Page 93 of Not In The Contract

She followed me without question into the on-site office where David was poring over the new budgets.

“Alex!” he said, jumping to his feet to greet us. “Good to see you.”

“David, this is my associate, Devon,” I said. David shook Devon’s hand enthusiastically. “We need to get her geared up for the site inspection.”

“Right away!”

David disappeared into one of the back rooms and reappeared a few moments later holding an armful of standard safety gear.

“I have yours here as well,” he said, handing my uniform to me. “Devon, if you will. These are steel toe-cap boots, this is the protective overall that keeps your clothes dust-free while you’re out there. And this hard hat is not allowed to leave your head until you step foot in this office again.”

“Roger that,” she said with an easy smile.

We shrugged our gear on and, after getting David’s blessing, stepped out onto the construction site.

I handed Devon a pair of noise-canceling earbuds and pulled her close as the noise climbed to shrieking pitches.

“You could have told him that you’ve done this before,” I yelled into her ear.

She laughed. “He seemed so excited, I didn’t want to rain on his parade,” she called back.

I rolled my eyes and indicated for her to wear the earbuds.

To the untrained eye, the site was nothing but tilled earth and heavy machinery. But I could see my plans slowly coming together, one brick at a time.

We walked around the site, careful to avoid the foundation digs, and I spoke to Ronelle about the timeline. Something we could have done back in David’s office, considering the roaring din of the construction around us. After a few too many shoutedwhat’s, I waved her over to follow us back to David’s office.

Stepping inside the office was like momentarily losing almost every sense apart from sight. Slowly, the ringing in my ears receded until Ronelle’s words were more than garbled mumbled.

“God, sorry, I didn’t realize they’d be excavating today.” I winced, pressing the tip of my finger to my ear.

Ronelle took her hard hat off and shook some of the dust from her hair, earning her a disapproving glare from David.

“Yeah, they were supposed to be done yesterday,” Ronelle said, her voice a little too loud in the silence of the office. “But one of our machines broke down and the technician only arrived this morning.”

“That’s fine,” I replied. “Have we decided on blocks C through E?”

“The vacant blocks?”

I nodded.

“Right now, they’re still unassigned.” She sighed. “We’ll have to push their allocation.”

“What does that mean?” Devon asked.

I looked back at her, still wearing all of her protective gear. God, she was cute.

“We made provisions for spare rooms in the main house,” I explained. “But the city wants us to declare their uses and we’re scratching our heads about it.”

Devon frowned and tugged off her hard hat. “They won’t be used as bedrooms or dorms?”

I shook my head.

“What about psychological care rooms instead?”

“That’s…” I paused, staring at Devon. “Brilliant. Ronelle, see if we can open up a few of the rooms to allow for a wider space and then leave the rest for individual therapy.”

Ronelle nodded and dashed out to make the changes.