Constructing Love

Constructing Love

WINDMERE series – book five

Michelle Tschantré

Smashwords Edition

Constructing Love

Copyright © 2014 Michelle Tschantré

All rights reserved.

{3nd Edition © 2017}

Cover Design & Formatting by: Laura Shinn Designs

http://laurashinn.yolasite.com

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with other people, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this ebook without purchasing it and it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Constructing Love is a work of fiction.

Though actual locations may be mentioned, they are used in a fictitious manner and the events and occurrences were invented in the mind and imagination of the author. Any resemblance of characters in this story to any person living or dead is strictly coincidental.

Dedicated to:

The building of one true love in two hearts.

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

About the Author

Preface

Called by his sister for help when an ice storm wrecks her condo, bachelor and successful businessman Jake Todd goes to her aid. Cheri’s concern is more for her neighbor, Sandy Beech, single school teacher who has a young niece and nephew living with her. Bringing all to his own home for safe haven, Jake finds Sandy in his mind more each day. But she has a secret that grinds on her emotional well-being and makes her doubt herself. That secret weighs on her greatly. And then her sister, also with a secret, asks Sandy to care for her two children while she is deployed with the military. Will White Knight Jake Todd ever be able to heal Fair Damsel Sandy Beech with her wounded heart? What secret does Sandy’s divorced sister hold that affects the two children? Will love conquer all in the end, or are the challenges too great for the bravest of Knights?

Chapter One – Best Offer

Jakob Jake Todd enjoyed the old house, even with some needed refurbishing still in process. It was sturdy with big Oak timbers serving as the frame and equally impressive Oak floor boards, even in the semi-finished attic. It puzzled him a bit at first that it was single story when most of the houses of that vintage were two floors or more, yet it had four large bedrooms and all the other things that were normally included in up-scale homes of the time. It most certainly would not have been his first choice as a first-time home buyer, but the house was part of a deal he couldn’t refuse. It all started because Jake was interested in numbers as early as high school; it was a natural selection for him to follow an accounting course of instruction in college. He had not been the best student, but was far from being the worst, and had an innate ability to separate fact from fiction in practical application case studies. There was also some allowance to be made for being a three year starter in varsity football, weekend parties, and other things necessary to a reasonably enjoyable, diverse and well rounded college life.

All went well until graduation into a seriously down economy. Jake had started sending out resumes on January 1, covering all of the national companies and a lot of smaller local companies; the result was few interviews and no offers. His lot was no worse than that of the magna cum laude’s, so he didn’t feel bad about things or rejected in any way, but still needed a job to survive. There was that issue of some place to live, a car, student loans coming due, things like that. Finally, unable to find anything in his chosen field, he started reading the want ads for a job of any kind he thought he could handle, something to tide him over until the opportunities for accountants improved. Even at that, he intended to continue his studies in a less formal format until he could pass his CPA exaMs Reading through the general help wanted ads, Jake noticed the small item for an assistant timekeeper, apparently at a company that did some sort of construction. Although it grated his ego just a bit to lower himself to monitoring time cards, he called for an appointment and did the interview. The offices were somewhat shopworn but the people seemed nice enough. He did feel they talked down to him just a tiny bit, but maybe that was only his perception; regardless, he needed the job. Ego notwithstanding, it was the only thing he had on the table at the moment and when the offer came a couple days later, he accepted. The money wasn’t great, not like the big boys paid, but the big boys weren’t paying at the moment, and Jake realized for all his education he was still just a beginner. His summer intern jobs had added little to his knowledge of real life but after all, how complicated could this assistant timekeeper thing be? Besides, the primary timekeeper was still there to use as a reference source. The bottom line was he had a job, maybe not one he wanted, but something to provide a source of income when others in his class were still looking.

