Page 4 of All Yours

“A crazy person,” Eden cried.

“That probably has nothing to do with us,” I said, giving Lauren the side-eye. “I’m sure there are tons of reasons for the police to be rushing by right now.”

“Just get us out of here,” Lauren muttered.

“I’m on it.”

Chapter Two

Jonah

“I don’t understand. It’s Saturday. How could you be too busy to come to dinner? I haven’t seen you in a month. Break your mother’s heart.” Her voice came through my phone loud enough that I didn’t need the speaker to hear my mother’s guilt trip from across the job site.

I held in the sigh and turned away from the table of blueprints and out from under the tent. “Yes, and remember I said that once we started building The Commons, I’d run crews seven days a week.”

“Even the Lord rested one day a week, and he built the entire world,” she responded.

“Come on, Ma. It won’t last forever.”

“And what if I’m dead by the time you’re done? Then what?”

I looked around for a saw to throw myself under, but the crew had gone to lunch. “Then, I guess, I’ll live the rest of my life with a gut-wrenching guilt that will never go away.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” she quipped, without an ounce of irony. I could tell her the same thing, but it wouldn’t do any good.

“I love you, and I’ll be by as soon as I can.”

“You still need to eat,” she said as a last-ditch effort to convince me.

“I’ll grab something quick while working.”

“You’ll never meet a nice Jewish woman with working all these hours.”

“Ma, I’m related to every Jewish woman in town.”

“Well, you should have met more girls at those summer camps I used to send you to. Are you sure it can’t work out with Chasity?”

Hell, she couldn’t help twisting all the knives at once. The phone beeped in my ear, indicating I had another call coming in. I glanced at the screen. It was Camden.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Hey, my business partner is calling, and I hope he has good news about the funding.”

“What about setting up a profile on one of those online dating apps? Linda says they have one for Jewish singles. Her son met a nice girl on it and now they have two kids and live in Hoboken.”

“No, that sounds like a nightmare. Look, I need to go. I’m missing an important call.” By the time I’d hung up, I missed Camden’s call.

“Tell me you have good news,” I said when he answered. Camden had spent the morning on a golf course with some potential investors in our project.

“Not yet. It went well, though. A couple of them want to come out and tour the town to see the site.”

“Did you win the round?” I asked, grinning.

“Not on your life,” he laughed. “I didn’t have to try too hard to lose. I haven’t played in forever.”

“How embarrassing for you.” I looked up to find Adrian strolling toward me. “Shit.”

“What?”

“Hang on,” I said into the phone. “Hey, asshole, put on a hard hat before you get me fined.” I called. “I’ve told him a million times,” I muttered into the phone.

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