Page 16 of Passion Restored

“I know,” he agreed. “You’re good at what you do. Just ask Owen.”

She shook herself. “That is something I won’t be doing, but thank you.” And with that, she walked out of his room and did her job, ignoring the way Lisa watched her.

She couldn’t let the other woman get to her, not when she had to work her ass off since they were both competing for the same thing—to stay in their positions when the budget went off the rails.

She just prayed she didn’t make any more mistakes.

She couldn’t afford it.

No matter how many Gallaghers life seemed to want to throw at her.

****

Owen was a new man. Or, at least, mostly a new man. It had been another week, and now he was able to move around without wanting to cry, his incision didn’t hurt at all, and his arm might still be in a sling, but his collar and shoulder didn’t ache. His brothers might not let him drive yet thanks to the sling, but he was well and truly on his way to being healed.

Thank. God.

The sounds of men and women cursing and hitting things with hammers filled his ears, and he wanted to close his eyes and sway to that version of music. The smell of concrete being poured and finished wood hit him hard, and he wanted to go down on his knees and weep.

It had been far too long since he’d been allowed on any of their jobsites, and all he wanted to do was stay there forever and remember why he loved working at Gallagher Brothers Restoration.

“You look ready to either cry or start humping the drywall,” Graham said as he made his way to Owen’s side. “I don’t know if either one is really workplace appropriate.”

Owen flipped his brother off with his good arm and smiled. “I won’t cry yet, and I’m not that into drywall. That sounds more of a you thing, to be honest.”

Graham went to punch Owen’s shoulder and thought better of it. “As soon as you’re healed, I’ll hit you.”

“Thank you,” he said dryly. “I’d hate to think you’d have to hold yourself back for years.”

Graham snorted. “Like any of us could hold back for that long. You’re lucky you have that sling on today to remind us since any road rash you still have is covered by that button-down shirt you have on. Could you look more out of place right now, dude?”

“Shut up. It was easier to put this on than something over my head,” Owen explained. “Plus, you guys won’t let me work with anything out there, so I’ll be in the trailer most of the day anyway, working on whatever mess you guys left for me.”

“First, it’s called insurance, dumbass. I’m not about to let you get hurt even worse on the jobsite because you’re an idiot. Second, we didn’t mess things up.”

Owen raised a brow. “I saw what Murphy did to my spreadsheet. He’s lucky he’s far away right now, or I’d kick his ass. I’m honestly a little scared to look at what you guys did to my desk.”

Graham gave Owen a guilty look and suddenly had a fascination with his boots. “You might want to fortify yourself.”

Owen groaned. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Graham said quickly. Too quickly. “You know how much Murphy hates sticky notes.”

Owen closed his eyes and counted to five. “You aren’t that big of a fan yourself. I’m forever finding little pieces of paper scattered around that I need to organize.”

Graham winced. “Well…at least you’re used to things like that. Maybe it will help calm you after a while. You know, like organizing for the soul or some crap like that. It’ll keep you at the desk and not near a hammer, at least.”

This time, Owen counted to ten.

“You should go back to whatever He-Man thing you were doing before Jake dropped me off because I don’t think you want to be near me once I go in there. Right?”

Graham backed away slowly with his hands raised—funny since the man had a couple of inches on him and twenty pounds of muscle. “You got it. I’ll send Jake in later to get you for lunch. How’s that?”

Graham didn’t even wait for Owen to answer before he was off and out of the way of Owen’s fist. Not that Owen could really hit the man right then since he wasn’t up to hundred percent yet, but hell, if Graham could delay hitting Owen, then Owen could wait to hit Graham. Owen would be sure to keep a list of infractions so he could get his big brother back.

He made his way to the trailer and up the old, wooden steps, doing his best to not think about what he was about to see. It couldn’t be that, bad, right? He’d only been gone a couple of weeks.

He opened the door and froze.

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