Free Digging Up Trouble by Heather Webber Page B

cell phone. He'd hung up on me.
    Hmmph.
    Part of me wanted to go to the site and find out why BeBe was once again part of my crew. BeBe was sweet and all, but a work site was no place for her. She could possibly cause more damage than we could fix.
    If BeBe couldn't stay at home, then it was time for doggy day care.
    I walked into the office and found I kind of missed the chimes.
    Coby manned Tam's desk. He looked up at me, the phone balanced between his ear and shoulder, one hand on the computer keyboard, the other holding a pencil.
    "Do you know how to schedule an appointment?" he asked me. Then said into the phone, "No, no, not you."
    He mouthed Help me and added big puppy dog eyes.
    His chubby baby-fat cheeks were covered in a light peach fuzzy blond that would someday turn to stubble.
    I had to imagine that, at twenty-four, he hoped "one day" would be soon.
    I took the phone, sorted out the mess, and hung up.
    "We need to get a temp," Coby said, rising from Tam's throne. It had been odd to see him sitting there, and not Tam. She was such a fixture in the office. Her African violet, Sassy, even seemed to droop a little. I made a mental note to take it to the hospital with me the next time I visited.
    "Thanks for covering things today," I said.
    He took a set of keys from his pocket, headed toward the door. "I've got a cousin who needs a job."
    "Any experience?"
    He hedged. "Define experience."
    "As in telephone, computer, people skills?"
    "Ah, no."
    "Then I'm going to have to pass."
    "You're missing out," he said, shaking a finger.
    "I'll risk it."
    He waved as he walked out. I wondered if anyone else was there. I checked around but didn't see anyone, and wondered where Deanna was until I played my voice mail and discovered that she'd called in sick today because her two-year-old son Lucah had that weird flu going around.
    I wondered what it was like to have a two-year-old. I didn't have much experience with babies or toddlers. I'd met Riley when he was eight. Though I supposed if I could survive his attitude, then I could face anything.
    This summer flu going around had hit hard. I wondered if that's what Russ had had. Could that have played a factor in his death?
    Tossing aside thoughts of death, I wandered into Deanna's office and couldn't help but peek at her design plan for a mini scheduled for the following afternoon.
    Since she'd shown so much design promise, I'd given her free reign over the project. She'd been ear-splittingly happy. I knew Kit was scheduled to be her project foreman and realized he'd been working a lot lately. Not that he complained—he rarely expressed his unhappiness. Maybe it was time to hire another contractor to lessen Kit's load?
    Or maybe it was time to cut back altogether. I'd been thinking about it more and more lately. The long hours were wearing thin on all of us.
    Looking around, I realized I missed the darn chimes. I went outside to look and found them in a boxwood near my TBS truck. As I reattached them to the door, the phone rang.
    I gave Sassy a pat as I picked up the phone on Tam's desk. "Taken by Surprise, this is Nina Quinn."
    "This is your date, wondering where you are."
    My date. Oh no! "I'm so sorry, Bobby! I forgot." We'd had plans to go to a Reds game. "It's been crazy here." I'd talked to him last night, told him all about what had happened. "The widow is still threatening to sue me. I hate to say it, but she has a case."
    "My cousin Josh is a lawyer. A good one. Let me call him for you."
    I had independence issues and thought I should call my own lawyer, but decided I needed help. I couldn't do it all, as much as I wanted to. "All right."
    "How about dinner and a movie now that the game is just about over?" he asked.
    "Bobby, I'm so sorry I forgot about the game!"
    "It's okay. They're losing anyway. Dinner? Movie? It will take your mind off things for a while."
    I agreed before I thought too much about it, and hung up before I changed my mind.
    I knew I needed to decide