My heart skids to a stop.
She turns and hits me with a worried gaze. “Don’t back out of your dreams just because of today.”
But I’ve already decided that any dreams I have need to wait, or go away, or be someone else’s. There’s no way I could walk away from Larson Landscaping without feeling like a grade-a piece of shit now. Russ is so stressed trying to juggle all the jobs, he had what can only be assumed was an anxiety attack. For a man who never gets flustered over anything, that’s serious.
“I have to get up early for work,” I say softly.
“You’re not staying the night?”
“Can’t.”
All my work clothes and boots are back at my place. My little hiatus is over.
“Okay,” she says, and guilt makes my gut twist.
When Taylor pushes my truck door open to get out, I grab her wrist and gently pull her back to me. Leaning across the console, I kiss her. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
The next morning is mayhem.
Chapter 27
Conner
Summer days are long and hot. I’m sweating through my t-shirt already and it’s only ten in the morning.
“Get the backhoe and bring it down to the far end,” I order Matt.
He’s new. Well, sort of. He only worked a month for the company before Russ fired him. He came back for some extra cash, because I put a call out to all our former employees offering them cash under the table if they were willing to come back temporarily. Four of them took me up on my offer and I’m paying them out of my savings because Russel would definitely have an aneurism if he knew they were getting a second chance at Larson Landscaping.
Like I said, he’s a difficult man to work for. Perfection matters. Precision, timelines, it all matters more than anything else. One strike and you’re out.
At home, he’s not like that at all, which is wild to me.
Our regular employees have been offered Russel-approved overtime and are eager for the extra cash. It’s been all hands on deck for the past two weeks. With the schedule I worked out by staying up until three am the night we brought Russel home, notonly have we kept business running as usual, but I’ve been able to add back all our cancelations plus two new clients.
“Get those pear trees in the ground first, then the arborvitae. Shit, did Evan load the filtered soil?”
“Yeah. He’s headed to the McNair’s first then here.”
Right on schedule.
“Good. Take a break for lunch and hydrate.” I pull my hat off and wipe my forehead. “This is gonna be a long day, boys.”
Matt loads a bag of fertilizer on his shoulder and hauls it away.
Bouncing from job to job, I make sure everything’s going smooth and note that we’ll need more pavers for the Baker job. “I’ll have them loaded on the next free truck we’ve got, sir.”
“Thanks, Conner.” Mr. Baker shakes my hand. “You boys do some incredible work. I wish I could talk you into putting in a water feature. My wife wants one of those, whatcha call its, a stress-relieving sanctuary.”
My heart sinks. I wish I could do that, but Russ refuses to take on those bigger designs. Says we make enough money and have enough projects already. No need to get complicated.
But seeing how much easier things are running with the extra help only dangles the carrot of possibilities in front of my face. If I squint, I can almost see what my future would look like if I left and started my own business.
That’s never happening now, by the way. Not in a million years. I haven’t had the time or the balls to tell Taylor that though.
“Yeah, sorry, Mr. Baker, but if we ever get into aquatic features in the future, you’ll be the first to know.”
