“She’s Nora’s best friend. Don’t mess with her.”
“What if she messes with me?”
“Doubt it, buddy.”
“It could happen.”
“In your dreams.” Sully put on his gloves and grabbed two of the boards. I quickly caught the other side. “We’re burning daylight.”
“Right, sorry.” I helped Sully load up the truck and begged for a stop at the gas station. At least I could get a few energy drinks to get me through the day.
While it seemed as if my older brother had forgiven me in theory, he worked my ass off for the rest of the morning. July in upstate New York was brutal with humidity and a heat index that made the whole crew miserable.
Luckily the leak in the apartment living room just needed some sheet rocking and Cam’s expertise in fabrication for a few cupboards—which was where the MDF came in. The apartments in this building were older and the cabinets had been discontinued years ago. Cam was a master carpenter and could duplicate just about anything.
While we left him to do that, I grabbed us a few sandwiches from Bite Me. Sully gave me the rundown for the jobs we had for the rest of the week as we sweated our asses off on the tailgate.
Cam came out, chugging a bottle of water. “Tell me you got me a Roast Beast.”
“Yep, double meat, extra Russian.”
“Thank God.” He took the white wrapped sandwich and plopped down beside Sully. “I’m heading to the beach tonight if you guys want to go on the boat.”
I shook my head as I finished chewing. “I’m dead. All I want is my bed.”
“Aww, didn’t enjoy the drunk tank last night?’
“Evidently it was a wild night last night. I ended up cuffed to Chief Olsen’s chair.” I waggled my eyebrows.
“Is that code for something?” Cam grinned.
“I wish. Oh, and thanks for deserting me last night, asshole.”
Sully squinted at Cam.
He just shrugged. “Doesn’t count if you don’t get caught.” He tore through the rye bread and roast beef, smiling as he chewed.
“You’re all killing me. Anyone else gets arrested and I’m making you work on the Jennings place. Alone.”
“Oh, hell no.” I tugged out a fat heirloom tomato from my sub and popped it in my mouth. “That job is going to be brutal. I thought we agreed to wait until fall for that one.”
“We did. But the mayor wants it done as soon as possible.”
The Jennings place was a hoarding situation and the rooms were beyond out of control. I was pretty sure the town would have just bulldozed it if the house wasn’t part of the heritage foundation. Dealing with that in the brutal summer wasn’t my idea of fun. It wasn’t going to be any better in the fall either, but at least the noxious fumes wouldn’t knock us out.
“Understood.”
“Good.” Sully’s satisfied smile made me throw a chip at him. He just plucked it off his T-shirt and popped it in his mouth. “Finish up, we still have another job this afternoon.”
With an inward sigh, I finished off my sub and knocked back another Monster energy drink. If I had another one, I was prettysure my heart would explode out of my chest.
Sully shoved a water at me and we all went back inside to finish up.
Working for my brother meant a day’s work could be five hours or twelve. Today was closer to ten and I was dragging bythe time I stumbled into my small house. I took a three-minute shower to get the grit of the day off me and fell face first into my mattress.
My bladder and my empty stomach woke me around two in the morning. I padded into my kitchen. I’d remodeled it last year during the slow season. I opened my fridge and grabbed the carton of milk. After a quick sniff test, I glugged half of it down as I reached for my leftover pizza on the top shelf.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed lights on at the two-story house across the street from me. It was a Friday night, and the old woman who lived there was definitely not a night owl.
