The Best Man's Baby by Victoria James Page B

talk to someone in the office about getting in touch with local trade colleges and we’ll see the response. Maybe for now I can pull a crew from the condo project to fill in here to get things back up to speed.”
    Quinn nodded. “That sounds good. So, uh, everything okay?”
    Jake looked up. “Yeah. Just thought of something. Amanda isn’t still answering phones, is she?”
    Quinn laughed. “Nope. You’re safe. How’s Claire?”
    He groaned out loud and then picked up a hammer. He needed to get some of his nervous energy out. He’d take out this entire damn floor by himself if it meant not thinking about Claire and Walters construction.
    “That bad?”
    “Worse,” Jake answered, picking up a pry bar in his other hand. He crouched down, hitting the end of the pry bar with his hammer harder than necessary. “I swear, whenever I think I’m getting through to her, she shuts me out. And I’m the one everyone says runs. Well, she’s running around all over the place. I had to jump into an elevator just to get her to speak to me.” He paused to give his brother time to laugh. “You have any Holly insider info for me?”
    “Actually I do. Not that I like gossiping or anything,” Quinn said, looking uncomfortable.
    “No, no, of course not. Me neither.” He forced down the pry bar to lift the edge of the plywood up off the joist as far as possible. He tried to concentrate on what he was doing, and told himself that he wasn’t dying to know whatever Quinn knew.
    “Apparently Claire had a huge crush on you in high school.”
    Jake lost his grip. He cursed and then managed to get the tool back into position and scowled up at Quinn. “That’s all you have for me? I knew that.”
    “Look, that’s all I got. I don’t spend my evenings with my wife gossiping about you and your latest woman.”
    “She’s not my latest woman. She’s it . Remember? I asked her to marry me?”
    Quinn nodded. “Oh, right. So she finally said yes?”
    Jake exhaled roughly. “ No. But I’m not done yet.”
    Quinn rolled back on his heels. “Ah, so you going to use a little of the Manning charm on her?”
    He gave him a level look. “ Jake charm. Not Manning charm. It’s not a shared asset.”
    “Pfft. Good luck with that. So you have feelings for her?”
    Jake squeezed his eyes shut. He needed to end this torture, and he didn’t even know what to say because he didn’t have it figured out for himself. He thought most of his feelings were about wanting Claire. Then he spent more time with her and other feelings happened. Like at the doctor’s office today. He looked over at his brother, who was standing there with his eyebrows lifted and a smug smirk on his face. “I don’t want to be part of this gossip circle, so don’t go running home to Holly talking about me. But, yeah, of course I have feelings .”
    Quinn nodded slowly, darting his eyes in the other direction. His brother was a horrible liar. He was going straight home to tell his wife.
    Jake let out an extra-dramatic breath. He pulled out the pry bar and sat on the ground. He was going to kill himself if he tried to have this conversation and work at the same time. “Let me ask your opinion on something.”
    “Shoot.”
    “You know that old property on Winding River Road?”
    “The old Victorian house on the river?”
    Jake nodded. “I’m thinking of buying it. I went in to see it with a Realtor and it needs a lot of work. Like I’ll probably have to gut it, take it back to the studs, but it’s an amazing property.”
    He could tell Quinn was trying to hide his shock. “I had no idea you were thinking about buying a house.”
    Jake shrugged. “I want to do this right. Start a real family.”
    “Go for it. Do you need help with a mortgage or anything?”
    “Nope. Thanks for the offer. I’ve got money,” he said. His brothers probably thought he was broke. Truth was, since he lived above the construction office, in Quinn’s old place, his expenses were