into the dirt. My laptop works as well in this remote office as it does in my cramped hotel room. Not that my hotel room is all that cramped; Sheila got a bigger room for me since I’m booked for so long. But the same five hundred and eight square feet, all day long, eventually becomes claustrophobic. This wide open space makes me happier.
“I’m good.” I smile sweetly at Scott over the top of my laptop. “Being out here helps me focus on work.”
Scott sighs like I’m the world’s biggest inconvenience. Did I misread him calling me boss? Was it just to placate me? Let me think I’m in charge? I’m just about to tell him who’s signing his checks (technically, Wright Design + Build signs them, but guess whose last name is Wright?), when Scott says, “You make some of my guys nervous. They feel like you’re watching them to see if they’re making a mistake.”
Placing my flattened palms on the table, I push up so I’m half-standing, and lean over my computer. Scott reads my body language and leans forward to hear me.
I smile serenely. “Tell the crew that I won’t see them make a mistake unless they make a mistake. This is my project and this cozy little space you see here?” I gesture with one hand at my makeshift desk that is decidedly not cozy. “This is where I’ll be unless I’m needed elsewhere.”
Scott nods curtly, getting my drift. He doesn’t look angry or upset, just resolute. “Yes, Boss.” He throws in a salute and walks out from under the shade of the canopy.
“Hey, Scott?” I call after him. He turns. “You or anyone on your crew is welcome to steal some shade anytime they need it.”
“I’ll pass that along,” he says, turning back around and striding away.
I look back at my computer. The screen has gone to sleep, but I look at it anyway, as if it has something interesting on it. I refuse to look anywhere else. A hundred bucks says the crew is glancing my way after my exchange with the contractor, and I’ll be damned if I give them something to support their worry over my presence.
For the next hour, I search the internet for landscaping ideas, sketching out different concepts. I want something clean and pretty, but not too manicured. Something that looks lived in but not abandoned. I don’t look up again until the crunch of tires draws my attention.
A truck with the HCC logo on the side pulls up alongside my car. My heart beats double-time until the driver’s side door opens and legs that definitely do not belong to Wes hop out. A breath of disappointment slips from my lips. I’ve seen Wes every night this week, and somehow it doesn’t feel like enough. These pesky jobs of ours are really getting in the way.
Jessie steps back from the door and closes it. She shields her eyes from the sun and looks around until she spots me waving at her. She starts for me, and the crosswind pushes her sundress around her thighs. The construction workers try like hell not to make it obvious they’re checking out her long legs. I bet they’d cast their gaze back to the job if they knew she was seventeen. And a Hayden with three older brothers. At least, most of them would.
“Hi.” Jessie walks under my tent and stops, looking around.
“Hey there,” I stand up so she doesn’t feel uncomfortable. There’s only my chair, otherwise I’d offer her a seat. She shifts her weight from one flip-flop wearing foot to the other, and I get the feeling maybe she’s reconsidering her choice to drive out here.
“Everything okay?” I ask, hoping to urge her on.
She glances around the jobsite. “Yeah. You wouldn’t be free for lunch anytime soon, would you?”
I keep my surprise from showing on my face and nod without checking my watch. I don’t know the exact time, but I wouldn’t turn Wes’s little sister down for lunch even if it were midnight.
“I’m free now,” I tell Jessie. A relieved smile stretches her cheeks.
“Good. I’ll follow you into town. You pick the place.”
Before I leave, I ask Scott if he or anyone on the crew would like me to bring something back. He tells me the wife of someone on the crew made everybody sandwiches. I make a mental note to pick up cookies for them.
Jessie climbs into the HCC truck, and follows my car into town.
“Thanks for meeting me,”