Trevor adjusted his goggles and jumped. He might as well have hit sheer ice. The bone chilling water enveloped him, slicing through his flesh with numbing clarity. The painful cold caused every hair on his muscular body to stand on end and set his teeth to chattering. His breath effectively stolen by the freezing water, he managed to fight for the surface of the pool.
He stared at his work crew in shock, unable to think of a single cuss word.
"Cold, ain't it hombre?" Rufus, the only Mexican on the crew asked. Rufus stood a mere five feet four inches tall with jet black hair that always seemed to stand in disarray. He held Trevor's towel in a wad of disheveled terry cloth. Trevor eyed the towel anxious to wrap it around himself.
He tried to glare at each of his three employees in turn. Was his face frozen solid? His eyes seemed the only organs in his body answering his instructions to move. No wonder they refused to inspect the pools. What had he been thinking? He'd been thinking of how to get a jump on the competition and show some much needed profit on the company's ledgers at the same time. The company wasn't in trouble, but Trevor lacked his father's head for business.
His father had discovered many years ago that Trevor had a propensity for designing beautiful pool areas. It was the part of the business Trevor did best. Since his father's untimely death he'd unwittingly strangled most of the life out of the company. He must find a way to prove to himself and others that he was more than his father's screw-up.
The outdoor temperature in the sun at this hour boasted 52 and rising. Not bad for a brisk walk, but not the overly warm triple digits this same pool area would boast in three months time. Problem was that people wanted to use their pools as soon as the temperatures hit the mid seventies and that meant inspecting and repairing the pools in cooler temperatures.
"Ready to get out Boss-man?" Brodie, the smart-alec on the crew crossed his arms over his chest. Not an easy feat for a guy with a chest circumference of fifty inches and arms to match.
Anxious to get out of this fix without losing face should have been Trevor's first concern, but survival preempted his leadership skills. Both far outweighed the business' needs at the moment. His gaze fell on Darin. At the tender age of eighteen, Darin was the youngest man on the crew and Brodie's "little" brother. He also had a tender side that Brodie often beat out of him whether physically or by shear intimidation of muscle and strength. Darin didn't let Trevor down this time.
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