Page 53 of Story of My Life
“You must not have spent enough time with her,” I said into my coffee.
“You don’t think she’s attractive?” Levi baited me.
“I don’t find trouble attractive.”
“Bullshit,” my brothers said together.
“Darius said you yelled at her through half the tour,” Harrison cut in.
“It’s Uncle Cam’s love language,” Isla said.
“I did not, and I don’t have a love language. You’re both out of my will,” I said, pointing a fork at my pain-in-the-ass niece and nephew.
“I’m the good one,” Wesley announced with pride.
“Back to the job. If Hazel’s good for the money, are you good for the labor? No offense,” my sister added.
“Offended,” Levi complained.
“I’m serious,” Laura said. “Gigi is part-time construction and part-time lawyering. Dad’s pretty much retired from jobsites. Most of your recent jobs have been handyman-level projects.”
“I’m perfectly capable of putting in the hours on-site,” Dad began to argue.
It took one pointed look from Mom for him to throw it into reverse.
“But I don’t need to because I have you boys who I taught everything,” he added quickly.
“What’s the biggest job you guys have done lately?” Laura pressed.
“That basement renovation over in Park Lake was almost two thousand square feet,” Gage said.
My sister raised a sharp eyebrow. “And that was, what? Ten, eleven months ago?”
“We can handle the job, Larry,” I said, trying to hide my annoyance. “It’s nothing we haven’t done before. Besides, we worked on the place ten years ago, so we’re already familiar with the house.”
“I just hope you can keep the owner happy,” Laura said pointedly. “You know. Treat her with respect. Listen to her concerns. Don’t make her ring up and then bag her own groceries.”
“That’s an oddly specific example,” Dad noted. “Was she the whopper receipt from the store last night?”
“Did you seriously make a potential new client ring herself out?” Gage asked, looking appalled.
“Of course he didn’t,” Mom insisted. “I raised three gentlemen. And I’m sure Cam has been nothing but professional and courteous to Hazel Hart.”
It took everything I had not to squirm in my seat.
“I just gotta ask,” Gage said. “Have you met Cam, Mom?”
“I’m just saying, the last thing Bishop Brothers needs is to piss off a high-profile client with the most noteworthy house in town,” Laura said innocently. “If this job goes south and you have an unhappy famous client, everyone is going to hear about it.”
Bishop Brothers had been started by my grandfather and his brother before being handed down to my father and then to my brothers and me. The business had survived and sometimeseven thrived for fifty years. But things had never been this lean before. On most issues, I couldn’t speak for my brothers. But on this we were all in agreement. We didn’t want to be the generation that put the nail in the coffin on the family business.
“No one is gonna be unhappy,” Levi promised.
“Except for Cam because he’s always unhappy,” Gage pointed out.
In my absence, Levi had stepped up to become the leader. His bond with Gage, the youngest, had deepened into something I almost envied. But I was back now and we all had to get used to it.
“I’m not unhappy. I just have resting dick face.”
