“How long?” I asked.

“If I bring in the excavators tomorrow morning, we can have it cracked, loaded, and gone by Thursday,” he said.

“And the dirt?”

“I already talked to a local landscaping contractor,” Nathan said. “We can bring in three tons of native topsoil. We’ll grade the entire slope so it matches the natural curve of the hill.”

“Can we plant the wild grass?” I asked.

My father had loved the native Texas bluestem that used to grow here.

“We can hydroseed it,” Nathan said. “By the end of the week, it will look like there was never a house here at all.”

“How much will that cost?”

He gave me a figure.

It was high, but I didn’t care.

“Do it,” I said. “Start tomorrow at dawn.”

“You got it,” Nathan said. “I’ll have the crew there at seven.”

“Thank you, Nathan.”

“You’re welcome, Alexandra. Take care of yourself.”

I hung up.

I stared at the dashboard.

By the time Richard returned from his ruined vacation, there would be nothing left of his dream home.

There would only be the grass, the trees, and the wind.