Luke
I dropped my phone in the cup holder just as Chris closed the door to the truck.
“You have plans for tonight?”
“I was planning on having dinner with Luke, and they are leaving tomorrow for a competition, so I won't see him until Sunday.” I huffed out a breath making my displeasure known.
“They going up to Rocky Top?”
“I guess. I don't have their schedule with me.”
“I already qualified, so I can skip that one and stay here and help you get all of this under control.”
“It's okay if you need to go. All we need is to get this panel, and then I can head home and you can compete.” I looked over my shoulder to back out of the parking space.
“I can help you do whatever needs to be done. Work comes first.”
I felt his hand cover my knee and instinctively hit the brakes and looked down at his hand. He removed it quickly and placed it in his lap.
“Thank you,” I said. He thought I meant for the help, but it was more for removing his hand from my knee. We picked up the panel from another project and drove it to the job site. Once we had done some damage control, we both realized that the situation was worse than we thought.
“When the bracket broke, the panel slid down the roof and took two others with it. I thought they were fine, but the electrical is busted and is going to need to be replaced. We can dismount two from Salston, but the other is going to have to be shipped from Oklahoma. I didn't realize it was this bad.” John looked worried, but it wasn't his fault. It's better for these things to happen and delay a job then wait until after it’s complete and cause more problems.
“It's fine. We’ll get it figured out.” I patted John on the shoulder and moved around to inspect the back panels to see how much damage was done for myself.
“They should be repairable.” Chris said from just a little too close behind me. I moved and walked over to John.
“We should be able to get a rush on the panel from Oklahoma,” John assured me. “I’ll get on the phone with them now and see if we can at least get it here by Saturday.”
“That sounds great,” I said. “Thanks.”
We stayed and helped get the panel from Salston in place. The owner of the house was very understanding and didn't seem upset at all.
“We should grab some food. It's after nine,” Chris suggested as we walked back to the truck.
“Sure. John, you want to join?” I agreed because I was hungry and exhausted.
“Yes, I'm starved,” John exclaimed.
We’d just ordered a pizza at the restaurant down the street from the office when my phone rang. It was Luke.
“Hey you!” I smiled as I answered.
“You get everything handled?”
“For now. We just sat down to eat.”
“Who is we?”
“John and Chris. It's been a super long day, and we had lunch early because we had a conference call. So, I'm tired and hungry,” I complained.
“That sounds like a disastrous combo,” he laughed. “Is it as bad as a no sleep, no coffee combo?” he joked.
“It really is. I don't know how they stand me.” I lifted my water from the table and took a sip. Chris and John both had their faces in their phones, so I continued to talk.
“You get everything packed for tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yeah. I just wish I could have seen you before we left.”