Chapter 40 — Ask Me, Not Him

Hallie realized the old habit was still alive when the man stopped speaking to her halfway through his objection.

He had come to the common room with a work sheet folded in one hand and irritation already set in his face.

Hallie had been moving through the afternoon assignments with Caleb, checking only the gaps that had not settled themselves. Most had. The board was no longer a place where people waited for instructions. It showed what still needed attention and, increasingly, the people responsible for the work handled the rest.

This problem was smaller.

Hallie had asked two experienced workers to spend part of the afternoon showing several of the new arrivals how Cedar Draw divided repair jobs. One of those workers had already been expected on a roof crew.

The man objecting had a reasonable point.

His mistake was turning away from Hallie before making it.

Grant had entered through the side door while they were talking. The man saw him and shifted immediately.

“Alpha, are you actually approving this?”

Hallie felt the change more sharply than the question itself.

One moment she had been part of the disagreement. The next, she had become something to be reviewed.

Grant’s gaze moved from the man to her. He drew breath, and Hallie reached out to touch his forearm. The contact lasted barely a second; he looked down at her hand, then back at her face as she let go. He understood and kept quiet.

The man frowned. “I asked you.”

“I heard you,” Grant said.

Then he looked at Hallie and stayed silent. Heat rose beneath her skin, not from embarrassment but recognition: Grant was refusing to take the argument away from her. Hallie turned back to the man.

“If you think the assignment is wrong, tell me why.”

His jaw tightened. “I just did.”

“You asked Grant whether he approved it.”

“Because he’s Alpha.”

“And I’m the person who made this change.”

A few people nearby had gone quiet. Hallie could feel their attention without looking for it.

She kept her voice even.

“You don’t have to agree with me. But if your problem is with something I’m doing, bring the problem to me.”

The man glanced at Grant again.

Grant remained exactly where he was.

No rescue. No command.

Finally the man unfolded the sheet.

“Fine. You moved someone off the roof crew.”

“For part of the afternoon.”

“That roof needs to be closed before the weather turns.”

Hallie looked at the assignment.

That was the part worth hearing.

“How much work is left?”

“Enough that losing one experienced person matters.”

“Why wasn’t the shortage marked?”

“Because we’re not short. We have enough hands. We don’t have enough people who know that roof.”

Hallie studied the sheet again.

The board tracked need.

It did not distinguish every kind of experience, and she had no intention of turning it into another inventory of people.

Still, she had treated two experienced workers as interchangeable because the number on the roof crew looked sufficient.

That had been careless.

She pointed to one name.

“This one stays with the roof crew.”

The man’s expression shifted, satisfaction beginning too early.

Hallie continued before he could speak.

“The other still spends the afternoon with the new arrivals.”

His brows drew together.

“You just admitted we need experienced people.”

“You need enough experience to finish the roof safely. You don’t need every experienced worker available to you.”

“That slows us down.”

“Some.”

“So why do it?”

Hallie looked toward the yard, where several of the newcomers were already carrying materials under supervision. They could contribute. They also needed to learn how Cedar Draw actually worked if the current strain was going to ease instead of repeating every morning.

“Because teaching them now means fewer people have to stop and explain the same work tomorrow,” she said. “I should not have taken someone your crew genuinely needs. I’m changing that. I’m not canceling the whole plan because one part was wrong.”

The man looked at the sheet.

Then at her.

“You expect me to accept that?”

“I expect you to tell me if there’s another problem with it.”

Silence.

Hallie left the question open.

She had spent too many years around rooms where disagreement climbed a ladder until someone important enough ended it. Bellamy Creek had made that process look orderly.

Cedar Draw had taught her how often order could hide who never got answered directly.

The man tapped the page once.

“The worker you’re leaving us with knows the upper section?”

“Yes.”

“And the other comes back tomorrow?”

“Unless something changes.”

He considered that.

“All right.”

Not agreement with everything.

Not deference.

Enough.

He refolded the sheet, but before he turned away he stopped.

“If the roof runs late, I’m coming back to you.”

Hallie nodded. “You should.”

His eyes flicked toward Grant one last time.

Then back to Hallie.

“I will.”

He left.

The room began moving again around them.

Hallie looked at Grant.

“You were going to answer.”

“I was going to ask what the problem was.”

“I know.”

His mouth shifted.

“You stopped me.”

“You noticed.”

“Hard not to.”

Hallie glanced at his forearm where her fingers had rested.

The memory of their kiss arrived with inconvenient speed. Grant seemed to catch the direction of her attention, because something in his expression changed, quieter than a smile.

He did not touch her.

That restraint felt different after she had already chosen to kiss him once.

“Was I wrong?” she asked.

“About stopping me?”

“About the assignment.”

Grant looked toward the door the man had used.

“You changed the part that needed changing.”

“And the rest?”

“He’ll tell you tomorrow.”

Hallie laughed softly because that was probably true. Grant started toward the yard, and Hallie fell into step beside him without wondering whether anyone would mistake the movement for rank. They had just watched a man refuse to treat her as an extension of Grant’s authority and then, reluctantly, treat her as the person he had to answer. Hallie preferred that. The next objection, if it came, would reach her without passing through her husband first.