Page 18 of Working for Him

Later, dancing to a song Tommy insists is tradition, she leans into my shoulder. "I want to try it. The joint consulting thing. I think we could build something really good together."

"Together," I say, the word becoming something close to a promise.

We leave not long after, and the drive home is quiet but charged. We don't make it far past the front door before her hands are in my shirt and mine are working her jeans, and it's fast and desperate in a way that's different from before. It’s urgent instead of careful, both of us laughing between kisses because we know each other now, know what works, and don't need to go slow to get where we're going.

Afterward, tangled together and catching our breath, she traces idle patterns on my chest. "Can I ask you something? What are we doing here? Long term."

"What do you want it to be?"

"I don't know. I've never gotten this far before without running. But I think, maybe, I want it to be something real. Something that lasts beyond my contract."

Relief washes through me, sharp and profound. "I'm all in, Rena. Have been since that first day at Marlene's."

"Three months and I'm already talking about staying," she muses. "That's got to be some kind of record for me."

"Then let's set a new one."

The next morning, she's already at the kitchen table with her laptop and coffee when I wake, deep in research on what it would take to formalize the joint consulting arrangement.

"You're serious about this," I say, sitting across from her.

"I'm serious about us," she replies. "About building something that lasts. If we're going to do this, we should do it right."

For the next hour we sit at our kitchen table planning a future that includes both of us. Building. Together. Always.

CHAPTER 11

Caleb

Jamie, one of the newer guys, jogs over with an expression that puts me on alert. "Boss, you need to see something. Eastern section, near the old infrastructure tie-in."

Marcus and I head there fast, and what we find makes my stomach drop. The excavation has exposed a section of the old municipal water main that was supposed to have been rerouted years ago according to city records. Except it's clearly still active. Damp soil, water moving through pipes that shouldn't exist in this location.

"Jesus," Marcus mutters. "That's not on any of the plans."

"No," I agree, already pulling out my phone to document. "It's not."

This is bad. We're about to pour concrete for a major support structure directly adjacent to an active water main nobody knew was here. "Shut it down," I order, loud enough that the crew nearby all pause. "All work in this section stops immediately."

I'm calling Rena before the guys have even finished backing away. "We've got a problem," I say. "Old water main, not on any city records, right where we're supposed to pour the eastern support. I need you to come assess before we proceed with anything."

"On my way," she says immediately. "Don't let anyone near it."

She arrives fifteen minutes later, already in her hard hat, and crouches at the edge of the excavation, studying the exposed pipe. "This is active," she says. "This changes everything. We can't build on this section until the main's properly rerouted or we confirm it's stable. Given nobody knew it was here, I'm not confident about any assumptions regarding its structural integrity."

"How long are we talking?"

"Minimum a week for proper assessment. Possibly longer if we find other surprises."

I scrub a hand over my face, already doing math on delays and budget. "This is going to push us back significantly."

"It's going to keep your crew safe," she counters, firmly. "That's worth the delay."

She's not wrong, but it doesn't make it easier to swallow. This project's already been delayed twice, it’s already under scrutiny, and I know exactly how the city's going to react.

The rest of the day is taken up by meetings, assessments, and calls with increasingly frustrated city officials who seem to think discovering infrastructure problems is a personal failing rather than an inevitable part of construction. By the time everyone leaves and the site goes quiet, I'm exhausted and ready to hit something.

Rena finds me in the trailer staring at updated plans that are already outdated.