“We can work circles around y’all old, lazy men,” Lottie teased.
“Are you bragging or just wishin’?” Thomas asked.
“Oh, I’m bragging for sure,” she fired back. “I already heard that you are making Thomas’s Terrific Thursday Tacos for supper tonight, and I intend to work up an appetite.”
“It’s the only time you’ll get them until we get to El Paso, so you better eat all you can,” Gabe told her.
“Why’s that?” Knox asked.
“I cook one time at each building site,” Thomas explained. “After that, it’s someone else’s turn to show off their talents. Micah will probably do it next Thursday, and he’ll make enchiladas. That’s his signature dish. But we’re all looking forward to the end of the job when we get finished and you make the dinner.”
“I’ll do my best to make it a meal to remember,” Knox said and went back to work.
At noon, Knox and Lottie carried their lunch over to the rec room and sat down at an empty table. When Gabe, Thomas, and Eddie joined them, he was reminded of grade school when the kids in the first grade never sat with the older ones.
As if she understood what Knox was thinking, she nudged him on the shoulder. “They’ll be a little more friendly at supper tonight,” she whispered. “Right now, they are sizing you up and deciding whether they believe that we are really a couple.”
“Why would they do that?” he asked.
“Because three of them are single, and they’ve had bets going for the past several jobs as to which one will get her to go on a date first,” Thomas answered.
“Ever since we’ve known her, she’s declared that she would never date a coworker,” Eddie said. “None of us believed it at first either. We figured she roped you into being her fake boyfriend so all the single guys would stop hitting on her.”
“Why would I give up my freedom to do a foolhardy thing like that?” Knox asked.
“Who knows, but we are good with the idea of y’all being a couple now, and by the time the third crew gets here, those guys over at the other table will be, too,” Gabe said.
“That said, what’s everyone doing this weekend?” Thomas asked.
Jack sat down at the end of the table and took out hislunch. “I’d like to go home to help Mandy finish packing this weekend.”
“Lottie and I figured we’d stay close by,” Knox told him. “We can keep an eye on things, so go on if you want to. You plan to drive?”
“Yep, and I’m not looking forward to six hours in the truck tomorrow evening.” Jack bit into a sub sandwich.
“Are you afraid of flying?”
“Not at all, but by the time I drive to Dallas, worry with all the stuff at the airport, and then fly to Houston, it will take more time than driving,” Jack answered.
“We have a small plane that could get you there in about an hour and bring you home on Sunday or Monday,” Knox said.
“Who is this ‘we’ business?” Lottie asked.
“It belongs to the three of us. My brother Tripp wanted to keep it when we sold the Callahan estate,” Knox answered. “I can make a call, and the pilot that he keeps on payroll will be glad to take you.”
“Yes, and thank you so much,” Jack said with a nod. “I can get an Uber to take me home from the airport and surprise Mandy. Maybe we’ll all just call it a day at noon tomorrow. Y’all have really been keeping your shoulder to the work this week, and we’re ahead of schedule.”
Lottie didn’t say anything until their lunch break was over and they were walking over to the job, but before they began helping build walls, she whispered, “You have a private plane?”
“It’s not a jet.”
“After supper, I want to hear more about this estate thing.”
He handed her a nail gun and set a stud in place. “Darlin’, you already know more than most of my real girlfriends have ever known.”
Chapter 14
“Are you really not going to tell me about your airplane?” Lottie asked that evening before they left the bathroom. Knox had already had his shower and was wearing nothing but a towel, wrapped low enough to see the V of his abs. Asking about the plane was nothing more than her feeble attempt to talk about anything so she would stop wanting to run her hands all over his broad chest.
