Why the River Runs Read online

  He wondered how having Tina in the mix affected that atmosphere. Throwing a woman in the ring didn’t faze them a bit. Hell, Tina didn’t hold her tongue, either. She gave those guys a hard time every chance she was given. They teased, laughed, cursed, and pranked each other like…well, like one big happy family. Everyone knew their places, knew their roles, and did their jobs efficiently.

  He could only hope to carve out a place for himself in this well-oiled machine of a crew.

  At the end of the day, Bo was tired and completely satisfied. Just before they’d called it quits, Tina walked him to his truck.

  “Not bad, Galloway. See you back here tomorrow at six.”

  “Six?” He leaned his head in as if he didn’t hear her. On the job at six in the morning, he could handle that. He was used to breakfast call at 5:30.

  “The earlier we get started, the earlier we can call it a day. Summer in Texas is brutal, Galloway. It’s no fun working in the afternoon heat. Get to bed early, bring lots of water.” She spun on her heel and gave him a view of her round backside. He nearly dropped his keys.

  As she walked away, a song came to his mind. To see her smile, he’d do anything. He didn’t care for country music, but if it meant being around Tina Foster all day, he’d learn to love it.

  That evening, he pulled up to his grandmother’s old farm house. Besides the flowers, it hadn’t changed since he was a child. The same swing hung on the porch, the screen door still had a hole in it from when his mother kicked it. The paint needed refreshing and the gravel driveway was losing the war with the grass, but the house had never looked better to him.

  For three weeks, since his grandmother had driven all the way to southern California to pick him up, she had sat at the dinner table and prayed every night that he would find a job. Tonight, he had good news for her.

  Nan came out the front door, her arms up in the air in triumph, a huge smile on her face.

  Bo’s face matched hers as he climbed the stairs and hugged her.

  “See, I told you praying helps. I’m so proud, Bo.”

  “Thanks, Nan. Now all I have to do is keep it.”

  She waved a boney arm, dismissing his pessimism. “Nonsense. You’re going to excel, I just know it.”

  Bo held open the door for her.

  “You’ve never been lazy, Bo Allen. You just put that determination of yours to good use and the Fosters are going to be sending me a fruit basket. Just wait and see.”

  He treasured the confidence she had in him. When it felt like all the world had abandoned him, Nan had stood like a lighthouse in the storm. He had promised his grandfather he would take care of her and he would make good on it.

  “I made your favorite, chicken fried steak. There’s sweet tea in the fridge and,” she bent to pull a cake out of the oven, “I made you a pineapple cream cake.” Her face glowed, truly glowed, with happiness for him.

  “Dang, Nan. I need to get a job every day.”

  “Son, we are going to celebrate every little victory we can.” She kissed his cheek and immediately spit like she’d licked a lemon. “Ugh, you’re dirty. I think I just ate sawdust. Go get cleaned up, working man.”

  Bo laughed. “Yes, ma’am.” If he gave her a million dollars a day for the rest of his life, it would never be enough to repay her for everything she’d given him. Maybe he could start by working on her house.

  Tina fell into her father’s office chair with a cloud of dust rising into the air. She was tired to the bones, a good feeling. It hurt to rub Dixie’s head, but she couldn’t withhold love from her favorite girl.

  “How’d he do?” Daddy shut his laptop.

  She didn’t require an explanation of who he was talking about. “Fine. Didn’t say ten words all day and probably thought we’re all bat-shit crazy.”

  Her father chuckled, knowing all too well about their singing rituals and Tina’s habitual dancing while she worked.

  “That’s to be expected. Think he’ll stick?”

  She shrugged and dusted off her shirt. “Hell if I know. He’s awful quiet to fit in around here. What’s his deal? We weren’t looking to hire anyone.”

  Daddy shifted in his chair. “It’s a favor for an old friend.”

