by Cee Bowerman
FINN
Conner Brothers Construction, Book 1
By Cee Bowerman
Property of CLBooks, LLC
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
This book is the first in the new series, Conner Brothers Construction. This series is set in Rojo, TX, just like The Texas Knights MC and The Texas Kings MC books.
Conner Brothers Construction is a stand-alone series, but occasionally some of the characters from around Rojo might make an appearance or two.
I’ve based Rojo on the town that I live in. My birthplace, where I still live today is just big enough to get lost in the crowd, but still small enough to always find at least one friend in common with any stranger you meet.
As with my other books, family is the center point of each story. In this case, it’s a family full of men who are each part of a set of twins. Some are identical, others are fraternal, but all of them are close. They work together, live close to each other, and no matter what they do there’s always someone there to give them hell about it. That’s what family does, isn’t it?
I hope you enjoy this new series, and I would like to thank you for giving me a chance to entertain you once again. The characters in this book are close to my heart, and a few of the events happened in real life. (Has anyone ever finished a game of Monopoly? I’m asking for a friend…) Be prepared to laugh and cry, and hopefully by the time the book is over you’ll want to know what happens next.
I hope that you enjoy this book and the ones that follow it, as much as I enjoy the characters and the lives I have created for them. As always, I’ve got to send a shout out to my girl tribe: Victoria, Chrissy, Judi, Kim, Shannon and of course my good friend whose accent is even thicker than mine, Jamie. You ladies are such a help to me, and I appreciate each of you so much. All of you are wonderful, and I’m thankful to have you in my circle.
Also, a shoutout to another tribe I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know recently. Brianna M., Cathy H., Claudia M., Jazmyne F., Jennifer C., Joanne P., Maria M., and Melissa M., - all of you are Queens, and I’m glad to know you. You’re beautiful inside and out, and I enjoy chatting with all of you.
Please look for me in all the usual places: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by searching for @ceebowerman . I’d love to hear from you!
Don’t forget to leave a review on Amazon when you are finished and let others in your circle know how you felt about this book.
Thank you for reading!
Cee
1.
“Touch me and I’ll rip your arm off and beat you with it…”
Lena
LENA
“Can I get you a to-go box?” I asked the older man as I cleared out some of the empty dishes on his table. “Or maybe a drink?”
“No, sweetheart, but thank you.” The elderly gentleman smiled sweetly up at me, and I wondered if he had kids or grandkids that he smiled at like that. “I’ve never seen you here before, are you new?”
“I usually work the morning shift, but one of the other girls is out with a sick baby so I took her shift tonight.”
“Well, bless you for that.”
I smiled down at him as I put the ticket on the end of his table. I turned, my hands full of empty plates, and almost ran into Ronnie, the dishwasher. He smiled his creepy smile at me and took the dirty dishes out of my hand, making sure to touch my fingers with his like he did every time he did this to me. I glared at him and walked past, focusing on the waitress station in the back.
The new girl, the one that I was supposed to be training, was standing there with her phone in her hands. Again. I rolled my eyes and walked past her to get started on my prep work so that I could get out of here as soon as my shift was over.
My feet were killing me, my back ached, and I had a pounding headache. It didn’t help that I knew I had to clean house as soon as I got off work. My Stepmother, Nellie, had already sent me three text messages, griping about how I hadn’t mopped or vacuumed yet today.
I had been at work since six fifteen this morning, and it was almost nine-thirty at night now. I hadn’t quite had the time to get her chores done, but she didn’t care at all.
“Can you put the phone down and do some work, Lexi?” I growled at the young girl, and she clicked her phone closed and slipped it into her apron as if I hadn’t already seen it in her hand. “Did you finish the silverware?”
“I did!” She said cheerfully. “What’s next?”
“You do the salt and pepper shakers, and I’ll cut lemons for the tea.” I showed her where the tray with the pitchers of salt and pepper were stored and sent her out to the floor to refill the bottles as needed. “Make sure to move everything to the end, wipe the table down, refill the salt, pepper, and sugar packets, and then slide them back where they belong.”
She curled her lip when I handed her a dry rag and the bottle of cleaner, but she turned around and started to work. I gathered what I would need to slice the lemons, and then washed my hands and got to work myself.
Ronnie walked over with a few bills in his hand, and a slip of paper that looked like a lottery ticket.
“That man left this on your table, sweetheart. Here, let me just slip it into your pocket.” Ronnie’s hand started for my apron, but I stepped back before he could touch me. I held my hand out, and he touched my fingers as he laid the bills and ticket into my palm. “Go get a drink with me when your shift is over?”
“No.” I shook my head and stuffed the bills and ticket into my apron pocket. “One thousand times, no.”
“Why are you so snotty to me, sweetheart?” Ronnie took a step closer to me and stuck his hand out to touch my face. “You’re not any better than me.”
“Touch me and I’ll rip your fucking arm off and beat you with it.” I growled. Ronnie had been injured by me before and snatched his hand away quickly. I saw him open and shut the fingers on his left hand, remembering the day I had dislocated two of his fingers after he touched my face. “Go on now.”
