Read Online Once and Again by Elisabeth Barrett - Free Book Online Page B

had a future together—she was always going back to her fancy Manhattan prep school in the fall—to her kind—and he was going back to state college. That was the way things worked, and the fact that he’d ever thought differently just showed how deluded
he
was.
    In a way, he owed her thanks. If not for her betrayal, he might never have fought to define himself on his terms, his way. He would always have been striving, grasping to be a part of her world. A world full of lies and snobbery and appearance.
    And now look at him! On top while Carolyn and her family were at the bottom. He’d been in New York briefly after he graduated from business school, but then he’d moved down to Miami, so he’d known about Charles Worring’s downfall, but he hadn’t heard about the role Bart Rivington played. Once he’d realized Carolyn was here, he’d done a little digging. She’d told him they lost everything, but what she hadn’t told him was that her dad was embroiled in multiple litigations involving his part in the affair.
Jesus,
what a mess.
    He shouldn’t care about what happened to Carolyn and the rest of the Rivington clan. He really shouldn’t. What goes around comes around, right?
    Still, she had guts, he had to admit. Any other person would have buckled long ago. But Carolyn Rivington stood there, back straight, head held high, jumping through every hoop he put in her path.
    “That’s my proposal for the event. Do you have any questions?” Carolyn tilted her head politely, waiting for him to speak.
    “Yes, I—” And then his cellphone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the number. “I have to take this,” he told a surprised Carolyn. “I’ll come to your office if I need more information.”
    She nodded once, then turned and walked away. He watched her retreating back, waiting until she was inside before he clicked his phone on.
    “Gaffney.”
    “Jake, it’s Chris Dryer.” Chris was his general contractor on the Portofino property—luxury apartments in Coral Gables that lately had been giving him nothing but grief.
    “Tell me some good news, Chris.”
    “I wish I could, but we’re looking at numbers at least fifty percent higher than the original budget.”
    “Including the foundation work?”
    There was a brief silence. “No.”
    “What does the timing for the whole project look like?”
    “A year over.”
    Shit.
“That’s a third longer than we budgeted for,” he said, trying to keep a lid on his frustration.
    “I’m really sorry about this. You know as well as anyone we can’t control what the city does. We couldn’t have known they’d change the building code after Hurricane Francine or that our plans would violate the new code.”
    “But we should have banked on Llewellyn’s cost estimates being off by an order of magnitude.” Gregory Llewellyn, the architect he’d hired to design Portofino, was infamous for going over budget. A dull ache began to form deep inside his head, right between his eyes. “Look, I know you’re doing what you can. Why don’t you send me the numbers—everything you’ve got, down to the penny—and I’ll run them again. See if I can prepare a revised construction schedule. Don’t forget to give me the names and estimates from all our subcontractors.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Before the close of business, okay, Chris?”
    “Of course. And again, I’m sorry, Jake. I wish things were different.”
    “Me, too.”
    Jake jabbed the off switch on his cellphone and shoved it back in his pocket. Construction costs had a funny way of snowballing. He’d expected some ballooning—after all, the condos were being built in pricey Coral Gables and he’d actually calculated in 10 percent of wiggle room. But somehow, things had spiraled out of control. Llewellyn was all vision and no practicality. But Chris was right—he had no control over the city. Damn those faulty estimates and damn the city for making everything so difficult.
    He’d