Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) (10 page)

Polly turned her eyes to the ceiling. The beams looked to be in great shape. If they were stained a dark brown and the upper ceiling were painted, it would look really nice.

"How's he planning to get up to the loft?" she asked.

Henry came out of the back room with an armful of drywall. "It wouldn't take much to do a staircase with a ninety-degree turn right here by the door to the back room." He nodded behind to the space. I think it could look funky and she could do something fun with the loft. What do you think?"

"It’s a great idea," Polly said. "I'll talk to her about it this afternoon. That will change the plans we came up with, though and I'm not taking responsibility for these changes."

Henry laughed as he walked past her. "Oh, you're always responsible for changes. It's your job and don't forget it. I'll be right back." He went outside and tossed his armload into the dumpster and came back in. Walking over to Polly, he brushed her nose with his gloves.

"Hey!" she said.

"You can't be in the deconstruction zone without running into a little bit of dust," he laughed.

"What are you doing here anyway, I thought they were pouring cement!"

"I'm heading back over in a few minutes. I need to keep an eye on these guys as well."

She put her hand on his arm and said, "Do you have a minute? Could we talk outside?"

He followed her out and they walked away from the studio.

"What's up?" he asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything is fine, but I have a strange request. When you go back to Sycamore House, I would like you to find a reason to meet the new person that Jeff hired this morning."

"Sure." Henry looked a little perplexed. "Why do you want me to meet him?"

Polly told him about the strange request Eliseo had made regarding his employment and the fact that he seemed too good to be true.

"I want to know what your first impression of him is. Jeff likes him and honestly, so do I," she said. "And then there's the fact that Obiwan is quite comfortable around him."

"I’ll see if I can't introduce myself," Henry assured her. "Isn't there a wedding reception tonight? Will he be helping with cleanup?"

"I don't think so. Sylvie said the bride was concerned about saving money. I think her family is planning to do most of the work."

"Don't worry. I'll let you know what I think over supper."

"Thank you. I don't want to make a big deal out of this and it is important to Jeff."

Polly's phone buzzed. She looked at the text from Lydia and said, "It looks as if they're on their way back to Bellingwood. Do you need anything here?"

"We're good. What are you doing with yourself until they get here?"

"I have a list," she said and showed him an email from Lydia. "I have to go into Beryl's house and get some clothes and toiletries for her and then I'm going up to the drugstore and pick up some other things Andy thinks she'll need."

"Tell her we're glad she's home," Henry said and then he smiled and winked at Polly, "and I'm looking forward to a quiet night with you and your computer tonight."

She grinned. "I'll see you later," and walked to Beryl's back door. The key was under a rock and she let herself in. She was pulling a travel bag out of Beryl's closet, thinking about the interview with Eliseo Aquila, when all of a sudden it hit her: Eliseo had called Obiwan by name when he told the dog to sit and stay in her office. She'd never said anything about his name. How did he know that?

She shook her head. She was probably making more out of it than was necessary. He must have heard her talking to the dog or maybe Jeff told him about her animals. Yes. That was probably it. Polly filled the bag with the things on the list and went out the back door, returning the key to its spot under the rock. She needed to hurry. Lydia usually pushed the edge of the speed limit and she wanted to be at Andy's house when they arrived. Lydia assured her that Beryl was walking, but Polly needed to see it for herself.

She had enough time to get to the drug store and the florist. Spring was still trying to show up in Bellingwood and bright flowers were not only appropriate, but necessary.

Saturday morning and Polly had no commitments for the day. She pulled the blankets up underneath her chin, dislodging Luke who had been comfortably resting on her stomach. She turned over on her side and managed to send Leia scurrying for freedom as well. The only one who didn't bother moving was Obiwan. He pressed against her legs as she turned, ensuring that she ended up shifting further across the bed.

"It's a good thing this is a king-size bed or I'd be on the floor," she mumbled. Polly squeezed her eyes shut and attempted to go back to sleep. Both cats leapt off the bed and ran to their perches and began meowing. She figured they were telling the wildlife outside they were awake. She smiled. Yesterday had ended up being a great day. Beryl was safely ensconced at Andy's house. She'd been given plenty of pain medication in order to make the trip from Des Moines to Bellingwood and between that and the fact that she was happy to be away from all of the hospital activities, the first hour was a riot.

Beryl had regaled them with tales of her flirtations with the poor doctors who didn't see her coming and the nurses who figured it out and began setting them up simply for their own entertainment. One poor young intern had asked more questions than Beryl wanted to answer so she finally turned her back on him. When he attempted to cover her with the blanket, she yanked it down and told him that she was the moon over Des Moines and he could just let it shine. He scurried away and her regular doctor soon arrived to ask if it might be time to turn down the happy juice.

