Page 7 of Nailed

“You have our word that that won't happen, Lauren. We'll handle everything from here on out and we've never failed a single client this far. I'll fix up your plumbing today, and you can sleep easy knowing everything is going to be okay. Promise.” Lauren wouldn't have known this, but if anyone took their word as seriously as if it were law, it was Callum. Fortunately for him, I held a similar ethos when it came to the job. She'd be fine.

Her whole aura relaxed at his words. “I appreciate that.”

“Don't mention it. What you can talk us through is your plans for the apparatus in the bay area. You'll have the most open space to work with here, so I'd guess you already started thinking about it,” Callum added.

Smooth. That was a pretty good way to distract her, and distract her it did. Lauren's eyes lit up like Christmas lights.

“Yes, actually.” She walked over to the nearest wall. “I'm keeping these,” she said, her thumb tracing one of the heavy iron hooks bolted into the brick. “I want to try keeping a bit of the old building's soul intact. Not completely erase its heritage, you know?”

Callum nodded, looking completely engrossed in her presentation. She turned, her shoes crunching on the grit of the concrete. Her eyes took in the rest of the cavernous space with the wonder of a little kid walking into a candy store for the first time. “As for the rest of this? All studio. I'll clear out the junk, let the light hit the bare walls.”

She pointed a vague finger towards the shadowed rear of the floor. “I'm thinking a partition there for the darkroom. I'll need total blackout.”

“So your entire living space is going up there,” Callum clarified.” And your workspace is down here. I noticed the camera earlier and thought you must've been a photographer. That's a cool job.”

“Not quite as cool a job as turning the vision in my head into an actual reality,” she replied. He blushed.

“It's just what we do,” he replied, sounding so lame I actually felt pained on his behalf for a moment. She didn't seem to notice, though.

I could hardly fault Callum. He'd always had a weakness for blue-eyed brunettes but there was something special about the way Lauren's whole body vibrated with excitement when she spoke about her plans for this place that set her up as the true vision in all those ideas.

No.

I was going to immediately take that thought and throw it onto the burning pile of things I would never wonder about again. Or express out loud.

I was the foreman on this project, she was my client and I was already dealing with one impulsive hothead. I didn't need any more complications.

My friend had no such qualms, though. He was grinning at her while she continued explaining more details about the studio conversion. “I think it'll be great. You'll be able to switch off completely between work and your free time and with the way the loft will be set up, it’ll be like having two different apartments.”

“I like that.” She put her hands on her hips, smiling to herself now as though she could already envision the furniture. “I'll be living up there, work and play down here. It's perfect.”

An unceremonious scoff brought the rest of our attention back to Rafe, who immediately attempted to hide it by wandering off to look at some rogue piece of equipment in the far corner of the room.

Lauren shot daggers at his retreating back, and honestly, I couldn't blame her. I was starting to wonder myself just how I was going to lead this crew with Merrick on board. He was definitely not going to make this an easy task.

Lauren, Callum and I said our goodbyes and Rafe drove off on his bike without so much as a greeting to anyone. I waited until Lauren shut the door behind her and Callum and I were well on our way to the truck before bringing it up.

“Hey. I think we're gonna have our hands full with this one,” I said grimly.

Callum frowned at me. “She seems pretty nice to me.”

“Not her, dumbass.”

“Ah. The new guy.” Callum shrugged sheepishly. “Think you're just being a bit too hard on him? I was new too, once. And if it wasn't for your mentorship, I probably wouldn't have ended up half as good as I did.”

“Yeah, well you weren't fresh off the prison lot.” I grumbled. “And you also weren't half as insufferable.”

He made a sound of resignation. “It is still pretty early on. He might change, get himself together.”

“Maybe. Either way, I'm still not willing to risk the integrity of a job on his mood swings. It's probably best if we keep an eye on him.”

Callum nodded. As I climbed in the driver's seat and began pulling off the apron, it began to sink in just how long the coming year would really be. And it sure as hell didn't leave me feeling warm and tingly inside.

5

Lauren

If anyone told me even just a week ago that I'd be going out for breakfast with my real estate agent for fun, I probably would've straight up laughed.