North Dakota Weddings (6 page)

“Hello?” She crept slowly, hoping not to startle Vance, Lars and Karl behind her. Even if he were the type of person to sleep in, their clanking gear would have woken him by now.

They’d have to agree on a plan for her entry every day. Most mornings, his uncle would greet her crew with bacon and eggs. Not a requirement, but it made a great start to the day. Oh, how she missed that. Missed him. Why had Grandma not fallen for him back in her day?

Another step and Andi froze. Vance slept on the couch in his sweats, one arm over his eyes. No wonder he hadn’t answered the intercom. He was sound asleep.

Andi stared for longer than necessary, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from his sleeping form, his physique like that of a tennis player rather than some muscular brute who played defense on a high school football team. Completely unlike…Jorgen.

Good-night pajamas
. When would she stop thinking about Jorgen? What was she doing comparing Vance to him? Or Vance to anyone for that matter? Besides, a guy like him—good-looking, smart, and with a bank account—had to have a girlfriend.

A laptop along with electronic equipment she didn’t recognize lay scattered around the room, as well as an expensive-looking telescope.

Make that a
smart
girlfriend.

“Uh, Andi.” Lars snickered. “We should just get moving and let
you
take care of
him.”

Her cheeks were over-heated pipes, full of steam and ready to explode. How long had she been standing there lost in her ridiculous thoughts?
Get a grip
. She couldn’t think of a client as anything other than just that. Lars and Karl shuffled past her to the room they’d left incomplete a couple of months ago. They made plenty of noise passing Vance.

He moved his arm and opened one eye, looking right into hers.

If she thought she couldn’t be any more embarrassed, she was wrong. Her face felt like a rocket had just blasted off, using it for a launch pad. Why had she let her guard down, allowing herself to admire him?

She sucked in a deep breath. “Hi. . uh…Mr. Young. I mean, Vance.” She shrugged with a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you. I hoped you’d be expecting us.”

“No problem.” Vance sat up and rubbed his eyes, then wiped a hand down his unshaven face. “What am I saying? I did expect you. I obviously overslept. The apology should be all mine.”

“Yeah, looks like you were up and waiting but fell back asleep.”

He glanced around the room and laughed. “Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

Vance stood and stretched, appearing like he hadn’t gotten much sleep. Unfortunately, to Andi, he still looked good. Especially when he grinned. She loved his accent. Was he a Texan?

She walked over to where he’d set up his telescope. “So, you like to look at the stars, then?”

“Yeah, I’m a stargazer.”

“It’s amazing.” She moved to touch it.

“Don’t—”

In a flash he was next to her, gently taking her hand into his, sending a surge of heat up her arm.

“What was that?” she asked, and snatched her hand back. Oh no, had she spoken that out loud?

“Sorry. I’m way too obsessive about my stuff, especially when it’s new and expensive.”

She’d meant the electrical current he’d sent up her arm, but she could hardly tell him that.

“Just ignore me. I’m a complete idiot on most days.” He found his glasses and put them on, transforming him from ruggedly handsome to seriously smart.

“And on days when you’re not?” She smiled and put some distance between them. He might be cute but he’d nailed it when he called himself obsessive.

“Afraid there’s not too many of those.”

“It’s too bad you won’t see stars down here.”

Vance stared at her and cracked the grin she liked. She
liked
? How had he managed to chip away at her defenses in no time at all? She straightened her back, resolving to be impervious to his charm. She had a job to do, and he was her client. Nothing more. She’d never liked women who fell too easily for men who eventually trampled over them, leaving them behind.

Hurting them.

“I like wide-open spaces. That’s why it didn’t take me long to decide to sell the place. I was expecting something much different.”

“I see. You wanted a big view of the night sky.” Now, there was a
big
difference between Vance and his uncle. Mr. E seemed to enjoy his underground dwelling.

“Something like that.” Vance tugged his glasses off and stuck the end of the earpiece in his mouth, studying her.

“Listen, let me say I’m sorry again. I shouldn’t have panicked when you touched the telescope. I guess you could say it’s a little quirk of mine.”

“Okay, I’ll say it. It’s a little quirk of yours.”

When he laughed unexpectedly, it warmed her insides—a clear warning that she had better get to work and keep her mind off Vance Young.

He moved around the kitchen island, then leaned against it. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

Without waiting for an answer he reached into the cabinet and grabbed the same two cups from the cupboard that Mr. E would grab when he shared with her.

“Thanks, but no. I’d better get busy.” She’d already downed a large mug at home, which was probably the equivalent of three cups. “We can’t make our money until we complete this job.”

“You mean until I sell it.”

“Right.” She smiled, despite the discouragement seeping in. At least she had the job and the opportunity to find the secret that lay within.

After pouring himself a cup, Vance took a long gulp of black coffee and squeezed his eyes as though he hated the stuff—the mannerism reminding her of his uncle. She looked down at the granite counter, a smile creeping onto her lips.

So, they had some similarities after all.

Vance’s uncle had often said to her he wished he were a lot younger, then he would have tried to win her heart. She’d laughed with him at the sweet comment, not knowing at the time of his affection for her grandmother when he was young. But with a much younger version of him standing on the other side of the counter right now, she wondered how far the similarities went.

And the differences.

Andi the builder glanced at the junk he’d strewn around the living area. “We’re going to work on the extra room today and maybe the rest of this week. I don’t plan to start on the equipment building until we get the power on there. I hope we don’t disturb you.”

“You won’t bother me at all.” Vance watched her walk away. Nothing unfamiliar about watching a gorgeous woman walking away.

