Page 33 of The Catch

“I think my coffee is done…”

“No, tell us!”

She sighed and let all the lurid details spill. “They don’t give tours anymore. They’re turning it into senior living. I told Josh my grandmother used to live there and that I’d always wanted to see it. Turns out, he’s the architect on the project, so he took me there.”

Silence.

“Hello?”

Something way too close to a sniffle.

“Are you crying?”

“She is,” Sonya shouted.

“Oh. My. God.”

Emma’s voice cracked. “That is the sweetest thing I have ever heard. You’re going to tell this story to your grandkids, Cat.”

“Why is she like this?” Cat called to Sonya.

“I don’t know, dude.” There was a brief shuffle and some whispering, and then Sonya had the phone. “Okay, so it sounds like it went well?”

“Yes, it was a very nice date.”

“And the next one?”

“Next weekend.”

“Hey, Cat?”

“What?”

“What do Dani and I win again?”

“Ugh.”

Twelve

It was Friday when Joshreturned to the Abbott Building site again, messenger bag slung over his shoulder and coffee cup in hand. The air was hot and dry, and the dirt from the construction lot dusted around his shoes. He hated parking there. He usually tried to find a spot on the street ever since Dylan’s Audi had taken an errant two-by-four to the windshield one afternoon when one of the trucks had parked too close. Their business insurance hadn’t covered it, so they were more careful now. He was rushing today, though, so it had to do.

He made his way to the trailer to find Jim and Dylan already huddled over a folding table, sharing a pizza while they poured over job packets.

“Just the man we needed,” Dylan said, gesturing for him to take a seat. He held up a paper plate for him, but Josh declined.

“What’s going on? Why the last-minute meeting?”

“Just a little snafu with the clients over the price point on some of the salvage work.”

“They don’t have a lot of wiggle room. The city says what we have to keep.”

“That’s what I told them,” Jim said, around a bite of his lunch. “But they want you to go back over the details again, see what you can reasonably cut.”

“Fine.” Josh dug his laptop out of his bag and pushed some trash around the table to make room for it.

Jim finished his slice and pushed his folding chair away from the table. “I’ll let you two at it, then,” he said.

As soon as the door slammed behind Jim, Dylan started in. “How’d it go with Cat last weekend?”

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