A Better Man (The Men of Halfway House) (5 page)

"Yes," Matt responded. After a few moments, he straightened and finally made eye contact again. "What's first on the agenda?"

"Well, we need to talk about what you'd like to do with the place and take a look at the blueprints you mentioned. That way I can get a feel for what you want to do and the kind of work you want to have done here so I know the best way to go about it. I need to do a check of the basics, electricity, pipes, walls, yadda yadda yadda."

"A check?" Matt asked curiously.

"Yep, so I can make sure we've got a solid foundation to work with. Do you really want to know the details?" He was genuinely concerned he would have a new shadow hovering over his every move.

"I'd like to know what's going on," Matt said, fully composed now and obviously attempting to stamp authority on the situation.

"Well," Julian said as he worked his way toward where Matt stood. "It's going to be a lot of long hours, sweating, and dirty, hard work," he said, drawing out each word as he looked at Matt intently.

That did the trick. Matt did his fingers in the hair thing again, the foot shifting, he even cleared his throat.
Yup, this is going to be fun.

"I just want to know what's going on with my place, okay?" Matt said defensively. "We can start first thing in the morning. It's been a long, hot day."

Julian chuckled and thought he'd give Matt a free pass on his reference to 'long' or 'hot'.

"It's always a long, hot day down here, so I think you better start getting used to it," he said then slapped Matt on the back. "I'm cool with starting in the morning. It'll give me time to note a few things I have in mind and come up with a checklist."

"Great, that'll work then."

"Yup. I'm assuming there's no water or electricity, right?" he asked even though he already knew the answer by the unprotected cables dangling up front and the battery lantern he had noticed when he entered.

"Nope, sorry. It's going to be dark and hot here."

Julian slowly began to smile. Matt was so not getting another free pass.

"Dark and hot, huh?"

Matt had a horrified look on his face. Served him right, he'd walked right into that one—twice—without even realizing it.

"I mean, I've got a couple of lanterns around here that help out but, um, yeah, the place is really dark at night, and I can't really crack open windows, so it's hard to get some air to circulate in here." Matt stopped as if he realized he was talking for the sake of it. "So, yeah, it gets hot at night, and I'm sure you'll probably wake up and have your shirt stuck to you or something," he finished lamely and shrugged.

"Nope."

"I can assure you," Matt began earnestly. "I don't see how someone won't sweat in this place. It's like an oven."

"I don't need to worry about waking up with a shirt stuck to me. I don't wear anything to bed."

And there it was again, that deer-in-headlights look.

Julian wasn't normally this brazen with prospective bosses—or anyone for that matter. Hell, he had
respectful
stamped on his ass, but really, Matt needed to lighten up a bit especially if they were going to be living together for a year. He knew he came across as a hard-ass most of the time, so he wanted to appear casual, playful.

That was what his head was telling him, but his inner child and healthy sex drive agreed; winding this guy up was just too much fun to pass up.

* * * *

There it is again
, Matt thought unhappily,
I'm losing control.
What was it about this man that upset his equilibrium so easily?
Damn it.
Matt was normally the calm, cool, collected one under pressure. The one who didn't do hysterics, the one people went to when the problem needed a solution or when things had to get under control. Now, he felt like a fumbling teenager uncomfortable in his own skin, not knowing what the heck to say or do. Hell, he didn't even know if he should be putting his hands in his pockets or not. He needed to get his bearings and regain a handle on this situation.

No way was he going to let Mr. I-Don't-Wear-Anything-to-Bed get to him.

Shit
.

Now his mind was wandering again. The thought of Julian on the other side of the wall from Matt unsettled him for some reason. Now he had visions of Julian, in bed with nothing on. Matt couldn't stand the conflicting feelings and emotions inside him anymore. He'd had enough for one day. He wasn't in prison anymore. He didn't need to ask how high every time someone demanded he jump. For his own sanity, he needed to take back control here. He was the boss. Julian with the tight ass and the come-to-bed eyes was the employee.

"I'm going to bed," he announced as he put both hands on his hips. "If you want that room," he said, jabbing his finger in the air to the room next to his, "fine."

"Um, okay," Julian said slowly, making it sound more like an oooooooh-kay.

Patronizing fucker.

"If you want that other room," Matt said as he pointed to the end of the hall, "I don't care." He threw his arms up in the air.

Julian pursed his lips and nodded.

"And if you want to sleep buck ass naked," he said in a more elevated tone, "I don't care about that either." He came up to Julian's face, and in a much lower, firmer tone, he added what he thought was a decent enough warning. "Just keep it in your dark, hot room," he said, mocking Julian's earlier comment.

Julian stood inches away from Matt, unwavering. To his credit, he didn't even flinch when Matt invaded his personal space. He looked him just as firmly in the eye and simply responded by raising his index and middle fingers to his temple in a mock salute.

"Yes, sir," he said.

Matt noticed a slight shift in the man. He wasn't sure what it was, but it couldn't be submission. Matt didn't think the guy was wired for that. Regardless of what it was, Julian's half smile disappeared. Suddenly, Matt felt like the bad guy stamping crap all over his new hire. Being like that didn't sit well. He wasn't sure what he had said that had shifted the power, but something had changed in Julian's demeanor. Exhausted after a long day, he just couldn't handle everything along with a new hire who was obviously hitting all the wrong buttons.

"Listen," Matt said, "let's just call it a night and start fresh tomorrow, okay?" He asked this in a low and very calm tone as a peace offering.

"Yup," Julian responded shortly.

