CHAPTER 7

	Ty swore under his breath.  He had never been so confused in all his thirty-one
years on this earth.  Women had always been so easy for him to handle.  First, he was
used to them being attracted to him like ducks to water -- like Karen had been.  He could
handle that. His good looks and his bike usually took care of that before the first words
were ever spoken.  Then flatter them a little,  lay on the charm, and it didn’t take long
before they were virtually eating out of his hand. If he wanted to kiss them, none of them
had ever put up any fuss.  It was the most natural thing to do, and he had never given it
any thought. 
	Until he had kissed Sandy that is!  From the moment his lips touched hers he
had known that kiss was different from any others he had ever stolen, or been offered
freely.  He had also known that the effect it had on him was dangerous and it scared him
half to death.  Obviously, the only way to handle the situation was to make light of it. 
And just to make sure she wasn’t making more out of it than he had intended, he figured
he would just make it clear to her that he considered it just a kiss -- no big deal.  
	What he had not been prepared for was her reaction to his words.  One more
notch on your tool belt!  Her words had cut deep and it angered him that she had been
able to get under his skin.  He had accused her of being hot under the collar, and yet
she had walked casually up the stairs to her room, leaving him to stew in his own juices. 
Did she really consider him so shallow that he counted women as victories by notches
on his tool belt? Did she really think that a kiss like that was really just another kiss?  But
that was exactly what he had told her wasn’t it? It was what he wanted her to believe,
wasn’t it?  And what he wanted himself to believe!
	Ty swore one more time and kicked at the gravel.  That night he had come out
on the bike to clear his head, but he had decided driving aimlessly around Silverside in
the dark wasn’t going to accomplish anything.  He had returned to the house about an
hour after he’d left and, seeing her bedroom window in darkness, he had coasted the
bike quietly into the drive and made his way noiselessly to his bedroom.  After laying
awake most of the night he had left the house before Sandy was up in the morning, and
taken his bike out the back road to a quiet spot, where he had pulled over to think.  He
was certain he would think clearer in the morning sun. 
	 He looked at his watch now, wondering if she would be gone yet.  Once he knew
for certain the house would be empty he would go back and find something to fix. 
Something obvious! He would show her  -- the reason he was there was to work on her
house, and he was damn well going to do just that!   No woman was going to get him
wondering what it would be like to live in the house he was fixing -- permanently! No,  he
was just there while he needed to be, no longer than that. When his time was up and he
could go home, she’d see, he would be down that road so fast all she would see would
be the dust behind his bike! 
	This was all Cole’s fault!  If he had just left well enough alone, none of this would
have happened!  Ty grumbled under his breath and kicked at another clump of gravel
that had the misfortune of being in his path as he paced the edge of the road. So he had
a good time now and then, so what?  OK, so it was more than every now and then, what
did it matter to Cole? He showed up, he did his work, he pulled his weight.  His personal
life was his own business, and to think it affected his work was absurd!
	Ty glanced at his watch again and sighed.  Surely she would be gone by now. 
He swung his leg effortlessly over the motorcycle, started the engine, and pulled out
onto the road heading back into town.  When he rounded the corner of her street,
however, he could clearly see her car still in the driveway. Hoping she had just walked to
the Library, he gunned the engine and made for the driveway.  He was just climbing off
the big machine and pulling his helmet off when she emerged from the front door.   
	“Good Morning, McKinley,” she said as she passed him and headed for her car. 
He nodded a greeting in return and headed for the porch, taking the steps two at a time. 
By the time he thought better of his actions and considered turning back to speak to her,
she was backing her car out of the driveway.
	All that day, Sandy could think of nothing but Ty’s face as he had walked up her
driveway that morning.  It had been her intention, when she had left the house that
morning, to walk to work, but when she had seen Ty pulling into the driveway her knees
had turned weak and she had had no choice but to take her car instead.  She had heard
him leave the night before, and seen him return in the morning, looking like he had just
climbed out of a bed somewhere.  Not, obviously, his own bed.  Wondering just where
he had spent the night occupied more of her time than she liked, and on more than one
occasion people had to speak to her more than once in gently prodding voices to bring
her back to earth. 
	The thought was still foremost in her mind, much to her chagrin, as she drove
home.  Unable to concentrate, and claiming a headache, she had left work early, leaving
the library in the capable hands of her assistant, Joyce.  His bike was conspicuously
parked in its usual spot, and she forced herself not to look at it as she passed. Inside
she heard the distinctive sound of metal banging on metal, coming from the kitchen, and
slowly peered through the doorway.
