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Oh.
Hating it because of its association was a different thing entirely from hating it for its label.
“I’ll get you something else next time,” he said.
“I tend to drink Clover Light. Have any of that?” She took another slug of the lowbrow beer. “That’s what my grandmother drinks.”
“Your grandmother drinksClover? That rank shit that costs something like a quarter a can?”
Her shoulders started shaking before her bell-like laugh pealed out. She could hardly catch her breath, and he wished he knew what she knew. There was some backstory there he was dying to hear. “Formedicinalpurposes, she always says.”
“Your grandmother sounds like an interesting woman.”
Valerie snorted and clapped her hand over her mouth. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”
He took his seat, smiling, too, and feeling light as a damn feather for the first time in forever. Being in Valerie’s company was just soeasy.He hadn’t even paid attention to how hard he’d been trying to just be…humanaround people.
“The lasagna is amazing, by the way,” she said when her laughter fell off. “Sorry I started without you. It smelled so good.”
“It’s all right. Eat up. I’ve got an entire pan of it. I’d like to not have to reheat the leftovers, so eat it all, if you can.”
“What, your staff won’t eat it if you take it in?”
“I don’t want to spoil them. I think they’re overly pampered as it is. I couldn’t get rid of them if I tried.” He groaned. “And I do try.”
“Too much staff?”
“Nah. I think I’ve got just the right amount, but a few of them annoy the ever-loving shit out of me. I’ve got contentious relationships with them, but they’re good at what they do when they’re actually doing it, so I don’t fire them. I keep hoping they’ll get a better offer from somewhere else and just go away on their own.”
“I’ve worked with a few general contractors like that. Some of them really hate working with women and try to go behind my back to make changes to things the owners or developers have already signed off on. I’ve had to learn to be very aggressive in protecting my work. Nothing I include in my plans is wasteful or excessive, and I try to be considerate of every contingency.”
“No room for negotiation?”
“Oh,plentyof room. I’m not unreasonable. I would just appreciate if they would talk to me about why they want to make the change before they attempt it so we can make sure it doesn’t compromise anything else in the plan. Usually, there’s a good in-between solution, but sometimes…” She let out a weary breath. “They’re just wrong.”
He couldn’t put himself in her shoes and imagine what she dealt with at work, and especially in a male-dominated field. Nobody went behind his back and did shit like that. They wouldn’t dare to, and if they did, they expected to get dragged for it.
He leaned back and sipped her beer, just watching her eat for a while. She was probably used to taking care of herself, but he liked the feeling he got when he did things for her. Feeding her, driving her around. Pleasuring her.
Maybe the satisfaction was intensified by her not expecting anything from him. Not his money, and certainly not his attention. It seemed she could take that or leave it.
His ego was healthy enough, though. that he wanted to make her a little less ambivalent in that regard.
“So,” she said, wearing a sly smile, “what happened with the boat builder who gave you that job as a strapping young man of eighteen?”
“Why?”
“Just curious. I guess I thought about it last night when I stepped off your boat and then saw that other Dowd craft at the wharf. Being a local, you must do pretty brisk business in the area. I imagine it must be harder for smaller outfits to compete.”
He grunted appreciatively. The question was an intelligent one. No date had ever asked him about his occupational origins before. They were more likely to ask him numbers questions—how many boats he sold or how much money he earned for them. They asked him personal questions that toed the line of rudeness, and those questions revealed a lot more about his dates than his answers toldthem.
“He’s not in business anymore,” Tim said. “I bought him out when he was ready to retire.”
“Oh, well that’s not so bad. I was hoping you didn’t plow him under.”
“There you went again, thinking I’m some sort of soulless shark.”
“Aren’t you?”
