Page 50 of The Contractor & the Entrepreneur

“Let’s go,” she urged, rushing for his garage entry.

He ran after her, grabbing his cowboy hat and sliding into his boots in the mudroom. She was already loaded into his truck. He jumped in and they took off. They rode in tense silence, except for her phone that kept ringing. She turned the ringer off, but he could hear the slight buzz. Her dad was persistent.

Sloan’s face was pinched and pale.

“It’ll be all right,” he said, reaching for her hand.

She let him hold her hand but snapped, “Will it?”

“It’s a crazy setback for sure, but it’s not your fault.” Was it a setback or was the land unbuildable now? All that hard work and the materials. Gone. “Nobody plans on a mudslide. We have insurance for this. We might have to start over, re-test, move farther away from the bluff, but five acres is a lot to work with. The homeowners will be upset, but it’ll all work out in the end.” The contractors, developers, and even the homeowners all had insurance to cover things like this. No matter how distressing the loss of time, material, and hard work was, he had to look for the positive.

“Rhett.” She clung tightly to his hand. “The insurance had me sign something about not covering an ‘act of nature’. Since all the tests and the surveys came back good, my insurance agent said it was a waste of money. What if we don’t have insurance to cover it? What if I’m liable since I signed that?”

His eyes widened. Why had they had her sign that? A mudslide was always a possibility on a bluff above a river. Especially with the spring they’d had.

They were almost to the property but Rhett pulled the truck to the side of the road, stopped, pushed the park button and turned to her. “Sloan.”

She stared at him with wide eyes. He’d never seen her so uncertain. No matter his stress level, he would focus on her and support her.

“Whatever happens, we’re in this together. I’ll be here for you, and we’ll figure it out.”

She studied him.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

Sloan blinked, and a tear ran down her cheek. “I do, Rhett, but … this isn’t your mess.”

“Sloan, I want to be yours. Anything you have to deal with, I will be by your side.”

She drew in a breath. “You are the best man on the planet, Rhett Coleville.”

He wanted to grin and tease, but he drew her hand to his lips and gently kissed it instead. “I’m your man, Sloan, and that’s my most important role.”

She gave him a watery smile, undid her seatbelt, arched across the console, and kissed him fiercely.

Rhett thought that was a fabulous response.

Chapter

Twenty

Sloan staredat the devastation of roofs and walls collapsed, muddy trenches opened in the earth, sections of the houses fallen into the river below. She was on the verge of broken as well, terrified, ready for the earth to swallow her up like the mud had taken part of the bluff and devastated her hopes and dreams.

Rhett was by her side, holding her hand, talking with her and the contractors about what kind of a process they were looking at. He was positive and focused but she wondered … Was it even possible to clean up the mess and start again?

She didn’t know. Nobody did. All she knew was Rhett was her man, her anchor. She had to take a deep breath and decide that letting the earth drag her down into the now muddy and tree, debris, and construction mess filled riverbank would do no good. Because of him by her side, she could hold on and somehow be brave and get back to work.

They were stronger together. She could hardly wrap her mind around the depth and significance of his words and actions, but she felt safe with him and she trusted him. She wastruly brave with him by her side. She might even love him, but it was too quick to be thinking like that.

They spent the day wandering from site to site. The men were trying to do what work they could, piling ruined building materials that were still on the ridge and hauling them off. She was on the phone with the banks, the county, the insurance. It didn’t look great. Unless they could prove it wasn’t a mudslide, the developer’s insurance wouldn’t kick in. Thankfully the contractors and homeowners each had their own insurance on their sites, but only five of the twenty sites were owned privately; the rest were her responsibility to clean up, reinforce the ground, and prove they were build-ready. If that was possible. She also was responsible for the road coming in, which was even more of a mess than it had been yesterday. The ground shifting with the mudslides when everything was so soft and wet hadn’t done them any favors.

She didn’t have the money. Rhett would be by her side, but she wasn’t going to ask him for a loan. Despair threatened to grip her again. She wracked her brain for ways to get the project back on track or prove it wasn’t a mudslide. Several of the contractors were baffled that so much of the bluff could slide off at the same time.

Sloan didn’t understand it either, but she was ninety percent certain it was a mudslide. What else could’ve happened? Jaxon and Preston were in prison and the security company hadn’t seen anything on the cameras they’d installed or their routine checks. It was doubtful it was foul play.

It was early afternoon when a tall, lean man marched down the muddy lane to the lot Rhett had been building on. He wore a crisp business suit, his dark hair was slicked back, and his face had a determined scowl on it.

Sloan’s stomach churned and she grabbed Rhett’s hand. His gaze focused on her. “You okay?”

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