THIRTEEN
BY THE TIME THEY HUNG the last fixtures and finished the punch list on the Ashton Court project, Claire had needed to let a couple of notches out on her tool belt. As soon as she’d started to show, Luke had gone from over-protective to whack job crazy protective. Thankfully, he’d been so busy; he hadn’t found time to lock her away in that tower he was always threatening her with. It didn’t matter whether he was with her or not, though, all the men around her had lost their minds. Once they found out she was pregnant, her crew got as bad as Luke.
They ran ahead of her, moving things out of the way and hurrying to finish jobs before she had a chance to get to them. She was lucky if they let her lift as much as a coffee cup. Things had to change. There was no way she could take it until the baby came. They were treating her like she was delicate. Like she was a girl.
She bent to pick up a box with some left over mounting brackets they hadn’t needed for one of the fixtures. All the subs and their debris had to be out of the building by the end of the day so the cleaning crews could finish up and the stagers could get it ready for the opening party that weekend. She was looking forward to it. Despite her thickening middle and with help from one of Colin’s magic shopping connections, she’d managed to find a dress that made her feel sexy and feminine instead of like a humpback.
Luke had been so busy. She was looking forward to surprising him with her dress and actually getting to spend some time with him. Smiling to herself, she went to swing the box onto her hip to carry it to the dumpster only to have it whisked from her hands. She turned to see Mike looking at her like he’d caught her sucking on a hip flask.
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked when he shook his head at her. “It weighs less than a bag of flour.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, looking resolute. “You shouldn’t be carrying anything. That’s why you pay us.”
‘Give me a break.” She was so tired of dealing with obstinate men, but Mike may as well have been a mountain for all the good it did to try to move him. “I pay you to wire buildings, not carry shit I can handle myself. You have a kid and a pregnant wife. You’ve done this before. I expected you to be one of the sane ones.”
“Just because you women won’t listen to the wisdom of men,” he said, grinning and dancing out of the way before she could smack his arm. “Doesn’t mean we’re ever going to stop trying to save you from yourselves.”
He was clearly teasing. His wife wouldn’t have let him live long enough to get her pregnant a second time if he wasn’t. He bumped the door open with his hip and waited for her to go through.
“But seriously,” he said as they made their way down the stairs. “It’s hard to watch the woman you love go through this and not be able to do anything. I’ve never felt as helpless in my life as I did when Cecelia was in labor with our first. She was in pain, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do. I’m excited to have another child, but I’m not going to rest comfortably until she and the baby are safe and probably not even then. It’s just a different kind of worry. You have to cut us some slack. We can’t have the babies for you. Protecting you is the only thing we can do.”
She understood what he was saying. She hadn’t thought of it like that before. Her focus had been on the men around her, making her feel helpless. It hadn’t occurred to her that the reason they were doing it was because they felt helpless themselves. It would be harder for Luke. He’d spent his adult life working to make sure he was in control of everything.
It didn’t make the hovering and being treated like she was made of glass any easier, but it did make it more palatable.
“Go easy on him,” said Mike, obviously thinking of Luke, too.
“I’ll try.” She bumped him with her hip making him swerve on his way to the dumpster.
He flashed her a grin that made him look too young to have a wife and a couple of kids. Her guys could handle the last of their stuff, and they weren’t going to let her help anyway. Unless there was something she’d forgotten, she could let everybody go a couple of hours early and maybe take a break herself. Or head to the Chestnut Street house. With Luke still tied up at work, he’d be less likely to worry.
They needed to get started and with this job finishing, it was next on the list. She had a couple of small residential jobs she could turn her guys loose on, but probably not enough to keep them busy until she’d worked out the logistics on the Norfolk job. She cringed, remembering she still hadn’t talked to Mike about that.
She’d been pleased with the way her guys handled the renovation work on the last flip. They might not be framers or finish carpenters, but they worked hard for her and as a team. That made up the difference. Normally she’d handle as much of the demo, painting and finishing work as she could, but that wasn’t feasible with the baby. She’d have to talk to Luke about it, but it might make sense to move her crew to the Chestnut Street house.
They’d have to shave the budget close, but it would let them move forward and turn the property faster. And she wouldn’t have to lay anyone off, which she hated doing even if it was just for a couple of days. She turned toward the construction trailer to check in with Sparks. After she made sure they were square on this job, she could turn her attention to the next.
When she pushed open the door, the construction manager scrambled to stub out his cigarette. He smoked like a chimney, and it had probably penetrated everything including the paneling in the trailer. She’d rarely seen him without a cigarette clamped between his lips and it touched her that he’d try not to smoke in front of her because of the baby. It was one of the few things the men around her had done that seemed sweet instead of making her crazy.
“Give me some warning, Claire,” he said, frantically waving the residual smoke away from her.
“I’d say I’ll knock next time, but unless something came up in the inspection or there’s a punch list problem I don’t know about, we’ll be off the job in an hour or so.”
“Oh,” he said. “Well, it makes sense that you won’t be going to Norfolk with the baby coming. We can talk later about who you’re making lead now that Pete’s gone.” He shook his head and Claire knew losing Pete was as hard on Sparks as it had been on almost any of them.
“I’m handling the Norfolk job. Wait,” she said as what he was saying finally started to sink in. “Does that mean Matthews has the job? Have you heard back already?”
“Mr. Matthews called about an hour ago. We got the contract. He sounded almost as surprised as I was. After everything that went wrong on this job, I didn’t expect Masters to give us another chance.” Sparks smiled at her with real affection. “I suspect you had something to do with that.”
She smiled back at him, but her mind was already racing to Luke. Not only had he accepted the bid from Matthews, he’d awarded them the contract. He’d let them bid to please her, but he wouldn’t give them the work and risk his business if he didn’t think they were the right choice. Faced with new information, he’d changed his mind. It was a simple thing, but it blew her away. She was so used to thinking of him as controlling, but this clearly showed he wasn’t rigid.
“If we’re good, I need to go,” she said to a confused Sparks. “I’ll see you in Norfolk.” She was out the door with her phone in her hand before he had a chance to respond.
Colin answered on the second ring.
“Is he available?” she asked after they traded hellos.
“For you? Always.”
