Hard Hat Man Read Online Free PDF

closed, Kyle drove them to the realtor ’ s office.
    John Canby had an office in a small new strip mall on the edge of Lakeview . A slim, blonde receptionist sat at a desk with a phone to her ear . She waved her other hand, directing them to an inner office. “ Go right on in. He ’ s expecting you, ” she said , and continued her telephone conversation.
    They walked into the realtor ’ s crowded office to find a wiry, bald man sitting behind a table full of papers. Kyle introduced them to John.
    “ Sit down, ladies, ” he said, indicating chairs around the table. They sat down and John turned to Kyle, a bit nervously. “ I ’ ve had a call from that guy on the next farm, Alex Porter. He ’ s determined to make trouble. ”
    Kyle nodded. “ I heard from him, too, John. Did he threaten you? ”
    Mr. Canby nodded. “ Says he ’ ll get a court order to keep you from building there. ”
    “ Oh dear, ” Laura said. “ Does this mean we can ’ t go through with the closing today? ”
    “ No , unless any of you has changed his mind? ” John asked. “ If we close, Kyle will have to deal with him later. ”
    Kyle shook his head. “ I haven ’ t changed my mind. Ladies? ”
    “ I really must leave tomorrow. I ’ d like to get this wrapped up if we can, ” Laura said.
    Jan nodded agreement. “ If Kyle is willing to take the chance of not being able to build there? ”
    Kyle swallowed. She ’ d voiced the very thing he feared. He was taking a big chance, signing to pay Laura a lot of money for this land. If Alex succeeded in preventing this project from going through, Hart construction would be ruined financially. Could he trust the surveyor ’ s reports enough to risk everything?
    He drew a deep breath and nodded . T he short realtor hitched his chair forward and began explaining each piece of paper as he presented it to them to be signed.
    John explain ed the terms of their deal. One item was that they had one week to clean out the farmhouse.
    At that, Jan drew a sharp breath and said, “ No way! ” in a very definite tone.
    Kyle jumped and turned to stare at her. “ But, my whole project turns on tearing down the farmhouse and building houses along the perimeter of the property, ” he explained patiently. “ The strip mall I ’ ve planned, with a grocery store at one end and a large health club with swimming pool at the other end will come later. I haven ’ t finalized the deal with the new owners yet on those. ”
    Laura was looking at her disapprovingly.
    Jan frowned at them both, and said, “ I don ’ t pretend to understand what you are trying to do here, Kyle. ”
    “ Don ’ t worry about it, ” Laura said. “ I only want this signed and done with. ”
    “ No, Mom. ”
    “ But we must... ”
    “ I can ’ t clean out all the stuff in the house in a week, ” Jan said firm ly. “ You saw the whole room full of books and all those boxes of stuff. And we didn ’ t even get a look at the other rooms upstairs. Who knows what else is in there? And there ’ s no electricity, so I can only work in daylight. ”
    “ I ’ ll have the power connected tomorrow as soon as I move my crew onto the site, ” Kyle said. “ We need it for our power tools anyway. It ’ ll be a simple matter to connect the house. ”
    “ There, you see? ” Laura said. “ That should help. ”
    “ I suppose it will, ” Jan said. “ What about water? If I’m going to spend hours there, it would help if I had water, so I don’t need to keep driving back to town to use the bathroom, you know. ”
    “ Of course. My men will have a portable toilet on site, but there’s no reason for the house bathroom not to work. Horace had his own well and septic system . I ’ ll have one of my guys make sure the pump still works. ”
    “Thanks,” Jan said. “Everything is very dusty, though if you’re going to tear the house down, I’ll only need to clean the things I plan to save or donate.”
    “ I’m sure this will