	There were tools spread out on her kitchen floor, and the cupboard under her
sink were pushed wide open with the lower half of Ty’s body, wearing cut off jeans, 
protruding from within.  The upper half was shirtless, and Sandy was glad his head was
deep inside the cupboard so he couldn’t see her reaction the sight had on her before
she was able to regain her composure. 
	“Ty?” she ventured, and was greeted by a loud clang of metal, a deep thud, and
a muffled curse.  “Oh!” she gasped. “Are you OK?”  She crouched down beside the
cupboards and peered in, feeling guilty for him getting hurt.
	He wiggled his way awkwardly out of the cupboard, shaking one hand, and lifted
his head to look at her. “Don’t creep up on me like that, woman!” he said, as he dropped
a wrench on the floor and sat up completely, lifting a finger to take a closer look.
	“I wasn’t creeping up on you!” she pouted, looking concerned, but standing up
and backing away.
	He scowled at her. “Well I thought I was alone, you’re not supposed to be home
yet, are you?”
	“Well, no.  But I have a very capable assistant and I — I had a headache,” she
said hastily.  Despite herself, she found she could not keep her eyes off his bare chest,
and with a blush, she turned away.
	He eyed her for a moment, then grunted under his breath and reached for a
T-shirt that he must have tossed aside at some point, pulling it over his head.  “Well, I
wasn’t expecting you and you startled me.  I had hoped to have all this mess cleaned up
before you got home.”
	Sandy moved closer and bent over again to look into the cupboard, a little less
disconcerted now that he was fully dressed.  “What did you find under there?” she asked
him, trying to concentrate on the task he was doing instead of on the man himself. 
	He collected some of the tools and piled them together.  “There was a cracked
fitting that was leaking.  I replaced it, and some of the piping around it. I just need to
tighten it a little more and it’s all done.  I also changed a few water lines in the basement
while I had the plumbing tools out, and I’ve applied a coat of cement sealer on the
basement wall where it was leaking.  According to the weather man you’ll probably be
able to test that out tomorrow.” He had burrowed back under the sink and was tightening
the pipe as he spoke. Then his hand appeared and set the wrench down on the floor.
	“Can you turn the water on up there and I’ll just make sure this doesn’t leak
before I pack everything up?” he asked.
	Sandy stepped carefully over his legs and reached to turn on the water tap.  She
peered down where he lay stretched out on the floor and waited for his next request. 
Finally he told her to turn the water off, and started pulling himself out of the cupboard
again, picking up a pile of rags as he stood up.
	“All fixed,” he said, wiping his hands on the rags. 
	“Thank you!” she told him.  “You’ve been busy today.”
	He shrugged. “Well that’s what I’m here for. I was just earning my keep,” he said,
glancing sideways at her.  He had wanted to make a point, and he was watching her to
see if he had made is successfully.
	Sandy blushed slightly and turned her face back towards the sink. 	The thought
had occurred to her, albeit briefly, while she had been at work, to come home and ask
him to leave.  Now she was finding herself feeling a little guilty after all the work he had
done during the day.  In an effort to make it up to him, at least in her own mind, she
turned a cheery smile towards him.
	“Oh, by the way. There was a guy named Cole here the other day,” she said,
thinking this information would brighten his day.
	Ty stopped abruptly in the middle of wiping his face with a clean rag and shot her
a startled glance. “Cole!? What did he want? When was he here? What did he say to
you?”
	Sandy looked at him in confusion. “Well — it was Friday — the day before you
did the roof.  He came while you were — umm — out on your bike with Karen.” She was
sure she heard him swear under his breath, and looked at him with concern.  “Ty, is
there something wrong? You’re acting as if this bothers you but, he seemed like quite a
nice man to me.  I thought you might be interested that he had been here — pleased or
something.”
	“Yeah, right!” He tossed the rag on the counter. “Just tell me what he wanted,
Sandy?”
	“He said he had talked to you about doing some work for him eventually, and he
wanted to see some of your jobs, check out your workmanship or something like that.”
	“I bet he did,” Ty mumbled.  “What did you tell him?”
	“Well, I showed him the porch, and told him I was very impressed with your
work,” she said, still pouting a little, and he looked at her with some surprise in his
expression.
	“You did, huh? Well, that should have pleased him, I bet,” he grinned, and shook
his head slightly.  “Did he ask anything else or say anything about me?”
