Whispered Secrets (Rose Garden Apartments Book 2) Read online

  “What happened?” he asked.

  She knew that she should have kept her mouth shut. But because she was nervous around this man with his wide, strong shoulders, and that chest that just begged for a woman to lay her cheek against, Maggie admitted that she was weak. Weak and pathetic when he spoke to her. She did silly things, like admit her tragic past.

  “My father skedaddled right after my birth. Then my mother…well, apparently, I was a tough baby to bring into this world and my mother was a delicate little thing. She died shortly after my birth.” Maggie swallowed, forcing her lips into a smile. “But I had my grandmother. She was always there for me.”

  Oliver’s eyes narrowed and Maggie knew that she’d revealed too much. “What’s in the bag?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

  Oliver glanced down, having forgotten the bag entirely. “Oh…just something for my apartment,” he said, not mentioning that this was the new grout for the bathroom. The tiles should have set by now. The grout would give a whole new air to the place. He’d start on the floors next.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked. “I mean, I know that the renovation teams are hard at work in the other apartments so as soon as they are ready, you can move into one. And if there’s something that isn’t working, just let me know. If I can’t fix it, I know that Mick or Eddie, or one of the others, can. No need to suffer with broken things. I know that the décor leaves a lot to be desired, but when I checked that apartment, everything seemed to work properly.”

  He smiled and that look stunned her enough that she finally stopped talking.

  “Everything is working perfectly,” he assured her.

  She snorted and he chuckled. “Okay, I’ll admit that the cabinets need some work. So, I just took them down and stored stuff on shelves.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I did when I moved in as well. The manager’s office was pretty bad before. The previous manager was disgusting!”

  “Why haven’t you moved into one of the renovated places?”

  Oliver watched the emotions flit over her features. There was another mystery, he realized.

  She waved her hand in the air. “Oh, there are others who need a decent place to live more than I do. There are so many families that just need a little help.”

  “You don’t think that you need a break?” he asked softly.

  She laughed. “Oh, I had a pretty good childhood. It’s my turn to sacrifice for a while.” She turned and watched as Davie maneuvered around the empty parking spaces. “You’re doing a great job, Davie!” she called encouragingly.

  “He learned pretty fast.”

  “Davie is a good kid. His mother is studying to become a nurse practitioner.”

  “Why not a doctor?” he asked.

  Another snort. “Because medical school is expensive. Barbara is only able to take one class per semester. With her two jobs, plus Davie, plus that one class, she’s pretty tied up.”

  “I didn’t realize,” he said, feeling like a jerk for being so insensitive. The people he knew who went to medical school had their parents pay for the whole thing. They were smart people, but they didn’t have to worry about financial issues.

  “Where are you from?” she asked, squinting up at him.

  He laughed. “I grew up right here in Virginia. My family still lives in Richmond. I went to the University of Virginia for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees.” He paused, realizing that he might have made a mistake in admitting that much. If Maggie thought he wasn’t a worthy candidate for the apartment, would she kick him out? He didn’t want to leave until he understood Maggie better. She was a mystery. A fascinating, beautiful mystery. Once he understood her better, he’d get out of the apartment and make room for someone who actually needed it. Until he understood why she did the things she did, he wanted to stick around.

  “Maggie!” Louise called from the sidewalk.

  “What’s up?” Maggie called, glancing over at Davie to make sure he was still upright.

  “Jimmy needs ya!”

  Maggie turned to look up at Oliver. “Will you keep an eye on Davie for me?”

  Oliver nodded and waved her off. “Sure. Go.”

  Oliver stood there, the grout still in the bag in his arms as Davie rolled slowly over, stopping next to him.

  “Man, you’ve got it bad,” the boy teased, shaking his head as he rode off, still wobbly but better than before.

  Oliver sighed and put the grout back in the bed of his pickup, then, pushing the sleeves up on his shirt, he followed after Davie to give him a few more tips.

