AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tilted my head. “A rhetorical question, I presume?”
Burke slicked his tongue over his teeth.
“I’m not saying anything untrue,” I said. “You did show up with a bad attitude. You snapped my hand-milled spindle by way of introduction. We’re trying to fix the house. I am, at least. I’m still not entirely sure whatyourangle is.”
His chest heaved on a deep breath. “Did I not apologize for breaking the already broken wood that probably couldn’t have been saved anyway because it was so rotted through?”
“You didn’t.”
“Must have slipped my mind.” He studied me, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, then back up. “You were nicer the first time I was here.”
I crouched down into the overgrown planting bed, yanking on another weed. “I made a decision after you left.”
“I can’t wait to hear it.”
“I’m nice to everyone when I meet them,” I explained. Another weed into the pile. I wasn’t even sure why I was weeding this particular bed other than it gave me something to do while we waited to hire a new builder. “And I was at a disadvantage when you arrived. Not by my choosing, mind you, and I’ve had words with my aunt about that.”
“Probably a good choice.” His voice was flat. I hid my grin at how very annoyed he sounded.
“Despite the fact that I was at a disadvantage, and obviously worried about the fate of this house that I love so much, you chose to start our business relationship off with intimidation and a horrible attitude and destruction of property.”
He made a sound, something between a growl and a groan, and I ignored it. My hands were shaking as I tugged at the next plant—it may not have been a weed, but it was too late to turn back once the roots cleared the dirt.
I never talked like this to anyone. I couldn’t decide if it was exciting or terrifying.
“You can’t fire me because you’re not legally allowed to. Or I don’t think you are, but I wouldn’t know because you don’t tell me anything about the stipulations of the trust.”Yank. Toss.“And my aunt told me I’m always a little too nice, especially to guys who think they can be assholes just because they don’t know how to use their words about the things they’re feeling. You lost your friend, and that’s hard and awful, but neither of us asked for this situation.”
Burke looked like he was about to explode. His cheeks were tinged with pink, either from embarrassment or bottled-up rage, and I wasn’t sure which I wanted it to be.
If he was embarrassed, I might have to retract my newly found sass, and I wasn’t ready to do that just yet.
I’d met enough people in my life to know which ones responded to kindness and which ones responded to strength. There’d be people who didn’t agree with my light-bulb moment to meet Burke Barrett with exactly the kind of demeanor he came to me with.
But those people weren’t facing down a yearlong project with this dude and his big hands and his even bigger attitude.
He didn’t want this house?
Too friggin’ bad. It was his.
He didn’t want the hassle of handling the renovation?
I was not going to be his verbal punching bag.
He was the guy in charge of how this entire project went, no matter whether I was the expert. And after the fact that he bolted without a single shred of direction or attempt at human decency, I wasn’t feeling like welcoming him with open arms and the Charlotte Cunningham everyone else knew.
I was nice. People liked me. And I was damn good at my job. If he expected me to be nice to him after the way we’d started? He had to earn that shit, and so far, my grumptastic boss wasn’t even close.
I yanked again, then whispered a curse under my breath when I realized there was a tulip bulb underneath.
Burke sighed. “I’m not ...” He paused. “I’m not trying to be a dick.”
I glanced up at him incredulously.
“Not everyone finds it easy to be friendly with strangers,” he managed.
“Right,” I answered slowly. “Were you like this with all your new teammates and coaches?”
“Worse, actually.”
