June had officially arrived, and it was time to start on the gallery. I’d filled Drew in on the project I was taking on, and he was absolutely shocked. I told him it would be the start of our commercial property sector of the company I wanted him to head up, but because of the deal I was cutting in order to get this into our portfolio, I wanted to head up the project. I brought Drew down with me, so he could survey all the work it would take, and I told him by the time August came around, it should be done, and we could officially launch that new part of our business.

It was a sector I genuinely had no interest in, so I was willing to completely turn it over to Drew once this project was completed.

He kept asking me why I wanted to do the project if commercial property didn’t interest me, and I kept telling him it was because of the crew of homeless men I’d employed. It would be me and two other men who worked full time at the company, and the other four men would be from the homeless shelter up the road. I told Drew I wanted to keep my eyes on them as well as make sure nothing of Hailey’s gotten ruined or stolen, but the moment I mentioned her name, he smiled.

“Hailey, huh?” he has teased. “She hot?”

I balked at the question, scolding him for not being more professional, but scolding him just gave him more ammunition. Yes, Hailey was a beautiful woman, one who was plaguing my dreams. But I didn’t take this job just because she was beautiful. If Drew was serious about this commercial property branch of the business, this would be a really good place to start our portfolio, especially with the ethics and community outreach Hailey held close to her heart.

A couple of the homeless guys were new, faces I’d seen on the street who held signs like “will work for food” and “can do anything for money.” The other two homeless guys were people who had impressed me on other sites, men who had picked up the skills and could use a few others we were about to use on this project. I wanted to groom them for future jobs and give them the tools they needed to interview for other manual labor positions. Or maybe even a position in this new commercial property branch we were apparently starting now.

Hailey was there to greet us with iced green tea and biscuits. The men already on the worksite were grateful, and the smile she had beaming from ear to ear brightened my day. She was walking around and chatting with people, asking them their names and how long they’d been working for the company. When she got to the homeless men, it seemed as if they simply gravitated toward her. While I walked a couple of them through the jobs they were going to be tackling today, the other two were simply spilling their life stories to her.

And she listened with an intent ear and an innocent wonderment in her eyes.

We had to straighten some things up and get everything hooked up to an outside power source before we could get going. We had to bring our own gas generator until we could update her electrical and use it, and all of the setting up alone would take most of the morning. Once we got going, I saw Hailey step out the back door, and for a split second, I wanted her to come back in.

She brightened up a room whenever she walked into it.

I had one of the guys setting up the generator while the rest of us hauled equipment. Drew came by for a little bit to get an idea of how everything would eventually be set up before he took off for the office. Everyone was quick to clean everything of hers out of the way without damaging it, and soon Hailey came in and started carrying things to storage while we got the equipment roaring to life.

As the men were gutting into the nasty sheetrock, with masks on their faces and goggles over their eyes, I told them the first thing we needed to tackle was updating the electrical. I was overseeing the two more experienced homeless guys, so I could teach them about how this all worked while one of my other guys took the other two and started teaching them basic plumbing. The sooner we could get those basic amenities up and running in this building, the faster the project would fly by.

Mostly because we wouldn’t have to run across the street to use the bathroom.

Once all the sheetrock was taken down, one of the guys relieved me from my post. I went outside to take some deep breaths, coughing up the dust from my lungs as I took in the salted air. Hailey came up and stood beside me, her body automatically warming my arm. She had a smile on her face that shone as bright as the sun reflecting off the waters of the ocean, and I couldn’t help being drawn to her.

“I want to double-check and make sure everything’s all right with you,” I said.

“It seems like everything’s going okay. Why?” she asked.

“Well, our first order of business is to get the electrical and plumbing updated and going so we can hook into the power here instead of using a gas generator. Don’t worry, the bills on the place while we’re here, the company absorbs and pays for, so it won’t come out of your pocket.”

“Wasn’t worried about that,” she said, grinning.

“Are you worried about something?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “I trust you.”

“You seem clipped,” I said.

“I’m just ...”

She heaved a heavy sigh, and I could tell something was weighing on her mind. I wanted to ask her what it was and see if it was something I could fix. If there was anything I was good at, it was fixing stuff. Sinks. Plumbing. Yard work. Uneven home foundations. Termite damage. I could fix it all.

If she talked to me, I was sure I could fix whatever it was that was bothering her.

“I’m so grateful for all you’ve done for me,” she said.

