CHAPTER 5

	Of course, it made no sense at all to have a shower and then go out and do a full
days work and get all sweaty again, and when he had come inside he had had no
intention of doing any such thing.  He had been on his way to his room to change his
clothes, but after seeing more of Sandy’s breasts than either of them had intended, a
shower was pretty much what he needed.   A cold one at that!
	The last time he had seen her before this had been when she had driven past
him when he had been with Karen on his bike, and he’d had a lot of time to think about
things in between.  Since he had been staying in the house he’d had ample opportunity
to look at his hostess while she wasn’t aware he was watching.  Initially, he had looked
upon her as simply the temporary solution to his current problem.  As time had passed,
he had realized that he liked being in her company.  He liked listening to her singing
softly under her breath as she moved about the kitchen, and the unconscious way she
swayed to the music on the radio as she worked; he liked knowing that while he worked
outside, she was inside; and he had come to await her return from work with a degree of
expectation that he had attributed to a desire to hear her opinion of his days work. 
	It was the strangest thing!
	No, Ty McKinley was no stranger to women.  He liked women, no doubt about it. 
He liked dancing with them, he liked wining and dining them, and he liked the way they fit
against his body at the end of a date.  Make no mistake though, there was no way he
had ever wanted to wake up every morning and find the same woman in his face, day in
and day out.  This whole idea of getting comfortable around a woman the way he was
with Sandy was really getting under his skin. He didn’t like it one bit!
	The solution, he had told himself, was simple. Go out and have a good time, find
a good woman, and do what came naturally.  When he had found himself in the very
attentive company of one Karen Smithers, he had felt like the old Ty all over again.  That
was, of course, until he had spotted Sandy getting into her car outside the grocery store! 
Everything had seemed so off-kilter then.  He had felt like he wanted to peel himself
away from the clinging Karen Smithers and ride his bike right on back to Sandy’s house
and help her unload the groceries from her car.  However, he had already offered Karen
a ride on his bike, and that girl had seemed positively thrilled at the prospect and he was
certain she wasn’t about to let him change his mind.
	They had taken the highway out of town for about five miles before doubling back
and heading along the less used secondary road into town.  The whole trip had taken
less than fifteen minutes, and he had been looking forward to dropping Karen off, with
the full intent of high-tailing it back to Sandy’s.  When they had arrived, however, he had
discovered that Karen had actually taken him to her mother’s place, where she had to
pick up her baby.  Mrs. Smithers had insisted he come in for coffee, which he had
politely declined.  But Karen’s twenty year old brother Carl had appeared as if out of
nowhere, attracted to the sound of a motorbike like flies to light.  After about a half hour
of bike talk, Ty had figured his chances of getting out of there any time soon were slim to
none, so he had agreed to the coffee afterall.  When they had finally made their way into
the house for the coffee, however,  he had found himself face to face with a dinner table
laden with food, and a plate conspicuously set for him.  
	Mindful of his manners, he had graciously sat down to share the meal with the
family, and had to admit that Karen’s mother was one heck of a cook.  Carl had talked
bikes all through supper, and continued the conversation until they found themselves
back out beside the machine in the cooling evening air.  At that point, Ty hadn’t had the
heart to just hop on and ride away, considering he had, afterall, already given the boy’s
sister a ride. Instead he had taken Carl out as well, and even given the boy an
opportunity to drive, which had absolutely made his day. When they had returned, Carl
had invited him to the local watering hole to meet some of his friends, and by then there
had hardly seemed any point in refusing.
	After that, the evening had passed without him even noticing the time, and he
had met quite a few of the local young men.  It was amazing how much of an magnet a
motorcycle could be where young males were concerned, he chuckled, as he stepped
out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist.  Of course, the house
had been in darkness, when he had finally made his way in sometime well after
midnight.  Sandy’s bedroom door had been closed,  and the hallway had been empty --
just as it was now.  Silently he replayed the events before the shower, and wished that
the hall wasn’t empty, but with a shake of his head he brought himself back to reality.
	He looked at his watch as he re-strapped it around his wrist.  He probably had
just enough time for that cup of coffee before people started arriving. At least the
weather was holding out.  There hadn’t been a cloud in the sky when he had been
jogging, and if his luck held, the forecast would be right for a change and it would stay
that way.