Andy had rolled her eyes and told the poor woman that Beryl didn't need narcotics to be off the wall.

After four days in the hospital, many of the smaller cuts were beginning to fade. The gash on the back of her head was better, but the bruises on her face had turned so many sickly colors ranging from red to purple, green and yellow, Polly shuddered at how badly she must have hurt.

Beryl had a lot of questions about the studio now that she was in town and had Polly close by. Polly figured that it was as good a time as any to deliver the worst of the news, but then began to talk about some of the wonderful things that could happen in the little building if Beryl would let her and Henry loose on it. At that point, the poor woman had begun to cry and within moments, she was sobbing. Andy rushed to her side and managed to finally get her calmed down enough to speak.

Polly had panicked. "I'm so sorry, Beryl! I didn't mean to move this far ahead without you. We'll stop right now and I'll pull everyone out until you're feeling better and can supervise it all."

"No," Beryl sobbed. "That's not it."

"Well, then what is it?" Andy demanded. "You're scaring the poor girl."

"I'm sorry," she said, continuing to sob. "It's just that …"

Beryl broke down again and Lydia stuffed some tissues into her clenched fists. She finally sat up and wiped her eyes, then said to Polly, "Let me see what you're doing."

Polly pulled out the copies of the work she and Henry had done and poor Beryl began crying again. "I'm sorry I'm such a blubbering mess," she said. "I'm pretty sure these drugs are making me behave like this. I have no control over my emotions."

Andy patted her shoulder and Beryl pushed her away, saying, "I love you sweetie, but if you and I are going to live together for the next week, you have got to quit hovering. I'm going to live now. Please go back to treating me like a normal person, alright?"

Andy stuck her tongue out and sat back about six inches. "Well, that's not very friendly. I've been sleeping in a chair, making nurses stay quiet so you can sleep. I've eaten crappy food and invited you here so I can keep an eye on you."

"And you'd do it again next week. You don't fool me," Beryl said. "You love me and since I've spent a lifetime making sure you aren't boring, I figure this is payback."

"Girls!" Lydia admonished. "Stop it."

She looked at Polly and stage whispered, "I don't know how to separate them if they're living together."

Beryl patted Andy's knee, "Just so you know, there is no one else in the world who would have done what you did for me this week and I owe you everything. I'll never be able to say thank you, but I'll start with thank you."

She turned to Lydia, "Is that better, mom?"

"Much."

"Alright, let me look at this stuff and I'll try not to cry again."

"Are you sure?" Polly asked.

"I'm only crying because you are taking such good care of me, not because I don't like what you're doing. I swear, a person can't be touched because people are nice to her without everyone thinking the worst."

Andy tried to scoot back in and Beryl batted her away. "I'm not going to fall apart again. It's just that I've been a lone wolf for a long time and now, here I have all of these people hovering over me and I'm filled up with drugs. I'll be better tomorrow, I promise. Now show me those plans."

The four of them spent time with the designs Henry had created. Beryl was able to give Polly a little more insight into her workflow and they jotted down changes that would make it better. When Lydia asked about window boxes, Polly caught Beryl yawning.

"We finally moved past your interest level, didn't we," she commented.

"No, that's not it," Beryl assured her, "This old lady needs a nap."

Andy stood up and said to Polly and Lydia, "Then, everyone needs to go unless you are planning to take a nap too. This house is going to get very quiet now, got it?"

Beryl rolled her eyes, "Nurse Ratched. Joy." She lifted her hands to Lydia, "If I call you and beg, will you rescue me from this place?"

Polly gathered up her things and followed Lydia to the front door, then waited as Lydia stepped back into the main room, "If this place turns into a Cuckoo's Nest, I'm sending Aaron in. Be good to her, Beryl."

"I ain't got a choice. She controls my meds. Come back soon and save me!"

Andy laughed and followed Lydia and Polly outside, "Thanks for everything. I'll see you later."

Polly found Jason and Andrew downstairs helping Doug set up for the evening's gaming session while Sylvie and Jeff were getting set up for the wedding reception.

Billy had met her in the parking lot. "Hi, Polly," he said as he got out of his car. Three more people piled out of his car to follow him in.

"You are starting early this afternoon," she said.

"We're getting set up. Mr. Adams let us off at two, said we could quit early since we worked last weekend. We're going to party tonight!"