I saw a smile break out on her face even though a tear slowly slipped from the side of her eye. I hadn’t realized until then the impact our deal had on her life. I saw all her hopes and dreams shining brightly in her eyes, now reachable with what I’d agreed to do for her. To me, I was just helping her build a building.

To her, however, I had become the catalyst for the future she painted for her life.

“I’m more than happy to do it,” I said.

“You sound surprised,” she said, giggling.

“I honestly am a bit.”

“Why’s that?” she asked.

“Eh, some people in my company don’t like that I’m still so hands-on as an owner.”

“I’ve never understood why people believe an owner isn’t hands-on,” she said.

“Exactly. And some people don’t like that I employ some of the homeless community. You know, to train them and stuff.”

“A lot of people didn’t like my art therapy when I was bouncing around cities,” she said. “You encounter people like that everywhere you go. I, personally, admire it. It’s one of the reasons why I took your deal.”

“Really? I thought it was because I was slashing the pricing in half,” I said, grinning.

“No,” she said, “though that was a perk. It was because of what you do for the homeless community, the outreach you have a passion for, that solidified it for me. I hired someone who holds the same morals I do. That’s important to me.”

I was simply in awe of her, and I was glad she was still staring across the street because I sure as hell wasn’t doing a good job of covering it up.

“I’ve run into a lot of people who have been down on their luck. And, while I can’t always help them, some people only need a hand to pull them up.”

I could see a darkness drift over her gaze, a sadness that crept up quickly behind her eyes. She heaved a heavy sigh again, her mind drifting back to whatever was bothering her, and now, the need to fix it only intensified in my gut.

“Sometimes they just get tired of floundering, and they need someone kind enough to reach down and be there for them,” she said.

The way she talked. The words she spoke. The way she crossed her arms around her chest and the way her eyes were misting over. She was speaking from experience. A personal struggle she was currently floundering with. Was this her way of asking me for help? Was this her way of asking me to stick my arm out so she could grab on?

Was that even appropriate, given our current relationship?

“People helped me out all through my life,” she said, taking in a deep breath. “Including my sister.”

“The one who gave you the investment,” I said.

“The one and only.”

“I had a brother,” I said

I immediately saw her tense. She caught the verbiage I’d used. It just flew out of my mouth before I could catch it.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said breathlessly.

I looked back over at her, and I saw tears cresting her eyes again. This time, her entire body had darkened. Like the weight of my sorrow was crushing her into the ground. Before I could think, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, and she immediately curled into me like she’d been waiting for me to do it this entire time.

I cursed myself for not taking off my glove as my hand ran up and down the length of her arm.

“I haven’t struggled nearly as much as those men in that building behind me,” she said.

“Suffering is relative,” I said. “You can’t equate one person’s suffering with another.”

I wasn’t going to have an issue with her on this project. Professionally, anyway. My body seemed to be drawn to comforting her, holding her, and touching her in any way I could. That was going to be a distraction. But professionally? No. She was grateful, delighted, even, and supportive of the decisions I’d made on-site with my choice of staff. She was exactly as she appeared on the outside, a caring, sensitive artist who wanted the world to feel exactly the way she did.

Free.

Beautiful.

Alive.

I released her from my grasp, and she looked up at me and giggled. I could’ve sworn I saw a hint of a blush creep across her cheeks, but the moment was soon ruined. One of my men was beckoning me back into the building to help move some old table or something, so I nodded down to Hailey before I put my mask back over my face.

I went back into the building and helped haul the table, opting to simply set it out front instead of tossing it into the dumpster. Knowing Hailey even topically, I knew she’d probably want to do something with it. So, I left it for her to experiment with.

If she didn’t want it, I could always haul it off later.

This arrangement was going to be good for all of us. It would get Drew’s passion for the company off the ground, it would get Hailey’s passion off the ground, and I could continue to delve into my passion for helping the homeless. We got a lot done on that first day. We ripped out all the things that didn’t come up to code with the plumbing and electrical, and we set ourselves up to come back in the morning and fix it all. We stayed on-site until about five thirty and then we all dispersed and went home.

I was happy Hailey stayed with us the entire day, and I couldn’t stop watching her as she crossed the street and ducked into the diner.

Part of me wanted to follow her and sit down and have a milkshake with her. I wanted a bit more time with her without the guys interjecting and asking me questions. But I had to shake that thought from my mind. I had to focus on the project at hand. There was too much riding on this for Drew without me screwing around with whatever emotions this woman seemed to be conjuring.

I needed to find a way to choke them down and fast.

Because all she would do is rain hell down upon my life before I could even blink my eyes.