“The plumber or a plumber?”

“Both, I guess.” She paused. “I don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Is he just a friend of yours who happens to be a plumber? Or is he Island Building ’s plumber?”

“We don’t have a plumber on staff right now,” Josie answered, understanding him despite the incorrect name. “But he is the plumber we hired for this project, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He just frowned.

“That is what you want to know, isn’t it? I’ve never met him before,” she added when there was no answer to her question. “My crew changes and sometimes we have a plumber on the staff, but right now we don’t. And the plumber I usually use was busy and recommended Wayne.” After a pause, she asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Is something wrong? Is something wrong, she asks,” he said loudly, although Josie had no idea who he imagined he was speaking to. “Yes, something is wrong. I will tell you what is wrong.”

“What?”

“Well, unless Wayne Wagner is going to have some very serious surgery before next week, he’s not going to fit in with the image we have of this project.”

Josie suddenly realized what he was talking about. “You mean the problem is that Wayne isn’t a woman?”

“Got it in one! And we’ve sold this show to the stations as an all-female show. They were chomping at the bit to get it for a spring or summer fund-raiser. Now what the hell am I going to do?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look, television shows don’t make themselves. It takes lots of equipment, lots of people, and lots and lots of money to make a halfway decent show.”

Josie remembered the piles of equipment and the large staff outside and nodded her head.

“And there’s only so much money to go around.”

“Of course.” Was there anyplace where that wasn’t true?

“So we sell our shows to the stations before we make them. And, frankly, finding your company was a godsend.”

“Why?”

“Because the biggest pots of cash go to the shows that make money.”

“I don’t understand.” Josie put up a hand to stop him. “I thought this show was for public television. I thought only commercial television worried about making money.”

“Yeah, you and everyone else. Why do you think they’re always having those long fund-raisers?”

“Well, I don’t watch PBS all that much,” Josie admitted. “I did when my son was young. Sesame Street and Zoom and stuff like that.”

“Ever wonder what it costs to make one of those cute little Muppets?”

“Not really,” Josie admitted.

“Lots.”

“But what does all this have to do with my plumbing sub?”

“That’s right. You may have a point. He’s a subcontractor, not a contractor. We might just manage to work this out. Depends on how we sell it.” Bobby Valentine seemed to be speaking almost to himself.

“I still don’t understand,” Josie reminded him.

“Well, we sold this show to public broadcasting as a fund-raiser. I mean, we know contracting shows are a dime a dozen, but one that featured women workers… Well, it’s different, if you know what I mean. And it sure would have more appeal as a fund-raiser and… and stuff like that. It’s well known that women control where the contributions go in most families.”

“Really?” Josie knew nothing about it. When her son, Tyler, was four years old, she had sent twenty-five dollars to Channel 13 because he longed for a bright blue stuffed Cookie Monster. That was her entire experience with fund-raising. But Bobby Valentine had bigger things on his mind.

“You know, there’s nothing to get excited about here. That Wayne isn’t really on the staff of your company. We’ll just keep him in the background.” Bobby Valentine got up and opened the trailer’s door for Josie.

Once again she was struck by the amount of equipment standing around. There was an awful lot of stuff that was supposed to be hidden in the background with Wayne Wagner. Josie just hoped that someone knew how to go about doing it.

JOSIE HAD MET Sam Richardson when he retired from his job as a prosecuting attorney in New York City and moved to the island to begin his new life as owner-manager of an upscale liquor store. That had been three years earlier. Most of the time she was wildly in love with him. And other times she wondered why they even bothered to speak to each other. This was one of those times.

Sam had just admitted to being a fan of the Courtney Castle show.

“If I was still living in my New York apartment, I wouldn’t even have glanced at those building shows, but we’ve done so much work on my house, and I’ve even gotten an idea or two from watching them. In fact, those indents in the shower walls, the ones we’re going to redo when Island Contracting has some free time, were an idea I got from watching Courtney.”

“The idea isn’t original with her. Half the decorating magazines have been featuring them for years,” Josie said sullenly. Sam was almost twenty years older than she was and certainly more educated and experienced. Building and remodeling was the one-and only-area where she was the expert. It wasn’t as though she was competitive, but still…

They were sitting in a booth at one of Basil Tilby’s restaurants that had opened near the end of last year’s season. A good friend, Basil had hired Island Contracting to remodel the place. Josie had come there expecting Sam to spend at least some of the meal admiring her work-and not spend any time talking about another woman.

“I’ve never seen the show,” she admitted.

“Josie, you should. You’re going to be working with this woman for the next few weeks. It’s on tonight at nine-thirty. We’ll skip dessert and go over to my house to watch it. I have a few pints of Ben and Jerry’s in the freezer,” he added when she didn’t answer.

“I wasn’t worried about missing dessert,” she protested, somewhat dishonestly. “I was just thinking about Tyler. I told him he had to be home by ten-thirty, so I’d better be home to make sure he remembers.”

“Josie, Tyler is a responsible kid-”

“Sam, he’s sixteen years old.”

“He does just fine away at school.”

“Where there is a huge staff to keep an eye on the kids. And it’s not just that. There’s a lot to keep him busy at school. Tyler belongs to all sorts of clubs, he has to participate in a team sport each season, and he has piles of homework.”

“Are you saying idle hands are the devil’s playground?”

“Something like that. Tyler spent yesterday in his room in front of that damn computer.”

“So?”

“I don’t know. You hear so much about bad things on the computer. Sex and all…”

“Josie, he probably checked out the sex available in cyberspace years and years ago.”

“I know. I just worry.” She took a deep breath. “The truth is, I’m afraid I’m boring him. That he’s happier at school than he is at home.”

“He sure looked happy at my house Sunday afternoon.”

“He was stuffing his face with junk food. Of course he was happy. But unless you’re going to spend the entire summer on your deck grilling hot dogs for him, he’s going to need a bit more to stay busy.”

“Well, once he starts working…”

Josie leaned forward so quickly that she almost tipped over her glass of wine. “You know something, don’t you? You two were in the kitchen for a long time. Where has he applied for work? What does he want to do this summer?”

“He hasn’t just applied for a job. He’s got one. But I think you should wait for him to tell you about it.”

“I… Why…” Josie was rarely speechless and then it didn’t last for long. “My son has a job and he hasn’t even mentioned it to me! What’s going on, Sam?”

“Josie, he just wants you to see his point… to get to know… to understand…” Sam stopped and took an un-characteristically loud gulp of the wine he had carefully chosen. “I’m blowing this for Tyler, Josie, and I hate to do that. I promised him I would help prepare you.”