"Is it the grading?"
"Fuck no. Grading is fine. Sewer line busted last night."
"How bad?"
"Bad." Henry looked grim.
"How many days will it take to fix it?"
"Two, at least. Grading inspector said he didn't want to come out until that was fixed."
"It's dirt. We're just moving dirt, so it's no big deal." When Henry's worry didn't ease, I rubbed my face. "What else?"
"Our concrete subcontractor never showed."
"Are they testing me? Do they want me to fail?" I dug my hands in my pockets because I was very afraid if I didn't, I was going to start picking up hammers and nail guns and going Lethal Weapon crazy. Henry wisely took a step back and to the side. "Here's what we're going to do. I'm calling the sewer sub and getting the repair done today, or we won't pay them. There's more than one concrete pourer in the city, and it's getting done today if I have to goddamn do it myself. After that, you and I are going to walk the entire property and do an inspection. Tomorrow morning we'll have a sub meeting and go from there. No delays."
Henry nodded and echoed my mantra but without any conviction. "No delays."
The call to the sewer sub was easy. The next one was much harder. I hadn't spoken with my Uncle Pat since the funeral, and even at that time, it was strained despite the fact we were burying my dad, his brother. I couldn't get past the fact he'd slept with my mom while she was still married to my dad. But I needed help, and the one man who could give it was Uncle Pat.
"O'Malley Construction, Peggy O'Malley speaking."
"Hey, Aunt Peg," I croaked. Talking with Aunt Peg was almost worse than talking to Uncle Pat, but it wasn't as if I had some control over my mother's vagina. I shuddered. A guy should never have to think of his mother's girl parts. Shit, I needed to look up that damn Oedipus wiki link again.
"Finnegan, how are you?"
It made it worse that she was always so kind. How she stayed married to Pat and still worked as his office manager was a mystery.
"Good, I'm in a bind though. I wondered if you or Uncle Pat could help me."
"Of course, I will." She sounded decisive. "What do you need? Is it the Riverside project?"
"Yup. My concrete sub never showed up today. He's probably too baked to run his mixer, but I need the footings poured today, or we can't do anything."
"You need the name of another sub," she accurately surmised. "Just a minute." I heard some clicking of keys and then a ping on my phone. "I texted you a contact. After we're done, I'll call him up and tell him he needs to get over there right away."
"Thanks, Aunt Peg." Relief washed over me. "I really appreciate it. And…I'm sorry about everything else."
"This is an O'Malley project even if my husband doesn't acknowledge it. Nothing for you to be sorry about, Finnegan. It's not your fault my husband can't keep his dick in his pants or your mother doesn't care about ruining two families. You shouldn't have to suffer because of that. Goodbye now."
That should have been comforting but wasn't, in any way. Even though my problems seemed to be solved, I felt like shit. Henry and I walked the entire property, checked every sub's work, and prepared a list of all the things wrong.
Henry was testing me. He was a competent foreman, or my dad wouldn't have put him on the job. And I knew my dad wouldn't have been here every day, all day long either. But my dad had so much experience, he could do a walk-through in an hour and know exactly what needed to be done and what wasn't up to snuff. It took me hours.
"I need to be here every day, don't I?" I asked Henry.
He nodded. "On a build this big? Yeah. I'm looking at this stuff, but the buck stops with you."
I exhaled heavily. "I'm in the middle of a flip."
There was a little disdain when he answered. "Your profits on a flip are five figures, right?" I knew where he was going with this. "The profits on a build like this are six or seven figures. What's more important to you?"
The only relief I had was looking forward to the concert tonight with Winter. Adam surprised me with lunch.
"I could kiss you," I said honestly.
"If you want." He shrugged. "But then you'll become addicted to me. All the girls do. One kiss and they're done for."