Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Story is rated M for language and lemons.

Chapter 28

BPOV

"Bells, come over here," Charlie called as I boarded my boat.

"Hey, Dad, Edward, how were both of your days?" I asked as Edward handed me a beer.

"Nice, I had a talk with my mom after I finished the deck, which laid a little bit of the groundwork for what we discussed about moving the business forward." Edward was smiling and that made me happy. I knew he wanted to succeed on his own, but maybe he felt he'd done well enough that he could go to his mom as an equal and start a profitable partnership.

"Good, I'm glad you were able to talk to her about it. Now, if you'd just sit down and talk to your dad…"

"We have a ways to go before he'll forgive me for giving up on what he thought was best for me," Edward said as I went to pull the fish that Charlie had started out of the oven.

"Parents want what's best for their children, and I know you didn't follow in his footsteps, or go into a white-collar job, but you're respected around town for the work you do. In fact, there's a bunch of projects around my house that I'll never get to, and I'd like to hire you when it's convenient for you."

I looked at Charlie as he watched Edward for a reaction. "I'd be honored to fix up your house, Sir. I've got a few handyman projects lined up, the rest of which I'm going to divvy up between my guys, but after I finish my house I'll come over and work on yours."

"Good, now if you'll just knock off the 'sir' crap we'll be in business," my dad said, cutting through the tension.

We ate dinner, continuing to talk about Edward's work and I was thrilled that Charlie and Edward were bonding like they were because they're both important to me.

Charlie left around nine-thirty and Edward pulled out his laptop to look over his books. "Is everything okay?"

Edward nodded and closed his laptop, "Yeah, I was just talking to the guys today, and if we're going to make this work, they're going to be working with me a lot more. Jared and Paul are excited, because I'll still work around their security jobs as much as possible, and the young guys are excited because it's more money for when they go to school."

"How will they be able to swing both?" I asked, not really able to imagine working as hard as they do on the construction site, plus working other jobs.

"Jared and Paul work three ten hour shifts: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday graveyards. So we do most of our work during the week, because people want you to work while they're out of the house, they don't want you at their house while they're home with their families unless they really need the work done, so all that means is they'll be unavailable Monday's because they'll be coming off a weekend of nights, but the other four days I'll have my two most experienced guys with me.

"As for Collin and Brady, they've been working with me since I started on my own, mainly doing a few hours after school and my Saturday jobs, and Seth joined us this year. Collin and Brady have graduated, so they'll be around full-time and Seth will still be afternoons, so when we're starting to lose steam, the extra set of hands will show up. They all want to save up for college, because they know how expensive it is, so this is a decent paycheck for them. I take a cut of their hourly rate if they do a project on their own, or take the full value if I'm doing it myself, and that gets split between the business and me personally. So I technically make what my guys make, only when I do the job, its extra profit for the business."

I listened to him talk about how he worked his books and decided to tell him my idea instead of springing it on him. "Have you ever looked into grants for small businesses? Its free money that you could use to help pay some of the bills, like all the insurance you have to carry and the other overhead could be knocked out by them if you just know where to look."

"That's never been my thing, Bella. I don't know how to write proposals and fill out the paperwork to make it look right." Edward sighed, but I wasn't going to let him get down on himself.

"I'm great at it," I told him. "It's how Charlie's almost done with my college debt. I've done my mom's taxes since I was fourteen and I'm really good at understanding all of the rules and loopholes. Will you let me try and get you some extra money? It could help you be on more equal footing with your mom if you approach her about teaming up."

"How can I say no to you?" he whispered. "Go ahead and see what you can find, the worst thing they can do is reject the application. Oh, and can you do me a favor tomorrow while I'm working on Mrs. Yorkie's closet?"

"Sure, babe, what do you need?"

"I'm having the lumber yard deliver the sheetrock and the insulation in the afternoon, and the guys are going to move it into the house for us so it doesn't get rained on. What I need is for you to let them in and direct traffic for me. I'll give you a list of how much of what type of sheetrock has to go on each floor and then just lock it up when you're done."

"I can do that," I told him, glad that he trusted me.

"Okay, good, now let's forget about anything work related and just relax for the rest of the night," Edward said as he pulled me a little closer as we snuggled in bed.