Jake found an apartment he could live with, large enough for his stuff, limited though it was in size, and a car that moved when urged. Monday morning he reported at the appointed time, 7:00 AM, a time he had very rarely ever seen, at least not from the awakening side rather than calling it a night side. Even at that early hour the office was a hub of activity, much more than he had seen during his 2:00 PM interview. He found timekeeper Dave Penny in his office, where Jake was instructed to grab a cup of coffee and a note pad, and to meet Dave in the conference room. Doing as instructed, Jake entered the conference room and was flagged to a seat Dave had saved beside his own usual place. The company owner, John Pappy McCoy walked in, noted to the assembly of maybe twenty people that Jake Todd was the new assistant timekeeper and would be making the rounds later, then launched into some sort of jargon Jake had no clue how to decipher. It was his welcome to the world of general construction, the Monday morning job meeting. One item rapidly becoming very evident was that Jake’s mild case of ego driven superiority to the job was not only misplaced but it had sold him out and abandoned him at the earliest possible moment. He did pick out a couple of words, acronyms actually, like PERT and GANTT, but CPM didn’t mean much, and he didn’t know what a change order was or understand about RFQ’s or RFP’s. There were even times when there appeared to be several different conversations going on at the same time about the same thing, somehow all interrelated from different directions. The meeting was mercifully short, ending in less than an hour rather than the hours and hours effect Jake was feeling.

By midmorning he had a headache that matched his bruised ego, but Dave seemed unaware or maybe uncaring of the injury and plowed ahead through the maze of paperwork. Jake did realize early on that the computer software the company had in use was generations old, archaic, and slow at very best. It seemed to be capable of doing what was required but took a long time to digest input and apparently had very limited output power. The office they shared was large enough for both men, and on their brief walking tour of the company area Jake discovered the office per se was just the end of a large warehouse that had been cordoned off with some partitioning walls. Admittedly there was some advantage to doing it that way in that it could easily be modified at will. He also learned that timekeeper was a serious misnomer for the assigned tasks. Dave did supervise the entry of time by a clerk in the general office, and checked the results on a random basis or if there was some question, but it was only a part of what he did during the day. Much of his day was spent scrutinizing the sheets turned in by the various job foremen, looking to see how much time was used and which trade hours were being expended on particular jobs. Jake learned that contracts were bid out using specific estimating tools, and much of what Dave did was to see that the actual expenses ran close to the estimates. Where the gap was too great, he had to determine what had gone wrong, was it an underestimate of time or materials or maybe some unforeseen condition for which the added expense could be justified and payment requested. He also had to know the difference in working conditions the employees found themselves in, such as the difference in pay rates for a laborer working general constructing or a laborer working on a highway job with a higher wage scale. And then there were the labor contracts to be familiar with, which employee could do which job and was the company getting on thin ice the way staff was being utilized. The contracts stipulated which trades could bank hours and which could not, a fine point that could become a problem, not to mention sick time, paid time off, rain days, basic seniority, and the start of hunting seasons: quail, duck, goose, wild turkey, deer, rabbit and pheasant, all of which had to be taken into account in some measure.

By 3:30 PM, the end of their normal workday, Jake was mentally on his hands and knees, barely able to grasp a coherent thought. Dave had not let up for a minute, showing Jake first one thing and then another, then a whirlwind tour of five or six job sites, none of which Jake could remember in specifics. As they closed down the office for the day the older man looked at his new cub as all industry newbies were called, recognized the look of bewilderment and took it as a statement of mission accomplished.

Okay, one day done. Tell you what: if you’ll drink one, I’ll buy one, maybe two. I know you’re starting out and probably broke, but don’t think this is an act of kindness or sympathy. I need a little more time to tell you some things and this is out and out bribery for the most part. Hard Hat Inn work for you?

Jake wanted a beer, that was for sure, but was the older man pulling his chain and where was this bar he mentioned, the Hard Hat Inn? Was Dave making fun of him? One way to find out and Jake Todd had never been a quitter. Sure, works for me, and you’re right about the money; little short these days with no job until now. So, where is this place?

Right across the street from the front gate, but let me tell you something up front. Don’t you go walking in there by yourself, not even if you do think you’re a grown up. I’m not kidding here; those guys can play rough. We’ll go in together; I have some credibility, and besides, if they screw with me their paycheck can be messed up for days or weeks to come. Strange how that works.

