Her Dirty Builders (Men at Work #10) - Mika Lane Page 0,42

idea. At first the Wells weren’t into it. But now I think they are.”

He frowned. “You think they are? Or they are?”

“They are. Yup. For sure.” I nodded like a bobble head.

He patted me on the back. “Super,” he crowed, and hustled to the head of the room where he could address his team.

“I heard you bullshitting Adam,” Matt whispered.

“I know,” I whispered back. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Seriously. I was not writing a story about a guy I was sleeping with. Hell, even if I weren’t sleeping with him, I would not write a story about him or his family. There was no news there—Adam was just looking for salacious gossip.

And that was not something he’d ever get from me.

The only thing was, I had to figure out how to shut him down and keep my job. I wasn’t sure I could pull off both.

28

ALDEN

“Alden Pierce here.”

The car behind me beeped angrily, drowning out my attempt to answer in incoming call.

I’d been stopped at a red light, staring at a snapshot my mom had taken of Rosie and me, which I’d taped to my dashboard. It was simple and at the same time the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Rosie had one finger in her drooly mouth as she looked up at me, her little eyes crinkling with laughter. And then there were the wisps of her crazy red hair. My mother had assured me it would fill in soon. But I didn’t care what her hair looked like.

She was my Rosie.

When the beeping stopped, I tried again. “Hello, this is Alden Pierce here.”

I inched forward in the heavy traffic.

“Hello, Alden. It’s Ted over at Troy and Sons.”

Huh. McKinney’s biggest competitor. But it was a friendly competition.

Most of the time.

“Hey, Ted. How are things over there?”

His voice boomed with a deep laugh. “Great, Alden. Really great. We’re growing leaps and bounds since we did the downtown project.”

Right. That was a piece of business I was sure Case would have liked to bid on. But he’d said McKinney wasn’t ready for commercial work. He wanted to keep the company residential for the time being. I’d tried to change his mind until he elaborated on the company’s financial situation and explained he preferred we not take on any major risk until our debt was paid down.

“Well, good for you guys,” I said. “You deserve every success that comes your way. You all worked very hard for it.”

“Speaking of hard work,” Ted said, “what do you think of joining our team?”

Okay, I was not expecting that.

“You got me there, Ted. I’m… speechless,” I said, stalling for time.

“Look, Alden, we know you’ve been with McKinney a long time. You’re a top-notch builder. You should come over to a company that has a… shall we say… good reputation.”

Holy shit. Did he really just say that?

“Ted, not sure where you’re getting your information—”

But he cut me off. “Alden, word on the street is that McKinney is struggling to pay its bills. Something about debt left by the old man.”

Fuck. I knew this was the case. But how did it become public information?

I was at a loss for words. “I’m, um, honored, Ted. Can I give it some thought?”

“Of course, Alden,” he boomed. “Let’s try for lunch next week then.”

I was flattered. I couldn’t lie.

But leave McKinney?

It was unfathomable.

But Ted had a point. If the company were in that much trouble, well that didn’t bode well for my becoming a partner or even continuing employment.

There was a time when I would have told someone like Ted to take a hike. But I had a responsibility to Rosie, and an even greater one with her mother out of the picture. My relatively new craving for a certain amount of stability overrode how I used to live my life. Under the circumstances, I guess that was a good thing.

Life was strange. But what wasn’t strange was my attraction to the lovely Esme.

I was going to be seeing her in a matter of minutes, and I wasn’t sure if it was the call from Ted or the anticipation of seeing her that gave me a surge of energy, but the challenges of the day seemed a little less burdensome.

I walked into Esme’s house, where I’d already spent the better part of my day. But it was different now. Instead of the roar of saws and pounding of hammers, it was full of the smells of delicious cooking. And laughter.

The best part was that Esme was