Free Rori and Jackson: The Sons of Dusty Walker by Randi Alexander Page B

“Hi.” Rori locked the
door. “Beautiful day.”
    The woman carried a big cardboard tube with closed ends. “It
is lovely.” She kept walking.
    “Are you heading to Cubby’s?” Rori fell into step beside
her. “I was going there, if you’d like to join me for lunch.”
    The woman looked surprised. “Such a… friendly town.
I’ve already eaten, but thank you.” She smiled and picked up her pace.
    “Oh, are you Louisa?” Rori made it sound like an
afterthought. “Jackson Walker mentioned you. I’m Rori Hughes, a contract
employee with his company.” She was running on and on at the mouth in her
nervousness.
    Louisa stopped and stared at Rori. “Jackson mentioned me to
you?” She narrowed her gaze. “He told you about our highly classified project?”
    Rori’s eyes widened. “Yes, that one.” She looked at the tube
in Louisa’s hand.
    “So you know…” The woman stepped closer, looking around as
if checking for eavesdroppers. “The fate of the entire nation rests solely on
the complete secrecy of the documents in this tube.”
    That was totally unexpected. “Really?” How could mineral
rights determine…
    The woman laughed. “Sorry, Rori. I couldn’t resist.” She
walked backward a couple steps. “Jackson warned me that this is a very small
town, and someone might have spotted him and me together. So he warned me that
if a beautiful raven-haired goddess with sky-blue eyes tried to get information
from me, I had to deflect her questions.” She laughed and turned away,
continuing on her way down the block. “Nice try, though,” Louisa called over
her shoulder.
    Rori realized her mouth hung open. Then her face heated, and
she quickly unlocked the door and slipped inside her shop. She’d just made a
total ass of herself. Watching out the window, Rori saw Louisa walk into the D.
Walker Mineral building. And now, Jackson would be hearing about it as well.
“Perfect. Just fricking perfect.”
    ****
    Jackson laughed as Louisa told him the story of
“unexpectedly” running into Rori, ending with, “Poor girl, I felt bad teasing
her.”
    He shook his head. “She deserved it. But I wonder who told
her…” Small towns. He was just glad to know that Rori still had enough feelings
left for him to confront Louisa and try to get information out of her. “I won’t
keep her in suspense much longer.”
    On the desk in front of him, the three versions of the house
plans were spread out, pinned down at the corners with rocks he’d found sitting
on a shelf in the corner of the office. Rocks that Dusty had collected over the
years. Fitting that they would hold down the plans for Jackson’s future.
    “She’s going to love each of these houses.” Louisa looked at
the drawing of the infinity pool at the front of the modern home. “I have a
feeling we’ll be picking and choosing parts of each of these to meld into the
perfect home for you two.”
    “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
    Louisa smiled at him. “And again, I can send you these in
electronic form.” She tapped the paper. “I know you liked them printed out, but
I would bet your Miss Rori would love to see them on a computer, and in 3D.”
    He let out a single chuckle. “You’re probably right about
that. Sure, send them over, and I’ll let her get them off the computer.”
    Louisa winked. “Consider it done.”
    He held out his hand. “Thank you for taking care of all the
tests yourself, too. I really want to break ground before the first frost.”
    She shook his hand. “That’s a tight timeline, but we’ll give
it our best shot. Soil samples came back with no problems, and we’ve got the
go-ahead to build on the land. I’ll be in touch when the contractor comes back with
his estimates.” She left to head back to Kansas City.
    After a last look at the three drawings, he rolled them up
and put them back into the tube. How long did Rori need to cool down and think
things through? A week? Two weeks? He didn’t want to wait