Love Restored (Gallagher Brothers #1)(52)

Easier said than done, especially when he wasn’t sure what he wanted in the first place.

However, no matter what happened, he couldn’t let Rowan get hurt because of him. He didn’t know what he’d do if anything like this had happened to Cynthia, so he’d do his best to keep this other little girl safe.

“Hey, when do you knock off for the day?” Owen asked as he walked into the room Graham worked on, tablet in hand. “Do you have time to look at a few invoices with me?”

Graham pinched the bridge of his nose. “I never have time to look at invoices with you. Isn’t that why we have you?”

Owen flipped him off, and the crew chuckled, including the new guy they’d hired to replace Gary. Thankfully, their former subcontractor would be back in the fold in a few weeks, but until then, they needed another set of hands, and this new guy, Sean, seemed to know what he was doing. Graham hated the fact that anyone had been hurt to begin with, and because of the accident itself, they had a whole lot more paperwork to deal with.

Most of that had fallen onto Owen’s lap, and as much as Graham teased his brother about it, he knew he had to help with his share. He’d been in charge of the site that day, and he took his responsibilities seriously.

“Shut it. When do your woman and her kid get here?” Owen asked, and Graham rolled his eyes.

“In a bit. What’s up? What do you need?” Graham asked.

“An assistant and a beer, but right now, I just need your signature on a few things.” Owen flipped through the papers until he landed on the right one. “We have our custom historical floor guy coming in next week, but I still don’t think it’ll be what we need.”

Graham ran his hand through his beard. “We’ve already had this argument. If you don’t like him, why did we hire him?”

“Because he’s worked with us before and won the bid, but I don’t know.”

“Owen.” Graham didn’t have time for this shit today, not with Rowan and Blake showing up at any minute.

“I think this job is going to be too big for him. We took a chance on him because he’s worked with us in the past, but he’s also on the other bids with Murphy’s site, and he f*cked up there. Remember.”

Graham let out a little growl. “Yeah, he brought the wrong planks, said the other shit was on the wrong truck or some crap.” He ran a hand over his face and went through options. “Okay, he shows up next week to finalize the bid and show us what he has. If there’s something off, then he’s out. We don’t need to work with him if it’s going to f*ck things up. It’s not in the contract that we have to keep up with this if he’s not meeting his end of the deal. We gave him a pass on Murphy’s site, but we can’t on this one.”

Owen scribbled things down and worked on his tablet at the same time. “I still don’t like the sound of that, not when we don’t have a backup.”

Graham snapped his fingers as he thought of something. “There’s the other guy, Samuel something. He was eager to work with us. He’s a small company but organized. You like organized. If our normal guy flakes like it’s looking he might, then we get the new guy.”

“That’s going to f*ck up our projections,” Owen complained.

“Yeah, well, they’re looking f*cked up as it is, and you’re the one that brought it up. If our current guy makes nice, then we’re good. If not, we need a backup. I’m not going to go over-budget or screw up our timeline because of one guy who can’t get his act together. Plus, the historical society is riding my ass over something that I need Murphy for. So if our brother can’t get back here to this site and finish up the other, then we have an issue. And frankly, the only reason Murphy isn’t here now is because of the floor guy. So we’ll fix this.”

Owen went through the numbers with him while they walked back to the office trailer on-site, and Graham nodded along. It used to be easier when they weren’t the bosses and could just work with their hands. But now, everything relied on their decisions, and it was hard as hell to make sure they didn’t constantly f*ck up.

But Graham would do what he did best while his brothers did their best, as well. In the end, they’d make this place shine.

They just had to get dirty along the way to get it done.

When they reached the door to the trailer, he saw Blake’s car pull up and he patted Owen on the shoulder. “Meet you inside?” he asked.

Owen followed Graham’s gaze and smiled. “Take your time. It’s good to see you guys together.”

He heard something in Owen’s voice that worried him. “We’re taking it slow. Just feeling each other out.”

“You’re spending time with her kid, she’s coming to visit you at work, and she’s coming to a place that has deep and personal memories for her. Because of you. I think you’re beyond serious, Graham.”

Graham ignored Owen and the way his brother’s words made more sense than he’d like them to and jogged toward Blake. Before he could reach out and hug her hello, Rowan ran up to him and threw her arms around his waist.

He took a step back at the impact but wrapped his arms around her small shoulders. The lump that usually made its way into his throat didn’t come this time. When he saw her, he no longer thought of the daughter he’d lost who wouldn’t grow up; instead, he saw a little girl who brightened his day and deserved far more than a custody dispute and any feelings of being unwanted.