Major Renovations (Ritter University #1) Read Free

made sure she still had the rogue receipt and headed to her truck. Without every single slip of paper, the tally of actual expenses would be off. Her father would be pissed. She’d be pissed. Pulling open the passenger door, she stuck the receipt into a folder and dropped her forehead onto the door— repeatedly— until the sharp pain made her stop.
    She was trying, really trying. She was giving one hundred percent— and she still couldn’t get her shit together. How sad was that?
    She was sinking in figurative wet concrete, kicking and flailing, her body slowly being consumed by gritty gray paste. She’d like to blame Barry and say he was pushing her head deeper into the muck, but dammit, she was screwing up all on her own. No help needed, thank you.
    Of course, it might help if Barry got off his butt and helped her stay afloat. Yeah, right. Like he’d do that. She had a feeling he was waiting for the big screw-up. The massive one, the one that would force her father to put Barry in charge. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the old man was calling her father and giving status reports behind her back.
    She’d always known she’d take over her father’s company someday. Hell, he’d put a hammer in her hand as soon as she was old enough to walk. But she never thought she’d be taking over so soon or so completely. Maybe in a few years, after she was established in her own career. When she could focus on both her dreams and his.
    But with her father’s health scare…? No. That wasn’t something she wanted to think about right now. When her father finally agreed to take a break, she was surprised he hadn’t put Barry in charge. Apparently, Barry was surprised he wasn’t put in charge, too.
    No, surprised wasn’t exactly the word. He was downright hostile.
    She hated to admit it, but that hurt. Barry had been her father's most trusted employee for so many years. But it was more than that— he was family. He taught her how to use a circular saw when she was twelve. He let her drive the backhoe when she was fourteen. Her dad was royally pissed, but she’d loved it. And the two of them had shared a conspiratorial soda when Barry let her do it again, a week later, this time without telling her father.
    So when she took over, she thought he’d be there to help her, guide her. She should be working on a way to get him on board. But how? Too bad they didn’t have a human resources department that could help with employee issues. Because she had no idea how.
    “Samantha!” Barry stormed out of house and over to Samantha’s truck. “The plumber needs to talk to you. There’s a problem.”
    Of course there was. “What kind of problem?”
    “I don’t know. He wants to talk to the manager.” Barry hooked a thumb at her. “That would be you.”
    “Could you please find out what the problem is?” She attached her stylus to the tablet sleeve.
    “Fine. By the way, half the boxes of tiles are the wrong color.” Barry pulled a dark-brown tile from his pocket and handed it to her.
    Of course they were the wrong color. What else was new? If it could go wrong, it would. She added exchange tile to the list in her tablet of things that still needed to be done. That list seemed to grow longer and longer. Shouldn’t it start to get shorter at some point? “I’ll exchange them later.”
    Barry huffed and turned back to the building. “Later? They’re about to start tiling. I need them to get as far as possible before they go home tonight. Can’t you exchange them now?”
    “I can’t. I have to talk to the plumber.” The knot behind her eyes pulsed and spread when Barry sighed heavily. She let her breath out and tried for calm. “Fine,” she told him. “If you deal with the tiles, I’ll talk to the plumber.”
    “Fine.” He walked back into the house.
    “Fine.” Tears clawed at the back of her eyes. Barry slamming her at every turn was getting old. She hated thinking about letting him go. But, crap, what else