Love's Paradise by Celeste O. Norfleet

homes and renovate their kitchen.”
    Julian laughed again. “Free of charge, I assume.”
    â€œOh, you know that,” Jordan said, joining his brother’s laughter.
    â€œYou know it’s pretty much expected. We get these requests all the time. There are always one or two politicians in every city we’ve done business who want to make a side deal or get some kind of kickback. It’s the nature of the business. I hope you were polite when you turned them down.”
    â€œActually, no, I wasn’t in the mood to play nice.”
    â€œOkay, what exactly did you do?” he asked.
    â€œI told them what I thought. Perhaps I was a bit abrupt.”
    â€œWhat does ‘a bit abrupt’ mean?”
    â€œI excused myself and walked out to take care of an urgent situation on-site. It’s an old dodge, but it always works.”
    â€œYou know you have to do something about that. We need these people to get the job finished. You’ve played the game long enough to know that.”
    â€œYeah, yeah, I know. I’ll take care of it later,” he said drily. “That reminds me, a woman came by the site this afternoon…” Jordan began.
    Julian started chuckling immediately. He knewhis brother too well. When it came to women he was the ultimate player.
    â€œBelieve me, it’s not one of those stories. To tell you the truth, I’m really not sure what to make of her. My gut feeling tells me she’s trouble.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œHer name is Sheri Summers. She’s from the local museum and she seems to think there might be some historical artifacts in a hole on the secondary site.”
    â€œHow does she know that?”
    â€œThat’s what I was wondering. Apparently someone on-site told her.”
    â€œSo you dug them up?” Julian asked.
    â€œNo, we cleared debris and overgrown foliage last week then it rained a few days and eroded one of the holes at the secondary site. I had it drained and it looks like planks of wood began showing up, along with an old medicine bottle.”
    â€œIt doesn’t sound like much.”
    â€œI agree. It could be anything. But just in case, I’m gonna put a call into Kenneth and stop by an antique shop in town. The last thing we need is more legal delays.”
    â€œGood idea.”
    â€œSo, how’s it going in D.C.? Any word yet?”
    â€œNo word yet. But it’s looking really good. We made it through to the final two cut. I think we have a really good shot at getting this bid. It’s amajor contract and along with the Crescent Island project, it could very well set us up nicely for the future. The bid and proposal were right on target and the architectural renderings you did were exactly what they were looking for. I think we just might have this one.”
    â€œExcellent,” Jordan said happily. He needed to hear some good news after the day he had. It wasn’t that the company was doing badly or anything. But having the next project set up and waiting was always good business. With the economy still sluggish and the housing and commercial construction markets stalled, getting new projects was becoming more and more difficult.
    He knew what the market had done to a lot of companies their size. Some were bankrupt and others were working on a shoestring with less than half their staff. Hamilton Development had been blessed. Their business had increased and they’d been steadily working and even hiring more workers. “That’s really great news.”
    â€œAll right, I gotta go. Duty calls.”
    â€œAll right, man. Thanks, talk to you later.”
    Jordan hung up feeling a lot better. He was ready to take on the world again. That included Nolan, the board of supervisors and, especially, Sheri Summers.

Chapter 6
    J ordan went back to work after his brother’s phone call. After a few hours of work he got up, grabbed a bottle of water from