Page 31 of Another Chance
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Grumpy, tired, with a body that seemed to pulse with every beat of his heart, Eric stared around at the construction site and tried to figure out where it had all gone wrong.
A week ago, he had been congratulating himself for having everything under control. The project they were working on had been ahead of schedule, the clients happy. So much could change in a week.
It hadn’t helped that Carlos had been delirious with a fever, to the point where Eric had had to send him home just for safety reasons. He’d been there for a few days, and even now, Carlos wasn’t at his best.
And then Anne had gotten sick. And then James.
In the end, there hadn’t been a day this last working week where everyone had been there. Eric had been down at least two people every single day, and truth to be told, as much as he tried to deny it to himself, he wasn’t feeling so great himself. His immune system was taking care of it, but it was exhausting.
So it was a good thing that they had been ahead a week ago because now, they were behind. Not as much as they could have been without that head start, but enough that Eric felt like the muddy ground was sucking him down, trying to hold onto his boots, and he didn’t have the energy to fight it much.
“Okay. Let’s call it done for today,” Eric finally called. Everyone had put in a couple of hours of overtime to try to get this project finished, but they were still behind. Still, if everyone felt even half as tired as Eric did, they were going to be working off of some diminishing returns.
The sky was actually fully dark when everyone laid down their tools and gathered around Eric. The streetlights nearby illuminated the three sets of eyes looking at him in stark, cruel relief. Did Eric look as bad? Were the bags under his eyes as pronounced, his lips as tensed, his shoulders set at that defeated angle?
Carlos was there, and Mary, and Anne. Everyone else was still sick, and from what Eric was seeing, all three of those people should be in bed, too.
“Well, the good news is that our clients are laid up with the same thing you all have,” Eric said, and while it actually sounded horrible to speak those words, it was true. They would be in a fair bit more trouble, he thought, if Eric had to report that they had fallen behind, but they were too sick even to demand a report.
No one laughed, or did anything but look at him, and Eric felt momentarily unsure of himself for what he was about to ask. They were already so tired. Maybe he should look at hiring some other people for this project, but really, he knew that wasn’t an option.
These people were his friends, and they deserved first dibs. He would hire people if they were unwilling, and only then.
“I’ve got a new project,” Eric started. “Another local one, like this.” He knew that would grab their interest. It was nice when they didn’t have to drive too far to get to work, and despite their clear exhaustion, all three of them perked up.
“Are you going to tell us about it or are you gonna stand there with your thumb up your ass?” asked Mary, and at that, Eric couldn’t help but laugh. Mary was quiet, but when she did say something, it was usually funny, or interesting.
“It’s more of a renovation project,” Eric admitted, and he knew that wasn’t exactly their forte. They were more about building new houses than fixing old ones. “So it’ll be different. Theo’s house had a tree fall through a wall in the exterior, and there’s some pretty significant damage …”
“Theo?” Anne asked, and her eyes widened. Oh God. Why hadn’t Eric remembered? Theo was famous. When they were together, it was so easy for Eric to forget, because Theo just seemed like his own Teddy from when they’d been kids growing up together. His own Teddy, just all grown up.
It wouldn’t seem that way to most people.
“Theo Savage?” Mary asked, and her eyes, too, showed a sharper interest. Poor Theo. Poor, poor Theo. On the other hand, he was probably used to it, right?
“… Yeah,” Eric admitted. They would find out sooner or later anyway, so no sense in lying about it now. “So what do you guys think? The work would be done on the weekends. Standard overtime pay.”
Anne had a smile on her face so wide that it almost seemed to extend out beyond the boundaries of her cheeks, like some cheesy old cartoon. Hell, Eric could almost swear that hearts had replaced her eyes, and this was all before she’d done more than see the picture in the back of the books that Theo had written.
When she was actually around him, his quiet strength, his intense hazel eyes, the way that gorgeous smile would just burst free out of nowhere like a brilliant ray of sunshine struggling free from thick cloud cover, she would be lost. Maybe they all would. Theo had this way of charming people that Eric wasn’t even sure Theo was aware that he had.
“When can we start?” Mary asked, after exchanging a look with Anne, a deeply feminine look to which Eric was not privy. One thing was clear, though, abundantly clear. The girls were in. It might take wild horses to keep them away.
“Not until some cleanup is done,” Eric admitted. The house had to be less of a safety hazard before he was trusting his people to it. “Next weekend, probably.”
Carlos hadn’t said anything, but he was looking at Eric with a very thoughtful expression on his face, his dark eyes unreadable. A frown lingered on his lips, but it didn’t seem like Carlos was displeased.
Maybe the guy was still tired. This bug was a hell of a lively one, no doubt about that.
“Yeah,” Carlos finally said. “I’m in. Hey, boss, why don’t you bring Theo to the bar tonight? I’d like to meet this guy.”
Eric tilted his head slightly to the side and looked at Carlos curiously. It was, he supposed, a completely normal request. It made sense, even, for Theo to meet his friends, and it made sense for his friends to want to meet Theo.
Still, for some reason, it made Eric cautious. Part of him wanted to keep Theo to himself. Forever. To jealously hoard his attention, to keep him safe. But that was ridiculous because Theo was a grown man and Theo was also going to be here for a few months.
It wasn’t going to be fair to Theo to expect him to just sit around at home. And this was a good group of people. Something in Eric still rebelled, though. Still, it wasn’t like he owned Theo.
