Page 9 of My One and Only

She nodded. “Makes sense.”

He unlocked the truck and reached to help her up. But instead of waiting for him, she swung herself onto the running board and slid onto the passenger seat. Pulled the door closed.

He stared at the closed door for a long moment, then shook his head as he rounded the front of the truck and swung into the driver’s seat. Jo had always been independent. She’d never expected anyone to take care of her. Jo had been as competent as anyone in their class.

He’d always liked that about her.

Fifteen minutes later, Jo pointed out the house and he pulled up in front of one of their most popular models. The carpenter’s truck was gone, and Cam was relieved. He didn’t want to tour the house with Jo when the carpenter was there to hear all her criticisms of the building.

By the time he got around to the other side of the truck, Jo was standing in the frozen mud of the driveway. He took her elbow to help her over the uneven ground, and she rolled her eyes at him, then extracted her elbow from his grip. She stepped carefully over the muddy ruts in the driveway, and his hand hovered close to her arm. Just in case. He didn’t want her to get hurt on his building site. He didn’t need the headache of a lawsuit.

She stepped up into the house, and he jumped up behind her. They hadn’t gotten far on this house -- just the studs and the beginnings of the electrical and plumbing work. Jo walked over to the right wall and ran her hand down one of the studs. His heart sank when he saw the two-by-four. It was definitely not a number one two-by-four. She’d been right -- it was a 3 or a 4.

Anger curled in his belly as he inspected the rest of the two-by-fours and found most of them were exactly as she’d described. Full of knots and other defects. Crooked. One of them even had a gouge in it, as if someone had started to make a cut and realized their measurement was incorrect.

After scoping out the two-by-fours, he said, “Show me what else you noticed.”

She took him into the kitchen area. Jo hadn’t been exaggerating. The electrical boxes were sloppily installed. So was the plumbing. The joints weren’t solid. The pipes weren’t straight.

He walked through the rest of the house and found that everything was below PK Construction’s standards. Poor quality material. Shoddy workmanship. Sloppy fittings.

Everything he’d sworn he’d never do when he’d gone into the construction business.

Anger a red haze, he bit out, “I’ve seen enough. Let’s go.”

He helped her down from the floor to the dirt beneath the entryway and tried to hold her arm as they walked back to his truck. She drew her arm away, rolling her eyes at him again. When he tried to help her up to the running board, she swung onto it easily by herself. Opened the door and got into the truck without his help.

After he swung himself into the driver’s seat, he glanced at the house they’d just inspected and punched the steering wheel with a silent curse. Then he backed down the driveway and headed to the office.

Once they were in the parking lot next to her tiny car, he turned off the truck and swung around to face her. “You were right. About all of it. I promise you that we’ll replace all the shoddy material and wood in your mother’s house. I’ll personally ensure it’s done the right way.”

“Thank you,” she said, turning to study him. “I appreciate that. But what about all the other houses you’ve built that are finished, or almost finished? All the things you saw today in my mother’s house are probably in everyone else’s house, too. How are you gonna fix that?”

He ground his teeth together. That was the first thing he’d thought of when he’d seen Mrs.Finster’s house. “I’ll buy them home warranties that cover all the possible problem areas. So if there are problems, they’ll be fixed.” It would seriously cut into his profits on those houses, but what choice did he have? It would cost far more than the warranties to rip the houses apart and start over.

She tilted her head as she studied him. “That works,” she finally said. “But what are you going to do about the quality of your work going forward?”

“Believe me, Jo, this will stop. Immediately. If I have to fire every foreman I have, I’ll make sure that these houses are being built the right way.”

Jo nodded slowly. “Okay, Cam. I hope that’s what you do, but I’ve always been a big believer in trust but verify. I’m going to be your worst nightmare. You’re gonna get really tired of me.” She swiveled to face him. “Any idea who’s behind this shoddy work?”

“I’ll talk to all my foremen tomorrow. Fire any of them who’re involved.” And he’d talk to Don. His partner was supposed to be supervising the foremen. Cam didn’t think Don was involved, but his partner needed to know what was going on. And Don needed to watch them more closely. Make sure none of them were paying bribes to pass the inspection.

That wasn’t the way PK Construction did business. And he had to make sure Don and all the foremen knew it.

Jo began to slide out of his truck, and Cam put his hand on her arm. She froze. “Will you give me your phone number?”he asked. “So I can update you on what’s being done?”

She turned to look at him. Searched his eyes, as if looking for a sign he was telling the truth. Finally she nodded. Rattled off her phone number, then slid to the ground. Looking up at him, she said, “I’ll expect regular updates. And I guarantee you I’ll be checking my mom’s house regularly.”

“Exactly what I’d expect you to do, Jo.”

She held his gaze for a long moment, then turned and walked to a tiny, crappy little car, crawled in and drove away. Jo Finster was back in his life. Jo Hatch now. And she’d come to him because his company had screwed up the house they were building for her mother.

Cam clenched his jaw. He needed to talk to Don and his foremen. He glanced at his watch. He had time to talk to Don before he had to get home. The foremen could wait until morning. They were probably all gone by now anyway.

This was a disaster, and it was going to stop. Right now.

Chapter 3

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