Chapter 28
Auggie
When Mom and Dad leave on Sunday afternoon, I call Leon to come back over and finish our conversation. Since bringing up wanting to be exclusive, I figure a few hours is more than enough time for him to come to a solid decision, but when Leon answers … he’s busy.
Busy.
Too busy for a conversation that I’d consider highly important, and well, I guess that’s my answer, isn’t it?
He’s freaking out about being exclusive. And he thinks he can just blow me off.
Well. That’s not something I’m going to let happen.
My entire life has been people looking at me like I’m fragile and thinking they know what’s best for me, and you know what? It’s getting kind of old.
For a while there, it felt like Leon and I were a team, and I loved that dynamic for us. If he doesn’t want to hook up again, then whatever, but he’s going to balls up and say it.
I pull up at his place Monday morning, already in a shitty mood and ready for a fight.
Leon is at his truck by the time I make it up the driveway.
“Morning.” His voice is light, but there are deep lines under his eyes.
I glare at him. “Why do you look like shit?”
“It’s been a long night.”
I want to barge in that front door and check to see if he’s been up working again, but if he hasn’t been, that means he’s been up doing something else all night. And there aren’t many something else’s he could have been doing.
Unless it was someone else.
But would he actually do that?
Blow me off to meet up with some guy? Knowing that we still need to talk?
A very loud part of me is saying not to be stupid because I know Leon, and casual or not, I can’t see him doing that. Because if he did, my respect for him would be tanked.
If he wants to keep sleeping around, I’d have to be okay with it, but he’s sure as hell going to tell me about it first.
I swallow back the jealousy I want to let take over and head for Leon’s truck.
“Ah, change of plans,” he says.
“Which is …”
“I’ve got some stuff to work out today, so I figured you could join the guys at Peg’s Cafe. They’re starting to set up for the extension.”
“You want me … on-site. Without you.”
“Yeah, I figure you’ve proven you can be trusted after everything you’ve done this past week.
” His teasing smile makes me feel fractionally better, but the knowledge that this is maybe the start of us not spending every day together stings.
It’s one of the things I love most about the job.
Leon’s patient and has actually taught me a few things, and the idea of going from his calm to the mayhem of the guys on the worksite makes me uncomfortable.
Cut the cord, Auggie.
I know as well as anyone that we can’t continue the way we have been. Leon has a lot to do, and fixing up his house is an indulgence he can’t afford to waste me on when he has work coming out of his ears—now that I’ve seen his schedule, I’m starting to understand his need to be constantly working.
That said, the timing of this has me super suspicious.
Maybe I shouldn’t have done such a good job last week, because I can’t tell if it’s all just an excuse so he’s free of me.
I’m not sure what expression I’m wearing, but Leon softly closes his door and rounds the front of the truck.
“You okay?”
“No. No, I’m really, really not. I know I should be, and I know I probably should have the emotional capacity to move on from what happened this weekend, but how am I supposed to do that with how open everything was left?
We were going to talk, and you blew me off, and now you’re blowing me off again.
How am I supposed to be okay with that?”
“Auggie—”
“No. It’s not fair. If you didn’t like my suggestion or don’t want to hook up again, that’s fine. You’ve been nothing but honest with me this whole time, so I wouldn’t blame you at all. But you need to tell me. You can’t avoid me and hope I’ll go away. That’s not how things work.”
“That’s what you think is happening?” His eyebrows lift so high they send lines over his forehead.
“What am I supposed to think?”
Leon lets out a frustrated laugh and pulls me into his arms. “Does that brain of yours ever stop jumping to the worst conclusions?”
“Literally never,” I mumble into his chest.
He pulls back a little and ducks down so we’re eye to eye.
“Can you please trust me? I know it’s a lot to ask, but I swear I really do have a lot that I need to work out today.
I’m hoping I can tell you more this afternoon, but for now, I need you on-site.
Not only for me, but for you as well. If I can’t have you out of my sight, how are you ever going to get any confidence?
How am I ever going to know I can trust you to do what I need you to do? ”
All very valid points. Logical. Well put. And as if I could expect anything else from Leon. I’m still feeling sort of unsettled though. “Okay … I get it. And the, umm, other stuff?”
