Page 8 of Griffin
"Yeah, but now that you have your contractor's license, we can get one. We got three bids, all of them fifty thousand plus. If I do it myself?—"
"Uh, with me, you mean."
"Right, and I'm sure Cru would be happy to make some money. Now that winter's coming, Slade won't be taking many people out on the boat, and Crusoe is going to be hard up for cash."
I placed down the beer and looked at him. "You're going to put your brother, Cru, the guy who practically has his own personal bed just waiting for him in the ER, up on that roof?" I shook my head. "You've lost your fucking mind."
"We'll put a rope around his waist and tie him to the chimney." He picked up his beer and finished it off.
"Excuse me if I'm wrong, but isn't your girlfriend extremely wealthy?"
"She's got a nice bank account, but I'm still Jaxon Stone from the household where my mom made us drink all the milk out of our cereal bowls and where we had to use bar soap to wash our hair because she thought shampoo was a waste of money."
"So, what you're saying is you're a penny-pincher?"
"Sure, now what do you say? Wanna help a cousin in need?"
I finished my beer. "We both work, so we're just going to do it on the weekends? How does that work?"
"Haven't thought about that. LaLa, where are the peanuts?" Jaxon called across the bar. He was taking advantage of the fact that there were almost no other customers. "Actually, bring us some nachos. Extra cheese."
Stella stared at him across the room.
"I think you'd better say please," I said.
"C'mon, twins don't say please. We can read each other's minds, and she knows I'm already saying it right up here in my brain." Jaxon closed his eyes. "What am I thinking right now, LaLa? Show him how we read each other's minds."
"Hmm, let me see, you're thinking 'I must be an even bigger asshole than I thought if I think I can just order my sister around.'"
I chuckled and got up to get a beer refill. I picked up Jaxon's glass too. I reached the counter. Amy was drying glasses. "Colt said he hired a new office manager. What's she like? Did you meet her?"
"I did. In fact, I helped her out of a bind this morning when a bunch of birds surrounded her as she ate a scone on the pier."
Stella came around the corner from the kitchen area. "Was that the new office manager?" Stella excelled at the dramatic frown. "Not another broken-hearted resignation. Katie still comes in here to drink wine and talk about you."
"Katie dreamt up something that never happened," I explained. "I never came on to her. I was just polite because she was running the office and worked for my dad. I don't know what happened there, but as I told Dad, I'm not taking the blame. And Shay, the new manager, is married, so that's the end of it."
Stella and Amy both laughed loud enough to get Jaxon's attention. "Shit, what am I missing over there?"
We ignored Jaxon. "I don't know why that's funny," I said. "Yes, she's hot, but she's married."
"Right, and that's stopped you before or did you forget Margot?" Amy asked.
"In my defense, she didn't tell me she was married … at first."
Stella crossed her arms. "And how long did it go on after she told you?"
"I just came up here for a beer. Not an interrogation."
Amy reached over and pinched my cheek. "You're so cute when you're flustered. LaLa, fill the beers and then cut your brother off. He'll be grumpy at work tomorrow if he keeps going, and if he's grumpy, then your dad will be grumpy and then I'll be grumpy and it'll be this whole grumpy domino thing." Amy walked away, and Stella refilled the beers.
She slid them across the counter to me. "What's he trying to talk you into? I sensed a whole buttering up thing happening when you sat down."
"Yep, buttered me up like a damn holiday turkey. He wants me to help him put on a new roof."
A laugh shot from Stella's mouth. "Gidge already told him no way on that. She's going to hire a roofing company."
"See, that's reasonable." I picked up the beers and carried them back to the table. Jaxon was just hanging up from a phone call.
