Page 9 of Waiting for Forever
They both shook their heads.
Rather than clear the dishes, Macie pulled a chair over from a nearby table and plopped it down at the end of their booth.
“You done working, Macie?” TJ called out from the bar.
Macie looked over her shoulder. “I’m taking a quick break. You’re perfectly capable of pouring beer, Dad. In case you forgot, you’re technically on the schedule to work today.”
TJ frowned, looking almost confused. “I am?” Then he started muttering, “This is ridiculous. Can’t expect me to work all these hours.”
Macie rolled her eyes. “Dad doesn’t even look at the schedule. We just put him on there—every single day—for shits and giggles, so we can all tell him to get back to work whenever he’s getting on our nerves or we’re feeling ornery.”
Hudson and Granddad laughed.
“So you got any jobs lined up yet?” she asked Hudson, who shook his head.
“I only got back to town a few days ago. Granddad and I have been going over the ins and outs of the business, and I’ve been getting to know the crew as we finish up a couple of projects.” He liked the crew, but if Hudson couldn’t manage to land a couple of jobs ASAP, he was going to have to let them go…and then they’dreallybe up the river without a paddle.
“Want a sort of filler job while you do that, something to keep you busy until you line up something legit?” Macie asked.
Hudson was nodding before she finished asking the question. Prior to Dad’s death, Hudson was accustomed to rising with the sun, and while his workday ended around six, that was when he came home and started taking care of Dad’s needs. Since Granger’s funeral, Hudson had been preparing for the move to Maris, but he’d settled in a couple days ago. After so many years on the go, Hudson was starting to feel antsy to get back to work.
“You need some work done around here?” Hudson asked, glancing around the restaurant.
“Not at the moment, but hold that thought, because there’s a chance we might get the property next door. If that happens, we want to knock down the wall between and double the size of the restaurant.”
Hudson’s creative brain started churning. “I hope you’ll let me bid on that project.”
Macie grinned. “Of course we will. Though I’ll warn you, Beck Reed already caught wind of the possible purchase, and he’s got a serious hard-on for the job.”
“Of course he does,” Granddad muttered.
Macie waved off Granddad’s concern. “You know we’re Team Ryan Construction. But for now, I have something that’s probably less up your alley, Hudson. More handyman than construction.”
“Handyman?” Granddad chimed in. “Why wouldn’t you just call Bobby Duncan?”
“Oh, didn’t you hear?” Macie, like her dad, loved being the teller of tales. “He took a nasty tumble from a ladder while digging leaves out of his mom’s gutters this past weekend. Fractured his femur. Probably going to need surgery, and he could be out of commission for up to six months.”
“That’s a bad injury,” Hudson added, recalling a colleague suffering from the same several years earlier.
“Yeah. Well, prior to the fall, he’d started helping my cousin renovate her new house, working there three days a week. She’s determined to do as much of the work as she can on her own, but a lot of it requires two pairs of hands or more strength than she has. She’s ripping up carpet, stripping wallpaper, painting the walls and cabinets, getting new appliances in the kitchen, and I think there’s the issue of one room needing new drywall. Sheplanned to hire a plumber and an electrician to update all that stuff, but it sounds like you could help her with the plumbing.”
All of that was right up Hudson’s alley. And until he started to line up bigger jobs, the idea of getting back to work was appealing. The crew was perfectly capable of finishing up the last two jobs without him standing over them every hour of the day. He hadn’t planned to do more than get them going every morning anyway, so he could start bidding on other projects. Since both jobs would wrap up in a few weeks, he needed to get the word out that Ryan Construction was coming back strong.
The Sparks were a well-respected family in Maris. If he did a good job for Macie’s cousin, hopefully they’d all spread the word. Might be the quickest way to get the business back off the groundandredeem his reputation.
“Which cousin?” he asked.
“Paige.”
And just like that…the bubble popped. Because there was no way in hell Paige Sparks—the girl he’d terrorized for five years in school—would hire him.
“That’s terrific,” Granddad said, oblivious to just how badly Hudson had burned that particular bridge down.
Hudson needed to head this off at the pass. “I’m not sure that’s going to work.”
Granddad and Macie stared at him, confused, until he was forced to admit… “I wasn’t exactly nice to Paige in high school.”
Macie shrugged. “So what? That was years ago.”
