North Dakota Weddings (7 page)

“But I thought she wasn’t feeling well.”

Andi frowned. “I—”

“She’s punishing me.” Elisa slipped past her sister and meandered toward the exit.

Andi looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry about this. She won’t interfere with your work, or mine for that matter.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.” What was going on with Andi and her sister? “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“It’s that obvious?”

Vance set the laptop on the coffee table and stood up to look directly into Andi’s soft blue eyes. “Nah. Just the usual family drama when adult and teenage worlds collide.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Women liked men who were sensitive, understanding. “It helps to talk about your problems. I’m a good listener.”

“Thanks for your offer, but it’s not your problem.” She sighed, her guard up again. “You have work to do. So do I.” She gave him a flat smile and followed Elisa out.

Vance plopped against the sofa back. She put on a tough veneer but he’d seen a glimpse of the softness inside. Why did he have to be curious about this woman?

A
t the end of the day, Andi stood with Lars in the tunnel junction outside of the equipment room. “The electrician should be here on Thursday. Hopefully he’ll get the power on in there so we can begin work.”

“Karl will be back in the morning, but I’ve got another job,” Lars said.

“I understand. There’s not enough work left in the other room for all of us at this point. Just the trim. Can you ask Karl to bring the pump so we can get that water out tomorrow? Then we can seal the leaks.”

Lars tilted his head. “You betcha.”

“In the meantime, I’m going to explore.” Andi rattled her flashlight for Lars’s benefit.

“Be careful.” He nodded and left.

With Lars and Karl gone for the day, she was free to conduct her search, even though it was mostly in the dark. Nothing could pull Vance away from his computer so she needn’t worry about him. She’d put Elisa to work with the Shop-Vac in the room that was near completion.

After opening the blast door, Andi switched on the flashlight, shining it around the large equipment room. Every time she read the letter, she became more convinced that Vance Erickson had hired her to renovate the place so she could find what her grandfather had hidden decades before. Why anyone would go to so much trouble she didn’t know.

Hidden in the underground launch center was something of value meant for her grandmother, and Andi intended to discover it. Like everything else in her life, she had to work hard for it, earn it.

She took a step down into an inch of water. A slow drip joined the echo of her footsteps as she explored. Why hadn’t Mr. E just told her what to look for? Good grief. What if one of the other workers had found it and said nothing?

Yet another thing she’d never know. All she had to go on was the letter she’d discovered in her grandmother’s things, written by Mr. E. At least Andi could have asked him about it if she’d found it before he’d died.

She wasn’t sure how the new owner would take to the news that she was searching for something that belonged to her family but was hidden on his property, and until she knew him well enough, she probably wouldn’t tell him. For that matter, would she want to know him that well? He might be cute with his charming grin and searching gaze, but he was a geek in anybody’s world—consumed by things like computers and telescopes. She’d already been discarded by his type—no sense in setting herself up for that again.

For the time being, she’d keep things to herself. She sure hoped Mr. E knew what he was doing when he’d given this place to his nephew. At the moment, it didn’t appear that he did. Vance Young wasn’t keen on living underground.

Though she was excited at the challenge—at the opportunity she’d been given to complete the missile site, after all—the thought of renovating this room suddenly overwhelmed her. What if something went wrong? What if the younger Vance changed his mind? She knew from experience things could change overnight.

Get a grip
. She drew in a deep breath and plodded through the water, shining the flashlight around and wishing she’d taken a look at the specs again. Where would her grandfather, then a young deputy flight commander, have hidden something?

The missileers who’d worked there had a lot of time on their hands even while they stayed in a state of alertness. The first time she’d been inside, she’d seen artwork painted on the blast door by what Grandma had called America’s Underground Air Force. Andi couldn’t imagine the pressure of being part of a missile crew, waiting for the call. One turn of the launch key could end millions of lives.

Nor could she imagine the boredom that must have accompanied the hours of waiting for a call they hoped never to get. Her grandfather had plenty of time to hide something. The fact that he’d concealed it in the nerve center of a missile launch control center told Andi he’d meant for it to stay buried, which piqued her curiosity even more.

If only she knew what she was looking for. Chances were the item was long gone. Her grandfather hadn’t worked here in decades, and the place had sat decommissioned for at least ten years.

A sense of failure slammed her. She hated admitting it, but her search could very well be a lost cause. Hope started to slip through her fingers. She sucked in a breath. Nothing she hated more than watching people give up. While she had this opportunity, she would do her best. For her grandparents and Mr. E’s sake, she’d search the base, and she’d wait to tell the younger Vance when the time was right.

Andi climbed to the top of a ladder and shined the light, studying the walls, looking for any sort of variance. She ran her right hand over the smooth surface while holding the flashlight with her left hand, leaning as far as possible before she’d have to move the ladder. Without more light this could take forever, and once the power was on, Lars and Karl would be working. How could she conduct a search without telling them? She hated secrets.

“What are you doing?”

Caught
. Her heart pounded. The flashlight fell from her hand.

“Watch out!”

Her foot slipped on the rung but she gripped the ladder, halting her fall. Having regained her balance, Andi pressed her head against the ladder and took a deep, calming breath. She looked over at the figure standing in the doorway, light pouring in.

“Are you all right?” Vance made his way to the ladder.

“Why’d you have to scare me like that?”

He lifted his palms in surrender. “That wasn’t my intention.” He picked up the flashlight and shined it around. “But your reaction does make a person wonder what you were doing.”

Andi began the climb down. His vague accusation made her bristle. “You startled me, how was I supposed to react?”

