TEN
THE DOCTOR CONFIRMED THE RESULTS of the home pregnancy test and agreed with Claire that the antibiotics were probably what had caused the pill to fail. It was funny, but in just the couple of days since she found out she was pregnant, she’d stopped thinking about it as the pill failing and started to think of it as the blessing it was. She didn’t need to ask Luke to know he felt the same way.
In a few days, she’d gone from wondering how the hell she ended up knocked up and living in Luke’s place, to having a hard time imagining living her life any other way. The only problem she had at the moment was the very real possibility that she might kill her baby’s daddy before the baby was even born. She’d put up with him insisting she not go to the Chestnut Street house without him. It was silly and unnecessary, but they hadn’t made much of a start with the demo yet. They’d have to if they had any hope of staying on budget, which she knew was a bigger concern for her than him, but for now, at least, it was easy to let him have his way with that.
The problem was that he’d started to extend his crazy, overprotective tendencies to the Ashton Court site and her work with her crew. Now that she knew she was pregnant, she wouldn’t do anything to risk their baby. She didn’t need the arrogant billionaire developer giving her prenatal advice, and she didn’t need him slowing her down when she had a job to do and a company to run.
It had even started to affect their sex life. It wasn’t like she could complain. When they made love, Luke always made sure she had at least two orgasms to his one, but he was so controlled. There was no more up-against-the-wall-fuck-her-hard sex. It was always her on top with him holding back or gentle missionary. It was like he was afraid that if he claimed her the way she loved him to he’d somehow jostle the baby loose. If she tried to talk to him about it, he looked at her like she was some kind of siren set to smash his boat against the rocks, and he made himself too busy to hear her.
She bent to grab a spool of wire to carry to twelve. The rough in was almost done, and with the way the sheet rockers were moving, in a few weeks, they’d be doing the finishing work on this job. She and Luke hadn’t talked anymore about the Norfolk property. He’d signed the contracts, but she didn’t think he’d gotten the drawings back from his architect. With everything going on with the baby, he might not have wanted to bring it up, especially if he thought she’d fight him again about Matthews, which she would.
She owed Mr. Matthews a lot for believing in her and not making her prove over and over that regardless of her gender, she and English Electrical could handle the job. It was more consideration than she’d gotten from most of the general contractors she’d worked with, and she owed it to him to make sure his company had a chance to bid on the work.
The logistics of the job were going to be a challenge for her and her crew. It would mean working away from home for a couple of months at a time. She needed to figure out where to house everyone and how to handle compensation for their food and lodging without sucking all the profits from the job. With a new baby on the way, Mike might not want to be away from home for that long, but being pregnant meant Claire couldn’t pick up the slack, either. Regardless of how much time passed or how they shifted things around, there was still a hole where Pete had been.
“I’ve got that, boss,” said Mike, coming up behind her on the stairs.
“What?” said Claire to the young electrician. “I have it. It’s not heavy.”
“Sparks said I wasn’t supposed to let you lift anything,” he said, tugging the spool from her hands and hoisting it with one arm onto his shoulder. He looked confused and she could tell he wanted to ask her a question she had no intention of answering.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” she said, blowing out a frustrated breath. “Take it to twelve. Keep the rest of the guys moving forward. You know what needs to be done.” Not waiting for his reply, she started back down the steps to find a project manager who had to learn to mind his own damn business.
As soon as she burst into the construction trailer, the grizzled older man stabbed his ever present cigarette out in the overflowing ashtray. When his gaze met hers, he took a step back.
“Honey,” he said, talking to her like she was an angry bull, which wasn’t far from the truth. It may have been hormones or it may have been the arrogant assuming controlling men in her life, but murder didn’t seem out of the question.
“Don’t you honey me,” she said, turning her voice to ice. “What makes you think you have any business giving directions to my crew? And since when do I need help carrying a fifteen pound spool of wire? What the fuck are you playing at, Sparks?”
The project manager at least had the decency to look uncomfortable, but he took a step toward her with his hands up instead of backing down.
“Now Claire,” he said, soothingly and she had to bite back her growl. “Honey, Mr. Masters – Luke – is worried about you, and he has a right to be.”
She could tell he was watching her to see how she’d react, but she could also see by the set of his jaw that he believed what he was saying.Fucking men.
She couldn’t believe Luke had told anyone about the baby. They agreed to keep it to themselves until she was further along, and they had a chance to tell her father. She had no idea how to tell her conservative daddy that she’d gotten knocked up by her client. It was easier for now simply to put it off, but Luke had gone and told Sparks anyway. He must have figured it was worth it to have the extra muscle on the jobsite. Turning away from Sparks, she pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed Luke’s direct number.
“Sweetheart, are you okay?” Luke asked before the phone had a chance to ring twice. He sounded worried and part of her felt bad for scaring him. Then she remembered he’d managed to manipulate her crew without even showing up on the jobsite.
“I’m fine. The baby’s fine. You, however, are not.”
“Claire, I was just looking out for you.”
“Not interested, Masters. If you expect me to come home tonight, then you need to cancel everything for the afternoon. I don’t care who you’re meeting with; cancel it. You’re going with me to my doctor’s appointment, and we’re going to sort this out once and for all.”
“I already did,” he said, sounding sheepish.
“What?” she asked, momentarily stunned. Control freak,I run the world and everything in itLuke Masters actually seemed uncertain and maybe even a little embarrassed about something.
“I cleared my schedule for the afternoon. I’ve got some questions, and I wanted to go to the doctors with you. I wasn’t sure how to ask without you getting mad. I’m five minutes away.”
“Fine,” she said, disconnecting the phone fairly certain her perfect plan to get her freedom back was about to go down in flames.
She turned to leave the trailer. Apparently Luke was on his way, and she wanted to slip out of her tool belt and work boots and change out of her dusty jeans and T-shirt before they left for the doctor’s office.
“Claire,” said Sparks, stopping her before she reached the door. “Are you happy, honey?”
There was such kind concern in the older man’s eyes. She felt bad for snapping at him earlier.
