19. Avalanche Of Emotions
AVALANCHE OF EMOTIONS
“ Y ou’ve got something on your face,” Daphne said on Monday mid-morning.
Abe reached up and tried to feel for something, but it only caused her to laugh more. “I’m smearing it, aren’t I?” he asked.
“You are,” she said. “Come here and I’ll take care of it if you want.”
He’d seen her outside with Holly, as the little girl was in the sandbox building. Daphne was right there with her while the baby was in the stroller in the shade.
“I don’t need my men to see me getting my face wiped by the nanny,” he said, crossing his eyes.
She stopped moving toward the container of baby wipes that he’d seen her going for. “Your girlfriend can’t wipe your face?”
His smile widened that she referred to herself that way.
He’d been unsure of what they had though he knew what he wanted it to be.
Seemed she might be old school and want the same.
This new generation of dating where everyone did their own thing and met up when they wanted wasn’t what he was looking for in life.
Separate lives for the most part and together when it was convenient for one or both of them.
Could be part of the reason he was still single too.
“I thought she liked a little bit of dirt on me,” he said, reaching for the wet cloth she handed over the fence to him.
“I do,” she said. “But not when it’s red and more like paint.”
“Shit,” he said.
“It looks like badly applied clown makeup.” She leaned in quickly. “I’m not into that type of thing. Are you a kink guy? I should know that now because clowns scare me.”
He laughed over the forced appalled look on her face.
“Not me,” he said. “I’m old school. I like to know what I’m getting.”
He was scrubbing his face and pulled the cloth away to see the red on it. “It’s gone,” she said. “I don’t even want to know what it is.”
“Spray paint,” he said. “The wind must have kicked up when I was marking things. We’re moving to the path toward the dock now.”
“I spent some time there yesterday with Poppy,” she said. “She knows about us.”
He nodded his head. “That’s fine. I doubt she has an issue with it. She was trying to set us up.”
“She was. She’s taking some credit for this. I let her. I don’t need or want anyone to know about before.”
“That’s fine,” he said. No way he was admitting that Easton knew. “I did tell my cousin and Laurel about you. I had them over for dinner last night. Laurel said she met you.”
“She did one day in the plant.”
“She wants us to have dinner together at some point. Says she can totally see us together.”
He knew his smile was filling his face. “It seems everyone is saying that. I’m not sure I like the pressure of it.”
His smile dropped. The last thing he needed was some other roadblock in their way.
“Don’t think anything of it.” He handed back the dirty cloth since he didn’t want to put it in his pocket. “Hi, Holly.”
“Can I ride on that?” Holly asked, pointing toward his bucket loader making its way past the house to the other side where they’d start digging.
“I don’t think it’s meant for little girls,” he said. “Maybe when you’re a bit bigger.”
“I can sit on your lap,” Holly said. “Daddy lets me sit on his lap when I’m too small.”
He looked at Daphne and saw the tender look in her eyes. He liked kids and always knew he’d have some one day too.
“That’s a work machine,” Daphne said. “It could hurt you. I don’t even want to get on it. You have to be the right person to drive it and I’m not.”
“But I want to,” Holly insisted. “I want to pick up dirt and dump it.”
Holly ran back to the box, picked up a shovel full of dirt and threw it in the air.
“Oh no,” she said. “Don’t do that. You’ll get sand on the baby and then he’ll cry. We don’t want that, do we?”
“I like dirt,” Holly said, tossing more in the air.
“I think I’ll take my leave,” he said, grimacing. “Sorry.”
“Geez, thanks,” she said. “Good to know you run when the going gets tough.”
He saluted her. “You betcha.”
He took off in a walk toward his men while he heard Daphne calmly explain why throwing dirt wasn’t a good thing.
“What’s going on over there?” Mac asked.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“You talking with the nanny,” Mac said. “She’s sweet on the eyes. You trying to get a piece of that?”
He knew Mac was joking, but it still set an avalanche of emotions cascading down his body to hear Daphne talked about like that.
“We’re dating,” he said firmly.
Mac put his hands up. “Hey, I was just kidding. I had no idea. I’m glad to hear it. She seems like a nice person.”
“She is,” he said. “She’s great.”
“She has the patience of a saint with that little girl. She’ll need it with you too. Half the time you’re a kid yourself.”
“I’ve been told that enough,” he said. By his mother.
Which just reminded him he should call and let her know that he was dating Daphne too.
And since when did he feel the need to let everyone know about his personal life so quickly?
“Are you working with us today or just standing around looking like that boss?”
“Working,” he said. “I’m going to drive the big guns today.”
“Travis will be upset,” Mac said. “He thought for sure he’d get to dig up the property.”
“He gets to play with my toys more than enough when I’m not around.”
“Speaking of when you’re not around,” Mac said. “Dylan said he knows a few friends who are looking for summer work if you’re hiring. I know you’ve got a lot going on. You’ll have to split the crew to do it.”
“Yeah,” he said. “You or I should be here at all times. It’s just too big of a project for us not to be. I think Travis can take on a few things on his own now. He’s been a good worker for years.”
“I agree,” Mac said. “If you get him set up and started and check in on him with a few guys, he’ll be good.”
“I’ll go talk to Dylan now and see if he can get the guys to come out today to meet.”
“You’re doing an interview like that?” Mac asked, laughing.
“I don’t have time to set up a formal one. Might as well get them here to see what it’s about, how hard the work is and what they will look like at the end of the day. Best to know going in before I waste my time and training them to last a week.”
Some people weren’t cut out for it even though they tried to say they were.
Long days full of miserable weather, sweat, body aches, and dirt.
It wasn’t always so much fun to drive the equipment.
Equipment that cost a shit ton that he was still making payments on and let very few touch.
“True,” Mac said. “All these guys hear the money you’re paying and not much else. It does my heart good to know that I can run circles around half of them.”
He laughed. “It’s a new generation of workers,” he said. “Harder to get them, but when you find one that wants to do it, they are all in.”
“Just like you and me,” Mac said, slapping his arm. “Not the most glamorous job out there, but a hell of a lot of fun and a great way to work off frustration.”
“My father used to say that,” he said. “All the time. Said there was nothing better to blow off steam than to start manually digging or tossing rocks and pavers around.”
“Kurt was good that way,” Mac said. “Always knew when your father was having a bad day. He’d be in the barn rearranging things for no reason, just to have an excuse to burn off some energy.”
He remembered days like that too and his father would always say that he liked things in order and wanted them changed.
But Mac was right. Thinking back, his father always did that after he knew his parents might be fighting. Or that they didn’t get a big job or the rain wouldn’t stop and they were low on money because they couldn’t finish a job.
Funny how he never realized that before.
All the stresses his father had that were now on Abe’s shoulders.
Was he ready to add a woman to his life who might not understand those worries he’d have?
Then he told himself to not create problems that might never come about.
Daphne wasn’t Ella or any other woman he dated in the past.
She got him.
And he was positive she’d be there for him on the bad days too.