The Hired Man by Dorien Grey Page A

here to work on the fountain.
    I was about fifteen feet away from them, after nearly tripping over a bag of concrete while exchanging a warm smile with one of the shirtless wonders, when the green-eyed one moved his head closer to Mrs. Glick and said something that caused her to turned toward me, her face breaking into a warm, perfect-hostess smile.
    “Mr. Hardesty!” she said, all warmth and never losing the smile. “How very nice to see you!” She extended her hand as I was still about ten feet away, and I took it when I got there. “Won’t this be nice?” She indicated the work in progress.
    “Yes, it certainly will.” I glanced from one of her companions to the other. They were both looking at me, each with just the hint of a smile, and I felt like it was feeding time at the lion’s cage.
    Mrs. Glick touched each of them lightly on the arm without looking at them
    “Aaron, Gary, I’d like you to meet Mr. Hardesty. Mr. Hardesty…” She turned to the guy with the sea eyes. “…this is my brother Gary, and this…” Turning her entire body very slightly toward the butch-looking one. “…is Aaron. Gentlemen, this is Mr. Hardesty.”
    “Dick,” I amended as they each took a small step forward in turn to shake my hand. Firm grasps. Sincere. Disarming. Practiced.
    “Nice to meet you, Gary…Aaron.”
    “My pleasure,” they replied, almost in unison. Aaron’s was accompanied by a grin that managed to be both friendly and wicked at the same time.
    Aaron and Gary…Glick had mentioned both names when he was listing the escorts in ModelMen’s employ. Very interesting. The fact that Gary/Sea Eyes was related to Mrs. Glick came as something of a surprise, since there wasn’t all that much of a family resemblance. And not to be unkind, but he was obviously her younger brother.
    “Gary designed this,” Mrs. Glick said with obvious pride, again indicating the work in progress. “He is a true Renaissance man.”
    Gary looked at me with a serene smile.
    I’ve got a bedroom ceiling that could use some work, I thought. Maybe he’d like to come over and spend a couple hours looking at it.
    “I’m impressed,” I said honestly, and I wasn’t just talking about Gary being a Renaissance man.
    “Would you like to come inside for coffee?” Mrs. Glick asked. “My husband had some things he had to see to at the office, but he should be back in about an hour, and I know he’d be sorry to have missed you. I assume you brought the contract for us to sign?”
    “Yes, I did,” I said, “but don’t worry about it. I’ll just leave it and pick it up another time. There’s no rush. I really should be getting back to the office, and I can see you’re busy. May I have a rain check on the coffee?”
    She smiled warmly. “Of course.”
    I handed her the envelope with the contracts, which she in turn handed to Gary.
    “Be a dear, Aaron, and walk Mr. Hardesty to his car while Gary does me a big favor and takes this in to the study. Would you mind?”
    Both smiled on cue.
    “Of course not.” Again in unison.
    I glanced at Aaron just in time to catch his eye.
    “I’d be happy to,” he added, giving me a decoder-badge-secret-message smile.
    Mrs. Glick extended her hand, which I again took.
    “Thank you again for coming over,” she said.
    “My pleasure. Please tell Mr. Glick I’m sorry I missed him.” I then turned to follow Aaron to the gate.
    I increased my pace slightly to walk alongside Aaron, deliberately avoiding looking at the shirtless workers as we passed them. Well, actually Aaron didn’t walk ; he sort of panthered along like some jungle cat, exuding an aura of raw sexual energy.
    “You’re pretty good,” he said.
    “Thanks,” I said, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “At what?”
    “Playing the Alice-at-the-Tea-Party game. ‘How nice of you to come.’ ‘How nice of you to have me.’ ‘One lump or two?’ ‘How very kind of you.’ God, I get so fucking sick of that