Page 3 of Screwed

Wade

My brother Buck left me with a mountain of paperwork, but I’m in a half-decent mood today. After all, I just found out I’m an uncle for the first time. How cool is that?

And how could I fault my big brother for falling behind on things at the business? The man has been understandably preoccupied for the last nine months leading up to the birth.

Besides, I owe him big time after acting like an ass to his then-girlfriend Grace when we’d first met. I didn’t trust Buck’s instincts about her talents at staging, and they both proved me wrong. Now that she’s my sister-in-law and a damn good stager — even by our sister’s standards — we’re good.

What’s not good is my handling of the office duties, try as I might. Buck has been away on family leave for less than three days, and I could use some help organizing this mess.

I sort through the piles and put invoices in one section, insurance forms in another, and receipts in another. Right. I still don’t know what to do with any of this other than simply hold down the fort until Buck returns from family leave.

I’m a doer. I tear things down and build things back up. I make kickass custom shelves and cabinets. I can restore hardwood floors, plant trees, and I know how to work a scroll saw. But make me write an email to a vendor, and I am at a loss.

I’m staring at my computer screen, trying to think of how to compose a help wanted ad for the town square bulletin board, when Nick, my foreman, opens the construction trailer door and knocks on the doorjamb.

“Hey boss. We have a problem.”

I glance up to see that the guy’s usual carefree demeanor is looking ill.

“Not you, too,” I joke. “No more having babies on this crew. I can’t handle anyone else leaving me twisting.”

Nick grimaces. “No, it’s not that. Though, to be honest, Claribel has been asking for a baby sibling for a while now, but that may not be in the cards for us.”

Oops. I just put my boot so far down my mouth it’s coming out of my asshole. “Sorry, man. I forgot.”

“No worries. I just wanted to tell you we have a problem with one of the new crew members. He’s real young and inexperienced. Doesn’t even know how to use a wheelbarrow and dumped some bricks on his foot. And the worst part is, he wasn’t wearing the regulation boots.”

“Ah shit, are you serious?”

Nick adds, “And he’s refusing to be seen by the doctor.”

I stand up. “Is he okay?”

Nick shrugs. “Yeah. I’m real worried about his foot, though. He needs to get it checked out, but he’s resistant.”

I scrub a hand through my hair. “This isn’t good. I’ll go talk to him. You stay here and fill out an incident report. Do you know how to file those?”

“Sure do,” Nick says.

“Great,” I say. “Where is this kid?”

“In the break area, putting his foot up. I’ll handle the phones here. The rest of the crew has everything covered.”

I find my way to the temporary tent out back that serves as a break area for the crew and immediately spot the little guy. His back is to me, and he has his foot elevated on a chair as he downs a bottle of water.

“How’s the foot?” I stand in front of the guy, arms crossed over my chest, ready to be the big, mean boss before I pack him off to the hospital. I’ll wait until his hospital bills are paid before I fire him. I don’t want to let anyone go who is willing to work, but I don’t want to get slapped with a fine for child labor.

But when that downturned face in the hard hat looks up at me, I forget all about the stern boss act. Sharp eyes look back at me from a soft-angled face with hair tucked inside the hard hat. This is not a young dude. This is a woman.

“My foot’s fine,” she says in a low-pitched voice.

I look at the file and back up at her. “You’re…Jeffrey?”

“Yep. I’m Jeffrey.”

I force myself not to smile at this blatant lie. “Jeffrey, how old are you?”

The kid thinks for a minute. “I’m 26.”

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