Page 8 of Fierce- Royce

“Hopefully the changes are just finishing touches and not structural then,” she said.

Royce groaned. “I’ve lost track of what has been changed so far. Thankfully they get to us before we order it. I’ve got to sit down with them on Monday to get everything set and tell them we are starting work and these are final.”

Grant grinned. “You do have the hard part to handle. We don’t normally deal with the client as much as Robert and Walker do.”

The Olsons’ firm and their office dealt with all clients and had a real estate agent they worked with too. He wasn’t sure who had the easier job in all of this. Maybe the commercial contractor who had to do all the windows and roofs, the foundation. They did their work early on before any of his could be done. They weren’t really involved much now other than everyone agreeing on new tenants or if the overall building structure had issues, then McCarthy’s would give their vote like the rest of them.

“We are all putting our part in,” he said.

Royce knew that and this was a lot of revenue for his company. The more work tenants wanted when requesting personalized space, the more rent they would pay. At this point they were making money both ways. One on the construction cost and two on the rent. The costs were discounted because they’d get it back in the rent, but it was still revenue no matter how you looked at it.

“We are,” Grant said. “Or Chloe is for us.”

“If you don’t have any more questions, I’ll let you get going,” she said. “You can call if you do have questions though.”

“Call us any time,” Grant said. “You’ve got all our personal numbers. I believe Chloe’s was on the list of contacts too if something comes up after hours.”

He had noticed it there once but tried not to bother anyone after hours. Most of the time it could wait until the next day.

“I did see them all. Thanks.”

Chloe was rolling the plans back up and putting them in the tube to hand him. “Bye,” she said.

He turned to walk out, Grant moving out of the way, and he went about his day and hoped to catch up for the time he’d lost here.

It was totally worth it though.

Until he got to his truck and realized the asinine things he’d said in the conversation he had with her.

Grant rushedto Garrett’s office and shut the door.

“It worked.”

“Did it?” Garrett asked. “How do you know? I think it was stupid we were hiding in here with the lights off while Chloe was running around trying to find the plans you hid.”

“I didn’t hide them,” he argued. “I just put them on a different shelf that she wouldn’t look at.”

“Because you have a shelf for projects for her,” Garrett said.

“Yes. This went into another one,” he said. “I will admit I felt bad hiding in here while the phones were ringing and we could hear Chloe asking people where we were.”

Garrett laughed. “Sorry. I know it was my idea, but as you said, it worked.”

He’d thought his brother was nuts when he came up with this idea yesterday, but it had merit. “I overheard them talking before I got to Chloe’s office.”

“You always were good at eavesdropping on conversations.”

“It has merit too,” he said.

“What did you hear?”

“They had more of a personal conversation this time.” He told his brother about Royce’s comments on showering at work and eating standing up. Chloe making comments back in her dry wit, then some silence. “I wish I could have been a fly on the wall. When I finally knocked on the door there were sparks flying enough I thought the blueprints were going to catch fire.”

“Why the hell isn’t either one of them making a move?” Garrett asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine. But I heard and saw enough that next week I think we need a field trip. We’ve got to keep putting these two together. One of the sparks is going to ignite. It has to.”

“One can hope.”

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