He lightly brushes his thumb over my cheek. “Not on work time. Plus, there are still a few things we need to work out before we continue that conversation.”
I’m about to argue when he cuts me off.
“And until we continue it, my poor dick is going celibate. There’s way too much happening in my head to worry about focusing on anything else, so please trust me.”
I feel like I can breathe again. He’s not doing a complete one-eighty. He’s not being a dick. He’s being the exact Leon I know, and that makes it easy to do as he asks, because that Leon I trust maybe more than anyone.
I nod. “Okay, I can do that.” I step back out of his hold and start walking backward down the drive. My foot hits a dirt pile, and I almost face-plant but manage to catch my balance at the last moment. “I’m fine!” I lift my hands like ta-da!
Leon’s bemused look makes me want to shrivel and die.
Great start to the day. “Just an accident. Won’t happen again. You have nothing to worry about.”
“You had to say it, didn’t you?”
“Everything’s under control.”
“And now I’m worried.” He shakes his head as he walks back to the driver’s side of his truck. “Don’t make me regret this.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
He mutters something I don’t hear as he jumps in the cab and starts the engine. But as he backs out, the smile he gives me sends wiggly little feelings into my gut, and like that, the annoyance I felt this morning completely disappears.
Yep. Everything is going to be okay.
Everything is not okay. I stare at the place where the floor waste should be but tiles sit instead.
“And where is the toilet supposed to go?” I ask Oscar, doing my best to keep my voice level. I want to get ragey, but hey, I’m not about to throw stones when it’s my fault this job was pushed back in the first place.
“I thought that’s what that was?”
“That’s the shower.”
“Shit, man. I didn’t even think. Rory usually sorts out that the plumbing is all where it needs to be. I just work around it.”
I pull out my phone and consult the feedback I gave them last week about the plans. Yep, organizing floor waste is on there. At least I have proof for Leon that I told them it needed to be fixed before the floor bed was laid, but like any of that matters now.
The tile needs to come up, the waterproofing, the screed, the waste put in and then all that put back together again.
How the fuck did they miss it? How many bathrooms have these guys put in?
I press my hands to my mouth and try not to scream, but all I can focus on is Leon.
And how this will stress out Leon. And how, maybe, instead of playing nurse, I should have been following up on this fucking job and making sure my feedback was actioned.
I get that I’m a kid to them. I get that I’m only an apprentice. But I have enough experience to know when a fucking toilet is missing, especially when it’s clearly marked on the goddamn plans.
“I’ll just get the plumber to come back. I’ll cut through the tile, and we’ll put it in that way.”
I grit my teeth. “And if the toilet leaks?”
He shuffles his feet, not having an answer for me. I draw a long breath and try to channel how Leon would handle it. Other than me taking out a wall, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him lose his cool. That’s the energy I need to give out now. Everything is okay. Everything can be fixed.
I get Oscar to call the plumber while Rory starts to pull up the flooring. Thankfully the grout hasn’t been put in yet, so we remove the tiles without damaging them.
If we can get the waste in today, we can waterproof this afternoon. Then again tomorrow morning. Floor the next day, and tiling the day after. Four days. This has set us back four days, because this time last week, they chose not to listen to me.
That won’t be happening again.
My phone lights up with a call from Leon a few hours later. I still haven’t mentioned the fuckup to him, and I doubt anyone else on-site has either. Mostly, we’re all trying to work through it and get things fixed so he doesn’t have to stress over the lost time.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“How are things going there?”
“Please don’t ask that question.”
His pause sounds heavy. “Auggie …”
“Look, it’s fine. I’ve got it handled. There was a mistake last week that wasn’t fixed in time, but we’re on it.”
“Is it bad that I’m relieved it wasn’t something you did?”
“Technically, I should have followed up.”
“No, technically, I should have.” He clears his throat. “Thank you.”
“Umm … what?”
His laugh is warm. “Can you meet me at my office?”
“Sure. Now?”
“Yep.”
“If I meet you, is this going to be a conversation I’ll like or more of a you’re fired, Auggie? Because if it’s the last one, I might just skip out if it’s all the same to you.”
