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Mal gave me a rueful smile. "I hear you, man. I admire that. I just hope this Ivy chick doesn't fuck it up for you."
"That's on me, though, isn't it?" It was more of a reminder to myself than a question.
•••
"What is it that you're building here?" Ivy asked. A few of the construction guys stared at her as we walked toward the office trailer. Maybe one of them would screw up the courage to ask her out and then marry her, taking the burden off Winter's shoulders.
"Multi-use building," I replied. "This is the office trailer. There's my desk, which you can use. The computer, printer-slash-fax machine, tool chests, fire extinguisher. A couple first aid kits. Refrigerator. Help yourself to whatever is in there." I paused. Was there beer in there? Shit, I should have taken that out. Hurriedly, I moved on. "Here's the filing cabinet." I slapped the side of the sturdy metal unit that Mal and I had hauled in this morning after he'd fixed the laptop. "And those are the papers that need to filed and organized. Put the bills in date due order, file any permits. The trade magazines can be stacked into the front shelves."
"Where's the bathroom?"
"Right there." I pointed to the two porta-potties outside.
"Seriously? That's so disgusting, and look at this shit.”
“Just kidding. There’s a bathroom in the back.”
She glared and me and then pointed to the mountain of half-opened mail. "How can you find anything?"
"I can't," I admitted. "Which is why I hired you."
"Aren't you worried some of your bills are in arrears?"
Arrears?
She lifted a few of the papers with one finger, as if she was scared to touch them. "What? I can't use the word arrears? One of my favorite drug dealers used that all the time. ‘Ivy, one of my clients is in arrears. Should we give him more time to pay or collect it now?’"
Great. She was hardly here longer than a few minutes and she was joking about her drug dealer. Maybe Mal was right, and this was a huge mistake.
"Oh my God." She slapped a hand over her heart and laughed. "I wish you could see the utter horror on your face when I said drug dealer. When did you become such a straight edge?"
"You really don't know anything about me," I replied evenly. It probably wouldn't make Winter happy if I fired Ivy only minutes after bringing her onboard. Winter was the only one who was thrilled with the idea. Everyone else thought it was the dumbest thing ever. But Ivy needed a job. That was one headache I could relieve for Winter. I was going to remove every little headache and obstacle until there was nothing standing between the two of us. First up? Getting Ivy a job. I wasn't going to back down now. "Your password is written down here. Memorize it, and then shred the post it." I tapped the yellow sticky.
"Shit, I can't even remember what a burger at a fast food joint costs, and I'm supposed to remember this?"
I bit down to keep my temper in check. "I'm running a business, and businesses require secure passwords."
"Whatever. Don't you think this project is too big for you? I thought all you did were like one bedroom houses over on the east side," she said and flipped her hair over her shoulder. It was an action she'd done plenty of times in the past, and it never failed to draw attention to one of her major attributes. But even as the motion drew my eyes to her hair, the blond locks had zero effect on me. I preferred the coal black of Winter's straight hair. It did make me look at Ivy more closely though. She'd curled her hair, and she was wearing a lot of makeup and a shirt that had a pretty deep V-neck. She'd get plenty of attention if she walked around the site like that. I had a niggling feeling there was something I was missing, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
I picked up the extra walkie-talkie and placed it by the computer. "If you need anything, press the button to talk. When it's pressed you can't hear anyone, so try to remember that."
"Are we just going to ignore that night?" She stepped closer, close enough that I could smell her perfume. I shifted to the side and then walked toward the door.
"Yes." I placed my hand on the doorknob, but before I could escape, she threw the bomb.
"This baby could be yours."
It was her aggressive and challenging tone almost more than her words that made me explode. "The hell it is. Have you told Winter this?"
"No."
"You'd better not because we both know I didn't fucking touch you that night," I snarled.
She shrugged, but she didn't quite pull off the nonchalance she was trying to project. "How else did I get pregnant? It wasn't an immaculate conception."
I had thought about that night a million times since learning about Ivy's pregnancy, and every time I replayed the events, I woke up wearing my jeans and a clean dick inside my shorts.
"Are you saying you've only slept with me since you got out of prison?"