	
	“McKinley!?”  His name reached him where he rummaged in the shed behind the
house, and he could tell by the tone that Sandy was bewildered, and it could only mean
one thing.   He picked up a ladder and headed back to the house, just as Sandy
rounded the corner looking for him.
	“McKinley, what on earth is going on here?” she called, as the back-up light of a
flat bed truck came into view at the corner of the house.  As he came up beside her, a
group of men came around the truck,  greeting him by name, and Sandy stared at him
wide-eyed.
	“Hey, Carl, glad you could make it.”  Sandy recognized Carl Smithers as Ty gave
him a high five, and spotted a few other faces in the group that she knew as well. One
was Gerry Cotgrave, who was a friend of Carl’s, and another was Trevor Long, whose
family owned Long’s Lumber yard. She had no idea who any of the others were, but
then she had only lived in Silverside a little over a month. Ty, on the other hand, seemed
to know them all by name, despite only having been around for a week!
	“McKinley!?”  Sandy repeated, accentuating her tone with gritted teeth and an
insistent stare. He just grinned at her and looked up at the sky.
	“We’re doing your roof today, Sandy.  I’m glad the weather is co-operating.”
	Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as she looked from him to the group of
men, to the truck load of lumber.  She grabbed him by the arm and led him a few feet
away from the group and leaned in close.
	“I can’t afford to do the roof today! Ty, I can’t possibly pay for the lumber that is
on that truck, and pay all these men a day’s wages!”
	“Don’t worry about it,” he said, casually, and she rolled her eyes and groaned.
	“Ty! I am worried about it!  We never agreed on this, I haven’t got enough put
aside for the roof yet, especially after buying the supplies for the porch last week.  I
thought we’d agreed the roof would have to wait?”
	“That we had,” he nodded, grinning from ear to ear.
	“Then what on earth is all this!?” she demanded, sounding so exasperated that
Ty could no longer keep up his nonchalant tone. 
	“It’s alright, Sandy, everything is going to be fine. Trust me. The guys are all
volunteering, you don’t have to pay them a thing, and I arranged for credit at the lumber
yard for the supplies. It won’t have to be paid for right away.”
	“You arranged for credit for me at Long’s?” She looked at him as if he was out of
his mind.
	“No. I arranged for credit for me at Long’s.  I’m the contractor on this job,
remember?” he said, holding her gaze.
	“But the deal was I pay for all the supplies,” she reminded him.
	“That’s right, and you will. You just won’t have to pay for a while, and not all at
once.” He looked at her with a look of genuine concern this time, and rested his hand
lightly on her shoulder to calm her. “Sandy, the job has to be done.  I checked the
weather forecast. They’re calling for rain moving in at the end of the week and lasting for
at least three or four days.”
	She sighed, and looked at the group of young men, all lounging against the truck
awaiting the outcome of their discussion.  With a sigh, she raised her hands in defeat
and turned back to face Ty. 
	“Alright. What’s done is done, and they’re all already here,” she said, and Ty’s
grin widened. “But I do not appreciate you going behind my back like this.”
	“You would have said no,” he pointed out.
	“Damn right I would have said no!” she shot back at him.
	"You’re too independent, Sandy. You won’t regret this,” he said, and without even
thinking, he leaned down and planted a fleeting kiss in the middle of her forehead before
turning a triumphant face towards his helpers. “Alright guys, everything’s a go. Let’s get
to work.” 
	They actually cheered, Sandy thought with a groan.  Then they sprang into
action, and suddenly there were men wearing tool belts everywhere she looked.  She
stood watching in awe as they propped their ladders and climbed up onto her roof and
began the tedious task of removing her old shingles.
	“Oh -- one more thing,” Ty called to her, as he was poised with his foot on the
bottom rung of a ladder, ready to scale to the roof. She lifted her brow, questioningly,
and he grinned. “You have to supply the food.”

	Sandy had never heard so much hammering in all her life.  Within hours, one
whole side of her house was void of shingles and roofing boards were being pried off
and replaced.  There were at least six men on her roof at any given time, and Ty was in
his element directing them all.  He could easily be a foreman, she thought, as she stood
back on her lawn and watched him instructing his ‘crew’.  On the ground, there were old
shingles and broken roofing boards strewn around everywhere, and Sandy was careful
to avoid getting too close, but she just couldn’t help watching them as they worked like a
well oiled machine. 