With a growl, Ronnie spun around on his heels, muttering something that sounded a lot like ‘uppity bitch’ as he went. I rolled my eyes and then washed my hands again, ready to get my work finished so I could get out of here.
“Honey, it’s already slowed down enough, you go ahead and go home.” Shirley, the owner of The Station, the diner where she and I both worked, came up and took the knife out of my hand as she smiled at me. “You’re a sweetheart for staying all day. You take tomorrow off, you hear? I’ll cover your shift.”
“You’re a saint, Shirley.” I nodded toward Lexi and then shook my head slowly. “Not sure what to tell you about that one.”
“You’re nicer than me, Lena. I’d have dropped that phone in a tea pitcher by now, see how she’d like that.” Shirley and I laughed together for a second at the thought of what Lexi’s reaction would be to lose that phone. “She’d screech the walls down, I’m sure.”
“I’m going to take you up on your offer and get out of here. Nellie has been texting me since three this afternoon.”
“I don’t know why you put up with that woman since your Daddy’s already gone.”
“She’s the only family I have left now.”
“She doesn’t treat you like family, honey. You’re her own personal servant.”
“She’s always been this way. If she acted any differently, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“I wonder what the ladies in her church group would think if they heard some of the things she says to you.”
“They’d clutch their pearls and start to feel faint.” I put one hand up to my neck to clutch an imaginary pearl necklace and fanned my face quickly with m
y other hand. With an exaggerated southern drawl, I gasped and whispered, “Lord above, how could she say such vile things?”
Shirley laughed and slapped me on the ass to get me moving. “You get out of here, honey. Go get off your feet.”
I pulled my purse from the shelf under the tea machine and put the strap over my shoulder. I waved at Shirley as I walked through the kitchen to the back door. Once I let myself out, I said goodbye to Charles, the cook who was standing a few feet away smoking a cigarette.
When I was finally in my car with the door shut and locked, I took a deep breath and leaned my head back onto the headrest. My legs were cramping and my feet ached, but just sitting down and relaxing for a second made my headache just a little better. After a few minutes I leaned up and started the car and jumped when I saw Ronnie standing next to my window. He made a motion for me to roll the window down, but I just shook my head and put my car into gear. I couldn’t deal with Creepy Ronnie’s shit right now. I needed to use this time to brace myself for the fit Nellie was going to throw when I got home this late and interrupted her evening routine.
✽✽✽
“I want you out of my house, Lena. I’ve taken care of you for much longer than I ever should have had to.” Nellie pointed to the front door and stomped her foot. “You’re an ungrateful piece of trash just like your Mother was and I can’t stand to look at you anymore.”
I stood there at the front door in shock, staring at my Stepmother as she yelled at me. Some of my things were stuffed into trash bags that had been piled in the hallway, and I realized that Nellie was seriously kicking me out of the house I had grown up in.
“You’ve taken care of me? You can’t be serious, Nellie.”
“I am serious. I’ve had enough of you and can’t stand to look at you. You take your stuff and go on now, and don’t darken my door again.”
I had moved home a little over a year ago to help with my father as cancer took over his body. I sat beside his bed, doing all the things his wife should have been doing for him, until the day he took his last breath four months ago. But this woman wanted to say she had been taking care of me?
With that, I lost my temper. It didn’t happen often, but every time it did it was memorable.
“You wait just a fucking minute, hag. I’m not leaving this house with just the shit you packed for me. I’ll take the pictures and things I want, and I dare you to try to stop me.” I walked closer to Nellie and leaned down until we were almost nose to nose. “I put up with you talking to me like that for years, always trying to find the good in you that my Father saw. Let me just say, there is none. You can sit your fat ass down on that couch while I pack what I want, and I better not hear another fucking word out of your mouth. Got it?”
Nellie squeaked and sat down in the recliner behind her, stunned at my outburst. I reached over to the table next to her chair and grabbed her cell phone and dropped it into my apron. I didn’t want her making phone calls and harping about being in danger, because if I heard one more word out of her mouth, I didn’t think I would be able to control myself and I would end up in jail.
I pulled my phone out of my purse and pushed a few buttons, waiting patiently for Shirley to answer. Finally, on the fourth ring, she picked up the phone.
“Shirley. I need some help. Can you ask your husband to come over to my house?”
“Sure, sweetheart. Do I need to bring a shovel or a bat? What’s the status?”
I laughed at my friend.
“I’m moving. Tonight.”
“You’re finally moving away from that harpy? What time do you want him to come over?”
“Now.” I took a deep breath and continued, “Nellie has decided that I’m an ungrateful little shit and she’s kicking me out of my own fucking house.”
“That bitch.”
“Yep.”
“I’ll have my man and a few others over there in a jiffy, sweetheart. You’re welcome to stay at our house if you need to, but I know that there’s a vacancy at the apartments. I finished cleaning it today and I was going to list it tomorrow.
