Chapter Four
Nick
W orst roommate ever award goes to…me, for jerking off at the sight of her underwear the same day she moved in.
Congratulations to me, absolute fucking creep.
It was just underwear, the same thing I would see walking past the lady’s section at Wal-Mart on my way to buy windshield wiper fluid and batteries. Well, not the same ones. These were not your grandma’s panties. These were lacy and skimpy and…now I was getting chubby.
Fuck.
I chugged the last of my luke-warm coffee and jumped down from my truck. My business, Springwood Contracting, focused on sustainable renovations and new construction. I still spent a lot of time at the local lumber depot picking up what we needed.
Can’t recycle everything.
I wandered through the contractor’s entrance and waved at Shirley, the cashier who always seemed to be on shift when I came in. I grabbed a flat deck cart and was heading for the two by fours when I literally bumped into someone coming around the corner. “Sorry, I didn’t see…oh.”
Derek.
Fantastic.
One sibling already had my head in knots and now I had to face the other.
He smirked in a way that made me want to punch him. I had often wondered if this feud was as exhausting for him as it was for me. Then I’d see him and he’d double down on the whole thing. My pride always got in the way of just letting the whole thing go.
“Attention to detail still your strong suit, I see.”
“Just a little distracted by the recent turn of events. I thought you would have tracked me down by now,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
He furrowed his brows. “Why would I be tracking you down? You steal one of my customers again? Can’t help but notice you guys have barely broken ground on that University townhouse complex.”
I ground my teeth, but didn’t take the bait. We’d had this argument more times than I could count. We’d both bid on a job and if he didn’t get it, he’d accuse me of stealing his customers. The fact that he was right, and I was way behind on the townhouse complex wasn’t something I would admit.
Ever.
“No, I meant because of Charlotte.”
He took a step closer, and his voice came out in a snarl. “The fuck did you do to my sister?”
He didn’t know.
Interesting.
I licked my lips and gave him a smirk of my own.
“You didn’t see her car in my driveway this morning?
” I was being a total dick but the dance between us was too familiar to stop.
I’d long since gotten over the girl we’d fought over.
I was sure he had, too. That hardly mattered now.
We had two decades of poking at each other behind us and I didn’t think we would ever break the habit.
The thought made my stomach sink. We had been close once. Charlotte and I had, too.
His hands clenched at his side so to avoid getting punched, I clarified. “She didn’t tell you she’s my new roommate?”
The surprise on his face was clear, but he quickly covered it with a scowl. I was tall but he was even taller. He took a step forward so we were all but chest to chest. “I’m going to make this simple enough that even you can understand. Touch her and die.”
I flashed him a lazy smile. “I won’t touch her.”
Derek took another step into my space, his chest puffed up in a way that reminded me I did not want to actually get into a fight with this guy. “I’d love to believe that but we both know you always want what’s not yours.”
I exhaled hard. “So, I broke a promise we made when we were what? Sixteen? I apologized for that. We both liked the same girl. We swore we wouldn’t go after her and I asked her out anyway. You really still not over that?”
He stuck his finger in my face. “Not when you started a business that tries to steal all my customers.”
He was exaggerating. We’d had plans to go into business together after trade school, but then I’d fucked up and gone after a girl we both liked.
She’d turned me down, but the damage was done.
We both still became contractors. We just did it separately.
And proceeded to spend the next twenty years getting on each other’s nerves.
“Not my fault if customers like me better.” I took a step back and started walking toward my cart. “Besides, Charlotte’s a big girl. I won’t touch her, but I can’t guarantee she won’t touch me.”
Derek clenched his jaw and flipped me off.
I figured I’d pushed my luck enough for one day, so I got the materials I needed and got the hell out of there. If I wanted to be close to Charlotte, I’d have to learn to get along with Derek again. Instead, the first time I saw him I’d goaded the guy.
I was an idiot.
A very single idiot.
I dropped what was needed at the job site for the guys and grimaced at just how little progress we had made.
