“You’ve installed that upside down. You’re going to have to start over. How much time is that going to take?”
“It’s not upside—” I stop myself as I look back down at the baseboard, because he’s right. It is upside down. And it’s not the simple sort of flat baseboard that’s easy to confuse. It’s ornate and sculpted with an extremely distinct top and bottom. “Shit, Seb. I’m sorry. I’ll fix it. It won’t take me more than an hour.”
“An hour we can’t afford.” He glares at me like the house has just fallen down around us and I’m the reason. “Call Millie and have her adjust the schedule.”
“I don’t think—” But Sebastian’s already walking away, literally growling under his breath.
Millie was, of course, hired on the spot after she solved all our issues with a detailed and precise schedule that allows us to cut our client workload by thirty-five percent and have a good amount of time to work on finding the right property for our parents’ house and get it built in less than two years. It’s not entirely what Seb wanted, but it’s a good compromise.
It also means we have to split up more, and Seb has to delegate decisions, which he hates. Right now, Cash and Ry are out scouting properties with the realtors, because there’s nothing pressing they need to be working on.
Sebastian does not trust them to get it right, but we convinced him they could handle at least narrowing down the options. Amazingly, he listens to pretty much anything Millie suggests. He says she’s the only one of us with any sense.
Cash has been extra grumpy with Sebastian. I suspect because of the admiration Seb has for Millie and all the time they spend alone discussing the schedule, but Cash is in full denial mode and pretending Millie doesn’t exist.
Which gets weird when they’re in the same room together and seems destined to hurt Millie’s feelings, but I can’t convince Cash he’s doing the wrong thing. Especially since there’s no other option. He can’t have a relationship with her or let her know how he feels when he’s her boss. She is too amazing to sacrifice to his hormones.
Cash is horrible at relationships, and there’s no way it would end in anything other than disaster.
Like my own non-relationship seems to be doing. I watched Amelia with her ex at the restaurant yesterday. Just to make sure he didn’t do anything mean or dangerous.
He didn’t. Just made her smile and laugh all through lunch. They were so chummy she grabbed his hand when he went the wrong way out of the restaurant, and they walked down the block together hand in hand.
I yank probably too hard on a baseboard as I remove it and nearly nick the wood.
Amelia hasn’t responded to the text I sent yesterday with a picture of an idea for the cat gym, and DogPerson didn’t respond to HandsyGuy last night when I messaged to find out how her meeting went with her ex.
At least I don’t have to worry about her finding out we’re the same person since she’s never going to see either of us again now that she’s got her little family back together.
I focus on putting the baseboards the right way, which, after a sleepless night and a morning hating a man I’ve never met, is harder than it should be.
“Levi’s back, but he’s still got stuff he needs to do to help Gentry,” Sebastian says as he stomps back into the room. “You’re going to have to cover for him.”
“We’re going to have to hire someone else to cover for him,” I say. “You know more about electrical work than I do.”
Sebastian scratches his head, seemingly flummoxed. “Right. I know that. How did I forget that?”
I drop what I’m working on, get up and cross the room to stand in front of him. “Because you’re overworked, overstressed, and sleep deprived? Millie added time for you to relax to the schedule. You need to take it.”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “What I need to do is find an electrician so we can stay on schedule. I’m calling Dani to find out who did the electrical work on their outbuildings last year.”
“We should hire one permanently.” Back in Aspen Cove we had another electrician on staff and a dozen other employees who helped us on big jobs.
“We aren’t there yet,” he says. “I’m not spending money we don’t have and going in the hole like we did in Aspen Cove.”
“We climbed out of the hole, Seb. We’ll climb out of it here too.”
“We’re not getting in the hole at all. We stick to jobs we can handle as a small crew until we can afford a bigger staff.”
He storms back out, and I get back to work. I shove all thoughts of Amelia and her ex to the back of my brain, but they don’t stay there.
They drift out and harass me as I finish the baseboards and move on to the crown molding.
When my phone dings and I see Amelia’s name on my screen, I’m sure I must have conjured her with my obsessive thoughts.
Amelia:I’ve got an hour for lunch today. Want to meet at my place and talk about Marmalade’s gym some more?
There’s a winking smiley face emoji at the end of her message, which I think is supposed to mean she’s not serious about talking about the gym. Which means she’s looking for sex.