	As it turned out, she didn’t have to provide the food afterall.  Just about half an
hour before lunch, as Sandy was trying to figure out what to server to a large hungry
group of men, Carl’s mother pulled up in her car with two large casserole dishes and
three pies. 
	“Hungry men eat well,”  Connie Smithers commented, as she handed Sandy one
casserole so she could get the second one from her car. “If there’s anything I’ve learned
over the years, it’s that.” She lifted her hand to wave to her son, who had spotted her
from his perch on the peek of Sandy’s roof. 
	“You mind, now,” she called up to him. “I don’t want to be pickin’ your busted
bones up off the ground down here.” But her tone was playful and her face full of smiles,
and she proceeded to help Sandy carry the food into the house without a second glance
to the roof.
	No sooner had the casseroles been uncovered and the pies placed in the oven
for a quick warm-up, than another car pulled up outside, and Elsie Cotgrave appeared at
the door with a box filled with three loves of bread made into sandwiches.
	“I heard you had a work crew over here today, Miss Johnson,” she said with a
smile, as she handed over the box.  “Nothing like a bit of hard work to make a man
hungry, I’ll say.”  The two women took charge of the food, and Sandy was left to make a
large pitcher of iced tea, and by twelve on the dot Elsie was at the door calling the men
down  to eat.   
	Since there was no room to eat around Sandy’s small kitchen table, the food was
served and the men found any available seat around the house to sit down to eat.  They
sat on her couch, and on the armchair, Carl and Gerry ate sitting outside on the front
porch steps, and  a man named Bob found a seat on the stairs inside.  Everywhere she
looked, Sandy saw workmen with healthy appetites, there because they were fixing her
roof.  She had never seen anything like it before, and when the plates were empty and
their stomachs full, they each got up and went back to work without any hesitation.  Elsie
and Connie set to work filling the sink and washing dishes, and in no time the three
women were  done washing up while the sound of hammers serenaded them from
above their heads.  There was nothing left for Sandy to do except make sure the iced
tea pitcher was full.  When the two women waved at their sons and pulled their cars
away from her house Sandy found herself thinking back over the morning trying to
fathom what had just happened.
	The weather held, and the men worked on.  Late in the afternoon, George
Cotgrave pulled into the driveway after a full day’s work at his job.  He handed Sandy a
case of beer out of the trunk of his car, then strapped on his tool belt and mounted the
ladder, hammer in hand, to join his son and the rest of the crew on her roof. To Sandy’s
amazement, the lunch scenario repeated itself at supper time, this time with a large pot
of chili provided by Bob’s wife, Serena; two pans of cabbage rolls from Elsie,  and three
more of Connie’s pies.  After their meal, no one grumbled about returning to the roof,
where they were now hard at work on the second side.  The women washed up, then
produced folding lawn chairs from their cars and set up on the lawn to watch the men
work.
	“Bob used to be a roofer,” Serena said, as she relaxed in the chair, watching her
husband walk like a cat across Sandy’s roof.  “I used to get so nervous watching him up
there when we were first married. Now it don’t bother me, though it’s been a while since
he’s worked at roofing.  These days he drives truck.  He’d prefer to be roofing, but at
least the trucking puts food on the table.  We’re gonna need the money when the baby
comes so he can’t be choosy.”  She folded her hands across her lap, smoothing her
dress over the obvious bulge there, and Sandy smiled.
	“When will that be?”
	Serena smiled back.  “Another three months still. This is our first, and Bob is
tickled pink.  He wants a boy. I just want a healthy baby and I’ll be happy.”
	“How long have you been married?” Sandy asked. 
	“Three years.  Bob lost his job a year after we were married, so we were kind of
glad we didn’t have any kids to feed yet.  Now that he’s back working again it’s a better
time for it.  He’ll be a wonderful father, my Bob. “
	“I’m sure he will,” Sandy said, encouragingly.  “And I’m glad things have worked
out for you with his job.”
	Serena nodded, watching her husband as he hammered shingle after shingle
onto the roof. “He’s a hard worker,”  she said. 
	“He sure is!” Sandy agreed, glancing up to where Bob was working alongside Ty
on her roof.
	Serena laughed. “Your Ty ain’t no slouch either.  He’s hammering nail for nail
next to my Bob.”
