“What I’m gettin’ at, Kari, is that you put a smile on Max’s face. I see the way he looks at you and that’s the way John looks at me when he thinks I’m not lookin’. My boy loves you and that, at the end of the day, is all I care about.”
I widened my eyes to keep the tears from spilling over as she cleared her throat.
“Now, don’t get me wrong,” she laughed, pointing her finger at me, “you hurt that son of mine and I’ll come at you with my rolling pin.”
She closed the distance between us and, before I knew it, shepulled me against her. She patted my back in a motherly way I hadn’t remembered feeling and it touched me on some level I didn’t know could be reached.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Max and his father standing outside the glass door. The smile on Max’s face was the widest I’d ever seen. John reached over and grabbed Max’s shoulder, saying something only the two of them could hear.
But the feelings exchanged between Max and me in that moment was something only the two of our souls could ever understand.
THIRTY-ONE
MAX
We went over the numbers one final time. “I think we’re good,” I said to Cane, who was sitting across from me in the conference room. Plans and specs and historical cost sheets were spread from one end of the marble table to the other as we prepared the bid for the Trimble project. We had worked all week on it and Friday had finally rolled around.
“We thought that the last time, too. Did we get Grady’s number yet?”
“Not yet...” Cane’s voice trailed off as the conference room door swung open. Sam put her head through the crack and looked quickly away from Cane.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked.
“Hey, Sam,” Cane said, looking at me and then to her, “there’s a stack of invoices Norm needs filed in accounting. Can you swing by there and give him a hand?”
I shot Cane a curious look but he didn’t look back to me.
“Yeah. Sure.” She plastered a fake smile on for Cane, gave me an inquisitive glance, and then let the door close behind her.
I held my hand in front of me, silently asking Cane what that wasabout; he shrugged me off and looked back at the plans. I wasn’t sure what his point was, although there definitely was one.
“Excuse me,” Lucy’s voice rang out through the speakerphone. “I have Wade Grady on the phone with a bid.”
“Speak of the devil. Send it through, Lucy,” Cane said, making a note on a yellow legal pad.
The red light flashed and Cane pressed the speaker. “Hey, Wade.”
“You ready for my number?” he asked through the speaker.
“Yup. What are you coming in at?” Cane said, looking at me.
“We’re at $60,560.00. I think I might be able to go a little lower, but it’ll depend on how another project we have wraps up before this one starts. If I can do you better when the time comes, I will. But that’s the lowest earthmoving number anyone will see today, I’ll guarantee that. My overhead is...let’s just say Jillian isn’t real happy about the markup on this one.”
I wrote down his number and chuckled, betting he was right. “Fax us over something in writing, if you don’t mind. Just so we have it.”
“I’ll get it sent over now. Cane, you want it sent to your house?”
“Please.” His jaw was firm as he looked at me. “Quick question—did you happen to figure out how Chalgon got the number on the Chandler project?”
“No, and you know what? That’s one helluva mess right now. I don’t know how they got our number but we sure as shit didn’t send it to them. I’m not happy about doing that work for just anyone for that price either. You guys I know and respect and I have confidence there won’t be any games played with billing or anything like that. Every other contractor had a few grand added on as a protective measure.”
“That’s strange. Maybe you’re assistant faxed the wrong paper out?” Cane theorized, but with his raised eyebrows, I knew he didn’t believe that.
“She faxed them all out but yours. I sent it myself, so she didn’t have your number. Chalgon says it just showed up on their fax, sothey went with it. Now I have to honor the sonofabitch just to keep good business.”
Cane and I exchanged a look.
“Alright, we gotta get this bid in. Thanks for the call, Wade. I’ll call you in the morning if we’re low bidder,” I said.