  Picking up on her father’s reluctance to broach the subject, she leaned over and pinned him with her stare. “What’s his deal, Dad? I know something’s off.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “His boots. You and I know the only time a person in construction has new boots is around Christmas and their birthday. So, unless he blew out some candles recently, he hasn’t seen work in a while.”

  Daddy nodded, the corner of his mouth pulled back into a smirk. “He’s had a rough go at it, T. Give him a chance. He needs the work.”

  Tina tilted her head and nodded. Her father had a soft heart, but she was trying to run a business, not a shelter for the lost and needy. If Bo Galloway didn’t pull his weight, he’d be gone. “Dad, I love your heart. But I’m a week behind as it is, and as much as I know you love to take in strays—”

  “Dixie was a stray and look how she turned out.” Daddy cocked his head to the side.

  Tina nodded. Fair point. “What’cha want for dinner?” Joints and muscles complained as she got to her feet.

  “It’s my turn to cook.”

  “No arguments here. I hate drywall days. They kill me.” She rubbed the base of her back.

  Daddy pushed himself out of his chair and grabbed the two canes he required to walk out of the office. If he only needed the canes, then today was a good day. Bad days required the wheelchair. Daddy had broken his back on a job site just after her high school graduation. The surgery to fix his back was a botched job that left him with permanent spinal damage and the inability to walk for more than a few minutes at a time. That was when he and his daughter traded places. Tina had helped in the office. Now, Daddy held the desk job and Tina busted her ass every day.

  She wouldn’t have it any other way. At least he was alive. The same couldn’t be said of her mother, who had died giving birth to her.

  They made their way to the back of the building where they lived. The two-story warehouse, formally a cannery, was part of Riverview’s history. They loved being able to take care of the building. They’d bought it at auction and renovated every inch of it themselves. Now it stood proudly on the bank of the river as a tribute to the town’s history.

  Behind the front offices was a one-bedroom apartment for Daddy. Tina lived upstairs in another apartment. She usually ate with her father, caught a game or two, then headed up to her own space.

  “You got plans for the weekend?” her father asked over dinner.

  Tina was showered and comfy in her sweats, her hair wet around her shoulders. She shook her head and shrugged a shoulder, knowing what her father was really asking. Did she have a date?

  Daddy huffed. “That engineer fellow hasn’t called you yet?”

  Tina blew it off. “Only five or six times…today.”

  Daddy speared his pasta and put it in his mouth. “I think he’s really smitten with you.”

  “Smitten?” Tina curled her lip up and rolled her eyes. “Daddy, really. Trey is great, but I don’t think I want a guy who is smitten. Sounds a little soft, you know?”

  Not that she would confess that to her father, but soft is exactly how she and her crew described Trey. He was a pencil-pushing, number-crunching, civil engineer who would happily place himself at her heel like a dog. The attention was flattering, she had to admit. Trey doted on her, praised her with gifts and adoration. She would never have to worry about him cheating or running around on her, which he was capable of doing. He had just enough Asian descent to give him the tear-shaped brown eyes and dark features. As her crew said, Trey was pretty. Tina wouldn’t disagree. She’d looked at him plenty in the beginning.

  “Don’t discount him just because he’s not as tough as you are. Not many men are.” He mumbled the last part as if he didn’t want her to
hear it. His eyes said it all. Daddy carried a healthy respect for her above and beyond what fathers and daughters share. They were business partners and friends.

  “Why don’t you plan something with the girls? Keri or Jayden—”

  “Dad,” Tina cut him off, “why are you so interested in my social life?” Her knee bounced under the table.

  He shrugged his wide shoulders. “Aw, I don’t know, baby girl. I guess I saw the way Bo looked at you and I realized how often I overlook the fact that you’re a pretty young woman who should be fighting men off with a stick.” His blue eyes, just like hers, saw far too much these days.