  Chapter 6

  Oliver checked his cell phone as he hurried out of the apartment. He had meetings in an hour and he still needed to head back to his place to shower and change. He could do that here, but Oliver was still hiding his identity and his job by wearing jeans and a tee shirt. Sometimes, he felt like a fraud. But other times, he revived his flagging sense of right and wrong by doing something kind for the people who lived here. For instance, he’d ordered his security team to figure out who had stolen back their car from Mick’s repair shop without paying, then had “gently encouraged” the man to pay Mick the money he’d owed him. Not by physical violence, but his security team had shown the guy the evidence of his transgressions and promised to bring that evidence to the police.

  The next day, Mick had come home shaking his head in disbelief, muttering about strange happenings. Oliver took that to mean that the guy had paid up. Plus, he was secretly renovating the apartment, paying for the supplies himself. He’d also gotten his assistant to research scholarship opportunities for Davie’s mother. Since most of the scholarship deadlines for the year had passed, Oliver ended up setting up a scholarship fund through his company, anonymously, of course. Then his assistant had worked through that system to apply that scholarship money to Davie’s mother’s school tuition.

  Davie was grinning from ear to ear, excited for his mother.

  That had felt good.

  What hadn’t felt good was not seeing Maggie for the past several days. Was she hiding from him? Had he offended her somehow?

  Damn, he needed to see her! He just needed a smile from her to make his day brighter.

  But that wasn’t going to happen, he realized. And when he came around the corner of the building, he realized that his day was about to get even worse. His truck, the beat up old truck that he’d bought as part of his disguise, was open. The engine hood propped up and…was someone actually stealing his truck engine right here in middle of the parking lot? Seriously?!

  But as he approached, the hood slammed closed and Mick straightened up, cleaning a wrench with an oily rag.

  “Mick?” Oliver called out, startling the man into looking up. “What were you doing to my truck?” he asked, trying not to sound suspicious but…well, hell, he was suspicious!

  “Your timing belt was off. That clicking sound? The belt was fixing to break.”

  Oliver blinked at the elderly man for a long moment. “It…was?” he finally asked, stunned.

  “Yeah. It’s fixed now.” Mick collected his toolbox and his cooler filled with his lunch supplies.

  Oliver watched as the elderly man headed towards his shop, not sure what to say. “How much do I owe you?” he asked, because that’s what any other person would ask, right?

  Wrong!

  Mick turned back, frowning at Oliver for a long moment. “If you see Jimmy at the ABC store,” he started off, referring to the alcohol beverage center, the only stores with licenses to sell hard alcohol in Virginia, “stop and talk to him. Don’t pass him by.”

  Then Mick quietly turned and headed off. There wasn’t much traffic this early in the morning. It was relatively quiet now, but soon, the traffic would be whizzing by, the sun would come up, and the world would once again speed through the day.

  Which is exactly what Oliver should be doing. Instead, he stood there, watching the elderly man who was walking down the same street towards the same job
that he’d been doing for decades.

  When Mick was out of sight, Oliver turned and looked at his truck once again. Then back at the apartment buildings. More specifically, Maggie’s windows. He wanted to go to her, to talk to her. Just smile at her. Instead, he got into his truck and drove away.

  Maggie watched as Oliver’s pickup drove smoothly out of the parking lot. She’d watched him this morning. She’d seen the confused look on his handsome features and wanted to laugh. She understood that confusion. Maggie had been confused when she’d first arrived at Rose Garden Apartments. It was a world away from the norm, she thought.

  Turning away from the window now that Oliver had gone, she picked up her notebook and got on with her day. She had lots to do.

  Chapter 7

  “We have a major problem!” Molly announced as the others gathered at the Center.

  Lilly Gataki waddled over to the group of chairs that Molly had arranged, groaning when she spotted the overstuffed recliner. “I’m not sitting there!” she declared, grumbling under her breath.