He asks for strength under his breath, and I wish I could say it was the first time I’d heard him do that. “Get your cute butt in your car and get over here.”
I check to make sure no one is listening. “You think my butt is cute?”
“And tasty. But we’re not talking about that right now.”
“Oh, so this is a booty call?”
“What? Dear God. No.”
“Hey, you started it.”
“Office, Auggie. Now.”
My smile doesn’t slip the whole way down there, and when I reach his office and walk inside, it gets painfully wider. Leon’s hair is sticking up all over the place, and his eyes are sleepy, and there are two to-go coffee cups on his desk with a mess of wrappers around them.
I flop down in the seat across from him and watch him link those powerful, thick fingers together on top of his desk.
“You know, even though you’re a mess at the moment, you’re probably the hottest man I’ve ever seen.” I kick my feet up onto his desk.
“You know what, I’ve changed my mind. Maybe I do need to fire you.”
I cup my face. “A cute guy like me?”
“Especially a cute guy like you.” He leans forward, teasing glint in his eye. “Can we get through this conversation without you distracting me, please?”
“Sure.” I mime drawing a halo over my head, and he presses his lips together against a smile.
“I’ve been thinking since I left your place yesterday morning that maybe your dad is right.”
There’s nothing he could have said to snap me out of my good mood faster. “My dad?”
“Correct.”
“Explain.”
“Being an apprentice isn’t fair on you, and I think I’ve been taking advantage of that. It might have taken your dad way too long to get there, but the offer he’s made you …” Leon shakes his head. “I can’t beat that.”
“I don’t want you to.”
“It’s not fair of me to ask you to turn that down and stay here when an apprenticeship is all I have to offer.”
“Yeah, but you haven’t asked me to turn anything down.” My voice is getting steadily louder, and Leon gives me a warm look.
“And I never would. The thing is, what your dad said has made me reevaluate some things. I can never offer you what you’re worth”—he pulls a file out and places it on the desk between us—“but this is me, trying to close the gap.”
Interested, I lean forward and grab the file, but when I open it and start reading … my eyes almost fall out. “You want me to run the Port Welling job?”
“It’s a trial. I want to see what you can do. We’ll be working closely together on it, but I want my role to be more advisory than anything else. You’ll run everything by me first, and if this goes well, hopefully I’ll have something more permanent to offer you.”
I can’t believe it. And the more I read of the contract he’s drawn up, the more I realize what he’s actually asking.
LJ Construction is Leon’s baby. He built it himself. He runs everything under a microscope and needs to know what’s happening at all times. Hiring a project manager—no matter how involved he might be—is him giving up some of that control he holds on to so tightly.
“You want to put your biggest ever contract in my hands?”
“Yes.” There’s no hesitation. “You’ve learned a lot from your dad, and while he might be an asshole, he knows how to run his business.
He doesn’t try to take everything on. Like he said, he has foremen and site managers and people to cover the tasks he can’t do himself.
” Leon drops his voice a little. “Oscar called me this morning and told me what happened. You had my back again, but if I can’t even take a week out sick without things collapsing around me, what kind of business is that? ”
He has a point. If I hadn’t been here, he would have tried working through being sick, I’m sure of it. And instead of relaxing and recovering, he would have been more stressed than ever.
The stress he puts himself under isn’t sustainable.
“I’ll do it.”
“Think about it,” he urges. “Your dad’s offer is exactly what you’ve always wanted, and I know this doesn’t even come close to that, but—”
“You’re right, it doesn’t. Dad’s offer comes with strings attached.
It will always be his way. And I know the only reason he made it is so he can keep an eye on me and make sure I don’t embarrass him or his company.
He doesn’t trust that I can do it, but …
you do.” I look back down at the contract.
“This is you trusting me. And …” I bite my lip, not sure if I should keep going.
“It sort of feels like this is you asking me to stay.” I force myself to look up at him, and he holds my stare.
“It is. Professionally.” His voice catches. “This is me not wanting to lose you.”
And no matter that he’s thrown the p word in there, my heart sets off with flutters anyway. “I don’t need time. I don’t need to think about it.” I hold out my hand. “I’m not going anywhere.”