Defined By Deceit

“What was the guy’s name who applied?” Shane tried to sound nonchalant as he pushed aside numerous papers on his drafting table.

“Um. Llewellyn Garden… no… Gardner,” Jessie said, flipping through the application. “I flagged this one.”

“Hire him,” Shane said, hurrying back to the door, trying to hide his excitement at the possibility of seeing Llewellyn in worn jeans riding low from the weight of a tool belt hanging on his strong hips.

“Shane Jr. there’s something you should know about that applicant. I had him flagged for no hire. I mean,he has good experience and references checked out but—”

“Sounds good. Call him today before he accepts a job someplace else,” Shane said, cutting off whatever else his office manager was going to say. He was half out the door, his arms weighed down with rolls of paper. Jack was radioing him; barking about the hold up on the blue prints. “I gotta go Jess. Just call him, now.”

“Shane, there’s something you don’t know about Mr. Gard—”

Shane let the trailer door slam behind him. Jessie could go on and on about the smallest things sometimes. Not everyone was so attentive to detail. Llewellyn probably had bad handwriting and Jessie deemed him as a no hire. As long as the man worked hard and showed up every day, Shane could use him.

“What the hell took you so long?”

“Damn, Jack. I was gone fifteen minutes.” Shane dropped the rolls down on the workbench, and his foreman quickly began to unroll them and pin down the edges. “I was talking to Jessie about our new hire.”

“Oh yeah. You got guys already?” One of the crew leaders asked.

They were all standing around waiting on the specs of the project they were getting ready to begin. Shane was going to need two new crews on the new project and one to finish the current one. This would be a two-year project on the outskirts of town, and he was going to oversee it personally. A three building office park, and each state-of-the-art structure would be four stories high. This was a major victory for the company. He’d bid on it and won out over seven other construction companies. His father had beamed with pride, and boasted about Shane’s brilliance all over town. Now he had to make sure the job was done right.

Chapter Sixteen

Llew was on his one hundred and thirtieth push up when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen, smiling a little when he saw his brother’s number. He stood up and took a couple of cleansing breaths before hit the speaker phone, not wanting his sweaty face to drip on the screen. “What’s up, bro?”

“Hey Llew. Nuttin much, man. How come you didn’t call me? You didn’t take the truck either.” Leslie’s voice was tinged with disappointment.

“It’s all good. I found a place as soon as I got here.” Llew hurriedly tried to put his brother at ease. He knew Leslie would be worried about him, but Llew had to find his own way, a way that didn’t involve hurting his brother in the process.

“Really. Are you at a hotel, or what?”

“Naw. I helped this nice lady with her bags when she was coming out of the market, and as I walked her home she told me she had a renovated room for rent. She’s great, Leslie. The room is really big and comfortable. The rent is fair.” He hesitated slightly. “She doesn’t know um… um.” Llew couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Llew that’s not any of her business.”

“Maybe it is.”

“Like hell. ‘Are you a registered sex offender?’ is not a question I’ve ever seen on a rental application,” Leslie argued.

“I just don’t want to feel like I’m hiding anything. I’d rather tell her myself than see her get blindsided in the store by some nosy friend, ya know? I’m almost scared to get any furniture for this place. I might have to haul it right back out of here when she finds out the truth about me.” Llew went to his fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and the leftover stew Ms. Pat gave him when he got in last night.

“You paid your rent for this month, yea? Well then she can’t just put you out, Llew.”

“She’ll just give me my money back and send me on my way.”

“Damn you’re pessimistic.”

“Eight years in prison will do that to you.” Damnit. That just came out. Leslie was suddenly quiet, only a sorrowful sigh came across the line, and Llew hated to make his brother feel sad for him. “That was stupid. I’m sorry, Les.”

“You can say how you feel, Llewellyn. You have every right to vent.”

“Let’s talk about something else,” he said, shifting the phone to the other ear while popping the Tupperware bowl into the microwave to heat. “I already got a part-time job stocking merchandise in the general store a couple nights a week and I think I may have found a full-time job at Smith’s Construction.”