“Huh.” He rubs his chin.
“Anyway, I’m not sure I’m the best one to teach Romy.” I broach this with attempted casualness.
He frowns. “Trace. We talked about this.”
“Yeah, I know, but it would be a good chance for you and her to spend time together. Father-daughter time.”
“True.” He purses his lips. “But we both know you can do a better job of teaching her what she needs to know. You’re the same generation. I went to the Academy years ago. And with all the work you’ve done…” He speaks cautiously. “Your knowledge is exceptional. Your powers as well.”
He knows it’s a sore spot for me. Once I got over acting out my grief at losing my family, I spent a lot of time researching, trying to find a way to get them back. I haven’t succeeded, but I have learned a lot. “She makes me feel old.” I shove my hand into my hair. “Her grimoire is an iPad.”
Joe barks out a laugh, then sobers when I don’t laugh too. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“She can’t do that.”
“I don’t think telling Romy that will go over well. Is there a good reason she can’t?”
“It’s never been done.”
“We both know that’s not a good reason.”
He sits, nonplussed. “I suppose that’s true. Hell.”
One corner of my mouth lifts. “Maybe we’ll learn something from her.”
Joe grins, looking oddly proud. “Maybe we will. But I take your point about spending time with her. I’ll make sure I do that. I can reinforce your lessons, help her out with homework. And get to know her better.”
I sigh inwardly. I tried. “Yeah. That’d be great. The other thing I want to mention is… if Romy passes her WED, she has two sisters. Together…” I swallow. “…they could have Triad Energy.”
“Oh. Holy shit.”
“Yeah. Maybe. There are other families with three girls who don’t. They have to bond at a higher level to access the power.”
“That would be…” He stops.
Triad Energy is the most powerful form of magic. Together, three women witches with Triad Energy could solve all kinds of problems. Also create all kinds of problems.
“Yeah. But let’s deal with that when we know.” I stand and pick up my empty mug. “I have to get out to a job site.”
“Hang on.” Joe stands too. “Do we tell Romy what we suspect about her mom?”
“You’re her father. That’s up to you.”
“Right.” He drags a hand down his face. “I guess I should be the one.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” He sighs. “And we’re meeting this afternoon, right? With Al and Dan about the Akako project.”
“Yep. See you then.”
I return to my office to grab my phone. As I pass through the reception area, I wave at Orva, who runs the office and acts as a secretary/assistant to Joe, Chuck, Tony, and me. She’s in her thirties, with pale blond hair, false eyelashes, and long, sharp nails. Every day she wears skirts and killer heels to a construction office. When Joe hired her, I was a little taken aback, but she’s unbelievably efficient, on top of every little thing, and customers love her. “I’m going out to the Dandridge site. I’ll be back after lunch.”
“Okay!” She waves me off as she picks up the phone. “Dream Homes, how can I help you?”
The Dandridge project is a reno of a single property home in Lincoln Park. They want the main floor opened up, and there are problems with load-bearing walls, so I’m going to take a look along with our engineer, Calvin. There are also some plumbing issues as we want to run plumbing up to the third floor for a wet bar.
I walk up to the charming graystone. I love this house. I step into a huge foyer with the original oak staircase directly in front of me. That’s going to be refinished too. We also have the original oak flooring, which is gorgeous. It’ll be a bit of a challenge to patch in the places where we’ve removed walls, but our flooring guys are up for that. We’ve done it many times.
“The homeowner doesn’t want the beam to show,” Eric tells me.
“We can cut back the floor joists above,” I say, glancing at Calvin. “Any problem with that?”
“We can do that.”
“Then hang the ends of the joists from the sides of the beam, using joist hangers.”
“Yep.”
“Lots more work. Lots more money.”
“I need to tell them how much more,” Eric says.
“We could also use a smaller beam and a post.” I walk along the wall. “But they probably won’t like that either.”
“We could make it a decorative post,” Eric says. “Work it into the design.”
“Okay. I’ll give you both scenarios.”
Calvin helps me calculate the sizes of the beams, which is tricky to figure out, taking into account deflection, shear, deadweight versus live weight, and roof loads. My degree is in construction management, and I readily admit to relying on an engineer for this stuff.
“Want me to call the homeowner?” I ask Eric when we’re done.
He grins. “Sure. They always take bad news better from you.”
This house is worth several million dollars, but the homeowner has been freakishly tight with the reno budget, losing his mind over every change. It’s an old house. We warned him we were going to find unexpected things.
I give him a call from my truck, explaining the problems and potential solutions, and the costs. “Those are your three options,” I finish. “Do you want to think about it?”
Please, no. We’re running behind schedule and sure as hell don’t need more delays.
“I’ll get back to you tomorrow,” he tells me in a grouchy tone.
“Okay, great.”
I’m meeting Garrett for lunch, and it’s just about that time, so I drive to a sports bar on West Wrightwood. I freakin’ love their pulled pork sandwich. I have managed to almost exactly duplicate it at home without even using magic.
Garrett’s already there at a high table against the wall. I head over and slide onto the bright red metal stool. I set my phone on the table.
“Hey. How’s it going?”
“Good. New haircut?”
He runs a hand over the shorter style of his dark blond hair. “Yeah.”
“You look like you’re twelve.”
“Thanks, asshole. How are you doing?”
“Eh.”
“That doesn’t sound positive.”
“I’m distracted.”
“By a cute new witch?”
“Ha.” Then I grimace. “Yeah.”
“I can’t believe she turned out to be Joe’s daughter.”
I’ve told him the whole nutty story. “Same. I started tutoring her for her WED.”
“Convenient. You get to spend more time with her.”
“I don’t want to spend more time with her.” It’s a lie. “I also don’t want to spend a bunch of time teaching magic. Magic’s been useless to me.” I hear the bitter tone in my own voice.