Page 71 of Reclaimed Dreams
Inside, it looked like more than Glenn had walked off the job. If Chad had called to tell him that everyone had been abducted by aliens, Dom would have believed him. Workstations left with drills still plugged in and wood half cut. Buckets of mud that would harden overnight and need to be thrown out and replaced. Fast food bags left littered in the corners.
How had they managed to get so much plaster in the front yard and still have dirty buckets left behind? And when had they left? Right after lunch? This looked like about a half day of work. They hadn’t made nearly enough progress. Every day they ran over cut into Dom’s profits, and it was his investment money on the line. What a mess!
Dom felt some justification for making the right call, but it still sucked to be the one to clean it up. Saving his charm to sweet-talk Jo out of being angry, he leaned his shoulder into this problem and got to work. At least the joint compound was still wet so he could get busy right away. He ran tape over the seams and smeared the mud over the gaps, smoothing behind him as he went.
At this point in his career, he could do this kind of work on autopilot. Tape, scoop, smear, scrape, repeat. The soothing repetition helped calm him down, and as he found his flow, he let his mind wander to the future.
Someday, he wouldn’t have to worry about money so much. He’d be able to hire the very best crew and treat them well because Valenti Brothers would be so well respected in the Bay Area that they’d have their pick of jobs. They’d be making good money and be able to give their families the life they deserved. And of course, Gabe, Enzo, and Seth would be running the crews for them, so they wouldn’t have to rely on friends of friends who didn’t know what they were doing. Those boys were growing up in the business, and someday, he and Tony would hand it all to them, knowing they’d given their sons a solid foundation for their future.
Someday, he’d be able to retire and give Jo every dream she’d ever had. She’d been so good about delaying travel and fun because of money and time and babies, not to mention the fact that airplanes still freaked him out. But by the time they retired, he’d figure all that out and take her on a tour of the world. They’d make love in every continent. Well, maybe not Antarctica. That seemed a bit cold. Dom spun out his own daydreams while he methodically worked his way around every seam. Someday, he’d give that woman the world.
But someday was not today. So Dom did what he did best—drove his mind and shoulder at a problem until it was fixed. No one else had to worry. He’d just take care of it. Tony didn’t need one more thing to worry about on top of his elbow and trying to keep his own projects running. Jo didn’t need to worry about this. He didn’t want her to know how close they cut it every week. She had enough to worry about juggling the kids and the house and everything else. No, he was the provider, the fixer. It was his job to keep the business growing and running smoothly. If his hard work could provide a good life for his family, then he couldn’t begrudge the time it took to do a job right.