He hung his head over the counter. A laugh escaped. Vance dumped the rest of his coffee. She’d taken an interest in his telescope and what did he do?

Idiot
.

He’d practically yelled at her. He could still see the look of shock on her face. When would he ever learn?

In his few encounters with her, she always acted wary, untrusting, but like she wanted to open up, like she needed a friend. It was weird, but not in a science fiction sort of way. Stomach growling again, he grabbed a muffin and stuffed his face. A hot shower would clear his mind.

When he’d arrived at Ground Zero, his trip to Cancun was just a few days away. Now he’d dug himself in deep—deciding to finish what Uncle Vance had started. But whether his uncle’s intentions were to finish the missile site or help Andi or both, Vance wasn’t sure. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure of his own intentions. But the arrangement could benefit them both.

Add to that, something was out of place at ANND Systems. After seeing the anomalies on the disk, call it a gut feeling or a sixth sense, he had a strong niggling feeling he was involved—that it would all somehow come back to him. In that case, he could be in big trouble. Unless what he’d seen was nothing more than the product of a sleep-deprived brain drawing the last of the juice from an alternate power source.

But what exactly had he seen? He’d have to figure it out, turning this into a working vacation. Fun and rest seemed about as accessible as the moon right now. After looking at the disk Saturday night, he’d tried to focus, even drank several of his usual energy drinks, but going for weeks without sleep in order to make the project deadline had worked against him. When he crashed, he typically crashed for days, but now he didn’t have the luxury of that much time even on a vacation. Until he figured out how to get a real snooze in this temporary underground home, he couldn’t be at his best.

He was heading for the shower when Andi stepped out of a room to the left and walked right into him.

He grabbed her arm to steady her. “Sorry about that.”

“I should watch where I’m going.” Appearing flustered, she continued about her business.

“No problem.” Vance waved, then scowled. Why had he just waved at her?

He blew out a breath. The remodeling would be a distraction for him, especially with Andi here. How much of the work did she actually do herself? It seemed odd—her in construction. She appeared dainty compared to his idea of someone in that line of work. He wondered how she got into the business. Had she dreamed about managing a construction site or remodeling homes all her life? Or was it more about surviving? She was attractive and interesting and…

What are you doing?
Any interest in her would lead him to the same place it always did—nowhere. It didn’t help that he felt like he’d been looking at her every day for months now. Maybe if he’d not grown attached to the face in the picture frame he could more easily shrug off any ideas about Andi.

How many times would he need to learn his lesson? Women weren’t interested in him. Sure he could get dates, but once they got to know him, that’s when the relationships ended. He couldn’t keep their interest.

Vance took a long, hot shower, reflecting that there weren’t too many things in life that felt as good when a person was stressed. Afterward, feeling refreshed, he dressed and set up an office in the living room instead of going to Uncle Vance’s small office. He wanted to be available in case one of the workmen—who was he kidding?—in case Andi needed him. Of course, she could always find him. But staying visible gave him more opportunity to interact with her. He squeezed his eyes. He really was a desperate geek.

Nestled comfortably on the sofa with his laptop open on his lap, Vance focused on the data from the small disk Tom had given him. Peter had landed a big government contract for data mining of the specialized sort—to identify and track possible terrorist suspects and activities. It was all about predicting what might happen. Vance had spent a year writing and testing the algorithm—a real breakthrough for the project and for the company.

Then why was he staring at a tweaked version of his algorithm—a program that shouldn’t be floating around on a disk or especially ending up on the floor of the company foyer? Vance scratched a nonexistent itch on his jaw. What was going on here? Had Peter given the go-ahead for others on their team of programmers to work on it, and if so, why hadn’t he told Vance, or why weren’t they working together on it? He should be part of that decision.

If he asked Peter what was going on, the guy would block him from the system to make sure Vance got his vacation time, and he’d have to listen to a lecture.

Vance weaved his fingers through his still-damp hair. An errant thought wrestled to get in and finally won. Peter hadn’t been upfront with him on a few other occasions. Disturbing. There was the slight possibility he wouldn’t get the truth if he asked.

Working on secret projects cast shadows in all directions. What if there was something underhanded going on? The algorithm belonged to Vance, or at least the company, and not just anyone should have hands on it. He needed to know if it was being used for some other purpose and why and by whom.

Was he paranoid? Maybe. But he didn’t need Boolean logic to know he shouldn’t see his algorithm on a disk lying on the floor. Vance would find out what was going on,
then
he would ask Peter.

He’d do a data run, a small test sampling, the kind his laptop—a micro-processing computer—could handle in comparison to the supercomputers in the dinosaur pen at work. For that, he needed test data—something he might not have access to except at ANND.

“First things first.”

“Excuse me?”

The words startled him. He looked up to find Andi’s sister standing over him. Too caught up in his thoughts, he’d not noticed her. He quickly averted the screen.

“You were talking to yourself.” Her smile was like Andi’s.

“Elisa, leave Mr. Young alone. Can’t you see he’s working?” Andi strode over and looked down at him. “I’m sorry. She wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t want to leave her at home alone.”

“No problem.” Vance snickered. “Make yourself at home, Elisa.”

“What’s so funny?”

“The thought occurred to me that this place might protect us from a nuclear blast, but not from a cold virus.”

Andi gave him an odd look. “She’s not sick like that.”

“Well, even if she is, she’s welcome to make herself at home, raid the refrigerator or pantry for junk food.”

“Really?” Elisa perked up.

Andi cocked her brow. “That’s all right. I had intended for her to work with me.”