2. Theo
2
THEO
I’ve set up an office for myself in the new property. When the resort is done, this will be a private area behind the front desk where staff can store their things and the resort can keep paperwork.
Right now, though, it’s mostly bare except for a large oak desk that I had brought in along with a comfortable, rolling desk chair.
I stare at the two sets of plans. One includes Mia’s property. The other doesn’t. Obviously, the bigger the resort, the more guests I’ll have paying top prices to stay here. There’s a third set of plans I’ve stuffed away, but I shuffle through the drawers until I find it now.
Without Mia’s property, my option is to lose guest rooms or amenities. I want to be able to offer a pool hall, movie theater, ice cream parlor, coffee shop, and bowling, as well as the pool, but I don’t know if it’s going to be possible.
I count the rooms again on the plan that keeps all the amenities and swear. It just doesn’t make sense to cut the rooms.
The only thing that does make sense is to buy her property, a property she probably won’t even be living in. Not only does it keep my guests from feeling like the neighborhood is trash, but it will also give me the chance to let this resort be the best investment possible.
I shake my head and shove the papers back into a drawer, slamming it loudly as I do so to get out some of my frustration. I stride out into the lobby area and over to the window and stare out at her property, evaluating it from this view.
The house was built in the seventies style, and it’s out of place on this street of mostly new developments. I’m not the only one who’s been eyeing the property, wondering what will happen to it. Sometimes, when a property is passed on to children, they just want to sell it as quickly as possible, even if they don’t get the full value.
That was my thought in popping by today, to get Mia’s commitment to sell before anyone else could.
But, of course, she’s going to be stubborn.
Well, I can be stubborn, too.
“Mr. Roberts.”
I spin around and put on my business face as one of the contractors, James, approaches me. “I need you to come look at what we’ve found while digging the foundation for the second part of the resort.”
“Just tell me.”
I don’t need to be taken on a treasure hunt across the property.
The contractor wipes a cloth across his face. “I think it will make more sense if I show it to you.”
Sighing, I prepare myself to step out into the heat of early May. I follow the contractor’s strides across the property, refusing to glance in Mia’s direction. The last thing I want her to think is that I’m thinking about her.
Because I’m definitely not. I would never be thinking about her.
Several men are standing around a large hole, an excavator idling beside it.
James points into the hole, and I’m forced to lean forward and examine what they found. There’s a large blue pipe, and it looks like it’s been damaged. There is a slow drip, drip, drip of water, and the dirt around it has turned to mud.
I sigh and run my hand across my face. “Did you not pay attention to the plans that showed all of the pipes and electrical lines?”
James looks sheepish, scratching the back of his head. "We did, Mr. Roberts, but this pipe wasn't on any of the plans we reviewed. I’m not sure how it could have been missed, but it looks like the excavator could have damaged it."
I clench my teeth, resisting the urge to unleash my frustration. Instead, I take a deep breath and focus on the problem at hand. "Alright, let's figure out what we're dealing with here."
I jump down into the hole, careful not to slip in the muddy mess. The pipe is old, probably dating back to when Mia’s house was first built. I trace the line with my eyes, noting how it cuts diagonally across the property, heading toward Mia’s place. "This must be a main water supply line," I say, more to myself than anyone else.
James nods, standing above me. "Looks like it. We could reroute it, but that'll take time and money. I’d need your okay and approval to purchase the right supplies."
I rub my chin, weighing the options. Rerouting the pipe will set us back at least a few days, and time is money in this business. Plus, there’s no guarantee Mia won’t put up another fight if she finds out we’ve messed with her water supply. "We need to fix it temporarily. Then, we can look into a permanent solution that won’t interfere with the project. Can you work on the south end of the foundation first while you get a patch job on this pipe?”
James signals to the crew. “We’ll get it done. Let us know when you’ve figured out if we need to reroute it so we can get it done before the next big storm.”
I nod. The last thing I need is the pressure of making another decision, but I can take twenty-four hours to weigh this one out. James’ crew starts gathering the necessary tools to move their project to the other end of this section. I climb out of the hole, wiping my hands on my pants.
As they work on patching the pipe, I turn my attention back to the bigger picture: Mia and her property.