  Jimmy glared at her. “Woman, you are too pregnant to be this stubborn,” and he took her hands. “If you won’t do it for me, do it for your baby. She needs rest.”

  Lilly glared up at the former Navy SEAL, but he was even more stubborn than she. With a resigned sigh, she allowed him to lower her into the chair. “I feel like a beached whale,” she grumbled.

  “You look like one too,” Louise agreed cheerfully as she stepped into the circle and sat down on a folding chair. “But a beautiful beached whale.” She patted Lilly’s hand and grinned.

  Lilly glared at her friend. “You’re not my favorite anymore,” she decided.

  Nora came around on Lilly’s other side, handing her a small plate of cookies. “That’s because I’m your favorite, right?” she asked.

  Lilly sighed with happiness as she took a bite of a cookie. “Absolutely!”

  Jimmy shook his head, and grabbed an apple from one of the tables. With surprising speed, he swiped the plate of cookies and replaced them with the apple. “The baby needs vitamins.” He turned to glare at Nora. “Not sugar.” He walked to the opposite side of the circle, scarfing down the cookies as he went.

  Lilly knew he was right, but her mouth watered for another cookie anyway. Unfortunately, Jimmy was too far away for her to steal them back. Plus, Molly snuck around behind the chair and, with a flip of the side switch, swooped Lilly’s feet into the air with the footrest. That meant that there wasn’t much she could do about retrieving her stolen cookies. Jimmy knew it and snickered as he ate another one.

  Thankfully, Eddie came around and snatched the plate, taking the last two cookies and gobbling them up. He turned to Lilly and gave her a wink, as if he were somehow conspiring with her against Jimmy.

  Not so much, Lilly thought miserably as she took a bite of the apple. It was sweet and delicious and much healthier. But those were Nora’s cranberry walnut cookies! She loved how the sweetness of the cookie as well as the contrast with the tart cranberries. Besides, Jimmy didn’t even like nuts in his cookies!

  “The walnuts are good for arteries,” she mumbled around a bite of apple.

  Molly sat down next to Mick. “Can we get down to the urgent reason I called us together?” she asked, looking around with a look that informed everyone that she would not be delayed any longer.

  “What’s up?” Lilly asked, shifting so that she was more comfortable. As embarrassing as she found the chair, it was incredibly comfortable. Plus, the elevated footrest definitely helped with her swollen ankles. Just a few more months, she promised, patting her belly as she took another bite of the apple.

  “The problem is that our plan isn’t working. We need to be more actively pushing Maggie and Oliver together.”

  “I thought that he’d moved into one of the apartments?” Lilly asked, looking around. “Maggie always helps with the renovations. They should be together all the time then, right?”

  “That’s true,” Molly explained. “But from what I can figure out, Oliver is doing it all himself during the evening hours. Maggie is working on the renovations with the teams during the day. She doesn’t venture anywhere near Oliver’s apartment. So, we need to up the stakes if we’re going to get these two together.”

  Louise nodded her head. “Seems to me that all those two do is watch each other from a distance. No action.”

  “Oliver is trying to be a gentleman,” Nora sniffed.

  “Yeah, I agree,” Eddie put in. “But this is Maggie we’re talking about. And in the year that she’s been here with us, she hasn’t shown interest in anyone we’ve brought around. But the moment she saw Oliver, she was smitten.”

  “And he’s just as head over heels with her,” Molly agreed. “But something is holding him back.”

  “It’s Maggie,” Nora announced. “She’s always running away from him.”

  “Texas!” Mick snorted. “Something happened to her in Texas and now she’s afraid of her own shadow.”

  “She only gets nervous around Oliver,” Louise pointed out.

  Everyone in the group nodded, except for Lilly. “Who is this Oliver guy? I don’t know about him.”

  “He’s a construction worker that showed up looking for a place to live. Maggie thinks he’s ex-military.”

  “But he’s not,” Jimmy countered.

  No one argued as Molly continued. “She gave him the apartment four doors down from hers. But he’s a mystery.”

