Chapter 2 #2
That was actually laughable. Rory snorted as she took another sip of cocoa and picked up her knife.
Just as she’d finished cutting her burger in half, Brian reached over and took half of it.
When she raised the bun on the remaining half, Johnny took her onions.
Sean and Bryce took her French fries while Craig and Brian split her onion rings.
When the only food left on her plate was the coleslaw and half a burger, each man, in turn, dumped his side salad with extra-creamy French dressing on her plate.
It had taken her a few years, but she had them nicely trained, Rory thought with a satisfied sigh as she took a bite out of her burger.
“Why do you think he’s gay?” Rory asked, spearing a delicious-looking French dressing-covered cucumber slice onto her fork.
“He keeps looking over here at us,” Brian said, gesturing with a nod behind him.
Sipping her cocoa, Rory leaned to the left to look between two of her brothers. Sometimes she felt like she had her very own entourage of linebackers. Having large brothers definitely came in handy when she needed help moving or someone to open a pickle jar, Rory absently thought.
“He’s doing it again,” Johnny hissed, moving to the side so that she could get a better look and sure enough, he was watching them.
Actually, so were his buddies. They were talking and gesturing towards them.
No doubt the men were pissed at the news.
So was she, but she was willing to suck it up as long as he stayed out of her way.
As if he’d sensed her thoughts, Connor shifted his gaze to her and narrowed his eyes dangerously.
She narrowed her eyes on him. Everything around them disappeared as they glared at each other.
Sure, it was childish, but she couldn’t help it.
Even when people walked between them, neither one of them looked away.
The glaring was actually starting to make her feel a little dizzy, but she refused to look away first. Not this time. She would-
“They’re probably just gloating. It’s okay, baby girl. We’ll get the next one,” Craig said, pulling her attention away from the glaring bastard. She looked away, but not before she caught his triumphant grin.
The bastard!
“We got it,” Rory said, shrugging as she took a sip of her delicious cocoa.
Her brothers stopped eating to frown at her, which was pretty impressive since there was still food on the table and these were the James brothers, after all.
“We got it?” Brian asked, looking confused.
“I signed the contract less than a half-hour ago. It’s ours,” Rory said, shrugging it off.
The men looked over their shoulders at Connor and then back at her. “Then, why do they look like they’re celebrating? I can’t imagine Connor being happy about losing the contract to you,” Bryce pointed out, staring longingly at the burger left on her plate.
“Yeah, he looks damn happy for a man that just lost a million-dollar contract,” Johnny said as his hand slowly made its way towards her burger. With a heavy sigh, Craig slapped his hand away.
Johnny gave her a sheepish smile and a shrug.
She knew that he couldn’t help himself. Her brothers had been able to eat their father out of house and home by the time they were six and often had.
If it hadn’t been for Craig, she probably would have starved to death.
He’d kept the rest of their brothers in line and made sure that she always had enough to eat.
“Yeah, well, he kind of, sort of got the contract, too,” Rory said quickly, unable to help but wince as she waited for their reaction.
When they just sat there, staring at her, Rory found herself clearing her throat and shifting nervously until finally, Bryce spoke. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish,” Rory said, taking another sip of cocoa. Again, her brothers looked over their shoulders and this time, the life-ruining bastard had the balls to shoot them a wink.
Rory discreetly flipped him off, watching as Connor’s eyes once again narrowed dangerously on her. Her brothers returned their attention to her as she did her best to appear innocent as she sipped her cocoa.
“I don’t understand,” Sean said. “How could you both get the contract?”
Clearing her throat, Rory quietly mumbled, “We’ll be working with Highland Construction on this job.”
Stunned silence met her announcement. She chanced a glance up at her brothers, who were now looking at her as though she’d grown an extra head.
“We each got the contract with a twenty percent markup and a nice bonus if we finish by the November deadline,” Rory explained, watching as the information sank in.
Each of her brothers cursed as they turned and shot another scowl at the man that was once again smiling smugly in their direction. Slowly, her brothers turned back to face her, glaring.
“Why didn’t you tell them that we could do it without Highland Construction?” Sean demanded. This time when Johnny tried to snag her burger, Craig didn’t stop him.
Great, the big babies were mad at her. Whatever. They’d get over it.
“Does it look like I want to work with him?” Rory asked, making them frown.
“I didn’t have a choice. Even if we hire extra men, we won’t be able to train them in time for them to be useful.
We wouldn’t make the deadline. If we did this alone, we’d also blow our profit margin on extra equipment.
Extra equipment, I might add, that Highland Construction already has.
All we have to do is work our asses off just like any other project, meet the deadline, and that’s it.
The only downside is that it will be with the bastard, but if I can handle it, then so can you. ”
Her brothers looked thoughtful as they considered what she’d said. Finally, with a shrug, Craig said, “As long as he stays out of our way, we won’t kick his ass.”