Sage Valley University had put out a call for bids on a townhouse complex that they’d own and run as student housing. I didn’t have the capital to fund a project that size myself, but with the University footing the initial bill, I could make a killing.
There was one caveat.
Students had to be able to move in for the fall semester in September.
There were no ifs, ands, or buts about finishing on time.
Even when I’d put my bid together, I knew the deadline would be ugly.
Still, my pride got in the way and I fought for the project to keep Derek from getting his hands on it.
The fact that his quote came in higher than mine gave me pause. I always worried that I had missed something or forgotten to carry the one somewhere and that would lead to financial ruin. Yay for me for getting the client. I just had to deliver what I’d promised.
And on that happy note, I realized it was almost lunch time.
I drove my oversized pickup down the narrow streets of downtown Springwood.
It was a sunny spring day so the sidewalks were lined with people out window shopping.
Each block was filled with stout brick buildings and trees just getting their leaves.
I managed to find a parking spot, always a hit or miss situation, and ran into my favorite sandwich place before pulling an illegal u-turn and heading towards the highway.
The office for my company was over the train tracks in the industrial area of the city.
British Columbia was known for its beauty – mountains, evergreen trees and lakes - but this area was all unpaved lots and rutted dirt roads.
It housed a junkyard, mechanics shops and my contracting business along with a few other eyesores.
It was always muddy or dusty, dark and kind of sketchy at night, but it was cheap enough that I had the space to house materials.
I grabbed the sandwiches and headed inside.
My mom worked as a bookkeeper for a few different companies, including mine. She usually worked one to two days a week out of the Springwood Contracting office. I knew she was here today and talking to her always made me feel better.
I needed that right now.
Every time I looked over the plan for the University townhouse complex, the details got more grim.
In theory, it could be done.
In reality, weather delays, materials delays and workers coming and going were unpredictable.
The only solution I’d come up with so far was to work as much as I could myself.
Do all of my business owner duties in the evening and swing a hammer with the crew during the day.
If I survived this project, it would be a miracle.
“Hey, Mom. Got you a turkey club.” I put the sandwich down on her desk and she turned away from her laptop.
“Oh, thanks.” She pulled off her teal reading glasses and tucked them on top of her head.
I got my darker features from my dad, while my mom was blonde with a few streaks of gray.
She had the odd sun spot from summer spent wearing me out at every lake or park within an hours drive.
She may be in her sixties but she didn’t look it.
Even so, I felt the need to keep an eye on her as if I was the parent.
She went to take a bite then paused. “Are you going to stare at me or eat your own lunch?”
I held my hands up in surrender and unwrapped my own ham and cheese.
“You know you don’t have to take care of me, right?”
“I know. Just trying to do something nice.” That was a lie. My parents had divorced five years ago and my dad had moved to Arizona with a woman closer to my age than his.
Cliche bullshit.
My mom could take care of herself, but I didn’t want her to feel like she had to. She probably knew I was lying but luckily changed the subject instead of calling me on it.
“So, any plans for the weekend?” she asked, as if that wasn’t a totally loaded question.
“Work, I guess. Groceries.”
She scowled. “You know normal people only work forty hours a week, right?”
I snorted. I wished. If I was awake, I was working. “Life is expensive. One day you can retire, and my business will support us both.” I tried to make my voice sound light but the whole subject stressed me the fuck out.
Her eyes softened and she tilted her head. “I’m not helpless, Nick. At the rate you’re going, you will need to retire before I do. I run the numbers for this business, remember? I can’t understand why we take on half the jobs we do.”
“Time to make hay is when the sun is shining, right?” It was a non-answer. I needed to have a successful business for the long term, but I was also a jackass who couldn’t sit back and let another contractor – Derek – take a job without putting my name in, too.
“You need some balance, kiddo. Do you even see anyone who isn’t an employee?”
“I have a roommate now. She moved in yesterday.” I blurted out the words before I thought them through.
That I-want-grandbabies look came into her eyes and she was clasping her hands in front of her chest before I could stop her. “A girlfriend? You have a girlfriend living with you?”