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When Enzo climbed out of the truck, Adrian happily conscripted him into service. “Hey, man. Here, hold this.” He tossed a powerful LED flashlight at the younger man.
“Sure. How’s this place shaping up?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute.” Adrian lifted the grate from the side of the house and stuck his head into the eighteen inches of space under the house. “Can you shine that light at the back of the house?”
Enzo knelt down next to the hole and complied. “What are you looking for?”
“I saw a suspicious dip over beneath the kitchen when I looked in here earlier but there was a glare from the sun.” Enzo helpfully angled the light toward the footprint of the kitchen. It was so nice to work with someone who knew what they were doing. “Thanks… Son of a bitch!”
“Hey. No need for name-calling. If you need me to move the light…”
“No. There’s a leak. A long-term slow leak, if the area of discoloration is any indication. Who knows how much damage has been caused above it in the walls…”
He crawled back out, and made a note in his pocket journal to add to his report.
“So, what brings you over here after quitting time?”
“I wanted to look at the house one more time, this time with Sofia’s plans, to see what will be changing before we get started ordering things.”
“Sofia’s plans? For this house?”
Enzo tossed the cardboard tube to Adrian, who caught it by reflex since his brain was currently spinning.
“Yeah, she asked me to bring them over to you. She said there are ones for the Mitchell, Ong, and Pichetti houses in there.”
What the hell? They’d talked about this. She had promised not to do any more design plans without consulting with him first. This was why they’d had so many problems on the Shah house. And she’d done it, not once, but three times? He clenched his hands around the tube of prints, trying not to let his anger show and failing miserably.
Enzo held up his hands and backed away toward his truck. “I’m just the messenger.”
“Are you gonna look at these or not?”
“Are you gonna punch me in the nose or not?”
“Not mad at you. Let’s get this over with.” Adrian briskly unrolled the plans for the house in front of him, mentally overlaying the existing structure onto the schematic drawings in front of him. He handed the front of the house drawing to Enzo and focused on what was left. She wanted to take down another wall between the kitchen and dining room and reconfigure the master bedroom to add an en suite bathroom. Damn. Given what he suspected was going to be extensive pipe replacements, changing the plumbing at the back of the house as well was going to be expensive. He really hoped she hadn’t shown these plans to the homeowners yet. There was no way all of this was going to fit in the budget or the timeline for this house. “You good, man?”
“Yeah, I’m all good.” Enzo handed back the front page. “Nothing too dramatic for me out here.”
“That’s good because we are going to be right up against the budget on this project.”
“What’s new?”
“The fact that it’s your sister designing it, and I’m going to have to tell her no.”
“Good luck with that.” Enzo laughed and climbed into the cab of his truck.
“I’m going to need more than luck tonight,” Adrian muttered as he tried and failed to suppress the urge to slam his truck bed closed.
* * *
His temper hadn’t cooledwhen he pulled up to the construction offices and saw her car out front. It was a slap in the face that she would just ignore everything that they’d agreed on. He knew he shouldn’t walk through the door. He shouldn’t talk to her while he was this angry. He shouldn’t jump to conclusions. But too many of his buttons had been pushed today, and his shouldn’ts weren’t as strong as his what-the-hells.
He pushed through the main doors and strode back toward her office. He paused outside her doorway when he heard her on the phone.
“Yes, that’s right. I need to special order that porcelain tile. The timeline got moved up on a lot of our projects. If you can get it to me quickly, I’ll make sure to feature your company name on the show.”
She’d get what she wanted. She had a way of convincing people to bend over backwards to please her. Well, he was through contorting himself for very little reward. He had his crew and his reputation to think of.
Sofia looked up from her desk and held up a finger for patience. She had the nerve to ask him to wait, after ignoring his request that she wait for his reports? His simmering anger cranked up to a boil.
