“It was a big project, one of our biggest to date. I want it to be good and delivered on time. This project landed us the Austin one, don’t forget.”
“I know it did, and it’ll be finished on time, dude. Now will you take a damn breath, Truitt. Are you going to Pete’s dinner party tonight?”
I rolled my eyes. “Jesus Christ, do I have to?”
Jack nodded. “Yes. The man has saved your life on how many occasions?”
Staring at Jack, I laughed. “Saved my life? He’s pulled a nail out of my foot, told me my ankle wasn’t broken…wrote a prescription or two for pain…
“Got glass out of your eye when that bottle exploded.”
I shivered at the memory of that accident. Not one of my finer moments.
“Well, it was far from saving my life.”
“Still, he’s a friend, and you’re the one who talked him into moving to Boerne to practice medicine here. The least you can do is have dinner at his house.”
My head dropped back. “Dude, you know I don’t like the evil queen!”
He laughed. “None of us like her, but Pete does. He’s going to marry her.”
I shook my head as I looked at Jack. “Fine. I need to go home and change, though. Knowing the evil queen, I mean, Wendy, it will be formal.”
“It’s not. I asked Pete. He said it’s going to be casual.”
“Thank fuck. I don’t think I could sit around another dinner table and listen to her tell us what freaking fork to start with.”
“What’s funny is that you probably make three times the amount of money Pete does. Please don’t ever turn rich on me, dude, I really don’t like all that fancy food rich people eat.”
I slapped him on the back. “Last I saw when I signed your paycheck, you were making good money, as well.”
He looked around and frowned. “Don’t let that shit out.”
“Why not?” I asked with a smirk.
“Women, gold-digging women. Example number one: Wendy. Do you know how many women in this town are trying to get into your pants with the hopes you’ll get them knocked up simply so they can get at your money? I don’t want that kind of attention. I like the fact that women like me purely for my body and big dick.”
I snarled my lip. “You took it too far.”
He shrugged. “Want me to pick you up?”
“No, I’ll drive myself, in case you meet another dinner guest who simply can’t ignore that body of yours.”
He walked backwards and raked his hands up and down himself, as if showing off his body.
“And big cock…don’t forget about my big cock!”
I rolled my eyes and turned my back to him. I took in the playhouse in front of me. Without a doubt, it was huge. Saryn had wanted it scaled back, and we had scaled it back…some. I couldn’t help but smile. Liliana was going to love it, and I was almost fucking giddy at the idea of her seeing it for the first time.
“Hey, boss, the exterior is all painted. The plans for the transport should be here tomorrow. We can go over it all, and whenever you give the go-ahead, it’ll be ready for delivery.”
With a nod, I replied to Mark, one of our painters, “Thanks. You did a great job with the painting.”
He smiled. “Yellow is a bitch to paint, but I think it looks good. Some little girl is going to be very happy.”
I let out an uncertain sigh. Liliana would be happy, but would Saryn? “That’s the plan. That’s the plan.”
The moment I walked into Pete’s and saw her, my heart nearly stopped beating. Saryn was there, and she was with a guy. She laughed and looked up at him like he had said the funniest thing in the world, and boy did that feel like a kick in the gut for some reason. Was she dating again? She had made it clear she wasn’t interested in that, or maybe she wasn’t interested in me.
That idea left me feeling sick.
When she looked directly at me, I quickly turned and started to head back out the door, but stopped when Pete called out my name.
“Truitt! Where in the hell do you think you’re going?”
I closed my eyes and cursed inwardly. I knew all eyes would be on me now. Slowly, I turned and pulled my phone out of my pocket in hopes that everyone would think I’d had it in my hands the entire time.
“Just got paged, there’s a problem at the warehouse.”
Even though I was trying not to look at her, I felt Saryn’s eyes on me.
“What kind of problem?” Jack asked, pulling out his own phone. “I haven’t gotten any calls.”
When I looked at Jack, I caught a glimpse of Saryn. I had been right…her gaze was locked on me. Staring. Hard. Almost with an angry expression. I finally allowed myself to fully look at her.