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By eleven-thirty, he decided the best course of action was to stop looking at her. Easier said than done as Nate’s blue pickup pulled onto the lot and Marley marched past where Justin and Chuck reviewed the blueprints.
“I sure don’t envy her position right now,” Chuck muttered.
Justin watched Marley catch Nate’s arm before he made it past the bumper of his truck. “How is it she’s the boss and not you?” he asked the older man without taking his eyes off the unfolding action.
From the corner of his eye he saw Chuck look at him before answering. “Marley’s been with Hunter longer than any of us.”
That surprised Justin. “How long have you worked here?”
“Almost ten years.”
Ten years? Marley didn’t look to be a day over twenty-five. “Surely your experience made you more qualified.”
“All I’ve got is a high school diploma,” Chuck stated matter-of-factly. “Marley started working with her Dad when she was sixteen, worked her way through college and graduated just last month with a degree in business and a Master’s in architecture.”
Justin did the math and decided she had to be twenty-six or twenty-seven. He also knew she had to have worked hard to get to where she was today, especially in a male-dominated field. He wondered if she’d been favored as the former general contractor’s daughter, but quickly discarded the thought. The men gave her too much respect for that.
Guilt rushed forward for having ordered her termination, but he tamped it down. Anything she was up to with his father didn’t deserve sympathy. So what if he’d grown to like her over the past couple days? Now he viewed her in an entirely different light. A certain measure of his respect still remained, but it was altered now. Cheapened.
That’s when it hit him, what he couldn’t put his finger on earlier. He was disappointed in her for having anything to do with his father…and, damn it, he was disappointed in the fact that he wouldn’t get to kiss her again.
The fact that he still wanted to pissed him off.
****
If everyone weren’t watching right now, Marley would’ve smacked Nate upside the head the way her father used to when he did something stupid. The way he’d been acting lately, though, she wouldn’t put it past Nate to turn around and deck her.
She forced the confrontation at the bumper of his truck. “I warned you.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
She shook her head but kept her gaze steady.
“Don’t do this, Mar. You need me and you know it.”
She did need him, but if she didn’t set a precedent, her job would be on the line. Most of the guys were young, with the exception of Chuck. This was her test to see how she could handle being the boss, and damned if she’d fail because Nate thought he could play the family card.
“I’ll give you a good recommendation, but other than—”
He jammed the heel of his hand against the side of his truck, making her flinch.
“Screw your recommendation, Mar, and screw you.”
She cringed as he yanked the door of his truck open. “Nate—”
He didn’t even look at her as he slammed the door shut and punched the truck into gear. Marley jumped out of the way and watched him speed away, leaving her in a billowing cloud of dust.
She wanted to cry. She never cried, yet for the second time in as many days she felt tears sting her eyes. She refused to let them fall as she returned to the framed wall where she’d been working. Nate had made his own bed. She’d given him more warnings than she could count.
She couldn’t help but glance at Justin on her way past, but he didn’t meet her gaze. She knew why, too. He hadn’t spoken to her, or even looked at her since he’d kissed her. She knew regret when she saw it. He was making sure she didn’t get any foolish notions that it’d happen again.
Well, the conceited jerk didn’t know anything. If he did, he’d know she didn’t want him to kiss her again. She wanted things back the way they’d been before he’d turned her world upside down with his dominating, opinionated, natural aura of authority that made the others listen without question.
He certainly wasn’t like anyone she’d worked with before. He acted like a boss, not an employee. Like Dad. In that one way, Justin reminded her of him.
And now, that damn kiss had changed her way of thinking about Justin. She found herself wondering about him at the oddest moments. What he liked and disliked, where he lived, if he had a sense of humor—though thus far she wasn’t holding her breath on that one.
She stopped dead in her tracks. What was she doing? This wasn’t her; she didn’t spend time thinking about a guy who so obviously didn’t want anything to do with her. She didn’t spend time thinking about men, period! Unless it was the brother she’d just fired.
