Connor blinked. “Because she is,” he said slowly, wondering what the hell was wrong with these men. Of course, her brothers laughed while Mr. James considered him with a hard glint in his eyes.
What in the hell was wrong with them? They overprotected her everywhere else in life except for when they should. Hell, it was taking everything he had not to run up to the attic and drag her ass away from his job site before she got hurt. She had no fucking business being here. He had several women working for him that could easily keep up with the men, but Rory...
For some reason, he just couldn’t stomach the idea of her doing this. He didn’t want to see the stubborn pain in the ass hurt. Sure, he liked to torture her and make her life a living hell for his own entertainment, but he never did any permanent damage and that was really all that mattered.
This was the biggest project of his career and if he could pull it off it would mean bigger and better things for Highland Construction, but that wouldn’t be happening as long as Rory James was around. He still needed her men and Shadow Construction’s equipment if he had any hope of finishing this project on time. With an inward sigh, Connor realized that he was going to have to make her life a living hell.
“Sunday,” Mr. James said, interrupting his thoughts.
“Sunday, what?” Connor asked, unable to hide his confusion even as he noted the looks of shock on the James brothers’ faces. They’d all stopped working to stare at their father in disbelief.
“Dad, you can’t be serious,” Johnny finally said.
Mr. James never took his cold eyes away from Connor as he addressed his sons. “Last time I checked, I was still head of this family and if I decide that Connor needs to join us this Sunday, then he’s going to join us,” he said firmly, giving Connor the impression that he wasn’t exactly being asked to come, but commanded.
Since this actually worked in his favor, Connor didn’t argue. “What’s happening on Sunday?”
“Every Sunday, rain or shine, we go fishing as a family at six,” Mr. James said, only to narrow his eyes as he added, “no women allowed. We take our fishing seriously. If you bring a woman, you better make sure that she knows that she stays at the house with the rest of them. While we’re fishing, you can tell me about the plans that you have for this old house.”
He nodded even as he thought that over. He’d be able to get her old man on his side and work on starting to convince the James brothers that their lives would be so much better if they came to work for him without having to worry about Rory getting in the way. This could definitely work for him, Connor thought as he looked at the men in question and had to bite back a smile. Oh yeah, the James boys were as good as his.
“We’re having Dad committed,” Bryce said as he climbed up the rickety old stairs to the huge attic that she had plans for. The client wanted the roof fixed, a new attic floor, fix the stairs and update the utilities, but they were passing up a golden opportunity with this space and she was going to convince them to allow her to turn it into three large luxury suites.
It was going to be her signature touch to the hotel, the thing that drew people to this hotel, and it was going to be Shadow Construction that got all the glory. She had a meeting set for this Friday with the hopes of convincing the board to stretch their budget just a little more to accommodate her dreams.
While other little girls dreamed about their wedding, Rory had dreamed about what she would do if she ever got a chance to work on Strawberry Manor, and now that she had the chance, she was going to make sure that it lived up to her dreams.
“Did you hear me? I said we’re having Dad committed,” Bryce said as he carefully stepped on the plywood, she’d laid down so that they didn’t have to worry about falling through the floor and glared at her.
“I heard you,” Rory mumbled absently as she took in the ceiling and frowned when she spotted the structural beams that were going to have to be replaced. She’d hoped that they could salvage some of the beams to cut costs, but it looked like they were going to have to tear the entire roof off and start from scratch. Actually, that could work for her because-
“Don’t you even want to know what he did?”
“Nope, just tell me where to sign,” Rory said, wondering if she would be able to convince some of Connor’s men to do a little side work for her, only the ones that met her standards, of course. She didn’t tolerate sloppy work and she sure as hell wouldn’t tolerate anything but the best on this project. Unfortunately, she already had a feeling that she was going to need her guys to double-check Highland Construction’s work.
“You really don’t care?”
“Not at all,” Rory said as she considered using skylight windows and just as quickly dismissed the idea. The whole point of this project was to give it that eighteenth-century feel and placing modern skylights on the roof would wreck the effect. No, it was better to go with her original plan, she decided.
“Fine. Then, I won’t tell you,” Bryce said, clearly fighting back a smile as he crossed his massive arms over his chest.
“Uh-huh,” Rory mumbled absently, earning a grumble from her brother.
“Shouldn’t you be working?” Rory asked as she checked her watch. It was a quarter to five. Not that she’d planned on calling it a night anytime soon and she doubted that her brothers would either. They’d probably put in another three or four hours until hunger forced them to head home.
“Probably,” Bryce mused.
“Is there a reason why you’re not?” Rory asked as she turned to face him.
He shrugged. “We wanted to know if you wanted us to handle Connor’s men the next time that they pulled any bullshit or just let him deal with it,” Bryce said, reminding her of the earlier mutiny that she’d been forced to handle in front of their father.
“What the hell happened?” Rory asked as she grabbed her bottle of water off the make-shift floor. “And more importantly, why didn’t you guys handle it?”
Bryce gave her a “duh” look as he said, “We had our hands full with the fire inspector.”
“The fire inspector was here?” When he nodded, she could only stare at him as she asked, “Why didn’t anyone come get me?”
“Because they were all fighting over petty bullshit. It wouldn’t have been that bad, but Connor’s foremen are incompetent and started bitching about who was in charge. We got sick of their bullshit and decided to let them beat the shit out of each other while we made sure that we weren’t shut down.”
