"	Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

CHAPTER 10

A red Ford F250 with 'Brady and Sons' painted on the door pulled up and parked behind my Explorer. A good looking grey-haired man got out, gave a quick look around, and headed for the office stairs.

“Ginny, sit down at that computer and look busy, while Steve and I talk.”

“Hello Kiddo, hows it coming out there?” Steve asked as he opened the door, “Are we getting back on schedule after all that rain last week?”

“No 'Good morning, How are you? What happened, no coffee yet?'”

Steve laughed, “Ok, Ok, Good morning Ellen, You look great this morning, any coffee?”
At that we both laughed.

“Ginny, could you come out here? I like you to meet the boss. Steve, I'd like you to meet my cousin Virginia, she's from down the Cape. She's staying with me for a while.”

Steve checked her out from head to toe, only stopping briefly at her bust line. “Hi, I'm Steve Brady, I own this traveling circus, Nice to meet you.”
Ginny mumbled something that sounded like “For sure, me too.”

“Ginny, could you give us a few minutes alone?” With that, she headed back to the computer set up in the other room.

“OK, what's up?”

“Steve, she just got out from a bad relationship. Her boyfriend used her as a punching bag. She finally got away with only the clothes on her back when he went to work.”

I knew this would get his hackles up; Steve's a big supporter of charities that help battered women.

“What can I do to help?” he said.

“She's staying with me right now, but she needs something to do to make some money, Ginny's embarrassed, she doesn't want charity. I was hoping you could give her a job bookkeeping, and pay her under the table, no-one the wiser.”

“How much are you thinking of a week?”

I thought a minute and said “A secretary gets $400 a week, how about half that, $200?” figuring he'd barter a bit.
“Fine, $200 a week under the table, no paperwork. But she's your responsibility!”

I gave him a kiss on the cheek, and called to Ginny to join us.

“Ginny, Steve has agreed to hire you, at least until this project is finished. You'll be paid $200 per week, cash, no questions asked. How does that sound?”

With a squeak, she gave first me then Steve a hug. “Thank you, thank you, you've saved my life. How can I repay you?”

Steve chuckled and looked at me shaking his head. “I'm going to go broke one of these days. Honey, just do what ever your cousin tells you to do. Just like me.”

I sent Ginny back to entering truck slips for the loads of gravel that were delivered during the last month.

Steve and I made a cup of coffee, then walked over to the plan table and looked at the layouts of where the new foundations would go. After a hour or so, Steve looked at his watch, and said “Got to go, I've got a meeting with the planning board in Lynn at 11.30. It's about that lot on the water that's for sale. Hopefully, I'll get permission to build condominiums there.”

After Steve left, Ginny came out of the office to the main room. “Just what did you say to him?” she asked as she made a cup of coffee in the Kurig machine. “200 a week, I can't believe it.”

“I told him you just escaped an abusive relationship with just the clothes on your back, no money, no car, nothing. That's a red flag for Steve, I hated to deceive him, but you'll earn your money.”

I went outside to check the grades and talk with the crews working on grading the parking area. Ginny jumped onto the computer and didn't raise her head for hours.

The canteen truck showed up at 11.45, we grabbed a soda and a sandwich and went back in the trailer.

“You can't believe what is on the internet for cross-dressers and transgendered people.
I even found sites talking about surgery to be a woman, or a woman to a man.”

“Whoa, hold up a minute, one weekend as a woman and you're talking about surgery? Don't you think that you're going too fast?”

“I guess so, but I couldn't believe what I read, I mean shoot, you should see it for yourself.”

“When we get home you can show me, not now. C'mon lets get back to work.”

The rest of the afternoon went by quickly, and it was time to go home. As I locked the door, and put the padlock on, Ginny reminded me of our errands on the way home.

“We need to stop at Dick's sporting goods behind the Sears off Route 1, I need sports tape and some black cotton socks.”

“What ever for?” I asked. “We have those at home.”

“I was doing research on how to tuck my stuff under, and I want to try it out when we get home.”

I blushed, thinking of what she said, “I hope you don't expect me to help, do you?”

“Well, just a little,” she said.

'What have I got myself into,' I moaned under my breath, “Ok, we'll stop, but make it fast.”

Ginny was in and out in 15 minutes, and we headed home.

To be continued

Many thanks to Bronwen Welsh for fixing punctuation and grammar