend. Very unlike Essie. She's always put her career ahead of anything."

  "Do you?"

  "What?"

  "Put your career ahead of anything?"

  "It's not much of a career yet, is it? Do you take cream or sugar in your coffee?"

  "No. I like it black."

  "Me too. That makes it easy. I don't have to get anything else out but the mugs."

  Luke smiled at her rambling. “But it will be a career, won't it?"

  "Oh, yes,” she nodded. “But Essie's career involves so much traveling. Mine won't be quite as transient."

  "Then you would consider getting married and not staying single like your sister?"

  "If I meet the right man.” Cally poured coffee into both of the mugs and found her hands were shaking.

  Luke's questioning was getting very personal.

  He picked up the mug she pushed forward for him. “That's the criteria?"

  "Naturally. I'm not marrying for the sake of marrying. I could have been married years ago, if that were the case."

  "Then you've been asked?"

  Cally chuckled. “In fourth grade Denny Linton wanted to marry me. He sent me notes every day and put dotted lines for me to answer."

  Luke laughed. “And did you?"

  "I always wrote when we grow up. "

  "What happened then?"

  "I think he was embarrassed because he never came near me when we did grow up. He's married now to another girl who was in our classroom.” Cally sipped her coffee.

  "Do you think he wrote her notes?"

  Cally smiled. “Oh, I never thought of that. She could have given him a different answer. Maybe she said yes, then."

  "Possibly,” Luke said. “You see, you maybe muddied your chances."

  "No,” Cally told him with a shake of her head. “I left myself open to choice and my choice wouldn't have been him.” She gave Luke a rather brash look brought about by their teasing conversation. “So what about you? Do you have a history?"

  "Nothing that cute. I've been in love a number of times. Once I thought it could move into marriage but it didn't. Besides that, how can I get married when I'm away most of the summer on a construction site? It's not fair."

  "Vince has his wife come up and stay weekends."

  "I know. He's managed it. But he's one of the few. I've seen marriages fall apart. My Dad was away all the time when I was a kid. Stanford Construction is a family business."

  Cally hadn't known that. She'd thought Stanford began with Luke and Tom. “Does your Dad still work for Stanford?"

  "Yes, but he branched out into luxury house building. So he stays close to home and takes Mother to Arizona for most of the winter."

  "So your parents are still together?"

  "Oh, yeah, but there were times when I felt the discontent rearing."

  Cally heard hurt in his voice and imagined Luke as a small boy hearing his parents’ unrest and being scared. “I can imagine that was frightening,” she said softly.

  "It was,” he admitted. “I'm just pleased that their relationship was strong enough to survive. How about you? Your parents?"

  "My father was an engineer. But by the time I came along, the last of the brood, he was a manager in the company and had his own big office, where he spent his days as a boss."

  "And he's retired now?"

  "Yes. He's retired. Much to Mother's agony. She had all sorts of things she did when he was gone all day, now she has to have him underfoot. That's her word."

  Luke chuckled. “I'd like to meet your brood."

  "Maybe another weekend,” Cally said. “I mean, if you drive me down, you can come over and meet them.” She wasn't sure if she should be inviting him.

  "Maybe,” he said cautiously and Cally wished she hadn't said anything. After all, they had been thrown together this evening and it should end there.

  So she tried to invert the invitation. “That's if I bother to come home again. I quite enjoy weekends up north when everyone has gone home.” She didn't ask if he might spend a weekend up north without going home.

  "But you've enjoyed this weekend?” Luke asked.

  "Oh, yes. It's been wonderful."

  "Good.” It didn't seem as if he wanted to leave.

  "Do you want more coffee?” she asked.

  "Okay."

  She poured more and endeavored to keep the conversation alive. “Have you always lived around here?"

  "Yep. I haven't moved far in my life, although I'd love to travel overseas."

  "Me too,” Cally said. “Somewhere exotic. Maybe go and visit my brother Matt while he's still in Europe."

  "That would be fun,” Luke agreed.

  After a silence, Cally asked something she had been longing to know. “Do you live in a house?"

