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.“Driven you nuts, have I?” she questioned calmly, trying to still the little spurt of panic that clutched at her stomach.She wasn’t ready to make decisions, to face the real world as yet.She knew she had to, sooner or later.But later would have been much more appealing.“I’ve survived worse,” her aunt replied dryly.“No, it’s you I’m thinking of.Your family is descending, almost en masse, to try to drag you back to New Jersey.Apparently the task of packing up a century’s worth of accumulations is more than Proffy and Holly can manage.”“And they want me to come back and help?”“Knowing your family, I expect they want you to come back and do it all,” Lillian replied.“Holly said they were going to throw themselves on your mercy.”Anne snorted, closing the turgid novel with a snap.“That’s like asking someone to assist at his own execution.”“Well, you can’t really blame them, can you? After all, you’ve never told them no before.They think you’re Superwoman, with nerves and heart of steel.It’s only natural they think they can talk you into anything without you doing more than blinking.”“Not this time.”“So I told them.But they’re coming anyway, and I think you should be gone when they get here.”“Is that who’s been calling all the time?” she asked, not really curious.Lillian smiled faintly, refusing to answer.“When can you be ready to leave?”“Whenever,” Anne replied with a shrug.“I’ll have to decide where to go, though.”“That’s the best part.” Lillian looked quite pleased with herself.“I’ve been busy the past few days.I’ve found you a job.”“I don’t need a job.”“You do, and you’re going to take it.I went to a lot of trouble arranging this for you, and I’m not going to have you turn up your nose at this and make me look like a fool,” Lillian snapped.“Besides, it’s right up your alley.”“I’m not interested in editing at the moment.”“The hell with editing.I’ve gotten you a construction job.”“What?”“A friend of mine is building a house on a stretch of oceanfront property in Connecticut.It’s a simple, almost experimental affair.Lots of passive solar heating and other such newfangled ideas.He wanted to build it himself but things have gotten a little out of hand with his work.He’s got a new job, so he’s had to hire helpers.You’d be working with Sam Oliver during the week, and the owner would come out and putter on the weekends.”“You must be kidding.”“Absolutely not.I had the devil’s own time convincing Sam to hire you.He usually makes do with a couple of teenagers during the summer, but his usual boy has gone into the army and he’s been having trouble finding someone else.He said he was willing to give you a chance.”“What about the owner? How does he feel about women’s work?” Despite her initial dismay the idea was beginning to appeal to her.“Oh, he doesn’t care—he leaves it up to Sam.I don’t think you’d even run into him.”A sudden absurd suspicion flared into Anne’s admittedly paranoid brain.“Who’s the owner?”“Fellow by the name of Matthews,” Lillian lied without batting an eye.“You’ll like it down in Wilbury, Anne.I’ve visited when I was younger—a perfect little New England village, looks more like Maine than Connecticut.And Matthews is building right by the sea—you can take a swim on your lunch break.”“You think I won’t do it,” Anne challenged the older woman.Lillian smiled serenely.“I don’t know anymore what you’ll do.You’d be crazy not to jump at the chance.You could room at the local boardinghouse and have a peaceful summer doing good hard physical labor that will leave you too tired to brood.Get a good tan and a feeling of accomplishment, and then come fall you can look at life from a different perspective.”“You take a lot for granted, Aunt Lil.”“I was counting on your still having a lick of gumption beneath that mournful exterior.Was I right?”Anne hesitated for only a moment longer.There had been no word from Noah, no message.Not that she’d expected anything, she maintained stoutly.But an apology, no matter how feeble, would have been something.Lillian’s badgering was well founded—she had spent far too much time mourning a lost cause.“You were right, Aunt Lil.” Getting up from her perch on the comfortable old sofa, Anne crossed the room and pressed a kiss against her aunt’s papery cheek.“Thank you, Lillian.I’ll miss you.”The old lady’s eyes misted.“I’ll miss you too, darling.You write me from that place.And don’t let Sam Oliver push you around.He knows his stuff—you couldn’t work for a better man.But he has a tendency to be a mite autocratic.Not to mention sexist.”“Sexist? Then why in the world is he hiring a woman construction worker?”Lillian grinned.“Because the fool man never could say no to me,” she said with deep satisfaction.Anne stretched to her full height.“Well, whatever his misgivings, I’ll make sure he doesn’t regret this.I think you may have saved my life, Aunt Lil.I’m going to love this.”Chapter FourteenLove was not the operative word, Anne thought later of her first few weeks as a laborer.Exhaustion, frustration, annoyance, discomfort and a rough satisfaction were more accurate.Sam Oliver had proven to be cut from the same cloth as Aunt Lillian—opinionated, irascible, with a warm heart beneath that grumpy exterior.He was also an incredible craftsman, and his demands on Anne, even from the first, were phenomenal.Every nail had to be nailed at the exact angle called for, every measurement had to be done three times at least to be sure of its exactness.Even with something as fast-moving and rudimentary as framing the rambling modern house was accomplished with a care for details.Anne both dreaded and anticipated the more exacting finishing work when it came along.If Sam would put up with her
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