Page 24

TRIXIE

T rixie smelled snow in the air as soon as she rose, and it scared her up out of a bed that she would much rather have lingered in.

Without consulting, she and Hunter had a quick, hearty breakfast and went to get started before the workday technically did.

They had finished the trusses and purlins before the rest of the crew arrived, and Hunter gave the roof construction over to Noah, Keith, and Kyle.

He was too big to comfortably scramble around in the rafters and admitted that he didn’t exactly enjoy heights.

Noah had installed metal roofing before, and he took point on the job while Keith and Kyle brought up the panels and held them in place.

Sam, Dylan, and Hunter finished installing all the windows and hanging the doors, except the glass doors, and put half the decking down on the second floor porch.

Trixie felt like she was everywhere at once doing everything.

Her hands ached with the cold and the work, but by noon, they were nearly done.

“We’re going to make it,” she said, her breath steaming as she panted. “One push after lunch to finish the porch and the roof, and we made it.”

“Do you mind if I take the afternoon off?” Hunter said, to her surprise. “I started early and I’ve got some things I want to check on.”

“Yeah, you definitely deserve a break,” Trixie said, checking her watch. Jay said he’d be here by now, but he was habitually late. “Jay’s coming after lunch and we’re probably going to be done early anyway. We did it.”

Hunter apparently forgot that they were trying to be discreet and bent to kiss her, startling back when Sam wolf-whistled at them. “Oops,” he said.

“You want me to fire you again?” Trixie offered in a whisper.

“You didn’t fire me,” Hunter said with a smile, equally quiet. “I quit.” But he bent and kissed her in earnest that time, not caring who saw. The crew applauded and cheered, and Trixie blushed and waved them off.

She was still in high spirits after they all came back from lunch and started tackling the last tasks: buttoning up the site for winter work, hauling half the supplies into the house, and tarping anything that would remain in the yard.

The first flakes of snow were falling when Jay’s very tardy truck pulled up and even the sight of his scowl couldn’t dampen Trixie’s spirits.

“Check it out!” she called. She introduced him to the crew and he—somewhat grudgingly, Trixie thought—shook everyone’s hands.

He seemed to get more and more sour as Trixie showed him what they’d done.

“The glass doors can go in after snow if necessary. The porch still needs rails, and of course there’s still the insulation and all the interior work, but that can all be done off season.

The electric drop is ready to go, and the septic and the well just need to be hooked up.

It will be move-in ready by Christmas, no problem. ”

“It had to be done before the end of the calendar year for financial reasons,” Jay admitted. “I didn’t think you could do it, though.”

“Happy to disappoint,” Trixie said with a laugh, but Jay didn’t join her in mirth. “You’re just in time to do nothing, unless you want to put those doors in.” Her jibe was in jest, but it occurred to her that it was honest. Here was Jay, showing up after all the hard work was finished.

“Give the crew the rest of the weekend off,” Jay suggested, except that it didn’t sound like a suggestion. “You’ve been paying enough overtime.”

Trixie wasn’t sure who had pissed in his cereal that morning, but she wasn’t willing to let him dampen her high spirits. She hugged each of the guys on the crew, and noticed bemusedly that not only had Dylan and Sam made up, they were holding hands as they walked back to Sam’s truck.

Then she was alone with Jay. “Anything else on your mind? Sorry you drove all the way out here from Fairbanks and were too late to do anything.” It sounded more pointed than she meant it to.

“I needed to make the trip anyway,” Jay said gruffly. Trixie had gotten used to Hunter’s flavor of gruff and greatly preferred it. “Let’s go upstairs and enjoy the view.”

“Sure.” Trixie let Jay go first up the ladder out of habit; she knew that he was the sort to ogle even if he meant nothing of it, and she was inclined not to give him a view he didn’t deserve.

“I want you to consider that buy out, Trix,” Jay said, drawing her towards the gaping hole where the glass doors would be.

Was he still harping on that? “You have to admit it’s a pretty insulting offer,” Trixie said firmly. “I’m a big player in this partnership, and you’d be going away with all the capital and leaving me hung out to dry. I thought you would be more fair than that.”

Jay had never liked it that Trixie was perfectly fine with setting her own boundaries and saying no to projects that she didn’t feel comfortable taking.

She thought at one point that it was just because she was a woman and it threatened his sense of masculine power, but over time she realized that he just really hated it when anyone said no to him.

He’d made as many enemies in the field as he had allies with his rather short-sighted ideas, and Trixie might have considered the buyout if she could have the company name and the clients.

“You always were a bit of a bitch, Trixie,” Jay said mildly.

“We don’t need to degrade to name-calling,” Trixie protested. “I’m pulling my weight.”

“Are you trying to say that I’m not ?”

To Trixie’s surprise and dismay, the look that Jay leveled at her was not just cold, but red-hot with rage and hatred.

“Why are you here, Jay?” Trixie asked in sudden dread.

“To burn this place down to the ground with you in it.”