A short walk and the two men were soon leaning on the well polished but highly worn bar. There had been a few turned heads when the two walked in, Jake in front, but as soon as they recognized Dave there would be a brief barely noticeable nod and they would turn back to whatever was being discussed at the time. It occurred to Jake these were men who could bend iron bars and shovel concrete, run a jackhammer all day in the heat, and who most likely played as hard as they worked. Dave’s warning had been all too real and Jake realized the fragility of his situation. He was accepted as long as he was with Dave; it was that simple. Whether or not he would ever be accepted on his own would remain undetermined for a long time. Dave opened the conversation.

I know today was probably pretty hard on you, lot to learn and all that, and I don’t want to pretty it up any. The truth is you were hired to help me because the company has some financial problems we can’t seem to get around; the boss thought maybe if I had help with the routine things I’d have more time to find out the problem. We’re busy, even in this economy, but the bottom line is pretty thin and I need to find out why. I know that computer system we use is getting old, but honestly I don’t know much about things like that. Some company sold us the package a few years back but then they were gone and what we have is what we have. You know anything about computers?

First of all, I owe someone an apology. I’ll admit I took this job only because the big accounting firms aren’t hiring, not even the top graduates. I figured it would be a snap, routine, beneath what I’ve learned. Now it seems I don’t know squat about anything, and quite probably less than that. If you can tolerate me, I think I’m ready to learn now that I recognize my vast ignorance. To answer your question, computer systems were high on my list of favorite studies. I did notice how slow the system processes, and it seems pretty limited in output capabilities. It may need a good cleaning out, I know that sounds silly but it’s true, and possibly a lot more than that. I can take a look if you want, right after I slap my ego around a bit.

I think we may be on to something here. Since we’re ‘fessing up, I’ll admit I didn’t look forward to some smart assed college kid coming in and showing me up. I don’t know everything but I do know a lot of things and construction accounting is one of them. What has happened is that the company has grown some, the labor rates have become even more complicated if that’s possible, and I get the uneasy feeling things are just disappearing somewhere along the way on job sites. I can’t possibly keep track of all that paper, at least like I think we should. Hal does the estimating for bids but we don’t have any good way to compare that to what we actually spend if we get a job, you know, compare apples to apples. I hate to ask but that the sort of thing you learned about?

It is one of the very things I learned a lot about, cost accounting and project accounts management. As soon as I can make any sense out of all that jargon I’ll see where we can get the most bang for the buck. How does the boss feel about computers and things? I mean, I’d like to get a feel for what direction we need to go, and maybe how fast, before I make any recommendation on upgrades. Anything I do recommend will come complete with a cost estimate plus estimated return on investment. Once we get the data captured we should be able to see where the dollars are headed….I’m sorry; I keep saying ‘we’; guess I dealt myself in before asking.

No need to be sorry, not yet anyway. Pappy and I have talked about this money problem and I know he’s concerned. If you think about it, he just spent money hiring you to help find the leak, if that tells you anything. He’s a reasonable man, most of the time anyway, and if you come in like you say you will we shouldn’t have a problem getting his approval. And we are in this together, right?

Yes, sir, if you say so. And I do have a bit of allowance left so the next round is on me, then I need to head home before my brain explodes.

That pretty much summed up Jake Todd’s vertical learning curve introduction into the heavy construction world: eight hours of headache generating confusion, two cold beers from the tap, and a night spent on his laptop trying to find out what some of the many acronyms meant. It would be days before he learned most of the supervisors and job foremen’s names, weeks before the language started to make sense, months before he learned some of the more intricate details, and nearly a year before he managed to peck away at the old computer system enough to make it disappear entirely. Each time he and Dave approached Pappy McCoy they had all the facts and figures, what the proposed system would do, and almost as importantly, how invisible it would be. Pappy wanted to know what was going on, but he also wanted very much to be entirely discrete in the more investigative part of the process. Every change Jake advocated he promoted as a work saver to make things easier on the office staff, or the people in the field offices. In a stroke of luck, he found a wireless provider that could handle their job site data entry and pour the information into the office system, running the transfer at night so each morning the data they reviewed was current. No one was singled out, but as soon as he taught Hal how to load all his estimating into the system they had a tool for observing the numbers running on each job. One job foreman was let go, ostensibly because they didn’t have any work for him at the moment; it was Pappy’s decision to not pursue the situation any further because, as he explained in his own words, he should not have allowed the conditions to exist that begged the misappropriation. Maybe it was true, maybe not, but word got around and the bottom line quickly became healthy.

