Every Night (Brush of Love 1)
That was going to be the hardest part of all.
Chapter 9
Bryan
June had officially arrived, and it was time to start on the gallery. I’d filled Drew in on the project I was taking on, and he was absolutely shocked. I told him it would be the start of our commercial property sector of the company I wanted him to head up, but because of the deal I was cutting in order to get this into our portfolio, I wanted to head up the project. I brought Drew down with me, so he could survey all the work it would take, and I told him by the time August came around, it should be done, and we could officially launch that new part of our business.
It was a sector I genuinely had no interest in, so I was willing to completely turn it over to Drew once this project was completed.
He kept asking me why I wanted to do the project if commercial property didn’t interest me, and I kept telling him it was because of the crew of homeless men I’d employed. It would be me and two other men who worked full time at the company, and the other four men would be from the homeless shelter up the road. I told Drew I wanted to keep my eyes on them as well as make sure nothing of Hailey’s gotten ruined or stolen, but the moment I mentioned her name, he smiled.
“Hailey, huh?” he has teased. “She hot?”
I balked at the question, scolding him for not being more professional, but scolding him just gave him more ammunition. Yes, Hailey was a beautiful woman, one who was plaguing my dreams. But I didn’t take this job just because she was beautiful. If Drew was serious about this commercial property branch of the business, this would be a really good place to start our portfolio, especially with the ethics and community outreach Hailey held close to her heart.
A couple of the homeless guys were new, faces I’d seen on the street who held signs like “will work for food” and “can do anything for money.” The other two homeless guys were people who had impressed me on other sites, men who had picked up the skills and could use a few others we were about to use on this project. I wanted to groom them for future jobs and give them the tools they needed to interview for other manual labor positions. Or maybe even a position in this new commercial property branch we were apparently starting now.
Hailey was there to greet us with iced green tea and biscuits. The men already on the worksite were grateful, and the smile she had beaming from ear to ear brightened my day. She was walking around and chatting with people, asking them their names and how long they’d been working for the company. When she got to the homeless men, it seemed as if they simply gravitated toward her. While I walked a couple of them through the jobs they were going to be tackling today, the other two were simply spilling their life stories to her.
And she listened with an intent ear and an innocent wonderment in her eyes.
We had to straighten some things up and get everything hooked up to an outside power source before we could get going. We had to bring our own gas generator until we could update her electrical and use it, and all of the setting up alone would take most of the morning. Once we got going, I saw Hailey step out the back door, and for a split second, I wanted her to come back in.
She brightened up a room whenever she walked into it.
I had one of the guys setting up the generator while the rest of us hauled equipment. Drew came by for a little bit to get an idea of how everything would eventually be set up before he took off for the office. Everyone was quick to clean everything of hers out of the way without damaging it, and soon Hailey came in and started carrying things to storage while we got the equipment roaring to life.
As the men were gutting into the nasty sheetrock, with masks on their faces and goggles over their eyes, I told them the first thing we needed to tackle was updating the electrical. I was overseeing the two more experienced homeless guys, so I could teach them about how this all worked while one of my other guys took the other two and started teaching them basic plumbing. The sooner we could get those basic amenities up and running in this building, the faster the project would fly by.
Mostly because we wouldn’t have to run across the street to use the bathroom.
Once all the sheetrock was taken down, one of the guys relieved me from my post. I went outside to take some deep breaths, coughing up the dust from my lungs as I took in the salted air. Hailey came up and stood beside me, her body automatically warming my arm. She had a smile on her face that shone as bright as the sun reflecting off the waters of the ocean, and I couldn’t help being drawn to her.
“I want to double-check and make sure everything’s all right with you,” I said.
“It seems like everything’s going okay. Why?” she asked.
“Well, our first order of business is to get the electrical and plumbing updated and going so we can hook into the power here instead of using a gas generator. Don’t worry, the bills on the place while we’re here, the company absorbs and pays for, so it won’t come out of your pocket.”
“Wasn’t worried about that,” she said, grinning.
“Are you worried about something?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I trust you.”
“You seem clipped,” I said.
“I’m just ...”
She heaved a heavy sigh, and I could tell something was weighing on her mind. I wanted to ask her what it was and see if it was something I could fix. If there was anything I was good at, it was fixing stuff. Sinks. Plumbing. Yard work. Uneven home foundations. Termite damage. I could fix it all.
If she talked to me, I was sure I could fix whatever it was that was bothering her.
“I’m so grateful for all you’ve done for me,” she said.
I saw a smile break out on her face even though a tear slowly slipped from the side of her eye. I hadn’t realized until then the impact our deal had on her life. I saw all her hopes and dreams shining brightly in her eyes, now reachable with what I’d agreed to do for her. To me, I was just helping her build a building.
To her, however, I had become the catalyst for the future she painted for her life.