Can't Let You Go: A Wheeler Brothers Novel Read Online Free Page A

fired.
    But I had to see her. It's been days since I saw Jen and I couldn't take it anymore. I don't know how I'm going to survive if she moves away.
    When I get to the house where we're doing the kitchen remodel, I pull up to the garage and park. The guys slowly walk out, shuffling their feet, their hands in their pockets. They couldn't look more guilty if they tried.
    "Hey, boss," Carl says as I get out of my truck. "We were just cleaning up."
    Carl's a troublemaker. He's probably the one who encouraged the other guys to smoke and drink while I was gone. And then he tries to turn on the charm, as if doing so will save their jobs. His charm might work on the ladies, but it doesn't work on me.
    "So Jake said there was a party going on while I was gone." I look at the five of them but only Carl will look back at me. The rest of them look down at the ground or off to the side.
    "We were just kicking back on our break." Carl gives me a smart-ass grin. "You know how it is, boss. Sometimes you just need to chill."
    "You can chill when you get home. I'm not paying you to drink and smoke weed."
    "So we're fired?" Cody mumbles, his eyes on his work boots as he kicks at some loose stones on the driveway.
    I hate doing this. They're making it easy on me, but I still hate it.
    "Sorry, but yeah," I say. "Go pack up your stuff and go."
    They must've already packed up because they all walk past me to their cars.
    "See ya around." Carl waves at me and laughs as he walks off. He doesn't even care he got fired.
    I go inside and see Jake in the kitchen. He points to the new counters I installed and the new tile backsplash. "I'm guessing you did this."
    "Yeah. Most of it. I had Cody and Tyler working on it, but they fucked it up so I just did it."
    He shakes his head. "You can't do that, Bryce. If they can't do the job, they can't work for us."
    "They're only 22. They're still learning."
    "This shit's basic. They should know how to do this. Age is no excuse. You're the same age and you're a million times better than them. So is Austin, and he's only 21."
    "It's different for us. These guys didn't grow up doing construction like we did."
    "Bryce, you can't make excuses for them, or any of our workers. We're running a business here, and if one of them fucks something up, we're the ones who'll have to pay for it, not them."
    "Yeah, got it." I walk over to an outlet on the wall and see the cover is missing a screw. I had Carl putting those covers on and he couldn't even put both screws in. Total incompetence. Or laziness. Or both.
    My dad would never stand for that. He's a freaking drill sergeant when it comes to his work. When he was teaching us how to do construction we had to do shit over and over until we got it right. And we couldn't take shortcuts. He doesn't do a half-ass job just to save time or money, like some construction companies do. He does the job well and he does it right the first time, and he expects us, and our workers, to do the same, which is why those guys had to be fired. Jake's right. They're bad for our business.
    "So where were you?" Jake asks.
    I open a kitchen drawer and find the screw for the outlet cover. It was right there and the idiot couldn't even finish the job.
    "I went to Jen's school and dropped off a binder she left at my apartment." I grab a screwdriver and attach the missing screw.
    "Did you see her?"
    "Yeah. I have her class schedule so I knew what time she'd be there."
    "Had to get your Jen fix, huh?" He chuckles to himself.
    "She needed the binder." I set the screwdriver down and turn to Jake. "She needed it for some group she has tonight."
    He cocks his head. "You ever think she purposely leaves shit behind so she has an excuse to see you?"
    "She didn't leave it there on purpose. She just forgot."
    He rolls his eyes. "She does it on purpose, Bryce. Everyone knows this. Even you. So stop pretending you don't."
    "If she wanted to see me so bad, then she wouldn't be going out with some other guy