Joker (Hell's Ankhor #8) - Aiden Bates Page 0,11

working in a different way than usual.

“All righty then,” Dawson said, standing up. “I’m getting another cup of coffee.” He walked toward the counter where he immediately began peering at the pastries and flirting with Mary.

Brennan was still watching me, though, and I was about to snap at him to get him to fucking stop it, when finally, he sighed a little and nodded understandingly. “It’ll turn out great, I’ll make sure of it,” he said. “And if you put in your best work, I’m sure your family will love it.”

God, this naïve guy. I laughed bitterly. “Well, that’d be a fuckin’ change of pace,” I said. “Since my best has never been good enough before.”

I’d given up on really trying hard, genuinely hard, because it always ended in pain. Easier to just coast by and fly under the radar. If I didn’t try, it wouldn’t hurt when I failed. I’d experienced that enough growing up—even when I put my best foot forward, I was always lacking in some way. It was never enough to make my parents proud. Never enough to even get them to look at me.

“What do you mean?” Brennan asked, carefully interested.

The stories rattled in my chest like prisoners shaking the bars of their cells. And to my shock, I wanted to tell him. How I’d dropped out of school, how I’d worked fourteen-hour days, the tests and procedures I’d gone through for Parker, the meals I’d cooked for myself, the housework I’d done without instruction or accolades. No one ever asked. And now that Brennan was asking, I wanted to tell.

“Forget it,” I muttered. The last thing I needed was to get all unnecessarily moody and personal when this was supposed to be a work meeting. “Listen, if I’m the hands for this project, you gotta help me figure out the details. I don’t carve stuff this big.”

“It’ll probably be easier than the whittling, in all honesty,” Brennan said with an easy smile. He shifted into a more professional space easily and didn’t push on my earlier remark. I was grateful, but weirdly, a little disappointed. “So, we’ll need a single, solid piece of wood for the actual sign, plus the tools, the design, and the time and space for you to do the actual work.”

The list made me blink and deflate a little. “Well, I’ve got one of those things. Time. That’s about it.”

Brennan waved a hand. “I’ve got a workshop at home you can use,” he said like it was nothing. “And some hand-carving tools. They don’t see a lot of use—my dad gave them to me a while ago—but they should do the trick. You’re welcome to use them.”

A private workshop? Fully set up with tools? I knew one thing—if it sounded too good to be true, it probably was. “How much are you charging for that?” I asked.

Brennan blinked. “Charge? I’m not going to charge you to use my workshop. I’ve been so busy with Beau’s contract, and now the clubhouse, that I’m not using it at all.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Why would he just let me use his workshop? There had to be a catch.

At the suspicion in my gaze, Brennan sighed and bit his lower lip briefly. When he released it, it was a little swollen. I shifted in my seat. He was so fucking hot, even when he wasn’t trying to be.

“Well, for one, it was my idea that you do this,” he said. “And I really need this contract to work out. Between you and me, this is the biggest contract I’ve ever gotten, and it could really make or break my business.”

His jaw clenched. This clearly was important to him. So he needed my help as much as I needed his. That eased some of the nerves in my chest. He had the skills, but I had the connection to the club.

We needed each other for this to work. Maybe we were on more equal ground than I thought.

“Okay,” I said. “If you’ve got the space, I can work there.”

“Great,” Brennan said, looking slightly relieved. “Great. That’s great. Okay, so for wood—we could buy something, obviously, but I had an idea to run by you.”

“Which is?” I asked.

“If there’s a tree on the property you’d be okay felling, we could use that.” He grinned. “Make it more personal to the club.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” I said. I liked that idea. Really liked it. And we had some trees that needed to be taken