Gracie crosses her arms over her chest with a huff. "That long, huh? Glad I could amuse the two of you." She rolls her eyes.
My eyes fall down to her shirt and I raise my one eyebrow at the words written there.Lick me till Ice Cream.
"How did I miss that?"
Gracie follows my gaze like she doesn't understand my question. It’s clear when she puts two and two together because her face takes on the same shade of red as the wordsIce Cream.
"This is my usual attire. I don't even think about what they say anymore when I throw them on."
So there are more of them. Good to know.
I smirk at her. "I look forward to seeing what the others say."
Who the hell am I?I don't flirt with women. Hell, I don't have time in my life to date, never mind flirt. And yet it somehow comes naturally with Gracie.
"You might regret that statement when your daughters start asking me about them." She rolls her eyes again and I can't help but laugh. There's nothing funny about the fact that Livy, my eight-year-old, will definitely be asking what they mean. She's too smart for her own good.
"Touché." I climb into the driver’s seat and look at Gracie through the rearview mirror. "Do you plan on staying back there?" I tease.
Gracie crosses her arms over her chest. "As a matter of fact, yes. I kinda like the thought of being chauffeured around."
Alrighty then. It isn't like I don't know a thing or two about chauffeuring. I do it for my girls on a daily basis. What’s one more?
"I need to invest in one of those black caps all the fancy chauffeurs wear."
"And a suit. Don't forget a suit. If you're going to look the part, you might as well go all out."
I chuckle at her quick-witted response.
"Yes, can't forget the suit. I'll add it to my shopping list."
"Make sure that you do."
I glance in the rearview mirror and give her a smirk. Then I look over and see that Everly has fallen back to sleep, and sigh. Interrupted sleep means she's going to be a bear for the remainder of the afternoon. Not exactly how I want to spend my day when I should be working.
"So, Ang . . ." Gracie's curious tone pulls me from my thoughts. "What exactly is it you do? I mean I know you said you had a meeting at the construction site, but what does that make you? A foreman? Is that the word for people in charge of construction sites? And how come no one else was there working? It's the middle of a workday. I expected the construction site to bebusy."
Wow, talk about a lot of questions. The woman can surely talk when she wants to.
"Ummm . . . I'm actually the owner of the construction company, and the person I was meeting with is one of the inspectors for the county. There's no one at the site today because we ran into a little snag. But everything is good now, so work can resume again tomorrow."
If Everly cooperates, that is. Normally, I don't like to have more than one big job going at a time, but it couldn't be helped. It was either start the second job early or leave my guys without work for a few days while I met with the inspector. I couldn't do that to my crew, no matter how loyal they were to me. They have families to feed just like I do.
"The owner, huh? Fancy." Gracie drags out the last word and brings another chuckle to my lips.
I'm starting to realize she has a constant sense of humor.
"I'm not sure fancy is the word I would use. Exhausting would be a better description some days."
"So you're telling me being a business owner isn't all it's cracked up to be?"
I think about her question. I always knew one day I would start my own construction company. I learned everything I knew from a friend’s dad, but he’d learned it working for someone else. I never wanted that.
"I guess it is. I like being my own boss, but I never expected to be doing everything alone. When my wife died, it was either juggle everything or lose the one thing I dreamed about my whole life. I couldn't do that, so yeah, it's been exhausting trying to do it all."
I rarely let myself think about my late wife. It hurts too much. But somehow Gracie makes it easy to open up.
"I'm sorry about your wife."
