Willow (2 page)

Willow had been going to school then. At nineteen, she was in her last year of a business degree with one more year of architectural design. She already had a landscaping degree from attending college while in high school. Her parents loved her so they indulged what they thought of as a whim. She smiled when she thought about the day she’d gotten her first site job and how they had tried to hide their disappointment. Her brother Alexander had been the one to tell them that she would be brilliant at it. She secretly thought they had hoped she would grow bored with it and move on to more feminine projects. She hadn’t. And now, if one asked them, they would tell people it had been their idea all along. Her smile reminded her of her split lip.

Turning on the lights in her bedroom, she heard the vehicle that had followed her home drive away. She was in the bathroom a few minutes later. She looked at her watch and discovered it was just shy of two-thirty. Fuck, she was tired. Debating whether to shower and stay up or go have her lip stitched, she turned on the water. No reason she couldn’t do both. By three, she was sitting on a gurney waiting for the nurse to come in and sew her up.

“
Want to explain how a woman I know never took a drink in her life gets her lip split in a bar fight? Or do you have some extra sideline work going on that I’m not aware of?”

Willow rolled to her back when Shannon Weiss came in with a small arsenal of medical supplies. “Nope. Just building buildings. Talbor did it.”

“
Ah. Say no more.” Shannon shook her head. “Punk-assed bastard. Why don’t you fire him? He’s gotta have a file a mile wide by now. And what’s he worked for you now…six, seven months?”

“
Five. But I can’t. The last time I tried, our permits were yanked for nine days. Stone was pissed. Said I either make it work or else he’d find someone who would.” Willow shrugged. “So I’m making it work.”

She didn’t say anything while her mouth was being stitched. The Novocain made it difficult anyway. So she just closed her eyes.

She used to like coming to work. At least until Stone moved away to the warmer climates during the colder months—not that she’d ever met him. All their conversations had been though emails. Willow supposed that the Carolinas weren’t all that far, but it wasn’t like the big boss was all that close either. She felt herself drifting off and with a raised hand to stall Shannon, she asked her to wake her when she was finished.

~Chapter 2~

Jared woke at ten in the morning. He was groggy and a little disorientated, but came awake quickly. He was out of the shower and dressed by ten-thirty, waiting on breakfast. He decided he needed a house, or at the very least somewhere he could have his own kitchen.

He thought about where he wanted to stay and realized he could move into his parents’ house while he tried to figure it out. He would have all the comforts without all the strangeness of it all. He made a mental note to clear it with his dad when he spoke to him tonight.

Jared had planned on going to the site on Monday of the next week. That would have given him four days and the weekend to sort out living arrangements and set up appointments with Talbor and Will James. Jared smiled when he thought of “Will.”

His father had assumed she was a he. So had Jared, actually. But he was a she, and a very lovely she at that. When she had left the bar, he thought about following her home, but three men that had left when she did made him rethink that. Jared wisely thought he could handle one man, but three? Well, he wasn’t that stupid. Besides, he had her file on his desk.

Picking up the file now, Jared skimmed over her impressive records and degrees. Not only was Miss James qualified to do her job, she might be considered over-qualified by many. Then he picked up the file his dad’s secretary had handed him at the airport when he’d landed yesterday morning.

“
We have had numerous letters from Ranch, a former site foreman, and the city council. Mr. Talbor is claiming that W. James is not bringing the building up to standard and that the men are a nuisance in the city at nights. We also have a letter…we quite a few from one of our employees stating that W. James is forcing all the men to have sex with him in exchange for extra pay.”

Jared smiled at that. He didn’t care about anyone’s sexual preference, but Talbor was claiming that Foreman James was forcing them to do so. Mr. James might have raised a brow or two, but Jared highly doubted there was a man alive who wouldn’t feel it a great honor to have to sleep with Miss James. But that accusation was just one of the many things on his list of things to check out. His cell phone was ringing when he was leaving the hotel. His mom.

“
So, how is the jet-setting Stone boy getting along? Seduced any women yet? Or should I just ask how many?”

“
It’s only noon, Mom. I’ve only been able to move though the hotel staff so far. But I have a request for them to bring in the older babes later, just for an aperitif.” Jared laughed when she huffed at him. “How are the beaches? Enjoying yourself?”

“
Yes, but I miss you. Come down for a visit this week. We’ll go on a clam bake. The neighbor’s daughter is visiting and she is a pretty single thing.”

Jared wondered what his mother would think of Willow and frowned. He didn’t care what she thought of her. He was here to do a job, not date the help, even if she was very beautiful. Deciding to ignore her not so stubble hints at matrimony, he asked her about the house.

“
Of course stay there. I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you to stay there anyway. The staff is still there…mostly anyway. Beard is there and I’ll tell him to hire what you’ll need to fill in.” He could hear her clicking a pen to make herself notes as she continued. “I’ll call her when we get off here. How’s it going otherwise? Have you gotten any sleep?”

“
I’m fine. I have some things I need to work out at the site. Then I have a couple of things I’m going to have to do at the office for tomorrow. Dad said he left things in the air about the foreman and for me to handle it as I saw fit.” Jared threw the file on the seat next to him. “Mom, who do you know who would be able to do some research on a couple of people?”

“
Sara Kensal is your father’s lawyer. She would know most everyone we do. If it’s social background, maybe I can help. Who is it?”

Jared debated. He figured his mom would have heard about Shawn Talbor. He’d been on a campaign to have the foreman fired for over three months, according to his dad. But it was Willow he was actually wondering about. His mother would know if she’d been in trouble on a site before and anything she might have done before Stone. He decided to hold off on Willow and get what he could about the Talbors.

