Chapter 5
NATALIE
Isipped my coffee and tapped my pencil on the notepad on my desk before pulling it into my mouth and nibbling on the eraser.
It was my creative process. Sip, tap, nibble.
Over and over. I was struggling to concentrate.
I had no business dwelling on him. I couldn’t quite shake the feeling he had been flirting with me just a little.
There was no way Hudson Steele would even look twice at me.
I was little Natalie. The sprite. He barely noticed me growing up.
I remembered the raging crush I had on him when I was fourteen.
He was a senior in high school and very popular.
All the girls wanted him. I was pretty sure he had them all as well.
They wanted him and he was all too happy to give them what they wanted.
Last night, I was certain he’d been flirting.
Not overtly, but there were some looks. Maybe I was imagining things.
Maybe it was wishful thinking. I did have a few drinks.
It was entirely possible I had seen things that weren’t there.
But there was that moment. He had leaned in and he was looking at my lips.
Didn’t that mean he was thinking about kissing me?
The young Natalie would have been freaking out.
I would have been on the phone calling my girlfriends and telling them all about the almost-kiss.
Okay, calling my girlfriends was a little overkill.
I didn’t have girlfriends. I had Hux and I doubted he would be thrilled to know I was crushing on his brother.
In fact, he would probably laugh me right out of the building.
I heard the front door open and assumed it was Huxley. I couldn’t wait to give him shit about how drunk he got. I truly didn’t think he would be in this early. I got up and met him in the lobby area. The moment I saw him, I started laughing.
“Oh lord, you look awful.”
He scowled at me. “Shh.”
“Why did you come in?” I asked. “You’re going to be useless. You look like shit.”
“Thanks. That’s so nice of you.”
“You overdid it,” I said. “Why in the world would you keep slamming beers? You know you can’t handle more than six. Anything over six and this is what happens to you.”
“I know,” he groaned. “I don’t think it’s the beer that got me.”
“Oh, you think it’s the tequila shots?” I teased.
He groaned again and doubled over. “Stop. You’re going to make me sick.”
“Did you take anything this morning?” I asked, taking pity on him.
“No,” he mumbled.
“You’re such a baby. Sit down and I’ll get you some Advil. You need a gallon of coffee. And Gatorade.”
I left him in the main office and went into my office to get my purse.
I grabbed the pills from my purse and carried them back to him.
I poured him a cup of coffee from the little setup we had in our waiting area.
“Drink,” I told him. “Do you even remember what happened last night? Me and Hudson practically carried you up the stairs. We put you in bed.”
“I’ll admit, the night is foggy. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember I agreed to go into business with Hudson.”
I frowned at him. “You did what?”
He grinned and actually looked pleased with himself. “Yep, me and Hudson. Pretty cool, huh?”
“You’re going into business with Hudson?” I asked again. “Is this another business? A side gig? What are we talking about here?”
He groaned and rubbed his head. “Stop. You’re stressing me out.”
I slapped my hand on the desk and watched him flinch. “I’m stressing you out! Hux! Dammit! What are you doing?”
“Why are you yelling at me?” He rubbed his fingers against his temple. “You’re making my hangover way worse than it is.”
“Good, because you need to tell me what is going on,” I said.
“I’m part of this business, aren’t I? Am I out?
I know I didn’t have the full half to buy in, but without my designs, this wouldn’t be a business at all.
What are you going to do? Are you going to go in another direction? What are you doing?”
“Relax,” he said. “He’s just coming in to help out. He does have some money to invest. You and I both know we need help. We could get a lot more done if we could hire more people. You were just saying that. Hudson had a good idea about how we could help the community and the business.”
“How?”
“He wants to hire some vets and maybe ex-cons,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“Nat, please,” he begged. “I can’t with you right now. I can barely remember my name, let alone answer a bunch of questions.”
“This is a big deal,” I said. “I need to know where I fit into this little business venture.”
“Your boats get built faster,” he said. “We get paid more. You get to design more. More customers, more money. Isn’t that the goal?”
“But ex-cons?” I asked. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“He said something about nonviolent crimes,” Hux said, shrugging. “He wants to help out some of the vets around town.”
“Why?”
He gave me a dry look. “Because he’s a vet and I guess he understands what they’re going through. If I remember right, he said people turn their nose up at vets or something like that. They don’t give them a chance.”
“And he plans on changing the world?” I scoffed.
I flopped into the other chair to pout. I wasn’t really a full partner. It was my own insecurity that was making me nervous I was getting squeezed out. I shouldn’t be shitting on what was actually a very good, noble idea.