  "Yes. I built it myself. It's not far from Paul's. It overlooks a lake so I put balconies off the upstairs rooms to have a view."

  "Sounds nice,” Cally said, wondering if she would ever get the chance to see it. Then she had to remind herself that this was Luke Stanford she was chatting to about her childhood and her dreams. Her boss.

  By Monday this interlude would have to be forgotten. It really shouldn't have happened in the first place.

  Luke finished his coffee. “That was good. Notice that you never get coffee much at parties?” Then he added quickly. “I enjoyed myself tonight, Carolyn. I was a little apprehensive about the evening when Paul told me I was being paired up with his new girlfriend's sister. Paul's done that to me before. He thinks I'm lonely and getting crusty too young."

  Cally glowed inside from his remarks. “You are crusty at times,” she said boldly.

  "I admit it.” He grinned. “Well, now I've drunk all your coffee, I'd better get going. Thank you for the great evening."

  Promising to see her the next day at four, Luke left Essie's house. Cally put away the coffee things and went upstairs. With Luke's presence still with her, Sunday at four suddenly couldn't come soon enough.

  No. She couldn't think that way. She had to put him out of her mind. By Monday he would be the Construction Boss again, not her intriguing exciting blind date.

  Sunday at four did come quickly. Cally slept until nearly eleven. Essie was only just arising when she sleepily went downstairs. The sisters spent the rest of their day in their robes chatting about the party and the two men they had been with, Paul and Luke. Before Cally knew it, she was stuffing her overnight bag and rushing around getting ready for Luke to arrive. His car pulled up outside about three thirty.

  "I like his car,” Essie said, now wearing leggings and T-shirt. “He sure is nice looking. Great swagger to those masculine hips. And he's early. That's a plus."

  "Get away from the window, Essie. You'll embarrass him. And me."

  The doorbell rang. Essie went to answer it. Cally tucked her leather jacket through the handles of her bag.

  "No time for drinks or anything?” Essie said as Luke walked into the foyer.

  "Not really, Essie. Thanks.” His smile for Cally crinkled his eyes. “Ready?"

  "Yes.” Luke was so different away from the construction site. So much more relaxed. She rather regretted that tomorrow they would be back on their former footing. Boss and employee. Lowly employee at that. And they would be surrounded by all the other guys once more.

&nb
sp; Essie hugged her. “Loved having you, C.C. Come home again soon."

  When Cally was out of the door, Essie shook Luke's hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Luke. Hope to see you again."

  "Possibly at your wedding to Paul,” Luke said.

  Essie blushed. “Possibly."

  Cally chuckled as she settled into the car. “You've just got my sister to admit something she has never ever admitted."

  Luke glanced at her as the car took off up the residential street. “What's that?"

  "That she might actually marry. She wouldn't tell me one way or the other."

  "So Paul is special?"

  "Very. She usually goes out with a man a couple of times and drops him. Paul is definitely serious."

  "And he's serious about her. So that makes two. I hope it works out. He's a great guy. He'll make you a great brother-in-law."

  "We'll have to see how he fits into the family,” Cally remarked.

  "Is that prerequisite to marriage in your family?"

  "My brothers would have to get along with Essie's husband, that's for sure. They're overpowering."

  Luke grinned. “That must be why it's easy for you to speak up for yourself. You're used to bossy men.

  You certainly didn't let me get you down when I became overbearing last week."

  "Well you were overbearing."

  "I know. I say what I think which gets me into trouble."

  Luke's car navigated the freeway connections that would take them to I35 and north to the construction site.

  Cally said thoughtfully, “I think the way you are at the site, is correct. You have to keep your crew in control. I understand that."

  "That's good. I find I have to keep myself aloof. It doesn't work if I become one of the gang. I've tried it."

  "What happened?"

  "I lost power and while the crew stayed happy enough, there wasn't much discipline. The job was overdue. We ran into the autumn and just finished the road before the snow came."

  "So you decided to be more enigmatic?"

  "That's a good description. Yes. I decided to keep a few steps back. Now you know all my secrets."

  "I won't take advantage of you,” Cally said. “I won't use this weekend as a way of gaining privilege."