Shirley and her husband, Ralph, owned a small apartment complex near the college on the edge of Rojo, our small town in Texas.
“I’ll take it.” I growled and pushed the screen to hang the phone up. “I wonder what your church friends would say about the way you treat me, Nellie?”
She didn’t say anything at all, just pursed her lips.
“Just so you know, I’ve got every single one of those nasty voicemails you’ve left me saved in my phone. I wonder what your friend the preacher would say if he heard a few of them?”
Nellie’s eyes widened and her face got red.
“I’m going to gather up my stuff, my father’s stuff, and move my shit out of this house. You can bet that I’ll not ‘darken your door’ again. You’ll sit your ass right there while I get my things, and I don’t want to hear a word from you, or I’ll start forwarding your nasty messages to every single person in the church directory. I’ve hit my end with you, and I’ve got nothing to lose. You were the last person alive on this earth that I considered family, and now you’re dead to me. You’re going to die lonely and bitter, and I’m going to let you.”
Nellie did the smartest thing I’d ever seen her do and sat there quietly staring at the carpet.
✽✽✽
Ralph’s friend Joe set down the last of the boxes we had piled into his truck and smiled at me as I thanked him for his help. I shut the door behind him and turned around to survey my new apartment. It wasn’t half bad. The living room and dining room were set apart from the kitchen by a short bar with two stools. The kitchen appliances were new and shiny, the countertops were gray imitation marble that went well with the gray and white tiles of the backsplash.
Since my new apartment was at the end of the building, I was lucky enough to have windows on two sides of the living room, and access to a balcony that faced an open field to the East of the property. I went down the short hallway and passed the bathroom and spare bedroom that held all my boxes before I walked into the master bedroom at the end of the hall. Ralph had been nice enough to assemble my bed, and I fell back, exhausted, onto the bare mattress.
In just three short hours, I had left work, packed up my things, and moved into a new place. It wasn’t ideal, because I had been hoping to have secured a better job before venturing back out on my own, but I could make it work. I had a little bit of money left in savings and could still work at the diner while I put in even more applications around town.
My office management degree wasn’t really opening doors for me, and I smiled when I remembered my Father telling me that would happen. But at the time, I was head over heels in love and couldn’t wait to start working at my fiancé’s family company, running the front office for him as he took over in his Dad’s retirement. Julian was the eldest son in his family and had worked at his father’s company since he was old enough to swing a hammer.
The planned year of engagement turned into four and I had almost lost hope of ever hearing wedding bells. One day, my Father called as I was driving home from work, and he told me of his cancer diagnosis. It was Stage 4 with no hope of fighting it. Since I wasn’t too far from the office, I turned around to go back and talk to Julian, glad I at least had the presence of mind not to drive all the way home in the condition I was in at the time.
Julian was still at the office. When I found him I got a good glimpse of his naked ass as he fucked his secretary, also my best friend, on the top of my desk. My grief turned into rage, and I lost my temper and attacked the naked couple, causing Julian to need seven stitches where the stapler hit him on the crown of his head.
Lucky for me, his embarrassment, and a threat from both of his parents won out, and he dropped the charges he had tried to press against me for assault. However, by then I was unemployed and single, so it made it easier to move back to Rojo and spend time with my Dad as the cancer slowly took him away from me.
; Six months ago, just to have a reason to get out of the house, I had taken a job as a waitress at The Station. Working the early hours and getting off right after the lunch rush were perfect for me and made it easy for me to be with my Dad after the home health nurse left for the day. God knows that Nellie wasn’t available to take care of him, since she had too much on her busy schedule with her church obligations and Bingo group with her friends.
I stared at the ceiling, wondering why I had spent the last few months alone in that house with her. I had tried my hardest to love her, and make her love me, but after twenty-five years I was done. Finished. If I never saw her face again it would be too soon.
Now I needed to get my life together, find a decent job, work on building my savings back up, and try and get back into the dating world.
Okay, maybe no dating. I’d seen some of the available men in this town, and not even one of them and piqued my interest so far.
I rolled over and stared at the box that held my bedding, willing it to open and for the sheets to magically cover my mattress. I smiled, closing my eyes for just a second, as I had thoughts of Cinderella’s birds and mice working hard to make my bed.
✽✽✽
A loud noise woke me up, and I sat up with a jolt, freezing cold and confused by my surroundings. I saw the boxes and trash bags piled up in the gray morning light and remembered that I was in a new place. I heard a knock on my door and realized that was probably the sound that had woken me, so I slid out of bed and headed to the front door.
I looked through the peephole and smiled when I saw Shirley there with coffee and a bag from the donut place just up the street from my new apartment.
I threw the door open and stuck my hand out for the coffee cup. Shirley smiled and handed it over, scooting past me in the doorway in the process.
“I came to help you get settled in.” Shirley said as she put the box of donuts on the bar. “Ralph said you had quite a bit of stuff and even some furniture.”