My heart began racing the moment I saw Frank with his big handgun.

As he looked at me sheepishly and began to apologize, someone burst through the front door. Frank dropped to a crouch again and brought his gun back up. “Jake?”

I put a hand to my chest, felt my heart fluttering in my breast.

Beside me, Marta, one of our cleaning ladies, looked like she was about to die of a heart attack, repeating some phrase over and over again Spanish under her breath.

“Yeah, Frank!” Jake called back.

“False alarm!”

“What the hell are you two doing?” I yelled as I put an arm around Marta and began to try and soothe her. “Trying to scare us half to death?”

Frank winced, did something with his gun, and put it away as the front door opened and closed again, the enigmatic Jake disappearing back outside. “Sorry, Ashley, we heard a scream while we were behind the house. We thought you were in trouble.”

Beside me, Marta continued to mumble. “Sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “Marta came in and saw the mess. Guess I forgot to call the cleaning service this morning, tell them about it being, um, more.”

Frank nodded, said something to her in her native language as he came over, the words tumbling from his mouth with ease. Immediately, Marta began to calm down. She replied, glanced at me, then said something else.

Wow. He spoke another language? And fluently? I found myself trying to follow along with him, with the way he rolled his R’s, the shape of his lips. Brushing a strand of hair behind my ear, I stepped over to Frank’s side so I wasn’t crowding Marta anymore.

“She’s sorry about causing a scene,” Frank translated. “She’s just never seen the cabin this bad. Other people’s sometimes, after big parties, but nothing like this.”

“Could you tell her I understand? And that I’d scream, too.”

He smiled and translated for me. Marta rattled off something.

“Says it’s going to cost more than your normal bill. She’ll need to call some girls up here to help. At least her daughter.”

Immediately, thoughts of money filled my head. My credit card issue wasn’t settled yet. All I had was five hundred dollars in cash. How did people get through the day like this, not being able to pay for things they wanted or needed? I groaned as I looked around the cabin.

“Well?” Frank asked.

I turned my attention back to Marta, to all the cleaning supplies at her feet, the distraught look on her face. “I’m thinking,” I said, tapping my chin.

She raised an eyebrow at me. Shit or get off the pot, lady, that’s what that eyebrow said.

My thoughts drifted back to the conversation I’d had with Frank while we’d been checking out his car. When was the last time I’d done any actual work? Geez.

Marta’s look intensified, her eyebrow somehow going higher. She just wanted to know what was happening.

I nodded to myself. “Know what?” I said to them. “I’m going to do it.”

Frank looked down at me, something like surprise on his face, a little smile on his lips. “You sure? This is going to be a real shit show to clean, you know that, right?”

I crossed my arms in front and stuck out my chin as I turned and looked up at him. “Think I can’t do it? That it?”

He laughed. “I think it’s a job for more than just one person.”

“Are you volunteering? Once you say yes, you can’t take it back.”

There was a look of shock on his face. “Well, I don’t know–”

“I mean, if you help me go through all this, you might find something useful.”

“I–”

“And I hired you to go over the scene, didn’t I? The crime scene?”

“Now, Ashley–”

“What if we billed the hours under the contract I already have with Frost? Your boss has already cleared you for work, hasn’t he?”

He laughed. “Okay, okay. Fine, I’ll help.”

Beside us, the look on Marta’s face had turned from annoyance to confusion as he and I bantered back and forth, and I pulled him into work the exact same way my mother used to when she was raising money for the non-profit foundations she helped.

I smiled up at him and nodded. “Excellent.” I went over to where I’d left my purse on the counter between the living room and the kitchen, pulled out my wallet, and withdrew a crisp one hundred-dollar bill that I folded up.

Behind me, Frank and Marta exchanged words, probably about my deciding to clean the cabin on my own.

I walked back over to Marta and offered her the money.

She looked at Frank to see if I was serious as I stood there with the cash extended in my hand. He just shrugged.

When she didn’t take it, though, I grabbed her arm and stuck it in her hand. “This is for coming out here. I know you have jobs you could’ve been doing instead, so I still want you to get paid.”

Confused at what this crazy white girl was doing, she glanced at Frank again as he translated my words for her. Marta grinned, as the money quickly disappeared into her pocket, and she threw her arms around my neck and gave me a hug. “Thank you, Ms. Maxwell.”

At first, I was in shock. I’d never had an employee hug me like that before. That wore off quickly, though, and I embraced her right back. “You’re welcome,” I said, smiling, as I pulled back from her and took her by the arms. “Do you need any help carrying your supplies out to the car?”

Frank translated, and Marta shook her head no, saying something to Frank. “She’s got it,” Frank translated back to me.

With nothing for her to do there, I walked her to the door and sent her on her way, but not without another hug. The second one felt even better than the first, to be honest.

“Hell of a tip you just gave that lady,” he said from behind me.

I shrugged and flicked my hair out of the way as I glanced back over my shoulder at him.

He stood there, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his chin set, a small smile on his full lips.

“Well, it’s a long drive out of town,” I said. “I didn’t want her to leave empty-handed. She gets paid by the job, I think, not by the hour.”

He nodded. “We’re really gonna clean this whole place?” Frank asked from behind me as I watched Marta load up her cleaning supplies in the back of her little car. “You ever cleaned a mess this big before?”

“Not up to it?” I asked slightly tauntingly with a smile as I turned back to watch Marta head around to the driver’s seat.

“Don’t confuse me for someone who don’t like hard work,” he drawled. “I grew up on a farm, and used to get out to the barn by five every morning to milk the cows before school.”

Marta started up her car and pulled away, giving me an enthusiastic wave as she headed off down the drive.

“So it’s about me, then?” I asked as I whirled around to face him. “Worried I don’t have it in me? Little rich girl like me can’t get her hands dirty? That it?”

He rolled his eyes. “Didn’t say that, neither. Just wondering if you know the scope, is all.”

“Too big for me to handle, then?” I teased.

Shaking his head, he threw his hands up. “Once again, you’re twisting my words here.”

“Well, what did you mean, then, Mr. O’Dwyer?”

“All I meant was, this is a big job. And, even with my help, it’s still gonna be a big job. And don’t even look at Jake. He can’t keep his own damn place clean.”

He was right, it was going to be a big job. But everything was like that, wasn’t it? Even planning a vacation was a huge task. Picking out clothes, packing, talking to your travel agent and making sure they had everything for you. All you had to do, though, was break it down into a lot of smaller jobs. I didn’t see how this would be any different. “Well,” I said as I shut the front door. “I’m going to go inspect the cleaning supplies.”

“Fine,” he said, following after me. “I should probably tell Jake I’ve been drafted into cleanup duty, then.”

I laughed. “Think of it as character building. That’s what my mother always said.”

“Built enough character in the service to last me a lifetime, believe me.”

He disappeared out the back door, on his search for his partner.

Meanwhile, I began my search for where someone might keep cleaning supplies in this place.