Dave blew out a breath and nodded. “Okay.”
After Dave walked back to his truck, I glanced at Sebastian, who hadn’t even broken a sweat.
“Do you want to stick around while they review what needs to be reordered?” I asked. “Or work from the office?”
“I’m not leaving these guys alone for one second,” he said. “And don’t worry about the extra cost. He’s just pissed we’re making him change things. But it won’t delay the build more than a day or two, and cutting the engineer’s fee buys us that much crew time anyway.”
“Okay,” I said, holding myself back from jumping into his arms and thanking him the way I really wanted to. “Let me know if you need anything.”
I turned to leave, then paused. “Sebastian. Thanks. For all of this. Really.”
He just smiled, winked, and got to work, calling Dave over to walk into the site again.
Back in my office, I tried to focus on the email from the linen vendor and not the fact that Sebastian had rolled up his sleeves and stepped in like the damn pro he was. That he made a contractor back down without ever raising his voice. That he looked unfairly good doing it.
And that, just like that, this renovation had gotten a whole new kind of complicated.
16
Sebastian
BY MID-AFTERNOON, DAVEwas on board with the revised plan and assured me he was ordering the right materials and equipment. He’d stopped pushing back, mostly. Still, as I handed him a printout of the updated specs, he glanced at me sideways.
“So who do you usually work with?” he asked, like maybe I was poached off another construction site.
“NASA.”
He huffed a laugh. When I didn’t respond, he tilted his head back. “Wait, seriously?”
I nodded.
Dave scratched the back of his neck. “I mean, I’m not building a spaceship here, you know.”
“No,” I said, folding the printout neatly. “But the math’s the same. That’s the beauty of it.”
Soon after, his crew was on their last break before wrapping up, and I didn’t feel like breathing down anyone’s neck. So I headed to Sea Glass Cabin, grabbed my laptop, and set up on the little patio table out front. Shade, decentWi-Fi, and the ocean just beyond the trees. I could work with that.
As long as I hit my deadlines, adhered to security protocols with the info on my laptop, and didn’t crash a satellite, I could work off-site.
I logged in to the systems portal and ran a new iteration of our optimization. While it processed, I pulled out my phone and FaceTimed Nathan, my friend in Houston, who, at this hour, was either gaming or working—the same thing in his case.
He picked up with a headset already on. “Hey, man. Didn’t expect to see your face today.”
Funny, since he wasn’t even looking at me. His eyes were glued to his other screen, where his game was probably running.
“I’m in California,” I said, and that made him move his gaze to me. I grinned at his surprise. “Actually, meant to ask—can you water the plants for me? I’ll be here a little longer than planned.”
He leaned forward, toward the screen. “Everything okay? The parents okay?”
“Yeah. They’re fine. I’m helping a friend with a construction issue. Coral Bay.”
“Ah.” His expression shifted slightly. “Thatfriend.”
I huffed out a smiling affirmation, admitting my failure to downplay where I was.
“You staying at her inn?” Nathan played ten steps ahead in games, and I could tell he was taking my answers apart in his head.
“Yeah.”