Polly snickered. By party, they meant staying up late playing games with lots of caffeinated drinks, pizza and junk food. "What's on tap for tonight?" she asked.

"We've got a lot of people coming. It's going to be epic!" he said.

"A lot?" she asked.

"Oh, we'll stay in the classrooms until the wedding is over, that's no problem. Tonight we're going to try something different. While some of them are playing "Sword Lords" on the computer, Caleb and I are running a role playing game in the other room."

"Like Dungeons and Dragons?" Polly asked. She'd been asked by a couple of friends to play with them when she was a lot younger, but had left her character sheets in a box long ago.

"Yeah. Like that. Only way updated since you probably played it."

"I'm not that old, Billy."

"You could come down and play with us, Miss Giller," said one of the boys, pulling out a package from his backpack. He began setting up a game board and shuffling cards.

"Thank you, maybe another time."

"Polly, this is Caleb Devins. He's running the game. Oh, and that's his sister Rachel," Billy said, nodding to a dark haired girl with purple eye shadow highlighted with green accents. "And that's Dinky Stanton." Billy nodded at a very tall, bleached blonde kid who gave her some strange hand wave as he slung himself into a chair and leaned it back.

"I hope you have a good time," Polly said. "The wedding reception should be cleared out of here by eight."

"We'll be cool," Billy assured her.

Polly popped her head into the computer room and saw Jason and Andrew chatting with Doug. She'd purchased two inexpensive laptops yesterday and had called Doug to let him know they were in her office. He promised get them back into the conference room by the end of the evening.

Jason looked up, "Are you ready to go out and work with the horses?"

"Let me change my clothes. I'll be back in a bit. But, are you sure?"

"I'm sure," he said. "They're playing all night. I don't want to miss being out there, though."

She and Jason got everyone fed and bedded down, then Polly sent him back in and walked from stall to stall. It felt good to see the horses doing so well. They were content and happy.

Henry pulled into the parking lot as she walked back up to the house. They met inside and walked upstairs together.

"Nice timing," Polly said. She went inside and said, "Give me a few minutes to change."

"Need some help with that?"

"Thanks, I've got it," she giggled, her face blushing to a deep red, and went into her room.

Henry had things set up on the coffee table, so Polly sat cross-legged on the sofa against the far arm rest while Henry took the other end. Obiwan tried to get up between them, but she pushed him back to the floor.

"Sorry, buddy. This is for humans tonight," she said. The dog dropped down in front where she was sitting and watched every piece of pizza as it left the box and landed on a plate.

Henry laughed, "That's a bit intimidating."

"Don't let him fool you. He never gets people food and we're not starting tonight," She reached down and rubbed his head, "Are we, buddy?"

Henry had harassed her until she pulled out her laptop and settled in to work. Polly chuckled. She ought to keep her mouth shut around the man unless she wanted him to keep her in line. But she'd finished all of the accounting and gotten the bills paid. Henry wasn't terribly excited to watch any of the Star Wars movies again, so he'd settled for watching the latest iterations of Batman.

"You're a strange girl, Polly Giller," he said.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"We never watch chick flicks. You like geeky movies better than I do."

"I like chick flicks. Any time you want to watch a Meg Ryan or Tom Hanks movie, I'm there."

He shook his head. "I'm not complaining. I swear I'm not complaining. You're weird."

Polly laughed, "I can't help it if I prefer my men leaping tall buildings or using their minds to create awesome powersuits or showing off their incredible ... ummm ... superpowers!"

"Uh huh. I'm going to have a tough time competing with that."

"Oh, you have super powers," she said. "You pull my behind out of the fire all the time and then keep returning to do it again and again. That's pretty super to me.

"I don't know if those superpowers will save the world, but I'm okay with saving you once in a while."

When she closed the laptop and said, "Done," he set it on the coffee table, then pulled her next to him and wrapped his arms around her as she snuggled in to watch the end of the movie.

"You smell great again, tonight, Polly," he said.

"I'm clean," she laughed, "but trust me; I'm never changing shampoo if you react like this every time you come close."

Polly turned her face to him and kissed him. All she could think was that he had the most wonderful lips and he tasted fabulous. They continued to kiss until Luke jumped onto Henry's shoulder and tried to find a place to sit.

She laughed and Henry said, "Your animals send mixed messages."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure they like me, but I'm also pretty sure they don't like me kissing you."

"Oh, they're attention hog
s. It is pretty funny, though."

"Yes. That's what it is. Funny." He pulled Luke down onto Polly's stomach. "If anyone had ever told me I was going to have to compete with four horses, two cats and one dog for a girl's attention, I would have laughed in their face."