  “I do fight men off with a stick, every day. It’s usually because they want to ring my neck, but it counts.” Tina grinned, hoping to lighten her father’s mood. He rolled his eyes. “Daddy, look.” She set down her fork and made sure she had his attention. “Right now, Trey and I are just a casual thing. I don’t have time for an all-in relationship and he knows that. He says he’s okay with it. Jayden is a freaking mess. We’re coming up on the anniversary of Chris’s death and Keri and I are arguing over how to handle it.”

  “What do you mean?” Daddy put his elbows on the table and stared at her.

  She pulled her hair back and twisted it, playing with the strands, and settled in for a discussion with her father. “Well, I think we need to usher her out of town, take her mind off it. Keri thinks we need to do some sort of balloon release thing. We agreed to take the weekend and think about it, talk to Bear, talk to Chris’s mom, and see what the family thinks. I don’t know what the answer is. What did you do after Mom died?”

  Daddy pursed his lips and squinted his eyes. “It was a little different. I had you, and you kept me busy. When your mom’s birthday came along, you were learning to sit up, so I tried to concentrate on that. The anniversary of her death was your birthday, so we celebrated your birth and her home-going. Jayden doesn’t have a baby to keep her mind occupied.” He looked down at his plate and his face slipped into sadness. “I guess in some ways, I was lucky to have a piece of your mother left to get me through. All Jayden has is that unfinished house.”

  “Maybe that’s why I don’t want to date anyone right now. It’s too hard to think about losing them. Besides. I don’t need a man, I’m just too busy.” Seeing her father’s loss and living though Jayden’s pain only helped mortar up the cracks that Bo created in her defenses. If she was to save herself the heartache losing the one she loved, it was best not to go down that path at all. Keeping people at arm’s length was the simplest solution.

  “I know that. You’ve been independent from your first breath. I know you don’t need a man, T. I’m just worried that you don’t want one.” Her father sighed, a troubling scowl formed on his face.

  “Well if it makes you feel better, I don’t want a girl, either.” Tina picked up her plate to take it to the sink as her father chuckled, put his hands together in prayer, and mouthed thank you Lord to the ceiling.

  Tina thumped him in the back of the head as she walked past and he laughed. “What? I want grandbabies.”

  “You find a man who can keep up with me, Daddy, and we’ll talk.” She kissed his head as she came back to pick up his dishes. “I have our company to run and that’s my priority.”

  Daddy gently touched her arm. “Loneliness is a sneaky demon, Tina Marie. You work so hard you don’t realize it’s sitting in the same room with you until it’s too late.”

  “You should practice what you preach, old man.” Tina winked at him. As much as she joked about it, she was as worried about her father being alone as much as he was worried about her. Neither of them had a thriving social life, but they had friends. Being single in a small town presented challenges people from the city didn’t understand. If you weren’t related to half the town, then you grew up with them and already knew them far too well to ever consider dating them.

  The only reason Trey was in the picture was because he was the engineer on a job they had done in another town. The clients wanted a tornado shelter dug into their foundation in the garage and Tina contacted his agency. It was all good at first, but they were both so involved with their jobs that an actual relationship was too much trouble. Trey was cute and scratched an itch, but that was about it.

  Once the kitchen was clean and her father was properly settled back with a beer and his remote, she retreated upstairs. Her apartment was the entire second floor of the warehouse. Brick walls and support columns, fifteen foot ceilings, old wood floors complete with all the scars and marks from the cannery, large arched windows, and thirty-five hundred square feet of space all hers. She loved the industrial feel, the way the ducts and pipes ran along the ceiling, the way the length of the building faced the river, affording her one of the best views in town.

  Tina fixed herself a glass of iced tea and went out to the balcony to watch the boats go by.

  I saw the way Bo looked at you today…

  Yeah, she’d caught that, too. He’d wavered all day between fear and awe. More than once she’d caught him staring as if he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. Bo would blink, blush, and turn elsewhere.

