NFH 03 Checkmate (3 page)

He noticed that she wore a little bit of
makeup today, interesting. She looked good, but then again, she
always looked good. He especially liked her hair, always had, even
when it used to be pulled up into pigtails. There was just
something about wavy caramel hair with natural golden blonde
highlights and those sky blue eyes that drove him nuts.

Connor watched as Mary informed her that Mr.
McGill was running behind and gestured for her to sit in the
waiting area. Rory didn't look happy about the wait, but she looked
decidedly pissed off seconds later when she spotted him. Her eyes
narrowed on him as she walked, stumbled, over to the complimentary
table all while glaring at him. He sipped his cocoa, watching as
Rory searched for her precious hot chocolate.

"Mary, is there any hot chocolate?" the
little addict asked, sounding anxious for a fix.

"Sorry, hun, if it's not there, then we
don't have it."

Sighing, she nodded and carefully walked the
ten steps over to the waiting area only to stop abruptly and glare
at him.

"Is something wrong, Rory?" he asked, acting
as if he didn't know what had her panties in a twist.

"You're sitting in the middle," she bit
out.

He made a show of looking down around where
he sat and then at each chair beside him. "Hmm, look at that so I
am," he said in an amused tone.

"Move." She gestured impatiently at him.

Sighing, he took a sip of his cocoa. "I
can't."

"You can't or you won't?" she demanded.

"Both."

Rory glared at him, then at each empty chair
before looking around desperately for another chair. When she
couldn't find any means to distance herself from him, which he knew
she was dying to do, she sat down as far as she could in the chair
to the right of him.

Sighing loud and long to annoy the shit out
of her, he stretched his right arm out and then dropped it along
the back of her chair.

"Do you mind?" she asked, looking pointedly
at his arm.

He shook his head. "No, not really."

She opened her mouth, probably to tell him
off for the millionth time, shut it and shook her head, muttering,
"I don't have time for games today."

That was too bad, because he rather enjoyed
their little battles. He made a show of sipping his drink. "Mmmm,
that's good cocoa."

Rory first glared at him then at his
cup.

"You took the last hot cocoa?"

"Uh huh," he answered, taking another
sip.

She nodded slowly. "I see."

"I'm sure you do."

Just as he went to take another sip of that
rather creamy cup of hot cocoa that tasted better and better with
each passing second, she jabbed him in the side with a finger the
same time she made a grab for his cup. He tried to pull the cup
away, but she just dug that damn finger harder into his side.

Shit! That really hurt!

Deciding that it was better
to give up the cocoa than to let her make his eyes tear up, he
released the cup. Rory twisted her finger harder into his side,
digging deep for good measure before backing off. Glaring at her,
he rubbed his side while she happily sipped
his
cocoa.

Damn, there were a lot of things in life he
regretted and right now showing her that little trick in sixth
grade when she wouldn't let him cut her in the lunch line was one
of them. He winced as he rubbed the sore spot. Well, it looked like
she'd perfected that move.

"I spit in that you know," he lied.

She simply shrugged when most women would
have probably screeched, gagged, and shoved it back at him. Not
Rory James. She made a show of taking a huge sip of the cocoa.

"I think I've been immune to your germs
since the ninth grade," she pointed out, making him smile.

Ah, good times. For six months he'd found
ways to spit in her food and drinks without her or her little band
of geeks, nerds, and dorks finding out about it. His friends did
their part by distracting her so that he could break into her
locker and they also took pictures of the act.

On her birthday, he placed all those lovely
pictures into a small box, gift wrapped it, and placed it inside
her locker. Then he leaned against the locker across from hers and
waited with all his friends and half the school for her to open it.
Everyone watched as she opened her locker, waiting for her
reaction. She looked surprised at first to find a present in her
locker and of course that look turned to horror as she flipped
through the pictures. As hard as she tried she just couldn't hide
the little gag sound she made.

Everyone laughed.

He remembered standing there, cocky as hell,
waiting for her to finally react like a girl and cry. Instead, she
calmly put the pictures back in the box, gagged louder, and
returned it to her locker. She grabbed the lunch that he and all
his friends spit in, hey it was her birthday after all, and walked
over to him.

Instead of crying and screaming at him or
even threatening to tell her daddy and her rather large brothers
about what he did, she kneed him in the balls. When he was down on
the ground she forced half her lunch down his throat while his
friends fell over themselves, laughing their asses off, but it had
been worth it. Even the month of detention that followed couldn't
take away the joy he received from that little prank.

"Mr. O'Neil? Miss James? He's ready for
you."

Chapter 2

Rory sat in the padded chair, trying to hide
her annoyance at being seated next to the bastard. She didn't
understand why Mr. McGill was handling their bids this way. She'd
known a month ago when she placed her bid that Connor was going for
the same job. It hadn't been a big deal then, because they usually
bid for the same job unless one of them was already busy.

Usually these things were handled more
privately. She couldn't remember ever being in the room with her
competition before when the client announced his decision. The only
thing she could come up with was that the client was hoping to use
their well known animosity towards each other to start a bidding
war right here and now.

It wasn't going to happen. As much as she
would love to get her hands on Strawberry Fields Manor, she wasn't
about to get into another embarrassing public confrontation with
Connor. The one they had last month at the strawberry festival
still made her cringe.

