Her Dirty Builders (Men at Work #10) - Mika Lane Page 0,3

finish her sentence. She didn’t need to. We both knew very well who he was.

“Yes, Charli, I made out with him under the bleachers, and he went and told all his friends, who also blabbed, turning me into the school slut. Wouldn’t you hate someone who did that?”

She nodded in support. “Yes. Of course. But that happened so long ago. Maybe it’s time to let it go?”

Did she really just say that?

I grabbed my bag and headed for the door while Charli flipped off the lights and locked up the shop.

“You know, Es, Case McKinney was just voted most eligible bachelor in town.”

No. Fucking. Way.

“Just what he needs, something else to blow up his already oversized ego.”

There was no way I could work with him on my home. He wasn’t the only builder in town. I’d have to find a reason not to hire him.

Well, besides the fact that he was a douche.

As we were walking toward our cars, Charli grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Es, maybe you guys will… rekindle that interest you had back then? Wouldn’t that be great?”

I gave her my most devastating stink eye, then hustled to my car before I completely lost my shit.

“C’mon Es, give it a chance,” she called.

I whipped around. “No. Not a chance in fucking hell.”

Cripes. I’d rather let the bank come take the house and live in a tent in my dad’s backyard than deal with that big-mouthed creep.

3

CASON “CASE” MCKINNEY

“Goddamn, I love Fridays.”

Alden looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Hate to tell you buddy, but it’s only Thursday.

I rubbed my temples. Fuck all.

A wicked headache was circling, looking for a place to land. I took a big swig of my coffee, hoping the caffeine would stave it off.

“Right, right, right,” I mumbled.

“Is something up, Case?” he asked. “You seem… drained.”

I looked out my office door to make sure my mother, the office manager, hadn’t arrived yet.

And then decided not to gripe to Alden anyway.

“You know, same old, same old.”

I glanced up at the portrait of my dad smiling down on me and silently thanked him—for about the thousandth time—for up and dying on my mom and me and shaking up every last detail of our lives.

Especially mine.

As heir to McKinney Construction, my dad’s little one-man company, I’d had to drop out of college to take over. Still didn’t have my degree, which endlessly grated on me. I sucked at dealing with clients, and I had no passion for building much of anything. And I had zero time to myself. But the business was mine, and I had to work it at least until I got us out of the debt Dad left us in. If we ever got out of the debt dad left us in. I’d been slogging away at it for a few years now and the progress was so slow it was disheartening.

I didn’t think I could feel more shackled than I did at that moment in my life. The obligations were suffocating.

I leaned back in my chair and forced myself to smile at Alden. “Just got a call. The couple we’re working for across town—who fight over everything and can’t make a decision to save their lives—are getting noise complaints from their neighbors about our work. Did they seriously expect construction to be quiet?”

I rifled through my dad’s desk, now mine, for some aspirin.

“I don’t know how my father dealt with all this,” I grumbled.

Alden would know, though. He’d worked with him for years. In fact, he knew more about the business than I did. And yet, I’d become his boss.

Which was fucking crazy.

“Case, your father enjoyed this shit. He enjoyed every last bit of it. Dealing with crazy clients, flaky vendors, the permitting offices at City Hall—I don’t think there was one aspect of this business he didn’t get a kick out of.”

“He was cut out for it. Unlike me.”

Alden shrugged. “It’s not for everyone. Residential building is crazy and messy. Working on peoples’ homes is not for the faint of heart. There’s a shit-ton of emotion involved.”

Fuck. Why hadn’t he left the business to Alden? He wasn’t blood, but he was practically family. I’d been tempted on more than one occasion to hand the reins to him. But I couldn’t just yet. I couldn’t dump on him the mess Dad had left the place in. It wouldn’t be fair to make him start with such a big disadvantage.

Alden looked at his watch. “Speaking of the feuding couple, I’m heading over