  The problem was, she was just as dumbstruck by him. Bo Galloway was flaming, smoking, fan-yourself-and-clench-your-thighs hot. He was at least six feet of toned muscle, tattoos, and deeply soulful hazel eyes. Prying her attention from his full bottom lip was harder than she thought possible. Usually, she liked her men to have longer hair, but his dark brown buzz cut fit him just fine. So did his slightly shadowed jaw.

  It was all she could do to act normal. The truth was, her sweat hadn’t been just from the work site. He’d worn cologne to the interview and she could smell it as he heated up throughout the day. It tickled her senses, made her dizzy. Not to mention that quiet, respectful tone of voice he used with her. The rich, husky texture slid over her like a caress, lighting her up in dark places.

  He was brand new to her work crew and yet today he’d been a valuable set of hands. If everything worked out with him, he might help them finish this house under budget. It was a lot cheaper hiring one man for two weeks than to have her entire crew out there for a couple extra days.

  Too bad he was such a sexy distraction. Twice she’d lost her train of thought and had to go back inside to re-measure for a cut. One look at Bo lifting dry wall over his head, flexing his bulging arm muscles, stretching out his defined back, and she was like a drooling teenager.

  She didn’t need this right now. Or ever. Men like Bo didn’t stick around and she was dealing with a disastrous dating life as it was. Somewhere along the way, her brain had begun to function more like all the men she was surrounded by. She had a one-track mind; single in focus, and hard to derail. She’d given up trying to be overly feminine with makeup and an actual hairstyle, at least from Monday to Friday.

  Even her current love interest was more high maintenance than she was. Trey was fond of his expensive suits and his office job. He drove a nice car, styled his dark hair, and his face could stop traffic…except for when it came to her. There was something about him that she couldn’t name. Something, that made her keep him at arm’s length, even though they’d been together for months.

  The bigger problem was as she drifted to sleep, it wasn’t Trey on her mind. It was Bo.

  THE NEXT MORNING, DADDY suggested Tina show Bo around the various houses they were working on. At any given time, Foster Construction had six to ten projects going. Some were in the beginning stages with framing, some were in the finishing-out stage with only paint and molding left.

  “I’ve already called him and told him to come to the office instead of the site he worked yesterday.” Daddy sipped his steaming cup of coffee.

  “Why would you do that? He did good yesterday on that crew, they’re the ones who need an extra hand when I’m not there—like today.”

  Daddy squinted through his readers at the laptop screen. “Do you know how to tweet? The lady at the inspector’s office said I should try to twee
t. I can’t find it on the Google.”

  Tina slapped a hand over her face. “Jesus, Daddy, really? You? On social media?”

  “She said it was easier than that face-look thing you like.” He pecked at the keys.

  “Daddy, focus.” Tina checked her watch and stopped her foot from tapping.

  “What did you ask me? Oh, yeah, Bo. You don’t know what his strengths are. He might be good on Terry’s crew, but he might be great on Gary’s crew.”

  She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Gary’s crew doesn’t need help.”

  “Gary wants me to fire his assistant painter, too. Guy does sloppy work and it’s getting worse. He sent pictures, it’s bad. Gary has to clean up after him, he left boot prints on the slab—”

  Tina threw her hands up. “I’ll give him the grand tour and check on Gary’s crew in the process.” She checked her watch again, wondering when Bo would arrive. It was still ten minutes until six.

  Having him in the truck with her all day made the dream she had last night a bit too prophetic. Her heart had been racing when she’d woken up. Was she seriously nervous about riding around alone with him? Why would she be? This guy was nothing, no one to her, just another guy who might or might not make it with her company. Who’s to say he wouldn’t be gone in a day or a week? Their company had tripled its customers and crewmen in the last year. They’d lost count of the guys they’d hired and fired for one reason or another. Bo could end up being another waste of time. Until a man proved himself in the field, Tina didn’t hold her breath.

  However, Bo was the first guy in months who made her stutter and forget what she was supposed to be doing. Sex was very low on her list of priorities, but yesterday she’d thought of it every time Bo caught her eye. Even now, heat pooled in her belly.

  It was going to be a long day.