Things probably wouldn't have gotten out of
hand if their dates had just stayed out of it, but once Mary Lee
decided to get in her face and Jeff took it as his cue to get into
Connor's face, things kind of went downhill quickly. Okay, so she
may have started trouble when she dumped the bucket of juicy mashed
strawberries over Mary Lee's head, but in her defense, she could
only hear '”stupid bitch” so many times before she snapped.

She still didn't understand why the festival
committee banned them for a year, especially after they paid for
all those strawberries they'd wrecked. At least she was still
allowed to have a booth at next year's festival for her business,
Shadow Construction. Granted, one of her brothers would have to man
the table and that probably wouldn't go too well, but at least her
company would be represented during the town's biggest event.

Connor shifted in his chair next to hers,
probably just as nervous as she was. A thought occurred to her,
annoying the hell out of her. If he actually went along with this
and tried to outbid her, she was going pants his ass on the way
out.

Her lips twitched at the memory of the last
time she'd done that. Granted, it had been a week after he did it
to her, but at least she hadn't been wearing pink boxers with
hearts on them at a bar like a certain someone. It really had
brought such joy to her and her brothers' lives as they watched
guys hit on Connor all night and send drinks his way. She'd been
sixty percent sure that he was going to kill her with his bare
hands that night.

"As you both know," Mr. McGill started,
bringing her attention back to him, "we've had problems getting
permits and the heavy rain season pushed our plans back by six
months."

They both nodded.

"I know you're both probably very confused
as to why I've asked Shadow Construction and Highland Construction
for a joint meeting." Thankfully, he didn't leave them in suspense.
"My partners and I would like Strawberry Fields Hotel up and
running by November."

"That's five months," she blurted out before
she could stop herself. Connor threw her an annoyed look, probably
for stating the obvious. Not that she cared if she aggravated the
bastard. She could care less about that. What she did care about
was the fact that there was no way her company could get Strawberry
Fields Hotel up and running in five months. A year? Yes, and that
was after hiring ten extra men and going overboard with overtime.
Five months was not doable.

"Yes, it is," Mr. McGill agreed with a nod
of his head. "As you know, Strawberry Fields Manor needs a bit of
work." Rory just barely stopped herself from snorting her disbelief
out loud.

Strawberry Fields Manor was going to need a
complete overhaul. It was going to have to be completely gutted,
have an electrical and plumbing overhaul. Those were just a few of
the major things that needed to be fixed. She had a fifteen page
list in her office of all the small problems that needed
attention.

"I know this is highly unusual, but we'd
like to hire both your companies to work together and finish the
project," he said, shocking them both into utter stillness. She
wasn't even sure she was breathing or knew how to at that
moment.

He really couldn't expect the two of them to
work together? Could he? They'd kill each other! The entire town
knew that. Hell, there were several betting pools over who would
kill who and how.

This could not be happening. As much as
she'd love to work on Strawberry Fields Manor she really wasn't
sure-

"If you're both able to do this and meet our
deadline, you will each be paid a bonus of fifty-thousand dollars
on top of the twenty percent we already decided to add to your
bids," Mr. McGill announced. "As long as you both believe that you
can work on this together without any problems," he stipulated,
giving them a hard glance.

She looked over at Connor to find him
looking at her. They narrowed their eyes on each other, deciding if
that amount of money would be enough to stop them from killing each
other. After several tense moments they both nodded, slowly.

For that kind of money she was more than
willing to do a lot of unpleasant things like let the life ruining
bastard live.

* * * *

Connor walked into O'Malley's tavern,
grinning. He really couldn't help it. Not only had he landed the
most sought after project of the decade, but he was going to be
getting a very nice bonus at the end. He spotted five very large
men sitting to the far right, glaring openly at him and he was
reminded of the little problem he would have to quickly
rectify.

No doubt the little tomboy thought they were
really going to work this project together. That was just sad,
because really at this stage of the game she should know
better.

This was his project and the sooner she
figured that out the better off everyone would be. Sure, he'd keep
her around for appearances' sake. She could fetch his lunch or
something to make herself useful, but she would be staying away
from his project. The use of her men was certainly a nice little
bonus.

Even he had to admit that he hadn't been
looking forward to hiring temporary workers. There wasn't time to
sort through applicants right now and this project was definitely
not something he wanted anyone green to work on. He needed seasoned
workers and he'd reluctantly admit that Rory's crew was good. His
eyes darted over to the five men, who looked torn between kicking
his ass and eating their appetizers.

Having the James brothers working this
project was like winning the lottery. Not that he would ever admit
it, but the James brothers were the best, even better than his
team. They worked hard, always finished their projects on time, and
their work was unquestionably the best in the area. He'd never
admit any of that of course. Not when he was their main
competition. His boys were good, very good, but they didn't have
that extra edge the James boys brought to each job.

What he wouldn't give to have even one of
them on his crew, hell, running his crew. Over the past five years
he'd seriously considered risking war with Rory and going after one
of her brothers on more than one occasion. If he could get one,
just one, he could probably lure the rest of them over to his side.
His eyes moved over to the oldest brother, Craig. He was the clear
leader of the group. If he came over the rest would follow.

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 Connor a run for his
money, but they hadn't. No doubt they worked for Rory out of fear
of old man James. His boys might be grown men, but he still ruled
the family with an iron fist. He probably told the boys to help
their sister and they jumped to do it, afraid the old man would
kick their collective asses. Hell, even Connor didn't turn his back
on the sixty year old man. He wasn't stupid.

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 Connor joined them at the
round tavern table. The four other men stopped talking and sipping
their beers to watch him expectantly.