Almost Amish by Kathryn Cushman

metal and shook his head. “First, though, I’m charged with configuring young Mr. Brian’s telescope in a satisfactory setup.”
    “Thanks.” Brian walked inside and flipped the switch, which illuminated a single bulb dangling from a long cord in the ceiling. “The little building the show provided is nice and all, but here’s the deal. My telescope is precision scientific equipment. Dust is not a good thing, neither are spiders and mice and such. We need to do something to make my observatory a bit more”—Brian wrung his hands together—“workable.”
    Gary nodded and smiled. “I see what you’re saying. Mice and dust are never good ideas in observatories.” He walked around and inspected the walls and ceiling. “I must say I’m pleasantly surprised. I assumed there would be more in the way of cobwebs in here.”
    “Oh, there were. I’ve been cleaning it all up. I don’t want to even open up the box until I get this place under control.”
    “Got ya. Makes sense to me,” Gary said. “It shouldn’t be that hard to to make a more satisfactory set up. We can replace some of these boards”—he went over and knelt beside a section of wall with a couple of knotholes—“put some caulk around the window frames. A little elbow grease and it wil be almost airtight. How soon you need this thing set up?”
    “The sooner the better. I’m following a couple of comets—Elenin, in particular, is moving away from the earth, and I don’t want to miss it.”
    “Comets, huh? Sounds interesting.” Gary nodded his head in true appreciation. “After we get this thing up and going, mind if I come and check it out sometime?”
    Brian’s face lit up. “I wouldn’t mind at all. In fact, it would be great to have a man out here who actually appreciates these things. I’m living with a house full of girls who just don’t get it.”
    Gary laughed and looked toward Susan. His eyes were so pale blue they almost glowed in this light. He tipped his baseball cap at her. “I’m sure there was no offense intended.”
    “None taken.” Something about him was so . . . likable. But it didn’t matter. He was a man, a handsome one at that, and she’d learned her lesson about trusting anyone—especially someone whose good looks could get him past where his integrity left off. “Will this project take long?”
    “Two days, I’d bet. Is that all right?”
    Not as soon as Susan hoped, but for right now, there were more pressing issues. “I suppose. Well, I really need to get back up to the house and help Julie practice dough rolling.”
    Brian waved his hand dismissively. “That might be a losing cause, Aunt Susan. Mom has a lot of good qualities, but cooking is not really one of them.”
    “You shouldn’t talk like that about your mother.” Gary sounded truly offended.
    Brian shook his head. “Oh, she’s the first to admit it. She tries hard, really she does, but I cannot envision something that has been true for the last forty-something years changing in forty-eight hours. It’s just not logical.”
    “Well, I might not make her the best cook in the world, but assuming our new oven gets delivered soon, I can make her the best shoo-fly pie cook in the world—or at least a decent enough one to get us past the first week of filming without a major disaster on our hands.”
    “Yeah, well, good luck with that.” Brian looked at Gary then. “Do you think we could get started working out here tonight?”
    “Don’t see why not.”
    “I’ll see the two of you later.” Sufficiently satisfied that things here were under control, Susan turned and started back toward the house.
    “Looking forward to it.”
    Something about Gary’s words, maybe the low rumble of his voice, sent a little trill of excitement shooting through Susan.
    Ridiculous.
    By the time she hiked back up to the house, she’d banned all silly notions from her mind and was ready to get back to the task at hand. She walked through the screened