Checkmate

What he wouldn't give to have even one of them on his crew, hell, ru

How they managed to end up working for their baby sister, he would never know. Any of those men could easily have started up his own company and given Co

Of course if any of the James brothers decided after working this particular project that they'd rather work with him, who was he to argue?

"Did we get it?" Andrew, one of his oldest friends and one of his foremen, asked as Co

"Oh yeah," he said, gri

* * * *

"Did you know Co

That question had Rory stumbling even though she'd changed into her work boots, jeans, and customary gray tee shirt. Before she went head first into the brick wall, Sean reached out and grabbed her by the arm to steady her, which was actually impressive since he never took his eyes off the huge plate of food in front of him.

"Thanks," she said, taking the empty seat next to Brian.

"No problem," Sean said around a huge bite full of his cheeseburger.

"Well?" Bryce demanded as he pushed a mug of steaming hot cocoa towards her while Craig gestured to Lua

"Well, what?" Rory asked before taking a fortifying sip of cocoa. Not as good as hers, but still doable.

"Did you know he was gay?" Sean hissed as Lua

Co

"Why do you think he's gay?" she asked, spearing a delicious looking French dressing covered cucumber slice onto her fork.

"He keeps looking over here at us," Brian said, jerking his head in the direction behind him.

Sipping her cocoa, Rory leaned to the left to look between two of her very large brothers. Sometimes she felt like she had her own entourage of linebackers. Having large muscular brothers did come in handy when she needed help moving or someone to open a pickle jar.

"He's doing it again," Joh

As if he sensed her thoughts, he turned his eyes on her and narrowed them dangerously. She narrowed her eyes on him. Everything around them disappeared as they glared at each other. Sure it was childish, but she would not look away first damn it! Even when people walked between them neither looked away.

The glaring was actually starting to make her feel dizzy, but she would not look away first! Not this time! She would-

"They're probably just gloating. It's okay, baby girl, we'll get the next one," Craig said, pulling her attention away from the glaring bastard. She looked away, but not before she caught his triumphant grin.

The bastard!

"We got it," she said, taking a quick sip of cocoa.

The men actually stopped eating to frown at her, which was pretty amazing since there was still food on the table and these were the James brothers.

"What do you mean we got it?" Brian asked.

She shrugged. "I signed the contract less than a half hour ago. It's ours."

The men looked over their shoulders and then back at her in unison. "Then why do they look like they're celebrating? I can't imagine Co

"Yeah, he looks damn happy for a man that just lost a million dollar contract," Joh

Joh

"Yeah, well, he kind of sort of got the contract too," she said quickly, wincing in anticipation of their reaction.

Instead of cursing and slamming the table with their fists like she expected, they just sat there staring at her. Finally Bryce spoke. "You're kidding, right?"

She shook her head, taking another sip of cocoa. Again her brothers looked over their shoulders and this time the life ruining bastard had the balls to salute them with his beer and a cocky grin.

Rory discretely flipped him off. Co

"I don't understand," Sean said. "How did you both get the contract?"

Darting her eyes away, she said quietly, "We both got the contract. We'll be working with Highland Construction on this job."

Stu

"We each got the contract with a twenty percent markup and a nice bonus if we finish by the November deadline," she said, watching as the information sank in.

Each of the men cursed vividly as they turned and shot another scowl to the man that once again smiled smugly in their direction. Slowly, her brothers turned back to face her, glaring.

"Why didn't you tell them we could do it without Highland Construction?" Sean demanded. This time when Joh

Great, the big babies were mad at her. Whatever. They'd get over it.