"Very."
"Good. Now that we've got our financials squared away and Brady's confirming the plans, why don't we meet at the office tomorrow? My brothers, Dalton and Tristan, will be just as involved, and I want to be sure we're all in agreement. We'll walk the property, go over supplies, and I'll assign my best team to begin Thursday."
"Agreed." Suspicion eked from her pores. "So, we understand each other, then? I won't have to deal with any condescending remarks about my place on the site?"
Caleb knew when to back off and admit he was wrong. He might not like having to babysit her through the building of this home, but she seemed prepared. Hell, she knew about koa wood. That gave her points right there. He made a note to tell Dalton. His brother had wet dreams over koa wood and ebony burl. "Can't promise we won't butt heads, but if you earn your place, you get my respect. And I apologize if my comments came off chauvinistic. That was kind of an asshole thing to say."
He almost laughed as her eyes popped out of her head. Oh, yeah, she had low expectations of him. Assumed he'd never apologize for anything. But Caleb was fair, and he had insulted her. Yes, she'd pissed him off, but it was a sucker punch. He enjoyed watching her gather her composure, reach up to smooth her hair again, and nod like she wasn't surprised at his apology. "Well . . . good. Very good. I'll see you tomorrow at nine?"
"Yep. See ya."
He didn't wait for a response. Just took his leave before the impulse to stay longer grew stronger. Best to keep personal stuff to a minimum with Morgan and keep his focus on the only thing in his life that he loved as much as his dogs and pain-in-the-ass brothers.
Work.
chapter five
At nine sharp, Morgan entered Pierce Brothers Construction and greeted the attractive redhead at the front desk. "Good morning. I'm Morgan Raines. I have an appointment with Mr. Pierce," she said.
The redhead looked up with a warm smile. Freckles dusted her white skin, and her whiskey-colored eyes seemed to dance with an innate mischief Morgan immediately liked. "Nice to meet you, Morgan. I'm Sydney. They're waiting for you in the conference room. I'll take you there." She jumped up from her seat and motioned toward the kitchen. "Oops, I forgot to offer you a beverage. Our receptionist called in sick today, so I'm on double duty. Can I get you water? Coffee? Tea?"
"No, thank you. I've maxed out my caffeine level for the day already."
Sydney laughed. "Been there. Coffeepot works so much overtime here, we go through a new machine every few months." With a natural grace, Sydney led her down the carpeted hall, tapped on the closed door, and pushed it open. "Good luck," she whispered.
Morgan frowned at the conspiratorial tone that was all female.
When she stepped inside the conference room and the four men stood up from the table, Morgan finally understood.
She was a bit . . . overwhelmed.
Morgan straightened to her wimpy five-foot-three height-thank goodness for heels-and tried to pretend standing in the doorway while four ridiculously gorgeous men focused their laser-like gazes on her was a common occurrence.
The powerful presence of sheer male command radiated around them in waves that would batter an onlooker. She pegged the three brothers right away. Their shared blood was obvious, sketched out in the same full lines of the mouth, sharp jaws, and intensity radiating from their almond-shaped eyes. But each held his own individual brand of heat. Morgan bet when these three walked out of a bar, there wasn't a woman left behind with dry panties. The final man must be Brady, the architect, since he was a few inches shorter and sported a dark Latino look to round out the ridiculous sexiness contained within four walls.
Morgan wished she'd taken the water Sydney had offered.
Caleb motioned her in. "Morgan, welcome. I want you to meet the team. This is Dalton, Tristan, and Brady."
Her silver bangles jingled as she shook each of their hands, trying to exhibit cool professionalism while her heart thundered in her chest like American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown. "Nice to meet you," she murmured to each of them before sliding gratefully into the oversize butter leather chair and gaining a bit of distance. "I'm looking forward to working with all of you."
Caleb sat next to her. "We're all excited about this project," he said smoothly. Was there a glint of amusement in his eyes or was it just a trick of the light? Did his brothers know she had kind of blackmailed him into taking the job?
The men remained silent, studying her face. Morgan refused to fidget and stared back, as quietly stubborn as they were. One of them had to speak first, or the initial rules would favor them as boss, not her. The clock ticked, and suddenly Brady let out a deep growl of laughter.
"I do respect a woman who can hold her tongue," he said. "I think I'm going to enjoy working with you."
"I hope so," she said. "A man who can wait for someone else to speak is a beautiful thing. This may be a fine partnership."
Ah, there it was. Dalton and Tristan relaxed a bit at her ability to hold her own and have a sense of humor. The job site was stressful, and usually everyone was worried about having a personality glitch. It made for a long, painful process. Brady laughed again. "Agreed. Morgan, I went over the plans and they're solid. Your initial architect did a great job. I had a few tweaks to suggest, going with staircase placement and the film room location."
He motioned toward the plans, which contained the original and the markups. She tapped the paper. "This won't be grand enough for the Rosenthals. They want a classic spiral splitting the foyer so it's the main focus when you enter the house."
Brady made faint pencil marks to the left of the oversize entranceway. "Yes, but many of the features in the house are a bit quirky. This isn't the standard luxury mansion, and your client may benefit from having the staircase completely shifted off center." He grabbed a scrap sheet of paper and began drawing. "We make it curve into one main horseshoe and do stone instead of wood." His pencil scratched furiously. "The dimensions can still work, but we open up the main living room for more space, put the chandelier here, and give it more of a wow factor. By using stone and wood, we give it a more majestic look. Then do a bigger hallway, which looks more like a floating loft."
Dalton leaned over to watch Brady sketch out the new staircase. "Bluestone is done for outside work, but for this short piece it may work. Combine it with a dark wood with some gray tones and you have the perfect dynamic."
Fascinated, she watched as the house transformed into something she'd never seen before. Excitement slithered through her blood as the new shape took place and her mind sifted through updated design ideas. "Can you make this actually work? I've never seen it done before."
Brady and Dalton shared a smug look. "Yep," Brady said. "More money, though."
Caleb lifted a brow. "Pity," he drawled.
Morgan shook her head. "This increase is worth it."
"I'd like to decrease the film room to make up some of the cost."
"Now, that I can't agree to."
"What if we keep the same size but build an actual balcony to offset? Honestly, how many people are really gonna be in the film room at one time? Is he going to have one hundred executives over to the house to watch a movie?"
"No. But he wants to feel like he can."
"Understood. We can create a wide-tipped balcony for extra seating but keep it more intimate. I see him more watching a movie with a few friends and his wife, even when he's shooting here."
They went over the revised plans and shot ideas back and forth, and Morgan found herself agreeing to both changes. Tristan and Dalton dropped suggestions on varying designs, and she scribbled a bunch of notes in her pad for future decorating ideas. By the end of the hour, she already had a better handle on the project and the skill set each of the men brought.
"I'll get in touch with my suppliers to see how fast we can get some of the orders placed and shipped."
"I have a long list of contacts if you run into trouble," she said firmly. "The most important part is timing. We cannot be late, due to the filming schedule."
"Never been late on a project yet. Don't intend to start now."
A shiver tingled down her spine at the sound of the sandpapery voice to her left.
Her gaze cut to his. Those heated gunmetal eyes did bad things to her body and equilibrium. Thank goodness she was sitting. His brothers and Brady were extremely attractive, but Caleb owned an elemental maleness that just did it for her. He was dressed more formally than usual, still in jeans, but a blue button-down shirt stretched over his wide shoulders and chest as if trying to contain him within the material. The image that seared her mind came as violently as a tsunami.