	Sandy shook her head.  “No,” she said thoughtfully. “I don’t think so.  Oh, he did
ask if you were reliable, or punctual, or something like that.”
	Ty laughed outright this time. “Oh yeah? And what did you say to that one?”
	“Well, I told him I let you set your own hours, I don’t run a punch-clock jobsite
afterall. But I told him the truth — that you’re often on the job early in the morning and
work late into the evenings.”
	Ty raised his brow. “That must have just blown his socks off,” he chuckled. 
	Sandy looked perturbed.  She had thought that mentioning the man Cole would
please him, that he would be happy to know that a potential employer was actually
interested enough in him to check out his work, not to mention the fact that she had
given him a glowing reference.  Instead, it only seemed to irk him. 
	“Ty, who is this guy, anyway? You seemed a little — well — upset when I
mentioned he was here.”
	He looked at her closely. “Didn’t he tell you who he was?”
	“No, just that he was a potential employer or something to that effect.”
	He nodded and shrugged. “That about covers it”
	She frowned. “I see. Alright then, it’s just that you seemed almost scared of him
when I first told you he was here.”
	He laughed heartily this time.  “Scared of Ol’ Cole?  No, I would hardly say that. 
Just a little startled that he had actually shown up here.  I just don’t like the idea of him
snooping around here checking up on me.  Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
	“Well, I‘d hardly say he was snooping around...” Sandy began with her shoulders
thrown back.
	Ty grinned. “Well, I would, and I know Cole better than you do, so let’s just leave
it at that, OK?”
	Sandy shrugged, and started gathering up the rags that he had tossed onto the
counter. “Alright then, whatever you say.  I’m not your keeper, ” she said tartly as she
headed toward the basement and disappeared down the steps.  No, she thought, she
was definitely not his keeper.  He could do whatever he wanted, and for that matter, he
could sleep wherever he wanted and with whomever he wanted -- as long as he 
remembered his place around her house.  Where he had slept the night before was
none of her business,  just as who this Cole person was had nothing to do with her!  She
was sorry she had even brought the man up.
	Ty frowned as he watched her go. Perhaps he was being unfair to her.  Maybe
he should just tell her the truth, tell her who Cole really was, and why he, Ty McKinley,
was penniless and working on her house for mere room and board as his pay?  Just as
quickly, however, his thoughts returned to the kiss of the morning before, and the biting
words that had been exchanged at the end of the day.   Miraculously she was talking to
him tonight, and that was more than he had hoped to expect.  His productive day
seemed to have done its job in that respect. Maybe it would be better just to leave well
enough alone for a while, and let the subject of Cole die a natural death.  When the time
came, and he could move on, she would have her house fixed and still be none the
wiser, if he played his cards right.
	And that day could not come soon enough, he thought to himself as he left the
kitchen and took the steps at a brisk pace, made a quick turn at the top and headed to
the shower.  He had worked in sweat and grime all day, it was time to wash it all off and
get looking presentable again, not to mention staying clear of his boss while he had the
urge to scoop her into his arms and kiss her again! 

	For the next few days Ty did manage to avoid Sandy, although it started out
completely unplanned.  It began with Carl’s invitation the next day to stop by for dinner,
and Ty was more than willing to take the opportunity to sit down to a meal of Connie
Smithers’ home cooking.  If his timing had been better he would have completely missed
Sandy, but instead he had been ready to pull his bike out of the driveway as she had
pulled in.  When the meal was done Carl took him out to the back shed to show him an
old dirt bike he had managed to get his hands on.
	“She’s no beauty like your bike,” Carl said with a smile. “but she’s mine and
there’s lots of trails around here I can ride ‘er on.   I call her Daisy.“  he grinned. “You
know, after Daisy Duke!”  There had been no mistaking the look of pride on Carl’s face,
and this was certainly the true reason for the dinner invitation, Ty thought.   They spent
the rest of the evening tinkering with Daisy and it was well after midnight when he
coasted his own bike quietly into Sandy’s driveway.  
	The next day while looking for something to eat for lunch after spending the
morning bracing the basement steps and adding a railing to them, he discovered
left-overs neatly put away in the fridge from the night before, and felt a twinge of guilt. 