She’s a problem that I have to figure out how to deal with.
An idea starts to form in my mind, and I can’t help but smirk. If she wants to play hardball, I’ll show her what it means to be stubborn.
I finally turn and study Mia’s house from up close. She’s out in her backyard with a tape measure in her hand. I watch as she runs it back and forth across the porch, noting things down on her phone before stretching the measuring tape out again.
She has to be purposely ignoring what’s happening on my property because the excavator is loud. It’s not a noise that can be ignored, especially when it’s happening so close by.
The excavator turns off, and a couple of the construction workers start shouting back and forth in Spanish. I watch as Mia’s shoulders visibly relax. She continues her measuring like nothing has happened, but I can see the little rounding of her shoulders, which means the noise is bothering her.
That’s the start of my idea.
When the excavator starts up again, Mia jumps.
I smile as I head inside. This plan is going to work perfectly.
Once everyone takes off between five and six, the street gets a lot quieter. I watch from the third floor of the resort as people walk their dogs by the building. Some of them pause and assess the progress, curious as always about what is happening. But what most interests me is Mia’s reaction to it.
She has come out on her front porch and is sipping something that could be wine from a glass. I’m too high up to see the details of what she’s doing, but I want to get closer.
I head down the wide staircase. The elevator hasn’t been put in yet, but that should be coming in two weeks.
After checking our city’s noise ordinance, I smile. It’s perfect. Technically, no one has to be quiet until 11:00 p.m. so I start my project at 10:30. I don’t know where Mia is in her house, but her car is still in the driveway. She hasn’t left since she arrived this morning.
I start the jackhammers, drilling away at a piece of the old concrete foundation of the trashy house that was here before. The foundation will be destroyed later anyway, but it doesn’t have to be destroyed today, right now, at 10:30 at night.
The noise is deafening, and I’m glad that the contractor left his noise-canceling headphones. I can only imagine how it sounds in Mia’s house. I picture her tossing and turning, unable to sleep, and it brings a twisted sense of satisfaction.
After about ten minutes of the obnoxious noises, she comes out on the back porch, appearing with a furious look on her face. She’s wearing pajamas—some sort of tank top that makes it clear she’s not wearing a bra underneath, and shorts that barely cover her ass.
She crosses her arms and just stares at me.
I hop off the jackhammer, smile, and wave.
Mia continues to stare at me angrily. “Do you have to do that right now? Good god. It’s too late at night. You can’t even see what you’re doing!”
“Sorry! Just trying to get as much done as possible.”
Then, I hop back onto the jackhammer and work away for another five minutes.
Mia continues to watch. I stop a few minutes before eleven, checking my watch to make sure I can’t keep annoying her any longer.
With a toss of her short, black hair, Mia turns around and marches across the porch. She’s heading for the back door when she stops and peers at something in her yard.
Changing direction, she turns and heads into her yard. I don’t think she realizes just how attractive she is. I remember her from high school, but now, she’s matured. Her curves have grown and tightened, and when she bends over to grab something from the yard and gives me a shot at her ass, it’s impossible for me to control the warm feeling I have in my groin area.
I can feel my dick responding to the view she is giving me.
“Concrete,” Mia says, holding up a sizable chunk of something gray. She shakes it at me. “Keep your mess over there, please.”
Then, she tosses the chunk of concrete in my direction and marches into the house. She may be out of my view now, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking about her.
I can still see the way that sunny yellow tank top accentuated her breasts. I can imagine putting them one at a time toward me until she pressed up against me. I would grab her ass and pull her hips toward mine so that she could feel my dick pressing into her.
She would groan my name long and low in my ear as I started kissing her neck. Then, I would pull those shorts right off her and push into her so hard she wouldn’t be able to keep herself quiet. She would wake the neighbors up with her shouts of pleasure.
I rub my dick through my pants, wishing this could be a reality.
We may have dated back in high school, but all we ever did was kiss behind the bleachers and hold hands. She was all chaste back then and determined not to lose her virginity yet. But now, it’s been ten years. We’ve both had experience, and I know I could make her come more than once just by touching her in all the right places.
But as I stare at Mia’s dark house, I know it can’t. I need her property, and that means I can’t lose focus of the big picture here—the resort.