"I believe you. It's Winter you have to convince," Grace replied.
And then everyone else nodded, looking at me with disbelief mixed with sympathy.
Mal pressed a sticky note with Ivy's password on it to the side of the monitor. "Adam said she was a shitty girlfriend. Can't imagine she'd be a good employee either."
"She knows the alphabet and can count. That's about all I need her to do in here. And it's not going to be forever. I've only got eight months left on this build, and then I can be done."
"Sure." I could tell by the tone of his voice he didn't believe it. "I set it up so she can't touch any of the programs dealing with your accounting software. She can't issue checks or even go to micropayment sites on the internet. And I've blocked most sites’ access anyway but still put on a key logger so you can trace whatever action she's conducting on your laptop."
"Adam talked to you?" I hadn't said a word about Ivy's past to anyone, other than to say I'd dated her in high school and college and we broke up.
Mal nodded. "After you asked me to set up a computer account for her, Adam told me to make sure your financials were locked down tight. She steal from you?"
Reluctantly, I nodded. "A few hundred here or there. She thought I could spare it, and I could. I just didn't want to spend it on her drugs."
"Adam also said you paid for her legal fees when she was pursuing guardianship over her sister."
"Adam has a big, fat fucking mouth."
"He doesn't want to see you get fucked over again."
I leaned back in the chair and folded my hands behind my head. "I'm doing this for Winter, just like I paid those legal bills, just like I lied on the stand and swore Ivy would be a good guardian. I've always wanted to take care of Winter. I just didn't know it extended beyond that until two months ago. When I walked away from Ivy, I walked away from Winter. Do you know she spent all their parents' life insurance as well as the proceeds from selling the house to get Ivy clean? No one was there for Winter then. No one. But she's not going to be alone anymore because I'm here, and I'll be damned if I see her try to shoulder another of Ivy's mistakes without help."
Mal gave me a rueful smile. "I hear you, man. I admire that. I just hope this Ivy chick doesn't fuck it up for you."
"That's on me, though, isn't it?" It was more of a reminder to myself than a question.
•••
"What is it that you're building here?" Ivy asked. A few of the construction guys stared at her as we walked toward the office trailer. Maybe one of them would screw up the courage to ask her out and then marry her, taking the burden off Winter's shoulders.
"Multi-use building," I replied. "This is the office trailer. There's my desk, which you can use. The computer, printer-slash-fax machine, tool chests, fire extinguisher. A couple first aid kits. Refrigerator. Help yourself to whatever is in there." I paused. Was there beer in there? Shit, I should have taken that out. Hurriedly, I moved on. "Here's the filing cabinet." I slapped the side of the sturdy metal unit that Mal and I had hauled in this morning after he'd fixed the laptop. "And those are the papers that need to filed and organized. Put the bills in date due order, file any permits. The trade magazines can be stacked into the front shelves."
"Where's the bathroom?"
"Right there." I pointed to the two porta-potties outside.
"Seriously? That's so disgusting, and look at this shit.”
“Just kidding. There’s a bathroom in the back.”
She glared and me and then pointed to the mountain of half-opened mail. "How can you find anything?"
"I can't," I admitted. "Which is why I hired you."
"Aren't you worried some of your bills are in arrears?"
Arrears?
She lifted a few of the papers with one finger, as if she was scared to touch them. "What? I can't use the word arrears? One of my favorite drug dealers used that all the time. ‘Ivy, one of my clients is in arrears. Should we give him more time to pay or collect it now?’"
Great. She was hardly here longer than a few minutes and she was joking about her drug dealer. Maybe Mal was right, and this was a huge mistake.
"Oh my God." She slapped a hand over her heart and laughed. "I wish you could see the utter horror on your face when I said drug dealer. When did you become such a straight edge?"
"You really don't know anything about me," I replied evenly. It probably wouldn't make Winter happy if I fired Ivy only minutes after bringing her onboard. Winter was the only one who was thrilled with the idea. Everyone else thought it was the dumbest thing ever. But Ivy needed a job. That was one headache I could relieve for Winter. I was going to remove every little headache and obstacle until there was nothing standing between the two of us. First up? Getting Ivy a job. I wasn't going to back down now. "Your password is written down here. Memorize it, and then shred the post it." I tapped the yellow sticky.