All Jacked Up (Rough Riders #8)(55)

“An oversight. We’ve all made them,” he lied. “I’m kicking myself same as you guys are.”


“She’s a fiery, independent woman. This oversight will drive her crazy. She’ll blame herself, lose confidence, close down…”


“And then she’ll pull up her bootstraps and do what needs done,” Remy added. “She ain’t the type to stand around, wringing her hands and waiting for someone to rescue her. Which is damn amazing when you think about it. She could’ve turned out so much differently.”


“Amen, bro.”


That startled him. “What do you mean?”


“We’ve—her brothers and cousins on both the McKay and West side—looked out for her. She wouldn’t have had to do nothin’ but stand around and look pretty and helpless. But that’s not what Keely is made of. That’s not who she is now, or who she was even when she was a girl. She don’t want nothin’ handed to her. She learned to do things for herself. If she didn’t know how to do something, she found folks to teach her. We admire the hell outta her for standing her ground when it’d be easier to give in.”


“To her family?


“Yeah. God love our McKay cousins, but they would’ve put the kibosh on her buying the building straight away. They would’ve accidentally made Keely feel stupid for trying to do something without their help.”


Jack scowled.


“Don’t get us wrong,” Chet said. “They ain’t cruel to her. And hell, I don’t even think they realize they’re doin’ it. But because they’re all older males, they don’t see Keely in an adult role. They treat her like a little girl. And they’d see purchasing this building as another one of Keely’s whims. We knew how much it meant to her, fulfilling this lifelong dream. We also know that if this clinic project falls through, her family will act like it’s no big deal, when it will crush her.”


“Which is also why if she don’t have the money to hire someone to do the teardown, she absolutely will not ask anyone in her family for financial help,” Remy pointed out. “Hell, she’ll be here with a crowbar and do the whole thing herself.”


They were lost in their separate thoughts until Jack felt Chet and Remy’s curious gazes on him.


“What?”


“Since you and Keely are gonna get married, if she finds a company that’ll do the teardown, would you be willing to pay for it?” Chet asked carefully.


Another tricky question. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help her. But we all know she won’t take money from me. It’s not because I can’t afford it, but it’ll be a matter of pride to her.”


“Yeah, she wasn’t none too happy to find out you owned the Sandstone Building, was she?” Remy mused.


“No. I’m living with her and she’s still paying me rent. So as much as you guys didn’t want to see her brothers crushing her dreams, I won’t play a part in making her feel beholden to me. She hired me. She’s paying me. In her mind when it comes to the building stuff I just work for her. Period.”


Remy and Chet exchanged a skeptical look.


“You saw how Keely acted. Did she fly in here and lay a sloppy kiss on me? No. Did she cry on my shoulder when she discovered she’d made a big mistake that would cost her a pile? No. She bucked up, offered to rectify things with you two and she treated me like she would’ve any other employee.”


Truthfully, her behavior stung like hell. But this situation wasn’t about him.


“I get what you’re sayin’, Jack, I really do. I just wish there was some way to help her without any of us trying to sneak her money.”


A solution started to form. “How many guys are on that crew out of Meeteetsee?”


Remy scratched his chin. “Probably a dozen. Why?”


“If they had a dozen guys on the clock, how long would it take to teardown this place?”


“Three days. But that’d probably be milking it. Customers would freak if they thought the company could make fifty thou in a single day.”


“But if we could get a dozen guys here, say tomorrow. For all day, would you two be willing to help me supervise what gets torn out and what stays?”


Chet and Remy nodded at each other. “Absolutely. What did you have in mind?”


Jack grinned. “I’ll tell you, but you’ve got to promise me that Keely won’t ever find out.”


Jack called Carson McKay. He was actually relieved the ornery SOB answered with a gruff hello.


“Carson. Jack Donohue. Got a minute to talk?”


“Only about that long. I gotta get Caro pretty quick. What did you need?”


“First off, Keely can’t know I called you about this.”


Carson harrumphed, which Jack took as assent.


Jack spun a tale about the company Keely hired for the teardown backing out. How it could jeopardize the entire clinic project because of time constraints. Keely was mightily upset, but she didn’t want to inconvenience anyone in her family by asking for help.