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Nate’s back stiffened. He shoved up from the table and stalked toward the trailer. Damn him. He’d been like this lately. Since Dad died. Well, she missed him, too. Didn’t see her acting like an irresponsible ass, though, did he?
Marley closed the door firmly behind her and faced her younger brother. “Don’t disrespect me in front of the guys like that. You know how much harder I have to work than Dad did.”
He crossed his arms over his chest with an impatient look. “This is what you wanted to talk about?”
She huffed in exasperation. He didn’t understand; probably never would. Might as well get to the part she could spell out in black and white. “You’re late again.”
“I had a few errands to run before I came in.”
“If you’re going to be late, you need to clear it with me or Chuck like everyone else so we can keep the schedule covered. Every time you’re late it puts us further behind.”
“Quit blaming me for your problems.”
Deep breath. Don’t lose your cool. “Nate, are you deliberately trying to ruin things, or are you really that stupid?”
His eyes narrowed. “You know, Mar, ever since Dad died you’ve been a bitch.”
Moisture sprang to her eyes, but she furiously blinked it away. She would not let him twist this around. “I don’t run things any differently than Dad did.”
“Yeah, you’re more like dear ol’ Dad every day.”
“Actually,” she bit out, “I cut you a helluva lot more slack than Dad ever would have. You’ve changed so much since his accident…” One tear slipped out, and she softened her tone as she swiped it away. “What’s going on, Nate? This isn’t like you.”
His expression hardened even more. He ran a hand through his blond hair but didn’t say a word. Wouldn’t even look at her.
“You can’t keep going on like this. I’d have fired anyone else by now and you know it.” She pointed out the window toward the men. “They know it.”
He reached for the door handle. “You wouldn’t fire your own brother.”
He shouldn’t put her in the position of having to. “Nate.”
He paused halfway through the door and looked back. The defiant jut of his chin pierced her heart from across the room.
“They know it, and so do you,” she said softly.
His expression turned obstinate. “Fine, fire me. I’m not going to need this job much longer anyway.”
He slammed out the door, and Marley stared after him with a frown. What the heck did that mean? He still had a year and a half before he earned his architectural master’s degree like she had this past spring and college wasn’t free.
All along they’d planned for her to get an internship—hopefully with Hunter—while he finished school. Then they’d open their own firm with him interning under her until he took his registration examination.
At least that’d been the plan until a few months ago; until Dad died and Nate had become a different person. She’d tried to talk to him countless times, knowing he grieved just like her, but each time he clammed up and gave her the cold shoulder. The distance between them seemed to widen every day.
She couldn’t continue to jeopardize her job—her entire life—because he refused to deal with whatever issues he needed to resolve. She couldn’t afford to give him any more chances. In this man’s world, she had to work twice as hard every day to prove she could keep control of the site.
What did it say for that control when her own brother walked in late no less than three times this week? Dad had taught them both to be tough, to do what was needed to get the job done. Now, with him gone, his guidance was the only thing she could fall back on. Brother or not, she’d do what needed to be done. She had no choice.
Chapter 2
Justin heard the apartment door open just as he twisted the cap off his beer. Noting the time on the clock on the opposite wall, he reached back into his brother’s fridge and grabbed another long neck bottle.
He made his way into the living room, smiling at Jordan as he offered the unopened bottle.
Jordan took the beer as he strode past. “Good man.”
“How’d your day go?”
With a flick of his thumb, Jordan flipped the top across the counter into the kitchen sink, then turned and eyed Justin up and down as he took a long drink. “Better than yours.”
