Entice Me (Austin Singles 2)

A look of relief crossed over Tucker’s face. “Good. I’m glad. You won’t regret it, and I know you’re worried, but it’s all going to be okay. It’s probably something stupid like her father has a weird fetish or something.”

My brow lifted. “A fetish? Like what?”

“You know, like having his back rubbed with peacock feathers or some weird shit like that.”

We laughed and glanced back to the patio door. “Get your asses in here. We’ve got some planning to do. Jim just left.”

“The bachelor left his own party?” Tucker asked.

Blake rolled his eyes. “Something to do with missing his future bride.” Then he pretended to gag. “Now come on, this is the perfect time to plan our little surprise. Time to draw straws.”

Tucker groaned.

Walking into the hotel room, I let out a sigh and said, “I better not get fucking picked. I always get shafted with this type of shit.”

Everyone laughed as Blake walked around and held out the straws. When I drew mine, the entire room erupted in laughter. I had the shortest straw.

“Dude, this is going to be epic!” Blake said, trying not to laugh his ass off as I glared at him.

The last three days felt like a blur. I hadn’t seen Kaelynn, and it felt like every time I turned around, another problem at work happened.

“Nash, we have a problem.”

My eyes closed and I counted to ten. “Rich, if you say those four words to me one more time, we really are going to have a problem.”

The supervisor on the high-rise we were building in East Austin stood in front of my desk wearing a bleak smile.

“Sorry, boss, but we really do have problem. The city inspector put out an all-stop just now. Said we didn’t have the right permit on file for the work lift with the city.”

I stood, grabbed my cell phone and pulled up the office number. “That’s bullshit. Is it Harrison?”

He frowned. “Yeah, what’s the guy’s beef with you?”

Walking past Rich, I pulled open a file cabinet. What Harrison didn’t realize was I wasn’t my father. I was organized both in the office and at job sites. A copy of every permit was at the ready. Finding what I needed, I pulled the file out and replied, “I slept with his daughter years ago, and he happened to stop by to visit her the morning I was walking out of her bedroom . . . naked.”

“Ouch. Did you know it was his daughter?”

“Considering I’d met her at a New Year’s Eve party he was throwing the night before, yeah, I knew.”

“Damn, rebel back in the day.”

I laughed as I put my hard hat on and started toward the city inspector. “Something like that.” What I didn’t go into was that Harrison and my father were the ones with the beef. I didn’t make things better by sleeping with his daughter, though. Something my father has yet to let me forget.

Extending my hand, I flashed the man a wide smile. “Harrison, how is it going?”

“The city doesn’t have on file the permit for the work lift; you’ll need to shut down until you can get a copy . . .”

I opened the file and handed him the permit. “Here ya go. We don’t need to shut anything down.”

Harrison looked at the permit, frowned, then glanced back at me.

“Unlike my father, I keep the files organized at each location.”

With his lip snarled, he sighed and handed me the file.

“I don’t like you, Barrett.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”