While He Built Her Home novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Green Folder

Clayton's POV

The office at the yard is a trailer with a space heater.

My desk in it is the one I bought at twenty-six.

On Thursday night I sat in it with the lights off and the books open.

Jared keeps his half of the company's paperwork in a green folder.

He has never once locked it.

I started with the Linden Court project.

There was a work order, signed by Jared, for twelve trucks and "complete interior remodel, second floor, residential."

It had a start date of last Monday and no client name.

There was no deposit and no contract.

There were receipts clipped behind it for paint, a walnut crib, a changing table and a mobile.

Forty-one thousand dollars, charged to Vaughn and Quade.

I added it twice.

Then I opened the second ledger, the one from spring.

I had never wanted to open it again.

In April, Jared took sixty thousand out of the company account for what he called a lake lot.

He said he'd put it back by July.

July came and went, and I found the hole on a Sunday night in August.

I didn't tell anybody.

I held back my own pay for three months so the payroll would clear.

I told the crew it was a slow quarter.

Jared never asked how it got fixed.

I put the pencil down.

I thought about Valerie on Saturday, laughing at a joke about a shovel with a face the color of paper.

She had thanked me for the wall twice.

All I had done was lift it.

I wanted to give her the whole week back.

I heard a truck on the gravel.

The door opened without a knock, and Jared came in smelling like Brynn's house.

It was vanilla and fresh paint.

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