Still The One - Carrie Elks Page 0,53
the corner of her eye she saw Tanner’s arm freeze, as though he was planning to put his hand on her back but thought better of it.
“Rich, let me introduce you to Savannah Butler. She’s in charge here. Savannah…” He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, as though he expected her to look mad. She grinned at the fact she was disappointing him. “This is Rich. His team is going to landscape the drive-in and rebuild the structures.”
“It’s a pleasure.” He reached for Van’s hand, and she shook it.
“Likewise.” She grinned at him. “What’s the timeline for completing the project?”
“If the weather stays fine, I think we can get it done in a month.” He held out his clipboard, flipping through the papers he had fixed there. “I emailed this over to Tanner last night. It just needs signing off.”
Tanner nodded. “Van’s in charge of the reconstruction. She’ll sign off.”
“Van?” Rich looked at him, confused.
“Savannah.” Tanner bit down a grin. “Sorry, old habits.”
“You can call me Van,” she said to Rich, her grin widening when she saw Tanner’s brows crinkle up. “And let me take a look at these, if that’s okay. I like to know what I’m signing.”
“Of course.” He handed over the clipboard and Van scanned through it, occasionally looking at the area of the drive-in that day’s work would take place on.
“You really think you can get it done in a month? There’s a lot to do.”
“Yeah. The landscaping and construction are the easy parts. The audio visual and electrical installation are going to be trickier, but we can get it done.” He gave her a faint smile. “Especially since there are penalties if we don’t hit the deadline.”
She glanced at Tanner, who shrugged. “It’s business.”
Another reminder of how different he was to the boy she once knew. As if she needed it.
“Who’s doing the audio visual installation?”
“We’ve got a subcontractor coming in from Richmond. Virginia Sound.”
“I know them. They’re good.” She nodded and pulled a pen from her bag, signing the statement of works before handing it back to him. “I guess you can get started,” she said with a smile.
“Thank you.” He nodded. “And this is your number, right? In case of any problems?”
“Yeah, but I’ll be here when you are as much as possible. That way we can minimize delays if you have any questions.”
“Great. Okay then,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s get to work.”
The men followed him to the construction vehicles parked on the grass, climbing inside and starting them up. She turned to Tanner, who was looking at her with a smile playing at her lips.
“A month?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “That’s ambitious.”
“I want it up and running. Hit the summer season. Otherwise we’ll have to wait a whole year to make money from it.”
“You.”
“What?”
“You’ll have to wait a year to make money from it. I’m just a salaried employee.”
“You haven’t read your employment contract, have you?” The ghost of a smile passed his lips.
“Of course I have. I gave you my signed copy.”
“So you read section six, paragraph eight?”
He was teasing her, she could tell by the way his eyes crinkled up. “What does it say?” she asked, her voice low.
“You must know. You read it.” He looked like he wanted to laugh.
“Stop it.” She shook her head. “Tell me.”
“It says that you own thirty percent of this land. Not in so few words. There’s a lot of legalese.”
She was dumbstruck for a moment. Unable to form any words on her tongue. His eyes didn’t waver from her face as he waited for her to finally say something.
“I didn’t see that.” Her voice trailed off. So lame. “What does it mean?”
“It means that a third of this whole place is yours.” He threw his hand out at the field where the vehicles were driving. Somebody had already unloaded a giant lawnmower and was cutting the grass.
“I don’t understand…”
“I can’t expect you to do everything without getting some form of compensation.”
“You’re paying me.”
“It’s not enough.”
She shook her head. “I can’t accept this, Tanner. It’s too much.”
“You already did. You signed on the line. You want me to get it from the car and show you?” His voice was full of humor.
Her eyes shot to his. “How much did this cost you?”
“A lot less than you’d think. Old man Chaplin was desperate to get rid of it. And land around here isn’t worth a whole lot.” He shrugged. “Renovating it is costing more than the land itself.