Free One Door Closes by G.B. Lindsey Page A

were going to talk about this.”
    It was the draft construction contract. “I didn’t sign them.” Calvin dropped his forehead into his hands. “Will did.”
    “ What? ”
    He glared up at Danny. “We’re not contractually bound, all right? The developer showed up. The one who was hounding Audrey. Will did it to buy us time.”
    Danny’s slump was sudden, his breathing audible in the new silence. “What happens now?”
    “I don’t have any idea, but we have until next Friday to figure it out.” He stood—felt like the only thing he did for Danny was storm out on him—but Danny stepped into his path.
    “I shouldn’t have overreacted,” his brother started, and Calvin threw up his hands.
    “Yes, you should have, what else were you going to do with something like that?” He yanked his fingers through his hair. “ Fuck. ”
    “It’s okay, though. Till then. We have time.”
    “We have a week. What am I supposed to do with a week?” Except spend every hour feeling more obligated, not to the contract but to Will. It was a feeling he recognized viscerally, the heart-stung ache of it overpowering the excitement, any connection drowning under an old, ugly panic. “You know what, I’ve been trying to find the funding for this since I heard about Audrey, and I still don’t have anything cemented in place. Even if I could submit a grant proposal now—”
    “A grant proposal?” Not the confusion over his choice of funding, but rather the confusion of not knowing what a grant proposal was. Calvin gritted his teeth.
    “She used them before, when the house was full. But trust me, they’ll take longer than we’ve got. A week is nothing.”
    “Look, we can...” Danny half turned, as if the answer lay behind him somewhere, “...go into town tomorrow. Apply for a loan at that bank.”
    Calvin rubbed over his face with both hands. He hadn’t done that yet, simply because he had his own bank branch to work with. But this one was local, and Audrey had used it for years. “Well, I damn well hope they give it to us because if they don’t—”
    “They will. You have good credit, right?”
    His laugh came out strangled. “I don’t have bad credit.”
    “Well, I don’t have any credit, so. Devon can come with us. How long does it take to process a bank loan?”
    Calvin stared. He hadn’t expected Danny to take so much interest in the details. “It depends on the loan.” The town could only boast one bank, a credit union, and— “We’ll probably need an account there first. I don’t have one. Do you?” Danny shook his head. Calvin braced against the table, staring at the pseudo-contract and wishing he didn’t feel like his lungs had been wrapped in a belt. “I doubt Devon does. They’ll have to do some kind of background check.”
    Danny twitched in the corner of his eye, but by the time Calvin looked up, the other man’s face was expressionless.
    “So, we’ll get it solved.” Danny shrugged. “Work out a real contract and sign it ourselves. Developer’ll never know the difference.”
    “Not that simple.” Calvin pushed the contract farther away. “God. Why did he do this?”
    “What do you mean why? You just said—”
    “You don’t get it, Danny. This could be considered fraud. They’re going to go to his boss, they probably already have. We need to have this all taken care of, now, or we’re screwed even deeper than before.”
    “Yeah, and your friend was just trying to help. I would have done it.”
    “Well, he shouldn’t have, okay? He should have minded his own business and not tried to fix mine!”
    “You could be a little grateful. Personally, I could kiss him for thinking on his feet.”
    Calvin just shook his head, unable to speak for the things that wanted to bubble up and spill back into the waking world.
    “Why are you so messed up about this?” Danny stepped closer, peering at Calvin with a sharp furrow in his brow. “What happened between you two?”
    “Mind your