whistle while he worked. No doubt he was totaling up the increase in his fees.
Savannah was just trying to decide whether to plead with him or kick him out on his backside when Dash arrived.
Her heart flipped over in her chest. She hadn’t seen him since she’d left him by the roadside last night. She’d purposefully gotten up early so as to miss him at the bathroom door. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling about him. Lust, certainly. But it was so much more than that.
And yet, all the angry tension disappeared the minute he strolled into the auditorium, replaced with something else altogether. Dash was here. She was safe. Even if someone had tried to burn down her theater.
“They think it was arson,” she said, her voice shaky. “The insurance company is balking.”
John Rodgers stopped whistling.
Dash frowned. “Who would want to burn down The Kismet? It was falling down anyway.”
Savannah turned on Rodgers. “It might never have happened if your crew hadn’t left the door unlocked. It was probably some kid pulling a prank.”
“I didn’t leave the door open.” Rodgers turned and headed toward the front door. Dash and Savannah trailed after him.
“Well, shoot,” Rodgers said, “there isn’t any sign of a forced entry.”
“Because your workers left it open,” Dash said.
Rodgers put his fists on his hips. “Or maybe you did, Dash. Maybe you set the fire just like you put the snakes up in the projection room. Maybe you’ve just been trying to make everyone think you’re still the hometown hero.”
“I was never the hometown hero,” Dash said. “And that’s the reason folks think I put diamondbacks in the projection room.”
“Well then, it was probably that old crazy man, Zeph,” Rodgers said.
Savannah had to step in before the two men came to blows. “Zeph isn’t the kind of man who would burn a place like this down. You’ve seen the way he is about the woodwork. And Dash wouldn’t put diamondbacks in the projection room. If he wanted to scare me, all he’d have to do is find a little garden snake. So I have to conclude that your workers were not careful about locking up.”
“Look, honey, you don’t know squat about this. Why don’t you just let me and Dash figure it out?” Rodgers said.
“You’re fired,” Savannah replied.
Rodgers straightened. “We have a contract.”
“Too bad. You didn’t lock the door and look what happened. That’s grounds for dismissal,” Dash said, folding his arms across his chest.
“Fine. Have it your way. I’ll expect you to honor the termination clause in the contract. And you sure aren’t going to get your deposit back. You won’t be able to afford to fix the place up if the insurance doesn’t come through either.” The contractor turned and strolled out of the building.
“He didn’t seem too upset about being fired, did he?” Dash said.
“Are you suggesting that he left the door open on purpose? That’s crazy. Why would he do that?”
Dash turned and walked back into the auditorium. “Well, whoever tried to burn this place down did a pretty bad job of it. The ceiling may be gone, but the lobby’s intact. We can salvage this.”
“I don’t have the money. If I don’t pay Rodgers a cancellation fee, he’ll take me to court, and I can’t afford that either. And the project has gotten way more expensive. I don’t think I could get a loan, and I have a feeling that Angel Development is going to want—”
“I have the money. We’re going to renovate this place, if it’s the last thing I do. And if it’s true that someone tried to burn this place down, then I’m going to find out who the bastard is and I’m going to let him know just exactly how ticked off I am about it.”
Savannah opened her mouth to argue and then stopped. “Okay,” she said.
He turned, a surprised look on his face. “You aren’t going to argue?”
She shook her head. “No. You loved Granddaddy as much as I did. I think he would be happy if you and I teamed up on this. And God knows, if someone tried to burn this place down on purpose, I won’t stand in the way of your beating the crap out of them, when you find them. And also, I need the money.”
He smiled. With both sides of his mouth. And that grin made her heart swell. God, she was falling for him in a big way.
“I’m ready to listen to your advice, too,” she added.