“
Shawn Sr. is on the city council. He’s a pompous ass, if you ask me. About three years ago, he thought it would be a good idea to cut the city bus drivers pay by one third. He didn’t tell them and when they got their next check, they were in an uproar about it.” His mother laughed. “They drove the buses to his house and parked them all over his lawn when he wouldn’t return their calls. My goodness, that was funny.”

Jared could almost see his mom sitting at her little desk telling him this story. He smiled at the thought.

“
And Mrs. Talbor? What do you know about her?”

The sobered reply came immediately. “She passed on several years ago. Some say she killed herself, others said she died of a broken heart.”

Like her humor, he could see her in sorrow too. He decided to change the subject quickly. He moved on to his trip to come there and see them. Toward the end of the call, he asked his mother about his plan in dealing with the situation here in Ohio.

“
I’ll just show up as an employee. I’ll have Sara set it up that I’m to be hired on. I believe getting both sides of this would go better in the long run. If what you say is true about the Talbor family, then maybe the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“
If you show up as Jared Stone, you think anyone is going to connect the dots? Not all of them can be as stupid as this Talbor is,” his mother said. “Go by Jared Robert. It’s still your name and it’s common enough that no one will give it a second thought.”

Jared was glad he’d told her about it. He would never have thought about changing his name until someone asked him for it. Then he would have been stuck.

“
Okay. Then I’ll start this Monday. I’m going to move my stuff over to the house today when I get back.” he tried to think if he was forgetting anything. “Mom, thanks. I’ll see you in a couple of days. No matchmaking while I’m down there, all right?”

She huffed at him again. “It’s my right to be matchmaker. And until I’m holding Jared the sixth on my knee, I’ll continue to do so. I’ll see you in a few days. I love you, Jared, be careful.”

The rest of his day was filled with moving his things to the house, making arrangements with a realtor, setting up appointments with the people he’d need to see at the firm, and packing for a few days at his parents’ house.

Jared had been in Paris for the past eighteen months overseeing a huge construction site there. The mall they were building had been riddled with one issue after another—shorted supplies and not enough staff to complete the job were just a few of the problems. Jared had been sent over to see what the real problem was. He’d found more than they’d bargained for.

The foreman was a thief. Not just with the Stone supplies, but even a ring of house thefts had been linked to him and almost half the crew. Jared caught on to it the second day he had been there.

Then they were behind schedule, which put them over budget. By the time he’d gotten there, walls should have been up and foundation poured for flooring. Half the walls up had to be torn down and redone. And none of the foundations were worked enough to even begin the pouring process. It had taken the first five weeks just to get a crew organized and another ten weeks of working seventy hours just to get back on track.

They were way over budget now, but going to finish on time. The foreman was in jail along with seven of the crew and indictments for another five. The man he’d left in charge was going to do a great job. Jared decided he was going to enjoy a few days with his parents and forget work and everything else.

~o0o~

Tuesday morning, the city inspector, the city councilman, Talbor, and his son were on site when Willow pulled up at seven o’clock. She was half tempted to just start her truck back up and go home. When she got out, all of them approached her. She didn’t even slow as she walked past them.

“
Gentlemen, Talbor.” She didn’t really think any of them were even close to being gentlemen, but she said it anyway. She didn’t stop walking until she was inside her office and shut the door in their faces. Then she turned the tab to lock the door behind her. Leaning against it, she realized that other than leaving at night, it was the first time the lock had been engaged since she’d been on this site. Ignoring the knocks, then the pounding, she set about opening her emails and forwarding on to the company attorney anything she didn’t know what to do with. Sarah Kensal usually handled all of it anyway. At three minutes until eight, someone unlocked the door and came inside.

“
Morning,” Tommy Conley said when he walked in. “Got yourself quite a crowed out here, boss. You gonna hide—mother fuck. Is that what Talbor did to you last night?”

Willow had been surprised herself when she’d gotten a look in the hand mirror that Shannon had given her when Willow had woke up. Her lip was swollen and the eight tight black stitches stood out in sharp contrast against her fair skin. Her eye had four stitches across the brow. Shannon had put them in when Willow had been asleep or she wouldn’t have allowed her to do it. Willow’s eye was puffy, but not as swollen this morning. However, she couldn’t put ice packs on it so she was sure it looked bad again.

“
Talbor has a nice right. Hopefully, he doesn’t look any better this morning.” Willow hadn’t really looked at him when she’d gotten out of her truck. She had just wanted to get away from them as soon as possible. She stood up now to go out and talk to them.

Conley stopped her with a hand to her arm. “You’re gonna have to take him back, aren’t you?” She nodded. “That fucking sucks, you know that, right?”

Yes, it did. But she wasn’t going to lose her job over an asshole like Talbor.

~Chapter 3
~

Jared was ready to begin work by Monday. Actually, he’d decided to head out when he returned to Ohio on Sunday afternoon. He was surprised when he got there that there was a truck in the parking lot. He could see someone in the site trailer, but didn’t know who so he parked on the street and walked around the yard and building shell.

The walls were in, but only some of the interior wiring was finished on the third floor office building. Jared knew from the weekly reports that the electricians were due to bring in extra crew to finish the job by the end of the week. Bricking off the outside of the façade was nearly done with just one more wall nearly to completion. Going in through one of the boarded up doors, he stepped into a large, open area.

The building was slated for a single company and the drywall was being put up to make the individual rooms on the lower floors. Most of the first floor wasn’t finished so he walked to the stairs to go to the top floors and make his way down. He smiled when he got to the second level.

Stone prided itself on the way they finished a building. The crews would finish the top floors first then work down and out. He noticed that the upper floor, the topmost level, was just awaiting mud work on the seams of the hung drywall. In the four rooms up here, two of them had been painted and of those, one had the ceiling completed. Jared was touring the second floor when he was stopped by a deep, hard voice.