“Hitting the strip?”
With a roll of his eyes, he got back on topic. “Look, Fairview has the permits ready to go. Neither of us can stop them. ”
“Oh, I’ll stop them all right. ” She stormed from behind the bar. “Think about it, Eddie. The former owners had a ton of dot-com money. If they could’ve made that stupid property into something bigger, or better, or somehow more than just a little old ranch house, they would have. No, there’s something fishy about your permits,” she spat, “and I’m gonna get to the bottom of it. ” She looked at her dad. “Tell Sorrow I’m taking a rain check on lunch. ”
She stormed out. The door slammed behind her, leaving a deafening silence, with just the sound of Bear’s spoon clinking against his mug to be heard in the tavern.
“Building up, huh?”
Eddie sighed and leaned against the dinged-up counter. “If it weren’t us on the job, it would’ve been someone else. There’s no stopping those people. ”
“I always figured that was some sort of historic property. You know, the sort of thing you can’t change, just restore. ” Bear shrugged. “I’m assuming you’re not doing anything illegal. ”
“Fairview got special permission. Some adaptive reuse thing. ”
“Never heard of it. ”
“We’ve got the permits. ”
“I heard you the first time. ”
“Look, Bear. This is my livelihood we’re talking about. In this economy, Jessup Brothers Construction can continue to scrape by with odd jobs, or we can go big-time. Fairview is big-time. ”
“It’s our livelihood, too, boy. The livelihood of the whole Bailey family. ” He stood and patted a definitive hand on the counter. “But Marlene raised you well. I’m sure you’ll do the right thing. ”
Eddie headed back out to his truck, evading the nosy stares of the other diners. Screw the soup. His appetite was gone anyhow.
What Laura had said nagged him. What if there was something fishy about that permit?
A quick phone call to Hunter Fox was supposed to put his mind at ease, but the man’s smooth-talking protests weren’t as easy to swallow as they’d once been. Eddie snapped his phone shut and pulled the permits from the glove compartment. All neat and tidy, just as Fox had said. He shoved them back in and slammed it shut.
Laura was just being her old self. Self-involved, self-absorbed, and snotty.
He needed to stop being distracted by things like smooth legs and teensy-tiny running shorts. What he needed was to start construction once and for all. Get this thing built and finished—the future of his family business relied on it. That was all he could afford to think about.
And if it meant the total ruination of his relationship with Laura, well, he never stood a chance with that kind of woman anyhow.
Ten
Laura startled, hearing the creak of the attic steps. She gave a sharp sniff and scrubbed a quick hand over her face.
“Are you up here again? I can’t find the—” Sorrow’s head popped into view and she paused, taking in the scene. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah, fine. ” Laura turned her back on her sister. She’d allowed herself a mini-breakdown in what she thought would’ve been the solitude of the attic. “Got some dust in my eyes. What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for the dustpan. ” Sorrow’s eyes swept the room. “What are you doing?”
“Organizing. ” She gave a sharp sniffle and got back to rifling through an open trunk. “Ditching some of this old stuff. ”
“Don’t throw away too much. I already went through it when the roof caved. ”
“There’s still a ton of junk. ” She shrugged. “It’s bad feng shui. ”
“Okay…” Sorrow said warily. “Don’t tell me the dustpan was bad feng shui, too?”
“I threw it away. ” She began to refold and smooth a stack of old linen napkins.
“You threw away the dustpan?”