North Dakota Weddings (3 page)

He took a few steps closer, peering at her.

“What are you doing here? This is private property belonging to Vance Erickson.” She placed her free hand on her hip.

“I…uh…” Vance took a step toward where she stood in the kitchen. “Have you ever done any modeling?”

A
s the stranger approached, Andi stood her ground, gripping the mallet she’d brought with her. A girl couldn’t be too careful. Besides, he didn’t look local. Most folks around here were farmers and ranchers. He was dressed in a suit, well, white shirt and suit pants, but she bet he’d been wearing a tie and coat earlier. The last person she’d seen dressed like that around here was—a knot suddenly rose in her throat—Jorgen.

The man moved closer and she gripped even tighter, lifting the mallet so he could see she had it.

He adjusted his glasses and squinted at her.

What did he think? She was an apparition? “Whoa. I’m packing here. No need to come any closer. I’ll ask you again—”

“You all right, sis?” Elisa spoke from behind.

“I told you to stay up top.” Andi brushed off her sister and waited for his answer.

The man stepped forward. “I’m being rude. Let me introduce myself.” He grinned and offered his hand.

“That would be nice.” Andi didn’t budge. This guy wasn’t going to charm his way out of trouble. She doubted he could if he tried. If she had to size him up, she’d say geek, though she did like his dimples. But she and smart guys—well, they never got along too well.

“I’m Vance Young. My uncle left this place to me.”

Andi stepped back, feeling like he’d thrown her a box of bricks and she’d caught it. Resentment crashed down on her. She’d had to work hard for every morsel. If there was one thing she hated it was people like this man who received things without earning them. If anything, Mr. E should have given the place to her. He owed her, didn’t he? This character didn’t care one scrap about this home or the surrounding community. He’d inherit the place and would probably never realize its value.

Composing her emotions, she finally shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Now it’s my turn. This is private property. What are you doing here?”

Andi had prepared to be challenged at some point. But not like this. “I’m Andi Nielsen of Nielsen Construction and Remodeling, and this is my sister, Elisa.”

“Andi?” The man frowned, releasing an odd laugh. “Is this some sort of joke?”

“Excuse me?”

“Uh…it’s just that…nothing. So
you’re
in construction?”

Andi bristled at what sounded like skepticism but kept her composure. She’d learned to deal with that sort of chauvinistic reaction. She motioned to the setting around them. “Yes, my company is responsible for this room. Do you like what you see?”

The man’s eyes subtly glanced over her, then to the room. “Yes, very much so.”

Unwelcome warmth flitted through her. Had he referred to her or the room?

“So, you remodeled this place. What are you doing here now? Did you forget something?”

Andi moved around the large granite-laden island to the refrigerator and set the mallet down. She opened the fridge and retrieved a bottle of water. “Actually, it’s complicated.”

The young Vance crossed his arms, waiting.

She took a swig, giving herself time to think. This was her chance. She had to convince him. Elisa moseyed to the sofa and plopped down, announcing her impatience.

“You say your uncle gave this to you. Probably put it in the will, expecting it to be of value. But it’s worth nothing until it’s complete.”

He cocked a brow. She could see he wouldn’t be so easily convinced. Definitely not bad looking, but with his black-framed glasses and thick brown hair shagging well past time for a haircut, he had the look of what?—an astrophysics professor? She was beginning to feel intimidated. Not good. She reminded herself she had a year of college toward her business degree.

She raised her chin. “I’m not finished with the remodel. You’ll never be able to sell it until the renovations are complete.”

“And after the renovations? How much would it be worth?”

“In the hundreds of thousands. Maybe millions. Your uncle had big plans.”

She’d grown a soft spot for the old man, and at the thought of him, pain filled her. As she stared back at Mr. Young, she noticed he was really a younger version of his uncle.

“It looks pretty good already. I’m not sure it needs anything else.”

“Why don’t you let me show you around before you decide.”

“It hardly matters. I don’t plan to stay.”

Andi hoped her smile would hide her sinking hopes. “You can’t expect to make an informed decision until you’ve seen what needs work.”

Vance looked thoughtful. “All right, on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“There’s another bottle of water in the fridge, though I’d prefer something that’s sugary and fizzes.”

Andi laughed and peered inside the appliance. “You’re in luck. There are two sodas my sister left from when we were remodeling. And if your luck holds, you should find the food storage room stocked. I’ll be happy to show you around.”

“That would be cool.” He took the soda from her. “And I like that the place comes with its own tour guide.”

Andi hoped she could be more than a tour guide by the time they finished the tour. “Do you know anything about its history, Mr. Young?”

“Nothing at all, I’m afraid. And call me Vance.”

“All right, then. Vance.” Andi held Vance’s gaze. Remove the glasses and put some meat on his bones and he’d definitely look like his uncle might have looked thirty or more years ago.

“I came here expecting to see a mansion. Not this missile silo. Talk about random.”

“This is not a silo. It’s a launch control facility that’s been decommissioned. The room you’re standing in now, is the LCC, or launch control center. Of course, everything the Air Force used here, especially what they used to launch missiles, was removed during the decommissioning. Of the missile sites that were decommissioned in North Dakota, all the silos were filled in, completely destroyed.”

Vance cleared his throat. “And the blast doors?”

“Oh, those. Mr. Erickson wanted to keep them for nostalgic reasons.”

“Nostalgia, huh. So, can you tell me why he chose a missile launch facility? He must have been eccentric.”

So the young Vance didn’t know his uncle very well, and yet, he’d inherited all this. A knot of resentment grew in her throat.

