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Based on the numbers he’d rerun over the weekend, twenty-eight months was how long it was going to take him to save up for a house of his own. Still too long, but he was on target, putting away exactly as much as he’d budgeted for, paycheck after paycheck.
“Take that,” he muttered, sucking in a breath as he kept moving down the line.
His dad had told him enough times that he’d never amount to anything. Devin tightened his grip on the nail gun and sank his teeth into the inside of his lip. What he’d give to get that voice out of his head. To show his dad he wasn’t too stupid to do the math, and he wasn’t too lazy to do the work.
He’d buy those three acres of land from Arthur. His mentor—and his best friend Han’s uncle—had been saving the lot for him for three years now, and he’d promised to sell it to him at cost. Once Devin had the deed in his hand, he’d start digging out the foundation the next day. Between the buddies he’d made at construction sites and the favors folks owed him, he could be standing in his own house within six months. A quiet place all to himself on a wooded lot five miles outside of town. He’d get a dog—a big one, too. A mutt from the animal rescue off Main Street.
He’d have everything his useless old man told him he could never have. All he had to do was keep his head down and keep working hard.
He finished the last join on this section of the house’s frame and nodded at Terrell, who’d been helping him out. The guy let go, and they both stood.
Adjusting his safety glasses, Devin glanced around. It was a cool fall day in his hometown of Blue Cedar Falls, North Carolina. The sun shone down from a bright blue sky dotted with wispy clouds. The last few autumn leaves hung on to the branches of the surrounding trees, while in the distance, the mountains were a piney green.
He and his crew had been working on this development for the better part of a year now. It was a good job, with good guys for the most part. Solid pay for solid work, and if he had a restlessness buzzing around under his skin, well, that was the kind of thing he was good at pushing down.
“Hey—James.”
At the shout of his last name across the build site, Devin looked up. One of the new guys stood outside the trailer, waving him over. Devin nudged the protective muffs off his ears so he could hear.
“Boss wants to see you before you clock out.”
Devin nodded and glanced at his watch. The shift ended in thirty. That gave him enough time to quickly clean up and check in with Joe.
He made a motion to Terrell to wrap things up.
“What’s the hurry?” a voice behind him sneered. “Got to run off to Daddy?”
Devin pulled a rough breath in between his teeth. Head down and work hard, he reminded himself.
No punching the mayor’s son in the face.
But Bryce Horton wasn’t going to be ignored. He stepped right in Devin’s way, and it took everything Devin had to keep his mouth shut.
“Isn’t that what you call old Joe?” Bryce taunted. “Daddy?You sure come fast enough when he calls.”
Devin’s muscles tensed, heat building in his chest.
He kept himself together, though. Bryce had been like this since high school, putting everybody down and acting like he was the king of the hill. The entire hill was all sand, though. The guy never did any work. Ifhisdaddy didn’t run this town, he’d have been out on his rear end ages ago.
As it was, Bryce’d been hired on as a favor to the mayor’s office, and getting him fired would take an act of God. Didn’t stop Devin from picturing it in his head. Daily.
Devin ground his molars together and brushed past him.
“Oh, that’s right,” Bryce called as Devin showed him his back and started to walk away. “Your real daddy left, didn’t he?”
Red tinted Devin’s vision. He flexed his fingers, curling them into a palm before taking a deep breath and letting them go.
It’d be so easy, was the thing. Bryce wasn’t a small guy, but he wasn’t a particularly strong one, either. Two hits and he’d be on the ground, snot-faced and crying. That was how bullies were.
That was how Devin’s dad had been.
Without so much as a glance in Bryce’s direction, Devin shucked his glasses, muffs, and gloves, stowed his stuff, and headed over to the trailer. As he walked, he blocked out the sound of Bryce running his mouth. He blocked out the surly voice in his own head, too.
By the time he got to the door, his blood was still up, but he was calm enough to show model employee material, because that was what mattered.
With a quick knock, he tugged open the trailer door and poked his head inside. Joe was at his desk, big hands pecking out something or other on the keyboard.
“Hey.” Devin kept his voice level. “Heard you wanted to see me?”