  "I'm pleased you understand. Because when we return to work, it's going to have to return to the way it was."

  "I know.” And it hurt. She enjoyed being with Luke when he was in such a pleasant mood. She didn't want this to change.

  Gazing at his profile, the dark eyebrows and quite long lashes, the rugged nose and sculptured cheeks, especially the stubborn square jaw and firm no nonsense mouth, Cally knew she was going to have trouble treating Luke as a boss this next week. She felt she knew him so much better now. Away from work he was human.

  When Luke drew up to Tall Pines, Karl's truck was outside his unit. Don's wasn't there yet, which meant Loretta hadn't returned. Cally climbed out of the Mercedes and waited for Luke to take her luggage from the trunk.

  "Can you manage?” he asked.

  "Sure I can.” She grinned. “I get one terrific workout on the site here."

  He smiled. “That's true."

  "Thank you so much for taking me. I really appreciate it."

  "It was a pleasure. Have a good week."

  Cally knew he wished her well because they wouldn't be able to interact on the same level after this evening. She felt sad about the circumstances as she turned away from him. As she walked past Karl's unit, the man strolled out of the door.

  He stood with his fingers hooked into his jean's belt. “Well, look who's back. Nudging up the boss, are we? Or is it more than nudging?"

  Cally turned around but Luke had already disappeared. “He's the only person here who lives down in Minneapolis. So he drove me."

  "That's handy. It's quite obvious he has quite thing for you. You being his golden girl."

  "I don't know what you're talking about, Karl."

  "You didn't come to my unit for poker after dinner, did you? No. You went for a walk with him."

  Cally frowned. What was he talking about? And how did he know Luke had joined her walk by the lake? An innocent meeting, spurred on by Luke's intent to berate her? Except he hadn't been that way this weekend. Away from the site he had become another person, likely his real self.

  "Think about it Creighton.” Karl strolled away down to the lake.

  Cally rushed into her unit, dumped her bag on her bed, and stood for a moment considering Karl's words. She knew part of Karl's assumption was ridiculous. Luke didn't have a thing for her. His friendship this weekend had been forced by the circumstances. What she really wanted to know was how did Karl know about Luke walking with her when all the other men had been with him in Echo Bay?

  Hadn't they?

  She sat on the bed feeling shaky. She didn't want to be excluded from being one of the crew. But if that was the impression the men were getting, and if one of them was a spy, then she was certainly going to stay out of Luke's way. Possibly she should join in some of the fun, even if she didn't truly want to.

  She raked her fingers through her hair which was still kinky from her Saturday evening braid. As she'd decided once before, everything went back to the day of Rick's accident. That event seemed to have caused a real shake up in her life.

  Chapter Six

  Cally was putting away the last of her things when Loretta came in.

  "Have a good weekend?” Loretta asked.

  "Great.” Cally said, wishing she felt more enthusiastic, but thoughts of having to distance Luke so the other men didn't think she was involved with the construction boss was a problem to be worked out.

  “How about you?"

  "Fantastic."

  Even though the word was spoken with Loretta's usual effervescence, Cally thought Loretta seemed less forthcoming than usual, so she didn't press her. She didn't want to know anything about anything or anyone. Tomorrow morning she would get down to doing her job again without complications.

  The philosophy worked for Monday and Tuesday. According to Luke, who was in pure boss mode, they were a day or two behind. Therefore, he worked everyone harder than usual. The crew moaned and groaned about Luke's callousness and Cally was able to hide behind the moaning. She went to bed early, rose early, went for her morning walks, and ignored Loretta's unusual tension and unease around the motel unit even if she was curious to know what had happened on the weekend to cause such an emotional change in her room mate.

  Wednesday dawned with impending thunder storms in the air and the sky full of deep gray clouds. Cally felt tired all day. She sometimes jumped when Loretta's voice crackled to let her know when to twist the sign. She noticed, even Luke, seemed to have a slump to his shoulders when he walked anywhere. The humidity crippled them all. She watched Luke now as he rolled a drawing and tossed the roll in the back of the truck.