“J.T.,” Jay tried to explain again.
She pointed a menacing finger at him. “Shut up.”
Hungover, hauling Sheetrock and drilling in screws was sure to split Jay’s head clear open. James let him slide. He was only trying to take care of her, but she had to maintain her position as boss and couldn’t let anyone slide on the rules.
James frowned and his deep brown eyes held a look of apology. “I got tied up with some of the other pressing matters on the site, so you wouldn’t have to come out yourself. I’m sorry. Won’t happen again.”
She nodded in acceptance of James’s explanation and turned her attention to Dylan to take care of the situation with Jay.
The door to her office burst open again and Brian stormed in, red-faced, mouth set in a grim line, ready to explode. He didn’t stop to consider the other men in her office. He only had eyes for her.
“Why the hell are you putting up new walls? I went by the house this morning. I told you not to do the addition.”
“J.T., I really didn’t start that fight. You have to believe me,” Jay pleaded.
All hell broke loose. Jay whined, Brian yelled about the walls on the house, Greg took the opportunity to tell Dylan, “Stay clear of her. If you didn’t give a shit about what happened after you left her, why the hell do you care now?” James told Jay to “Shut your trap and wait for J.T. to make her decision.” Dylan exploded at Greg, telling him, “Mind your own damn business, Jess and I will work things out our way. Stay out of it.”
Unable to take it anymore, she put two fingers between her lips and let out a shrill whistle. The exceptionally loud sound made everyone shut up and stare at her. She stood, planted her palms on her desk, and leaned toward the men.
“Shut up. God, you’re all giving me a headache.”
Jay winced in agreement. He probably had the mother of all headaches after drinking last night.
“Here we go. Sheriff, what are the damages at the bar?”
“It comes to two hundred and thirty-five dollars. Jay told the manager he wouldn’t pay. Brody knew he worked for Hope Construction, since he drove one of the company trucks. He asked me to handle it.”
Jessie put her hand up to stop him and caught Jay in her gaze. “You took one of my company trucks last night to go drinking in town, you busted up the place, and you drove home drunk.”
“I wasn’t drunk.” Jay stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Please don’t fire me, J.T. I know I screwed up. It won’t happen again. I swear.”
“Damn right it won’t,” she fired back.
She sucked in a deep breath and swept the wisps of hair from her cheek, but only managed to pull more of her hair out of her ponytail. She addressed Dylan. “Tell Brody the crew and I will be in tomorrow night. I’ll throw a little business his way to smooth things over. Any damages to the bar, let me know, and I’ll take care of them.”
“It’s nothing like that, just a few chairs and tables that got busted up.”
Jessie took out a large binder from the locked drawer in her desk, wrote out a check, and handed it to Dylan. “Fine, one problem down.”
Jessie locked the checks in her desk.
“Next. Brian, I can’t help it if the house had dry rot. It needed new walls. I’m putting them up.”
“Dry rot, my ass. You completely disregarded what I said. I told you not to do the additions.”
“Would you believe termites?” She gave him another fake smile.
“What?”
“If you won’t believe the dry rot, how about termites?”
“You aren’t listening to me.”
“You listen to me. I spent six hours working on those blueprints for the addition. I called in several favors at the building permit office to get everything in order to do the job. I lined up all the supplies and deliveries. I put a lot of work into this project because I want to make sure when you and Marilee move into the house it’s yours and not a bad memory. I gave you the job, so you can start fresh. Besides, it’s too late to be mad about it now. I knocked down the walls yesterday and poured the foundation for the additions. There’s no turning back. Get over it.”
He snatched the baseball cap off his head and slapped it against his thigh, a sign of pure frustration. Nearly finished with the house, she’d completely transformed it. She’d torn out the old tree stump out front, planted a new tree—several, in fact—and put in a brick walkway up to the door. The wall between the kitchen and family room had been removed, the kitchen gutted, the bathrooms were almost completely renovated, and the addition was coming along. She’d done a lot of work. All he’d done was complain and piss her off.