Page 26 of Not In The Contract

“I say she bails in the second month,” Taylor offered, and I rolled my eyes.

“What about you, Hayden?” I asked.

Hayden’s eyes glimmered. “I say the student runs screaming in the first week.”

“That’s so mean, Hayden!”

“No, she’s probably the only one who’s come close.” I laughed.

“What does that mean?” Reid frowned.

“It means I sent my very own version of a non-disclosure agreement along with a plethora of house rules that anyone in their right mind would find disturbing.”

The table was silent as they all gaped at me.

“That’s cheating!” Hayden hissed.

“Says the one who cheated first,” I reminded her. “It ismyhome that you all offered up to a stranger. And no one said anything about sabotaging the student.”

“You’re a cruel creature.” Taylor chuckled.

“I’m protective of my time.” I shrugged. “Everyone who knows me knows that as well. If she does end up signing those documents, then my schedule is still protected. I won’t have to ruin something perfect for the sake of a silly bet.”

“You’re diabolical, you know that?” Hayden breathed, a proud smile lifting the corners of her mouth. “Your mind is the sharpest here, I think.”

“I don’t need to be sharp.” I smiled. “I just need to think ahead.”

“When have you told sweet Devon to move in?” Cam asked.

“Next week,” I said, wondering if she’d even bothered to go through the documents I’d sent.

“We’ll have an interesting brunch then.”

The rumble of construction machinery drowned out most of my thoughts, and the ground shook beneath my feet until I could barely stand.

But after decades of prowling countless construction sites, my body had long since grown accustomed to the… unpleasant parts of my job.

My steel-toe-capped boots crunched over the gravel and I shifted in the heavy denim of my coat weighed on my shoulders.

“Is there a civil engineer on site?” I asked David, whose owlish eyes blinked back at me.

For the last ten years, David and his husband had helped me run the construction aspect of my business. They joined the company to oversee my internal civil engineering department and hadn’t looked back since.

He turned on the spot and cleared his throat, his brow pinched under the sunlight. “We have Ronelle and her junior engineer overseeing the start up,” he responded, pointing north to where a young woman with dark hair cropped close to her head spoke to a group of workers.

“Excellent, she’s perfect,” I said. I glanced over the plans on my iPad with narrowed eyes. “The timeline has changed.”

Not a question, but David answered me anyway.

“Yes, there was a misunderstanding with the city planning agent,” he grumbled, sliding his glasses up his nose. “You know government officials; paperwork is always a requirement and never a priority.”

“So it’s pushed us back an entire month,” I observed, scrolling along the new timeline. “I wasn’t told any of this.”

“Unfortunately,” he sighed, scrubbing a hand over his tired eyes, “I only found out an hour ago. The new timeline was finalized less than half an hour before you got here.”

“Impressive,” I murmured. “I take it Barbara was behind this?”

“Would it be anyone else?” he asked with a sly wink.