Ryder (Blue Collar Daddies #1)

1. Chapter One

Chapter one

R yder

“Let me get this butted up there and put in the screws. Then we’ll only have one more sheet.”

“Don’t worry, I got it,” Desi said, but I could hear the strain in his voice.

We’d been hanging this drywall on the ceiling all morning, and I knew his arms were tired from being stretched up over his head.

Desi was a powerhouse, but at five-feet-five doing ceilings was his least favorite job.

Just as I started to put in the screws, my phone rang.

“If you need to answer that, I got this, man.”

“No, we got a job to do, so whoever is calling can wait,” I grumbled. “If I stopped working to answer the phone every time it rang, we’d never get any work finished.”

“True,” Desi said. “But if you can’t answer the phone and talk to customers, we might be finished.”

“We’re doing just fine. We have plenty of work.”

“We do, but we could have more if you’d get somebody to answer the phones,” he said as I put in the last screw, and he lowered his arms. He groaned and rolled his shoulders to help relieve the tension.

“Last one,” I said, motioning to the piece of sheetrock leaning against the wall. “You good for one more.”

“You know I am. Let’s get this done.”

Hanging the drywall was a two-person job, but once we got the last one up, I sent him to work on something else, and I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing out the ceiling.

We’d taken proper care and time in putting up the sheets of drywall, so the taping and mudding went fast, and I was able to knock it out by quitting time.

We’d cleaned up and headed to the truck by the time I remembered to check my messages.

One was from a woman who said she needed to get an estimate on having her kitchen remodeled.

Kitchen jobs were my favorite and were the most profitable jobs we did, so that was good news.

The next message was from the same woman letting me know not to bother calling back.

She’d found three people to do estimates already, and that was all her husband had asked for.

I checked the time from the first call to now, and it hadn’t even been four hours. What did she think? That I didn’t have anything better to do than answer the phone?

Okay, that wasn’t fair, and I knew it. It wasn’t that she didn’t think I had anything better to do, she just expected my business to operate like some of the bigger ones where the owner sat in an office all day answering the phone and the employees did the work, but that wasn’t the way Davis Construction and Remodeling worked.

I’d never wanted to spend my time pent up in an office.

At least it was Thursday, and I was already planning to meet the guys for a beer tonight because that sounded like exactly what I needed. That and a nice long ride first to clear my head.

I went home, took a shower, and then got dressed to ride.

The second I slid onto the seat of my bike, the day started to fade away, and once I started the powerful engine up, it was gone.

Nothing short of a good fuck made me feel the way riding did.

I put on my helmet and tore out of the garage, having already decided to take the long way to the bar.

By the time I walked into Big O’s, the bar my friend, Owen, owned, Max, Lucas, and Cooper were already sitting in our normal spot at the end of the bar.

We all worked hard, and we tried to meet up at least once a week at Owen’s place to let off a little steam.

Because of our businesses, we didn’t always all make it, but we tried.

I was pleased to see Cooper was here this week.

He ran a landscaping company, and this time of year, he often worked until dark.

Lucas was always here unless he was on a deadline to finish one of the custom bikes he built, and Max owned a heating and air company.

“Hey guys,” I said, taking a seat. “What’s up?”

“Not much, Ryder,” Max said. “How about you?”

“Not a thing,” I said. “But I need a beer. Where’s Owen?” I asked, looking around and not seeing either him or the bartender, Josh.

“Josh isn’t here yet, and Owen is dealing with something in the back,” Lucas said.

“No problem. I’ll grab one myself. Do you need another?” I asked Max, but he shook his head.

“Nope, this is my last one tonight.”

“I’ll take one,” Coop said.

I grabbed a beer and popped the top off, handing it to Coop. A guy further down raised a finger, indicating that he needed one as well, so I did the same for him, just as Josh rushed in the front door.

“Where’s Owen?” Josh asked, rushing around the bar.

“He had to handle something in the back. I was just pitching in until you got here.” I handed him the beer I’d pulled for the guy at the far end, grabbed one for myself, and went to sit down.

Owen rushed out of the back just then, relief flooding his features when he saw Josh behind the bar.

He spoke to him for a minute and then came down to where we all sat.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, a delivery came late, and I had to sign for it. Josh’s class ran late, so he wasn’t here, and Todd was slammed in the kitchen, so he couldn’t do it. I think I need to hire him some more help.”

“You and me both, brother,” Lucas said. “Problem is these custom bikes all have my name on them, and I’m not willing to put one out that I’m not sure is up to my standards.”

“Make that three of us,” I sighed. “I lost another job today. I was putting up drywall and couldn’t stop to answer the phone. By the time she called back and left a voicemail, she’d found someone to do the job.”

“You’re gonna have to figure something out, man. That isn’t good for your business,” Max pointed out.

“Tell me about it,” I said. “The guy I used to work for had a rule that all calls had to be returned within twenty-four hours, and I’ve always tried to follow his example, but the internet and cell phones changed that. Now, people expect immediate contact.”

“That they do,” Lucas agreed. “Things are changing.”

“I like my business the way it is,” I grumbled.

“It’s just me and Desi. And if we have a job we can’t handle, we hire in some day labor.

He keeps telling me I need to hire an office person, but I don’t have time to train anyone to do the job the way I would want it done. Besides, I don’t have an office.”

“Well, for me, it’s not so complicated,” Owen said. “I just need to run an ad. Unless any of you guys know anyone with kitchen experience that’s looking for work? Todd will train them. How about you, Coop? Wasn’t that last boy of yours a cook?”

“He is, but he moved back to Dallas. He decided Austin wasn’t for him.”

“I wondered what happened to him,” I said.

Cooper shrugged. “It’s no big deal. We were only playing around. He wasn’t looking for a full-time Daddy, and I wasn’t looking for a part-time boy. It was fun, though.”

“Hell, I wish I had the time or the energy for even a part-time boy at this point,” Lucas said, draining the last of his beer. He set the empty bottle down on the counter and nodded at Josh, who put another beer in front of him.

“Same here, my friend,” I said. “As it is, I barely have the time or energy to jerk off, much less to take proper care of a boy.”

“When you find the right boy, you’ll make the time, trust me,” Max said with a grin. “Speaking of which, it’s time for me to head home.” He was the only one of us in a relationship. He’d been with his boy, Travis, for a few years now.

“Have a good night, Max,” I said.

“Oh, I plan to, don’t worry about me.” He gave us a wink, drained the last of his beer, and walked out to go home to Travis.

“That’s one lucky son of a bitch,” Coop said.

“He is,” I agreed. “But I’m not sure he has room to talk about making time for a boy, though. Travis seemed to fit into his life like he’d always been there. I don’t think it would be that easy for most of us.”

“I know it isn’t for me,” Lucas said. “I tried, and all I ended up with was a pissed-off boy because I didn’t spend enough time with him, not that he was wrong, mind you, but I’ve got a business to run.”

“Yeah.” I nodded in agreement. “Been there, done that, didn’t much care for it.

I’m perfectly happy on my own. I know where to find play partners when I want one.

” Which hadn’t been very often here lately, I reminded myself seemed like more of a hassle than it was worth.

What I needed was a regular play partner.

Someone who wasn’t like my ex, expecting me to coddle them and treat them like a child.

I didn’t have the time or the patience for that.

I needed something different, something I’d given up hope of finding.