“He plans on changing the world for someone,” he said. “Why are you freaking out about this? It’s what we need.”
“I know, I know,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’m a terrible person.”
“No, you’re not,” he said. “You’re worried. I think Hudson will save you if one of them attacks.”
“Very funny.”
“It could be even better for business,” he said. “We could brand it as community outreach, which would be true. People will like us even better.”
I wasn’t really thinking of it like that. I was more concerned with the risks we ran hiring an ex-con. “How is he?” I asked.
“Who?”
“Your brother,” I said. “How is he for real?”
“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging. “He seemed fine to me. Why? What did you see?”
“Nothing, but he was in the military and you told me you knew he was in some pretty bad places,” I reminded him. “You said he was injured once. Is he really okay?”
“He seemed fine,” he said again.
“You know what I mean,” I said. “Guys like him that have seen some shit have a hard time reacclimating to normal life. I’m just wondering if jumping into business right away is a good idea. He might need some time to relax and just kind of get his wits about him.”
“Wouldn’t it be better for him to jump right in?” he asked.
“But is he ready?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Hux, these are things you should talk to him about,” I said. “You need to check in on him. See how he’s doing.”
“Nat, I’m not going to ask him about his feelings,” he muttered. “You’re such a girl sometimes.”
I rolled my eyes. “I sometimes think you actually forget that.”
“Hudson is cool,” he said. “It’s not like he is going to tell me if he’s feeling any kind of way. We don’t do that.”
“But maybe you should,” I insisted.
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “I just want to make sure he’s okay. I imagine he’s been through a lot. I would hate for him to feel like he was alone.”
“He’s home. Obviously, he’s not alone.”
I shook my head. It was a pointless conversation. He was never going to understand what I was trying to say. It wasn’t any of my business. It wasn’t like I really knew Hudson. His brother would know if he was feeling off.
“So, how does this work with these new hires?” I asked. “Who do they report to?”
“We haven’t really worked out the details,” he said. “I would imagine Hudson will deal with all that. We just need to tell him what we need done. He’s supposed to be meeting us here today to talk about it.”
“And seriously,” I said and leaned forward. “I don’t want to sound like a snob, but what if one of them does something?”
“To?” he asked.
“To one of us or our customers,” I said.
“Hudson will handle it,” he said.
“Is Hudson going to be here all the time?”
“Nat,” he groaned. “I’m going to put my head down for a minute. I can’t deal with all this. Holler softly if someone comes in.”
“I don’t think you can holler softly,” I said.
He got up and gingerly walked into his office. I stayed where I was and mulled over the idea of Hudson being in the office every day. How was a single, straight woman supposed to be around him every day and not want him? I was only human.
I had a feeling he would be good for business.
The ladies were going to be flocking in to see him.
I hoped he didn’t end up being a distraction.
Already, I was struggling to focus. I was daydreaming about a teenage crush.
I didn’t even know if he had a girlfriend.
I was almost certain he didn’t. He didn’t strike me as the boyfriend type.
I bet he liked to pick up women at a bar, get drunk, and then drag them home to fuck like rabbits.
I waved a hand in front of my face. The man was making me think horrible things.
I was never like this. I just couldn’t stop thinking about sex with him.
I really needed to get a date. Preferably, I needed to get a date and get laid before I had to sit in the office and work with Hudson day in and day out.
I didn’t want to embarrass myself by drooling over the man.
Or worse, I might just get caught ogling him. That would be humiliating.
I shook off the thoughts and promised myself to take a cold shower when I got home tonight.
I needed to cool my libido. Maybe, if I was lucky, Hudson wouldn’t show up.
There was a chance Hudson was drunk last night as well.
He hadn’t really seemed like it, but maybe he was.
Maybe he wouldn’t remember any of his business talk with Hux.
I got up and flipped over the sign to announce we were open.
Wishing the demise of the brothers’ business before it even started probably made me a terrible person.
It wasn’t that I wanted the idea to fail.
I just wasn’t sure I was mature enough to handle it.
Truthfully, I didn’t think I was cool enough to not turn into a bumbling idiot in front of him.
Because I couldn’t resist teasing Hux just a little, I walked to his office door. “We’re open!”
“I hate you,” he groaned.
“Drink more coffee.”
I went to my office and closed the door to finalize the design I was working on.
I needed to get it finished and sent to the shop.
I couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty in the shop with the rest of the team.
Every time I smelled varnish and heard the sound of the sanders, I thought of my dad.
He had built his own boat in our garage.
Night after night he worked on that thing.
It was our chance to spend time together.
He taught me all the little nuances of boat design.