Vance handed her the flashlight as she stepped into the water. “I’m going up for some fresh air, thought you might like to join me.”

“You did?” Andi was relieved he didn’t pursue his line of questioning. But why would he think she’d want to join him? “Can’t you see I’m working?”

“In the dark?”

“What else would I be doing in here?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I asked.”

Andi paused, flustered. Vance didn’t know what was hidden, did he? For the first time, she considered the possibility. Mr. E could have told him all about it—could even have asked him to look for the treasure.

“Yeah, I think fresh air would be good after all.”

“So, what were you doing in here?”

Andi shined the flashlight in his face and watched him squint, but he didn’t back down. “You hired me to finish Ground Zero. I’m checking things out to make sure I know what to do. The electrician will be here in a couple of days. What’s with all the questions?”

Vance grinned. He was entirely too attractive. Andi stiffened, deflecting the effect he had on her.

“It wasn’t a challenge, just a simple question. I’m curious about your work. That’s all.” He shrugged, then walked away.

Andi felt ridiculous. Her reaction would put him on alert. Still, even if she hadn’t been on a search, she would have bristled at his question. It was like asking if she knew what she was doing at her own business.

Almost at the exit, he turned to look at her. “You coming?”

“Sure.”

Andi followed, already regretting she’d agreed to go up with him. She was attracted to him, and she shouldn’t be. What was it about this guy? He stood at the door like he needed to hold it open for her, waiting. She avoided his gaze as she moved passed. He smelled good.

Andi tightened her ponytail, nice and snug—one painful way to snatch her thoughts from the young Vance’s charms. An uneducated girl like her would never fit into his world.

She’d been through that before and didn’t need a second lesson.

At least she was that smart.

Wearing dirty jeans and a smudged T-shirt, Andi finally looked the part of a contractor. Well, except for her curvaceous yet slim figure, which Vance attempted to ignore—he experienced a total malfunction there. Still, her lack of enthusiasm caused him to second-guess inviting her up with him. Feeling the effects of being closed in like an animal, he’d needed the break. Pleasant and distracting conversation was more in keeping with his plan, not her peculiar brand of hostility.

Her crew was gone already, yet she remained behind. Andi the enigma was a Rubik’s Cube personified, which made her all the more appealing to Vance, as long as he could get her to dump the brick wall act. Rocking from heel to toe as he waited for her to step into the elevator first, he grinned as she swept past, ponytail swinging.

As soon as Vance stepped onto the elevator, his pulse increased, and to think he’d managed to control his panic inside the Ground Zero capsule. Admittedly, Ground Zero wasn’t nearly as small as the elevator. A distraction from that fact would be good about now. But if he hoped for conversation, he was out of luck. Except for his heavier than normal breathing, an uncomfortable silence swallowed them.

Rubbing his neck to ease his anxiety, he decided he’d definitely made a mistake. He wasn’t a great conversationalist, and if she wasn’t going to meet him halfway, what was the point?

Finally, she sighed. It was something at least.

“You know, if the elevator bothers you that much, we could have taken the stairs.”

The elevator door opened. Vance held it for her. “What gave me away?”

Andi shrugged and stepped through. “Your uncle, remember? He had a fear of small spaces. Acted just like you’re acting now. All nervous and breathless. Opened and closed his fists a lot.”

Vance looked at his hands, not realizing he’d done that. “Yeah, makes me feel cagey and nervous, especially when they’re in motion. It’s not quite a phobia, but still, it helps to focus on something else.”

Once they stepped into the fresh air the sunshine hurt his eyes. He shaded them with his hand. “I need to get out more.”

Andi laughed, making Vance think of the soothing tones of a wind chime.

She stood next to him, scanning the lone prairie that stretched for miles. “Haven’t you brought your telescope outside yet?”

They strolled away from the complex, held back from the endless grasslands by the chain-link fence surrounding the missile site. “I haven’t had a chance.”

“Oh, come on. What’s so important it takes up all your time?”

Vance leaned his head to one side and eyed her. “You serious?”

“That’s right. You’re a computer whiz. You spend all your time in cyberspace, while you miss what’s going on around you.”

Ouch
. Vance covered his heart, acting mortally wounded. “You’ve exposed my virtual identity as a cyber spy.”

Andi’s mouth dropped open, then she closed it and laughed.

“How have you figured me out in such a short time?” Before they’d even had a proper dinner date, too.

She hung her head and kicked at the ground, then peered up at him. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t nice of me. I’m sure what you do is very important. And I hope you’re not really a cyber spy.”

Vance grinned, soaking up her attention. “Is that because you’re afraid I’d have to kill you?” Or because she actually cared?

She nodded.

“I don’t spend all my time on the computer, you know? I do have that one hobby.”

“The stars, yeah. Just another kind of space, if you ask me.”

How he’d love the chance to change her mind about that. “Listen, I do have a reason for bringing you out into the daylight.”

“Go ahead.”

“I was thinking of adding on some sort of an aboveground building.”

“So you can look at the stars? I thought you weren’t staying.”

He cocked his head. He wasn’t sure why he was exploring this, but he surveyed the area. “Have you noticed it gets cold at night around here?”

“Where’d you say you were from?”

“Texas.”

Eyes teasing, she smirked. “To North Dakotans, it doesn’t get that cold at night in the summer. Are you saying it doesn’t get cold in Texas?”

“Not like this, no. In the summer it can be ninety degrees at ten o’clock at night.”

“Can’t imagine that. How long have you lived here?”