	Your Ty.  Sandy felt a twinge in her chest. He’s not my Ty, he’s just passing
through and working while he’s here, she thought of saying, but decided against
correcting the woman.  Serena moved the conversation on to babies and pregnancies,
talking about when her cousin Marie had her second daughter, and Sandy looked up to
watch Ty sliding shingles into place and hammering two shots a nail before reaching for
the next one.  He worked like an expert, easily keeping up with Bob, and carrying on a
conversation with the man at the same time.  He was enjoying himself, and he looked
like he was at home with his task and his tools.  If this was the kind of work he was
accustomed to doing all day long, she thought, no wonder his arms and chest were so
muscular. A man wouldn’t need to work out if he did work like this all day.
	 For the first time that day, it occurred to her that with all these men helping to
repair her roof, there would be less for Ty to do himself after the job was done, which
meant his stay would be that much shorter.  She frowned at the thought, but just at that
moment Ty looked her way and she quickly painted a smile on her face.  Seeing her
watching, he raised his hand and waved, then gave her a thumbs-up, and went back to
work. 
	It was dusk when the last of the unused lumber was collected and Trevor Long
pulled the Lumber truck out of Sandy’s driveway with several of the workers in the truck. 
Elsie and Connie had already left with their sons and Elsie’s husband, George, and
Serena slowly stood up and arched her back as her Bob approached, shirt and toolbelt
in his hands and wiping his face with his arm.  One side of the roof was done, the other
side had already had all the necessary boards replaced and just needed to be shingled. 
There would be no need for the work crew to finish it off, Bob would drop by the next day
and he and Ty would complete the job together.
	“Much appreciate it,” Ty said, shaking Bob’s hand as Serena slid into the
passenger seat of their pick-up truck. 
	Bob smiled. “Glad to help,” he said, then glanced at Sandy. “You just have the
coffee on in the morning, this man here and I will do the rest.” And with a wave, he pulled
away from the curb and drove away.
	Sandy glanced at Ty to see what reaction Bob’s comment would bring, but when
he seemed to ignore it, she turned to look at her house. In one sense, it looked like
disaster had hit, with all the debris scattered around on the ground on both sides, but the
roof looked great.  She still couldn’t believe the whirlwind of activity that had played itself
out that day.
	“Ty, what just happened here today?” she said in amazement.
	He chuckled. “We fixed your roof,” he said with a shrug.
	“Yes, but — how did this all happen? Where did you find these men, and how did
you manage to get them to volunteer their time to fix my roof? I don’t even know any of
them.  And the women -- just showing up here with food and all their help!” She stopped,
unable to think of anything else to say in her amazement of the situation.
	He shrugged. “I spent most of the evening at the bar last night with Carl.  Gerry
and Trevor were there, and I just happened to mention that the librarian needed a new
roof.”  Sandy stared at him, and he laughed at her. “Don’t underestimate yourself. You
may not know them, but they know you. It seems this town likes their new librarian.”  He
grinned at her and winked, and she blushed.
	“You’re pulling my leg, right?”
	“No, Ma’am,” he smiled, and brushed a wisp of hair away from her face and
tucked it behind her ear. Sandy just shook her head in disbelief, and Ty rested his arm
casually across one of her shoulders to nudge her towards the house. “I don’t know
about you, but I’m beat.  Bed will be mighty welcome tonight. Shall we turn in?”
	Sandy blushed again at the possible implications of his comment and was glad
Serena and Bob had already left.  She knew perfectly well he wasn’t insinuating that they
go to bed together, but to anyone who didn’t know better, it would certainly have
sounded like it.  She looked up to comment to him about how tired she was certain he
was, and was met by his dark eyes gazing at her thoughtfully. For one brief second she
could have sworn his eyes dropped to her lips and she thought he was going to kiss her,
then she reminded herself how absurd that idea was and moved away from his arm.
	“I’m sure you’ll sleep well,” she said.  “After all the work you have done today!”
	“I’m sure I will,” he agreed.  “I’m exhausted, but I’m going to have a shower to
clean off some of this grime.” He hesitated, then gave her a nod. “Good night, Sandy.”
	“Good night, Ty,” she echoed, and with another nod, he disappeared up the
stairs. Once he was completely out of view, Sandy followed, and as she shut her
bedroom door behind her she could hear his shower running for the second time that
day.  She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the door, and tried her
best to calm her shaking limbs.