Matt continued, "And I'd like to focus on the job and get things going. I know it's a tight deadline, so I'd like to make sure we're both in the same frame of mind. All right?"

"Yup. Got it. Thanks," Julian added before turning toward his room and pulling the broken door closed behind him.

Shit, now Matt felt bad.
Lovely.

* * * *

Julian exhaled heavily and leaned against the closed door.
Crap.
He screwed his eyes shut as his stomach twisted. He'd pissed Matt off. Not a good way to start the job. For some reason, his boss brought out this playful side in him. Granted, he did have a rather twisted sense of humor at times and quick comebacks in most cases, but he sure as hell wasn't a browbeater. He didn't condone being a bully but, in hindsight, that was exactly what he had been with Matt.
Shit.
Julian loved a good banter session, but rarely found someone who could keep up. He thought Matt would be a decent opponent with his 'on his ass' comment from earlier, but maybe that was only because he was half-asleep and had let his guard down a bit. He was obviously someone who liked being in control, so throwing him off-kilter might not be a good thing after all.

Julian pushed off the door and rubbed his shaved head harshly. He liked Matt but somehow that was translating into him becoming a prick around the guy.
Wonderful, I've reverted to grade school behavior—what's next, hair pulling?
He could keep it business. Hell, that was what he always did. No reason to think things would be different this time.

Julian started winding down and took a small notebook, his battery operated fan, and his travel lamp from his bag. He'd been in enough preconstruction areas to know some basic Boy Scout essentials were needed. He unrolled his sleeping bag and decided to sleep on top of it. He turned on his fan, aimed it right to his face and enjoyed the blowing air just as much as a dog sticking his head out the window on a hot summer day. The fan itself was compact and a little slow, but strong enough to circulate some air in the room. With the lamp set up and his notebook in hand, Julian started jotting down a list of to-dos for the coming days and reminders of things to check. He couldn't help but occasionally stop and focus his hearing toward the wall. A subtle creak, like the sound of a bed frame, filtered through, then silence.

Maybe he went right to sleep? Or maybe he's sitting there thinking of a billion ways to massacre this new hire who is pissing him off? Or worse, thinking of hiring someone else.
Julian just shook his head. He couldn't stop worrying he had pissed off Matt. He tried to focus on his notes. After a few minutes, he realized it was a useless battle and finally called it a night.

Julian turned off the lamp and lay back with his head on his folded arm. He heard a faint noise on the other side of the wall so he lifted his head and tried to listen closely.

Matt was snoring.

Julian smiled.

He put his head back down and let the sound of the fan rotation coupled with the steady snoring on the other side of the wall lull him to sleep in the dark.

Chapter 5

Matt grabbed his watch from the small table in his temporary bedroom and looked at the time. "Are you kidding me?" he said aloud. He got out of bed, quickly dressed, and went in search of the source of the banging.

There it was. Julian, sitting on the floor hammering into one of the few solid walls on the first floor.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked, rubbing his face repeatedly and lifting his already sweaty hair off his neck.

Julian stopped hammering. "Good morning, boss."

Matt took a deep breath and said, "Good morning," on the exhale. "It's six thirty in the morning."

Julian nodded.

Matt looked at him blankly. "Julian, it's six thirty in the morning," he said, punctuating each word.

"I wanted to start early. I've already checked the visible pipes and I'm working on the wiring." He had a crinkle between his eyebrows and his lips were tight.

Matt could see the muscles of his jaw clenching. He looked either angry or frustrated. Or maybe this was just his intense work face. It was too damn early to overanalyze.

Something didn't sound right.

"Wait a minute." Matt tried to shake the sleep out of his head. "It's six thirty in the morning." For some reason, he needed to stress that again. "Why are you banging again?"

"I found a few wiring problems, this is one of them," he said as he picked up the smashed drywall from the floor. "Seems you had too many junction boxes piggybacking off each other and that'll never pass inspection. You've also got some wiring that's not grounded so you've got a potential fire hazard."

"So does that mean you're fixing it and we're going to have power?"

"Not yet. You've got a minor roof issue and some of the windows need to be changed. I need to dry in the place first," he said, getting up from the floor with the collected debris in hand.

"You need to what? Wait." Matt was obviously not awake yet.

"Waterproof it. We don't want the place short-circuiting," he said as he wiped his hands after dumping the debris in the garbage bin. "Then I can fix the wiring and do any other rough-in electrical work needed based on the plans before calling in the inspector so we get it all done in one visit."

Matt tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. This was information overload after a sleepless night. He'd tossed and turned too much and barely slept, constantly thinking about too many things he shouldn't be thinking about. Waking to the sound of banging that was still somehow resonating in his head combined with this chatty version of Julian, it was all just too much. He kept his hands covering his face. He tried counting to calm down. He'd promised himself he would start fresh with Julian, and here he was, about to lose it out of sheer exhaustion and the man was simply doing his job.

"Hey, man, you all right?"

Matt finally lowered his hands and saw a look of concern on Julian's face. He tried to push past the exhaustion and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine, just tired. I'm still getting used to the…accommodations…I guess."

Julian gave him a lopsided grin. Then, rather unexpectedly, revealed one of the hands he was hiding behind his back. He was holding a Starbucks cup.

Matt took the drink and sniffed at the sipper. He looked at Julian with a puzzled expression when he recognized the smell of his usual morning drink.

"What's this?"

"I saw the stack of receipts on the table over there," Julian said, pointing to the side table in the open area. "I noticed you always have the same drink in the morning so I figured it was a ritual." He shrugged as he walked back to inspect the newly opened hole in the corner area.