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“I hope you’re not coming down with something. Maybe you should skip New York and take it easy for a few days instead?”
Sinclair shook her head. “I can’t skip the expo. I’ve already paid, scheduled appointments, meetings… I’m hand delivering a bunch of orders. I’ll be fine. I’m probably just dehydrated. Spent all day setting up my booth, manning it, breaking it down, and didn’t drink enough water.”
Savannah returned to her seat and laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were pregnant. That’s my cure for morning sickness you’re sucking down.”
“Ha. Ha. We both know that’s not possible.” Not without an in vitro specialist involved. But as she took another drink—the darn stuff was actually calming her queasies—she consulted her mental calendar and choked a little on her swallow. She was late, and she was never late.
“Yeah, yeah. I know what they told you. But be warned.” She pointed to her own belly. “Mother Nature loves surprises.”
“I know. She already surprised me once. Based on how that turned out, it would take more than a surprise now. It would take a miracle.”
Did she want a miracle? Did Shane? Does it even matter? She tossed the question at the expanding balloon in her chest that felt a lot like hope. If you have somehow managed to conceive, you’re virtually guaranteed another ectopic pregnancy.
She took a more careful sip, ran the math again in her head, and came up with the same answer. Miracle or not, if she didn’t get her period by tomorrow, she’d be making a stop at the drugstore on her drive home.
…
“Light a fire under the civil engineer, Haggerty. They told you they’d expedite the surveys, and it’s been over a month since I requested the report—”
“And expedite means, ‘within six weeks,’ Shane, which they are. Nonetheless, I followed up earlier today when I got your email. Raj had a family emergency and had to fly home to India. He’s due back in a few days and will complete and send the report first thing.”
Shane paced the hotel room. “They don’t have wifi in India? He can’t finalize and transmit a report from there?”
Yes, he was being a hard-ass, and no, it had nothing to do with work timelines. It had to do with his whole fucking life being on hold while he waited for a report. He wanted to tell Sinclair he loved her, but this time around he needed to back the words up with actions. He’d promised to protect her home, and he had a decent plan for doing it, but all his discussions with the structural engineer and the architect were purely hypothetical until he had the water displacement information in the report…and knew what the city planned to do about it. They could deny the permit, but he wasn’t holding his breath. On the other hand, the barn could only be raised so far, and there was no point going to the expense if it didn’t sufficiently reduce the risk.
“I think the problem is personal, not technological.”
“I don’t have a personal problem,” Shane replied, automatically on the defensive.
“Not you. Raj. He’s a tad busy right now with his father’s funeral. I guess he could balance his laptop on the casket…”
Fuck. “All right. Fine.” He ran a hand through his hair and stared out the window of his hotel room at the magnolias lining the town square. “Sorry for his loss.”
“We’re sending flowers. Why the panic? I thought you said everything was going smoothly?”
“It is.” Tight muscles at the back of his neck ached as he tipped his head toward his left shoulder, and then the right. “I’m not panicked. I’m annoyed. Everything’s on track, but the city planning commission is holding off on making a decision about the resort’s golf course until they get the report. We’ve got a meeting tomorrow morning, and I wanted to put something in front of them.”
“One more week, tops. Is Pinkerton getting fidgety?”
“No more so than usual.” Less so, actually, and that was also a problem. The last couple times he’d seen Ricky, instead of hammering at him for an update, the guy had given him a shit-eating smirk. The little prick was up to something. Shane didn’t like it. “Even if he is, he’ll just have to jack himself off a little longer. It is what it is. I’ll explain the situation at the meeting tomorrow. One more week won’t kill him.”
“Make sure the same is true of you,” Haggerty said drily. “Don’t go off on this guy during the meeting if shit goes sideways.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Credit me with a little self-control.”
“I credit you with plenty of self-control, but when you call me ready to tear some engineer a new one when he’s still within the timeline, I sense you’re wound tight. No surprise. This one’s more than just a job to you. You’re back on your home turf, and your ego’s involved. You know as well as I do, most politicians just want
to check the box that shows they did a passable amount of due diligence on stuff like this and then approve whatever garners them the most votes. Piled on that, the same whiny asshole responsible for your inglorious departure ten years ago is on the other side of the table, and he’s an even bigger asshole now. You can bet your left nut he’s going to try and put you in his crosshairs. So, yeah, I’m cautioning you, because one thing I know about assholes, Maguire, is they’re full of shit.”
“Acknowledged, but it’s a nonissue. In a week, I’ll have the report, and the city can make an informed decision. In the meantime, I’m not going to give him the opportunity to take any shots at me.”
“As it happens, I have a plan to guarantee he can’t take any shots.”
Shane turned away from the window and crossed to the desk. “What’s your plan?”
“Take you out of his line of fire for a few days.”
“How’re you going to do that?” But he already knew. Not the specifics, but the general concept. Some client was in need, but for the first time in his career, he wanted to tell Haggerty to send someone else.