  “Should someone do a background check on him?”

  Jimmy shook his head. “He’s fine. I’ve already looked into him.”

  There was a brief silence as that news was absorbed. No one doubted him though. The former Navy SEAL was coming back to life with a vengeance.

  “Okay, so Oliver is a good guy. But Maggie is running away from him. What’s our plan to get them together?” Molly asked, looking around the small group of friends and co-conspirators.

  “Soccer!” Lilly blurted.

  Everyone turned in her direction, not sure if her outburst was a symptom of her pregnancy or a solution.

  “Soccer!” she repeated when their blank looks continued. “Maggie took over the girls’ soccer team last year. Soccer is about to start again now that school is back in session.”

  Eddie nodded, chuckling. “She asked if I could help her coach the team!” he announced, leaning forward.

  Slow smiles lit up every face. “You’re going to ask Oliver if he would fill in for you, aren’t you?” Nora asked, grinning mischievously.

  “Damn straight I am,” he agreed as he theatrically clutched his back. “I’m feeling a bit of sciatica coming on.” He added a slight groan for effect.

  “Excellent!” Molly replied, clapping her hands. “Okay, what else?”

  “Isn’t the community garden harvest coming up next weekend?” Louise offered.

  “Sure is,” Molly laughed.

  “And we need a few more volunteers, don’t we?” Lilly asked.

  Molly jumped up and grabbed a big piece of paper from her desk. “That’s a good idea. I’m working out the assignments now. I can make sure Oliver and Maggie are stationed in the same area. Maggie wouldn’t dare leave until everything is done, which will give Oliver a chance to make his case.”

  “Okay, what else?” Molly asked, scribbling frantically.

  For the next hour, the group brainstormed. By the time they walked back out into the gorgeous autumn afternoon, the plans were in place. It was ingenious!

  Chapter 8

  “Okay ladies! Gather round and let’s talk about–” Maggie paused as she watched a man in well-worn jeans and yet another faded tee shirt climb out of his pickup. “What’s he doing here?” Maggie asked, startled when Oliver reached into the back of his truck and pulled out a mesh bag filled with…glory be! New soccer balls!

  Almost in unison, the girls gasped as they watched the man toss the bag of pretty, shiny soccer balls over his shoulder and pulled out a second bag. What
this bag might contain was a mystery that had all fifteen girls, as well as their now-stammering coach, gawking in wonder and anticipation.

  “Hello ladies,” Oliver said as he dropped both bags on the grass. He turned to Maggie to explain, “Eddie caught me on my way to work this morning. He said something happened to his back and asked if I could help you with soccer practice.” He looked at the girls who were all examining the mesh bag filled with soccer balls. “I hope you don’t mind me helping out as a substitute assistant coach until he feels better?”

  Maggie’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “He seemed okay earlier, when I saw him carrying a bag of grout up to the second story apartments,” she muttered. Then sighed and shook her head. “But yes, thank you for filling in. I think the real reason Eddie bailed on me is because he doesn’t know how to play soccer. He helped me last year but never really understood what off-sides meant.”

  “The company I’m currently working for donates sports equipment for local teams. When I mentioned that I was stepping in to help, I was offered a stipend to buy some equipment.”

  Maggie gasped, her eyes dropping to the filled bags. “You mean, all of this is ours to keep?”

  The girls had opened the other bag and were pulling out mesh jerseys. Half of the girls would wear the mesh shirts over their tee shirts and the other half wouldn’t. That made it easier to identify one’s opponent.

  “Sure. The owner is a pretty good guy.”

  One of the girls pulled out a stack of small, orange cones. “What are these for?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

  “Those are to run drills,” Oliver explained, and glanced at Maggie as if that should have been just a standard piece of equipment.

  “We run drills around sticks,” she explained with a shrug.

  “Not anymore,” he announced. Then he looked down at the thoroughly beaten up, filthy soccer ball resting at Maggie’s feet. “Where are the others?”