But when he thought about sitting across the table from Sandy during a meal made for
two he figured it had all turned out for the best.  Sharing dinner with her was just
becoming too difficult -- too personal.  Why, usually when he shared a meal alone with a
woman he ended up in bed with her before the night was out, but he wasn’t going to go
there with Sandy Johnson.  It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but Sandy just wasn’t like the
women he usually dated.  He knew, without even discussing it,  that if she went to bed
with a man there would be some sort of permanence implied, and he was not interested
in that!  Sandy wasn’t the type to just go to bed with any guy who wanted to take her.  At 
the same time he found himself wondering why he had never seen a man in her life. 
Surely she must have a boyfriend somewhere?  She was a good looking woman, and as
far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with her, but there had been no dates, and
no mention of any man.  Strangely, he felt glad of that.  This thought was quickly
followed by confusion as he wondered why it should even matter to him.  All that
mattered was that he had avoided having to sit across the table from her feeling like it
was the most natural thing in the world -- and feeling like he wanted to take her to bed
with him.  Keeping his hands off of her was becoming more and more difficult, but there
was no way Ty McKinley was going to let a woman get under his skin and make a
permanent nest! 
	Having thought this through as rationally as he could manage, he decided to find
somewhere else to eat the evening meal again the next night.  When he had
conveniently run into Gerry and George Cotgrave outside the lumber store things had
fallen perfectly into place.   Elsie was a good cook too, he remembered, so he had
jumped at the invitation to dinner when George offered it.  Then after he left the
Cotgraves, he had swung by Carl’s to see how he was doing with Daisy and spent the
rest of the evening drinking beer in the shed over bike talk and tools.	
	“Damn!”  Ty muttered under his breath as he lifted the plate of food out of the
fridge the next day.  Why was she doing this to him? Why was she cooking for him and
making him feel like he wanted her to cook for him, that he liked that she cooked for
him? 
	“Damn!”  he said again, as he placed the warmed up plate on the table and
savoured a piece of chicken he had pulled off with his fingers.  She was as good a cook
as Connie or Elsie any day, he thought.  Why was she making him like that she cooked
for him and not for someone else?  And why should he feel guilty that he hadn’t let her
know he wasn’t going to be around to eat it the last two nights?  It wasn’t like he owed
her an explanation or anything. No, he was free to come and go as he pleased and he
didn’t owe her a thing!  
	He thought this as he placed his plate in the sink, and made a conscious
decision.  Even if he had to eat in a restaurant tonight, there was no way he was going to
sit here and eat her home cooked meal -- cooked for him -- across a table set for two,
alone with her in this house!  There was no way he could handle not being able to touch
her afterwards!
	But as he  worked on her back porch that afternoon the thought of doing just that
lingered in his mind, and he hammered even harder as he realized that not only was the
idea appealing to him, but it was beginning to feel positively right, and he wasn’t about to
let that happen!  When he was finished with the porch he glanced at his watch, pulled a
piece of paper out of his pocket and quickly scribbled the words won’t be home for
dinner across it, deposited it in the middle of the table and left the house.  He swung his
bike out of the driveway and headed down the street, gunning the engine as he thought
back over the words on that note.  
	Home.
	What had possessed him to use that word anyway? And why should one little
word cause him such turmoil? But it felt like home.  Even worse, it was beginning to feel
like he wanted to keep it that way, and that scared him way more than he wanted to
admit.  Maybe he should just admit defeat, call Cole and call this whole thing off!
	He turned his bike away from the downtown area and headed toward the
highway.  He could leave right now, head down the open road and go straight back to
where he belonged.  There was nothing of value in the things he had with him in that
room he was using at Sandy’s.  Afterall, he had only arrived with a duffle bag of clothes. 
He always kept his leather jacket folded up in the saddle bag of the bike, and  the rest of
his things could be replaced.  After a few weeks, when he didn’t come back for them,
she could throw them out, or donate them to some good cause.  Then he’d be
completely out of her life, and they would both be better off for it.
	He reached the edge of town and hit the gas, sending his bike full speed down
the highway.  The further away from Silverside he got the better, he told himself.  She
didn’t need him anymore.  The roof was done, and there was nothing else he could do
for her that couldn’t wait until she could get someone else to do it.  She didn’t need him,
and he certainly didn’t need her!  There was nothing keeping him, except his line of
credit at Long’s and he would take care of that as soon as he had straightened things
out with Cole.  	
	Damn Cole anyway!
	He braked and swung his bike around and headed back to town.  He couldn’t let
Cole think he’d won this time, couldn’t go groveling back and tell him the gig was up --
because of a woman!   Besides -- he didn’t have enough money to buy the gas to get
himself there!