By the time the economy turned around and the big firms were starting to look for junior accountant executives, Jake found himself so immersed in McCoy Construction his feet were as good as stuck in the concrete from their batch plant. Working with Dave and Hal both, as well as doing a lot of on-site job visits, Jake came to the realization he was hooked. Seeing a project go from a hopeful bid to ground breaking to turning over the keys to the owner had seeped into his being like the black of the coal seeps into the blood of a miner. He didn’t know it all by any means, but he did know reliable sources. At his five-year anniversary with the company even Pappy joined the crowd at the tavern for a little while; it was a day of two very singular events in the life of Jake Todd. As the office closed down for the day, the burly senior laborer foreman came in fresh from a big job site, and told Jake ‘the boys’ heard it was his birthday or something and they wanted to buy him a beer across the street. Jake had earned his ‘cred, and it felt good. The other event took place in the tavern, when Dave Penny announced his retirement at the end of the month. Jake knew it was coming, just not the exact date, nor did Jake know how Pappy intended to fill the very large gap. That he learned the next day, from Pappy himself, with Dave’s congratulations. They would hire someone of Jake’s own choosing to fill his old spot as he moved up in the organization. Jake Todd was on his way, and he liked the trip.

Chapter Two – Spring Storm

Snap. Crash accompanied by the tinkling sound of glass shards skittering along the ground, only it wasn’t glass shards. When the trees could no longer bear the weight of the accumulated ice, they broke, falling to the ground with much crackling and rending of wood, and the ice crystals would break off to ricochet randomly across the frozen ground in a million pieces. Jake sat in the dark room, warmed and illuminated by the big fireplace. The power was off all over town, lines ripped down in the spring ice storm, and he assumed correctly it might be days before all power was restored. He did have a generator but in his reality he was reasonably well fed, having earlier consumed a couple of sandwiches, warm and comfortable, and with a well-chilled beverage at hand. With the battery radio off, only the crackle of the fireplace and the sounds of nature could be heard. He had been thinking back over the last ten years or so and all that had happened to him via McCoy Construction. Most vivid in his recollection was the day nearly two years ago when Pappy walked into Jake’s office, closed the door, and pulled up a chair. Pappy didn’t do things like that; if he wanted to see you, you went to his office. It was more a thing of respect than any power struggle, and it was known Pappy was in serious knee trouble for mobility. But there he was. Jake Todd was all of thirty plus a couple of years and a few odd days of age at the moment.

Jake, could we talk for a few minutes about something that’s been on my mind?

Yes, sir. Any time. What can I do for you? Something I missed or could help out with?

