Page 30 of Rival

We’re silent for a few minutes before he asks, “You okay after that?”

“I’m fine,” I tell him immediately. I’m not, but it’s silly that I’m so upset by watching all of those poor babies get their shots and tagged. Tomorrow, I have every intention of giving every single one of them a bit more love and kisses.

I feel him working his jaw above me, but he doesn’t call me out for my lie this time. Just before we come to a stop in front ofthe barn, he drops his mouth next to my ear, his breath tickling as he murmurs, “You did good today, girl.”

Gulping, I remain silent and let him help me off the back of Austin. If he’s gentler with me this time, I refuse to acknowledge it. Instead, I hurry away and make a quick exit to the road to get to the barn for my afternoon work.

But his compliment has my heart pounding extra loud in my ears the entire way.

Chapter Fourteen

Jaxon

Shuffling through the papers on my desk, I check the clock on my wall and realize I’ve spent far longer in my office this morning than I have time for. The phone has been going crazy, but Jennice knows to take messages instead of transferring.

I click through the Cooper file, preparing myself to call Mason after promising him I would. But first, I need to call my dad.

Dialing his number, I lean back in my chair while it rings a few times before he picks up.

“‘Ello. Thorton residence.”

“Hey, dad. I got a question for you.”

I hear the volume of the TV going down, then the phone shuffling around as he settles in. “Might have an answer. What do ya need?”

“Do you remember the job you took to fix a roof over at Cooper’s ranch? For Bill Cooper?”

“Vaguely. Difficult guy to work with. Why?”

“Well, we have an unpaid invoice for him—”

He grunts into the phone, and I hear my mom’s muffled voice in the background. “Hold on a minute.” Covering the phone, I hear him tell her he hasn’t grabbed the mail yet, then comes back to me. “I’m not surprised he owes us money. Crotchety man. No respect for the way we used to make a deal. Just a handshake and a man’s word are all it used to take.”

“Dad,” I groan, pressing my thumb between my brows. “This is the thing. Invoicing says he got all the materials but hadn’t paid.”

“Well, there ya go.”

“But inventory says we still got most of it sitting in the warehouse. He paid for what was delivered according to that. Why didn’t the job get finished?” As much as I love my dad and appreciate what he built, I’ve been having to deal with quite a fewhandshakedeals that were never fully wrapped up. This isn’t the first time we’ve had a conversation like this, so I’m thankful the man has the memory of an elephant. I need the facts.

“If I remember right, we kept tryin’ to go out there, but he’d claim I gave him the wrong dates and would ask us to reschedule. After the third time, I told him to find someone else. Wasn’t gonna keep wasting our crew’s time when he was so wishy-washy.”

That lines up with the notes. Nodding to myself, I thank him and promise I’ll stop by over the weekend before hanging up. Quickly, I print out the comment log from our system’s diary, then place a call to Mason Cooper.

“Yeah?” His voice is loud the moment he answers, yelling into my ear with obvious sounds of cattle behind him. Mason must be in his barn if the mooing and fans are any indication.

Clearing my throat, I greet him. “Hi, Mason. This is Jaxon from Thorton Construction and Restoration. I’m calling to follow up on the invoice we spoke about the other day. Do you have a few minutes?”

Another abrupt, “Yeah.”

I roll my eyes at his attitude. “So, I read through the file we had on the job. I’d like to apologize for the mix-up with us sending you an invoice. Not that it justifies it, but we had conflicting information about where the supplies were located. One said they were delivered, but we now know not all of them were and they’re in our warehouse. I’ll go ahead and clear this out for you and you’re welcome to just toss the bill and disregard.”

“Fuckin’ cat! Goddamnit… Get the hell off of there, you lil’ shit.” I yank the phone from my ear when Mason bellows, apparently at a cat. Once he stops, I bring it back to my ear.

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah, just this devil. She’s gotta get rid of it.”

I raise a brow, a bit surprised and clueless about what he’s referring to and whosheis. Before I can ask, not that I care much, he continues.