While Andi agreed with him on the eccentric point, she had her suspicions of why his uncle had purchased this particular site. But she couldn’t share those with his nephew. Not yet, if ever.

“Don’t kid yourself. Plenty of people have purchased decommissioned missile sites like the Atlas, Titan, and Nike all over the country for conversion into homes or other uses. By the way, this is an old Minuteman facility.”

“I know that much. It was part of Grand Forks Air Force Base. I heard a joke about North Dakota being the world’s third strongest nuclear power.”

Andi sighed. “Yeah, I’m sure after a few missiles were deployed, nobody would be counting anymore.”

She had to steer the conversation back to remodeling. This morbid talk was likely to scare him off, and she intended to find out what her grandfather hid here. But to do that, she had to convince Vance to let her finish the work, which would also be money in her pocket—something she desperately needed if she were going to pay the bills. Eating would be good, too.

“Well, enough on the history.” He grinned. “Give me the tour.”

He tugged his glasses off and bit the end of the earpiece so they hung from his mouth. Everything there was to know about missile sites and the people who lived in them was available for perusal on the Internet later. Right now he needed to know what to do with this one.

“Oh, an important question for you. Is this place wired?” Vance could connect through his mobile networking system from anywhere, except maybe seventy feet underground. To think there was something he hadn’t explored. He’d have to seriously reconsider his goals in life.

“You mean for Internet and other communications? Sure. The military already had communications in place, of course, but your uncle made sure everything was up-to-date with satellite communications, the works. I hired an independent contractor if you’d like to talk to him. It’s not my expertise.”

Thank you, Uncle Vance
. “Not necessary. As long as it works, I’m good.”

“Let’s step out of the living quarters through the blast doors.” Andi went first.

After a glance back at her sister reclining on the sofa, he stepped through the blast door while shoving his glasses back on.

“We’d planned to begin work on what was once the equipment building. Much of the unusable materials have already been cleared out. We put in new environmental control systems that are much quieter than what the military had in place.”

Vance followed Andi through the cylindrical tunnel into the area where the elevator waited. “Does that work?”

“The elevator? Yes.” She tilted her head, looking at him. “You took the stairs?”

The way she said it made him feel like he should be embarrassed. He snorted. “Look, I had no way of knowing if it was safe, okay?”

She nodded. “I guess you’re right about that. But still, those stairs…”

“Yeah, they’re brutal.”

“Your uncle had us put those in. They didn’t come with the original site. He just had a quirky fear of elevators. Was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get out, say if the electricity were to go off. But then he was afraid he couldn’t make it up the stairs so he suffered through the elevator.” She smiled softly, a distant look in her eyes.

Ah. So his uncle had an almost-phobia as well, not too dissimilar from his own. “Makes you wonder why he wanted to live underground, then, doesn’t it?”

She laughed. He could get used to that laugh.

Then she looked thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t think being underground bothered him as much as smaller spaces.”

They continued on to see another blast door. “Allow me.”

She stepped back. “Be my guest.”

Vance stared at the door, which was different from the other one. He scratched his head.

“You have to pump open the steel lock pins just there.”

He nodded. Maybe it was some macho thing that had inspired him to show off his amazing talent to open blast doors—though he was sorely lacking in experience—but after three minutes of pumping, he glanced her way.

She smirked. “Give it two more minutes.”

“Shutting and opening these things every time is taking the nostalgia a little too far, don’t you think?”

“You’re the new owner. You get to decide.” Her smile radiated warmth.

Stellar
. Vance was in some sort of competition. What was it? More importantly, what were the winnings?

Click
. Finally, he unlatched the lever and pushed. The door didn’t budge.

“This is where you really have to show some muscle.”

Ah. She knew how to work the men. Challenging their manhood would produce results. Something she probably learned in construction.

He shoved his shoulder against the door.

“No, like this.” She put her back to the door. “Help me.”

He joined her and together they slowly pushed the monster door open. Breathing too hard for the cool composure he liked to portray, Vance hissed at the door, “Fiend.”

Andi threw her hands up. “See, no one wants to open that all the time. Imagine trying to sell this place with that door.”

Vance tried to envision living in a place where reminders of imminent nuclear conflict were everywhere.

Stepping into the room, darkness greeted them. That—and the sound of water dripping in the distance, echoing off empty walls—made the room seem like a large cavern. “Now that you’ve piqued my curiosity, I’m expecting to see stalactites and stalagmites.”

Her laugh resonated through the room. “No, nothing so exotic.”

Vance shuffled forward into the darkness, brushing her shoulder. She had nice shoulders.

Andi flipped on her flashlight. “You can see this entire section needs to be remodeled. Your uncle died before we began working in here. We’d need to strip it down first, leaving only the superstructure in place, then build on top of that.”

Vance noticed the sadness in her eyes. Was she sad because she wasn’t able to finish the job? Or had she cared about his uncle?

“If you’re not going to stay, I’m assuming you’re going to sell.”

Vance took a deep breath. He hated admitting it, but he didn’t have the brain circuitry available to process all of it at the moment. He stepped back through the blast door and waited on Andi.

Once safely beyond the grip of the ogre door, she took up a get-downto-business stance. The way she morphed from a mallet-holding property protector to businesswoman-closing-a-deal intrigued him.

“Mr. Young, allow me to finish what I started here, and we can both walk away with a lot of money.”

“It’s Vance, remember?” He rubbed his chin and the back of his neck, then caught her staring at him with a funny look on her face.