No, nothing like that, mostly not anyway. You know I’m way past 70 now. I don’t see or hear as good as I once did, and we can leave out all that other stuff about old men’s probleMs My knees hurt like hell from time to time; Gladys thinks I need to have them fixed before I go much longer. But look, I’ll get right to it. There are a lot of good people in this company, damned good at what they do, and we’ve done real well the past few years. Hiring that wet behind the ears young accountant seems to have worked out for us. I know you’ve learned a lot about this operation, I know that as much as I know you still have a lot to learn, but you know who has the answers and you’re not afraid to ask. That means a lot. People respect you: the fellas in the field, the office people here, our suppliers and most of all our customers. I’m going to retire, sell the company, then take some of the money and get my knees fixed. We’ve had a good run, and now I want to do some other things. The missus and I have talked about it; our kids aren’t interested in it except maybe for the old man having a pretty good cash stash. I don’t blame them; this has to be a part of a person to be really successful. It’s partly about knowing the mechanics of how it all works, but more importantly being the heart that drives it. You have to care, about the company and the people that make it what it is. I called Dave and Hal on this, and I’ve talked to some other people, my peers I guess. It’s a good outfit but it needs and deserves a steady hand on the wheel. It’s true what you may have heard, that there are buyers out there nosing around, but I don’t think I could do that; without being maudlin about it, this company is sort of like a child to me, and I can’t turn it out in the cold anymore than I could turn one of the kids out in the cold. I think .....we think…..we believe…..your hand should be the one on the wheel, you should be that person. Now, before you panic and flee the room, I understand you don’t have that sort of cash in the bank. I don’t care about that. What I do care about is whether or not you want this company, to be its leader. All the rest is just details to work out. How about it, Mr. Todd? It was the first time in their history Pappy had ever called him Mr. Todd, and Jake knew this was deadly serious to the older man.

That was two years ago, and it was also how Jake Todd came to be living in the house. It had been the McCoy’s home for decades, a house built only on one level because of the original builder’s family history of bad knees and arthritic hip joints. True, it was the house the McCoy children grew up in, but it was actually a part of the company property and Pappy was tired of taking care of it, even with new knees. Their children had little to no interest in the old house and even less interest in the company itself; they were moderately spoiled and would come to regret their decision, but that was not a problem for Jake Todd. Jake had lived here two years now, by himself. Growing the company took a lot of effort and left little time for much of a social life, aside from a few interesting nights now and then. That was about to change, as his ever-present cell phone sounded off, jarring him back to the present. A quick glance told him it was his younger sister calling, at nearly midnight; Jake had napped off just a bit while time continued its relentless march.

Hey, sis. Kind of late for you to be up; isn’t it past your curfew?

Jake, please, you have to help. The plea in Cheri’s voice brought Jake to full attention.

What’s wrong? You sound a little shaky. And it was with good reason. Jake was familiar with the condo Cheri and her husband James lived in. It had that extra bedroom they hoped to need soon, although for the moment there was no crib. It was in a nice area and he had met a few of their neighbors at a block party during the past year. Their relationship as siblings had always been good, although Cheri did at times complain when potential high school boyfriends were scared off by her bigger and older brother. Jake didn’t go out of his way to protect his sister, but he did let it be known she was his sister and under his umbrella. There was an understanding between them that they were independent persons, but still brother-sister, and now she was calling her brother.

The tree, the big one out front, you know, the big Oak with the huge acorns, part of it just fell over on the building and smashed the end off. We’re okay for now but we have a new skylight and it’s sleeting in the living room. I really called because of my friend Sandy next door. Her place is ruined and she has those two little kids. Jake, they don’t have any place to go, and we don’t have any power or heat. We can make do, but those kids can’t, they just can’t. Can you help, please? I know it’s late and all that but…

Stop already! I’m convinced. Okay? Now, gather up what you need, all of you, your friend and the kids included, and I’ll be there in a few minutes. Really, I was just sitting around here in the dark enjoying the crashing sounds of nature in the woods across the road; admittedly I was asleep part of the time but that just means I’m well rested. I did have the scanner on a bit; things are in bad shape all over this end of the state. Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty at the most, okay? Keep your cell on even if the battery is low, just in case I can’t get through the streets and you have to walk out a bit. Good to go? Oh, if you have a cooler you might consider packing out your reefer as well. Power will be off for days if not weeks. Now say goodbye and get moving. Okay?

Yes, okay. And thank you, thank you. James is already over at Sandy’s clearing some of the debris so she can get to things. We’ll be out front, okay?

Fine. If that changes, call my cell; okay? And bring your car charger if you can get to it. When she acknowledged Jake disconnected and got out of the chair. He liked James, thought he was a good man, which is probably why James never had to fear for his own safety when dating Cheri; the two men got along well and although their interests were rather different they knew enough to hold a good conversation and enjoy each other’s company. Jake preferred draft while James sipped the pricier stuff