Shaking free of the image, he asked, “So you’re working for your dad?”
Tyler shook her head. “He’s retired. Not his idea, but he had a heart attack a few years back and doc said he had to slow
down. I’m the boss these days. Since he is retired, he’s been keeping Ollie for me while I’m working.”
Running the family business wasn’t what he’d expected of her. “Do you like it?”
She hummed a non-committal note. “I like working for myself. The nation-wide obsession with HGTV and home improvement means business has been pretty good, which hasn’t been the case for a lot of mom and pop stores, so we’re grateful for that. An Edison has run the shop for five generations. I couldn’t be the one to change that.”
Family ties. They ran deep for her. It was something he both admired and hated. Admired because of who that made her. Hated because he knew now that had been part of why she’d stayed rather than coming to him. But he wouldn’t bring that up.
“What about you?” she asked, jumping into the silence. “You’re not working directly as a contractor anymore. Moved up the ranks, I take it.”
“I’m a project manager,” he said. “The one who juggles the contractors, engineers, and architects to make sure they all play nice and the project gets done on time and within budget.”
“I guess the same memory skills you use for learning your lines come in handy for keeping up with that kind of detail.”
“Doesn’t hurt,” he agreed. “You want to see the job site? It’s just up that way.” He gestured to the next block.
Her eyes sparkled. “Inside tour? Heck yeah. Everybody’s buzzing about what they’re putting in. Those in the know have been all hush hush.”
“Gerald—my boss—had everybody who knows the particulars sign a non-disclosure agreement.”
“Why?”
“For buzz. Not knowing makes people curious. Crazy curious. They can’t stand a mystery.”
“This is Wishful. There’d be buzz no matter what. You know that.”
“Sure, but isn’t a surprise more fun?”
Tyler tipped her head in acknowledgment of the point and waited while he pulled out his keys.
“I’m really quite impressed that the rumor mill hasn’t sussed it out by now,” he said. “I wouldn’t have thought non-disclosure agreements would keep people from at least telling their spouses, who’d tell their friends—in confidence of course—who’d tell their friends, and so on.”
“Oh, there’s a pool on what it really is. I’m thought to have an inside track since the bulk of the materials have been purchased through us.”
Brody pressed a hand to the small of her back and nudged her into the darkened building. “And what do you think it is?”
“Well, he’s dropped a small fortune on high end bathroom fixtures, so my money is on hotel. There are also rumors about a spa. And a conference center. And Sally Forester said she gave him a tour of some other downtown property last week.”
Brody switched on the flashlight app on his phone, holding it high.
“No electricity yet?” she asked.
“There is, but I’m not really supposed to be bringing you in here, so I don’t wanna draw attention. C’mon.” He grabbed her hand, tugged her along. “Watch your step.”
Tyler dug her phone out, added its light to the cause as they walked. “So which is it? Or are you going to keep me in the dark despite this tantalizing preview?”
Brody paused and held out his pinky. “Do you solemnly swear not to reveal that which I tell to you tonight?”
“You’re invoking the pinky swear?”
“Damn straight.”
Grinning, she linked her finger with his. “I do so swear. Now spill it.”
“Well, there are elements of truth to all of it. Hotel, spa, and conference facilities. Small ones anyway. He’s wanting to provide some competition for the Alluvian.” Located in Greenwood, right at the edge of the Mississippi Delta, the Alluvian was a high-end boutique hotel attached to a spa and the Viking Cooking School.