Witcher Upper - Amy Boyles Page 0,6

up the path and groaned. “Great. Here he is.”

Just then, Dooley’s hand shot out of the window and he waved. “Hey, Clem!”

I groaned again. Dooley was acting happy; that meant he really had a bone to pick. I’d noticed that the nicer that man was during the greeting process, the worse his complaint would be.

Sadie pulled blueprints from a tube and spread them across the bed of my old ’58 Ford pickup. “Let’s look busy,” she said. “Make him think we’re working hard.”

I pointed to the barn where Liam and his crew were working. “We are working hard,” I countered.

Dooley parked and hopped out of his truck. Sadie pointed to a spot on the blueprints. “That living room is going to turn out great. Hey, Architectural Scavengers has some new lighting fixtures,” she said about a store downtown. “Can you go check them out today? See which ones you think will work for the main room?”

“Sure. Right after I deal with this.”

“Clem, Sadie,” Dooley said in greeting, “we’ve got a problem.”

“And good morning to you,” I said. Dooley was a short, bald man with a red face and thin lips that were just about always pulled into a scowl.

“Yeah, yeah, good morning,” he said before pointing a finger at me. “Clem, we need to discuss this whole foundation thing. I came up here yesterday and looked at those poles. They aren’t gonna hold, Clem. Now, I thought you and your crew knew what you were doing when it came to this project, but now I’m not so sure.”

So his frustration wasn’t about the location, it was about the reinforcement. I shot Sadie a questioning look and she shrugged.

Conveniently her phone rang, and she bounced up from the truck bed, flinging her brown hair over one shoulder. She snatched her phone from her purse and glanced at the number, frowning.

Which reminded me. “How’d it go with that mantle last night? You get it?”

Sadie’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “What? Oh, no. Look, I’ve got to take this.”

She excused herself and stepped away, leaving me and Dooley alone.

Awesome-sauce.

I turned to him and held out my hand. “Did Dottie give you any peaches for me?” I asked, ignoring the frustration twisting on his face.

“Yeah,” he grudgingly confirmed. “I’ve got a bag in the front seat for you. But you’re not getting them yet—not until we get this settled.”

One of the reasons why I hadn’t outright fired Dooley was because of his gem of a wife, Dottie, and the peach farm they owned down the road. Dooley, close to retirement age, had promised the farm to his son. That meant that he and his wife would retire to the country barn we were converting into a livable space.

“Listen, Clem—”

Feeling like playing with fire, I snaked my arm through Dooley’s and tugged him toward the barn. He shot me a frightened look, as if he feared that I would up and steal him from Dottie.

“Don’t look so worried, Dooley. It wouldn’t kill to you to escort a lady to a barn, would it?”

Dooley, flustered, sputtered out his next sentence. “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t, but don’t you go telling Dottie. I don’t want to deal with a jealous woman. It’s not good for my home life, if you know what I mean.”

I smiled warmly. “I do know what you mean. Now come on, let’s go talk to Liam.”

Liam was busy giving directions to his crew. The concrete truck had arrived, and he was preparing his men to smooth out the new foundation.

“Liam,” I called. “Dooley’s got some concerns.”

Before Liam Tully became Sadie’s boyfriend, he was the most eligible bachelor in all of Peachwood. With his blond hair and surfer good looks, Liam was definitely a looker, and his easygoing personality only added to his charm.

But I swear as soon as I said Dooley’s name, Liam just about rolled his eyes into the back of his head. But instead of appearing frustrated, he came over and shook Dooley’s hand.

“You got some concerns? Hit me with ’em.”

“Seems like those poles inside aren’t gonna be strong enough to support all this new work you’re doing,” Dooley said gruffly.

Liam nodded, appearing to be considering Dooley’s point, when in reality I swear we had gone over this with Dooley about a thousand times. I shot Liam a glance that conveyed how sorry I was to stick him with Dooley, and Liam gave me a slight nod and smile.

“We’re gonna reinforce the poles and beams,” Liam explained. He patted Dooley on the