After the flashing red lights disappeared around a bend in the wooded forest road and the siren had faded to a dreadful wail, Eli asked, “You okay?”
“Me? I didn’t just take a header off the fucking roof.” Joe punched his palm. “I should never have let them be doing both of those tasks at the same time.”
“Did you tell them to?” Eli wondered.
“No. But I wasn’t paying enough attention. I didn’t see it until it was too late. What the hell am I doing here?” Joe looked to Eli, tugging the hair his fingers were now tangled in.
“Hey, calm down. This is what you have insurance for.” Eli squeezed Joe’s shoulder. “Accidents happen. Construction is dangerous work.”
When Joe still didn’t say anything, Eli lowered his voice and asked, “You do have insurance, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course. But we’ve never had to use it before at Powertools. And here I am having to dig out the policy already.” Joe swallowed hard. It was the foreman’s responsibility to look out for the crew, and he’d failed. Big time. It was only his second week on the damn job and he’d already shown that he wasn’t cut out for it.
And that was even before he factored in the supplier drama, and the issues implementing the designs they’d drafted. What the hell had he been thinking when he’d told Eli he’d do this and moved his entire family several states away from everything they’d ever known on the hope that he could pull this off?
“Hey. That guy is going to be fine.” Eli lowered his voice as he came around to Joe’s front and braced his hands on Joe’s shoulders before shaking him a little bit. “You can beat yourself up later. Get out there, talk to your crew. Reassure them and then think about what could have prevented this. Make some new policies and ensure the guys follow them from now on. This is how you get better.”
“Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good.” Joe nodded. Why hadn’t he thought of a plan like that? Probably because he was just a worker bee who’d never intended to be the one in charge.
That was Mike’s job, and he was doing a piss-poor imitation of it.
One thought reverberated in Joe’s mind. The one that he’d drilled into his head by repeating it constantly as the responsibility he’d taken on for his cousin Eli began to overwhelm him.
You’re not a foreman. You were never meant to do this. You’re not good at it and someone’s going to get hurt…again…maybe worse next time because of you. There’s still time to bail. To go home.
“Whatever you do, don’t let them see you freaking out,” Eli cautioned. “When you’re done, come to my office. And we’ll do that together. Then I’ll drive you over to the hospital, okay?”
Was this what Mike did? Did he vent to Kate or pace his office alone at night when the burden of being in charge got too heavy? Joe felt like a bastard because he’d never even considered that possibility when he went home to his family and slept like a baby.
Even now, Eli was teaching him how to remain in control, because he didn’t have the faintest clue about how to be the example Mike had always been for them.
“Okay, right.” Joe swiped his hand over his mouth and tried his best to get it together. The men milling aimlessly around the job site deserved that much from him at least.
“You got this.” Eli watched him go.
So Joe straightened his back and channeled Mike, thinking of what he was going to say to his crew. And then how he’d admit his fuck-up to his own foreman later that night.
2
Mike kicked off his boots, then walked through his kitchen to kiss Kate, who was helping Abby and Landry with their homework. His wife was pretty much a superhero, juggling her own interior design and antique restoration business along with managing their family.
“Want me to cook dinner?” he asked as he ruffled his son’s hair and gave his daughter a quick one-armed hug before she could object. Teenagers. Ugh.
“Can we order food instead?” Landry asked, looking up from his math workbook with such a hopeful look that all Mike could do was laugh.
“Yeah. I mean, I’d vote for pizza over my lame attempt at grilling any day too.”
“You make great barbecue chicken thighs,” Kate looked up, then winced. “But I’m not very hungry, so maybe takeout isn’t a bad idea.”
She avoided Mike’s stare when he looked over to scan her as if he could see any illness zooming in the air around her head like neon-green cartoon germs. Too many times lately, Kate had begged off dinner and even his offer of breakfast in bed last weekend. Was she sick? Or was what he had offered her that much worse than she was used to since Joe wasn’t around to cook for both their families? The other guy had often made himself at home in their kitchen or on the grill when he and Morgan and their kids would swing by to spend the evening together with Mike and his family.
Except Mike’s best friend had ditched them and moved a few states over to Middletown in order to be closer to his family, especially his cousin Eli. The Hot Rods garage owner was expecting a child and needed some help expanding their living quarters beyond the second story over their business.
“Everyone good with pepperoni?” Mike asked as he brought up a food delivery app on his phone.
“Yeah!” Landry fist pumped and even Abby nodded with a small smirk. He’d take that. She’d been out of sorts since Joe’s son Nathan had left for the summer. The two of them were maybe even closer than Mike and Joe or Morgan and Kate, who’d been best friends since elementary school.
For a blissful hour or so everything was fine. Normal. Happy.
“This was a good idea, kid.” Mike gave Landry credit where it was due as he polished off another slice of pizza.
They were laughing as Abby ignored them and focused on her phone instead. Kate shot him a warning glance, but Mike shook his head no, subtly. Hell, their daughter was probably texting Nathan. So he left her alone. One meal in peace was worth a hell of a lot to him these days.
“Dad?” Abby asked around a mouth full of gooey cheese, surprising him.
“Yeah?” He looked up and the last bit of crust became awfully hard to swallow. Fine lines creased the perfect, smooth skin between her eyebrows. They were even more pronounced than they would have been otherwise since she’d recently become obsessed with watching videos online about shaping and makeup and all sorts of things he wasn’t ready to deal with in regards to his baby girl just yet. Kate permitted her to test out stuff in the house, but it was still a shock to see her looking so damn grown up. And now, worried. “What’s wrong?”
“You better call Uncle Joe. Nathan said something bad happened and everyone is freaking out.”
“Bad? What kind of bad?” Kate stood up straight and then turned a bit ashen before sinking back into her chair.
Damn it. Everything was falling apart.
“An accident.” Landry was looking at the hand-me-down phone he’d talked Mike into activating so he could stay in touch with Klea and Nathan now that Joe’s kids were out of their area code. “Somebody got hurt. Not Uncle Joe. Somebody who works for him.”
“Shit!” Mike stood from the table, his chair scraping on the floor as he jammed his hand into his pocket. But just as he touched his own phone, it began to buzz beneath his fingers. He hauled it out and went onto the patio to talk in case he had to shield the kids from something gruesome. Hopefully Nathan wouldn’t text them pictures before he could find out if everyone was okay. Physically and beyond.