Miranda exhaled hard. She climbed down from the beam, put her tools away, and pulled off her helmet. “I think it’s about me being the one getting canned, not you.”
“He can’t do that. He’s not your boss. He’s not anyone’s fucking boss. Motherfucking bastard. This is just like him, this holier-than-thou shit.” Alex took Miranda by the arms. “I’m not losing you. I’ll go to the board if I have to.”
Miranda forced a smile, realizing Alex was probably far more accurate about Jack’s character than Miranda ever was. And that oversight might cost her job. “Thanks, Alex. Don’t worry about me.”
Work on the floor slowly picked up again, and Miranda made her way down twenty-five stories and across the site, all while her mind calculated the damage getting fired would cause in her life plans.
Gillespie paced outside the trailer, the phone at his ear. When she approached, he put the phone to his chest. “What’s this about?”
Miranda shook her head. “Not sure.”
“I’m trying to get ahold of someone in HR. Get to the bottom of this.”
“Don’t think that will help.” She took a deep breath before saying, “Marco can step in for me. He’s ready.”
“No one here can step in for you, and you know it.”
She gave his arm a squeeze before climbing the stairs and stepping into the trailer.
Jack didn’t even look up. He was pacing, hands at his hips, head down. He’d tossed the hard hat on a ratty love seat, and his hair was all over the place. She couldn’t help but think it looked a lot like she’d had her hands in it.
She stood at the door, helmet in hand, waiting to see what Jack Taylor was really made of. “Shitty thing to do, confront me at work in front of everyone.”
“The shittiest thing here is
you lying to me.” He kept pacing, his hands in constant motion—in his hair, down his face, at his hips. “What the fuck is going on here, Miranda?”
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘going on.’”
He stopped pacing and faced her. “Then why the fuck didn’t you tell me where you worked and what you do?”
“We were just getting to know each other. In my experience, men get a little squirrely when I tell them I work in construction around a hundred other men. I didn’t even know you were connected to Pinnacle until yesterday.”
“You knew last night, and you still didn’t tell me. Instead, you broke it off. Were you afraid I’d gotten too close? That I’d find out what you were doing? What you’re involved in?”
“I don’t know what you think I was doing, but I’m not involved in anything other than welding for Pinnacle. Period.”
A mess of hot emotions floated through his expression. “Bullshit.”
She lifted her arms out to the sides. “If you’re not going to believe anything I say, why am I here?”
“You were hiding it from me. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have kept that damn helmet on when I was here yesterday.”
His voice boomed through the trailer, and Miranda winced. “Please keep your voice down. These walls are paper-thin.”
His gaze flashed with irritation, exposing his belief of just how he expected her to speak to him. Score one for Alex.
“I was shocked to see you. I didn’t know how you’d react, and I didn’t want everyone on the crew to take one look at us and know—” She cut herself off with a glance at the door. “This job is important to me. I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am. If I’d known you were in any way associated with Pinnacle, I would never have—”
“Why didn’t you tell me last night?” he demanded.
“I was going to. Then you told me you’re leaving. There wasn’t any point.”
He shook his head. His jaw muscles jumped.
“Get out of your own head for a minute,” she told him. “Look at this from my perspective. You didn’t tell me what company your father owned. You didn’t even tell me what industry it was in. I’ve never even met the man.”
“You’ve worked here six years, for fuck’s sake. Are you telling me you didn’t put two and two together and figure it out?”