Chapter Six
Jessie
“So, Mark hasn’t said anything about which one of you will get the job permanently or when he’ll decide?”
I bit into my ham and cheese sandwich and shook my head. My friend, Liz, and I sat on the tailgate of my truck having lunch. It had been two weeks since I’d started as supervisor and I’d just gotten my first paycheck. It should have eased some of the tension in my chest.
It didn’t.
I’d worked construction for a long time, but I had only come to this particular work site in the last year. I’d been excited to find that they already had a woman on the crew, Liz. She and I had become fast friends. Easy to bond with someone when you deal with the same crap every day.
“There is no way he can pick what’s-his-name over you. He doesn’t have a license to run the big machines, he doesn’t have a Red Seal in any trades. Mark is probably just doing a buddy a favor.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. I may be the better candidate, but if he has friends in high places or whatever, I could be back in a dump truck and my old pay before I really get started.”
“Is it a big difference? The pay I mean.”
I nodded. “Make a good fifteen or twenty percent more as the supervisor. I could really use that money. Transmission in my truck makes more noise every time I drive it. Be nice to put something into savings now so I don’t have to work until I’m ninety.”
She nodded and popped a chip into her mouth.
“Sure glad I can split my rent with Nate now,” Liz said, her eyes brightening anytime his name passed her lips.
“How is it living together?”
Liz had taken self defense classes from Nate when her ex started stalking her. In the end, her ex went to jail where he belonged. Now Nate and Liz were happy together.
She leaned back on her elbows. “Amazing. He cooks, he cleans and he fucks me like he’s trying to win a contest.”
I snorted. “Sounds like the perfect man.”
She grinned. “I mean he is also an amazing dad to Paisley and so patient. Ten out of ten smart to move in with him. I hated living paycheck to paycheck.”
“I hear you there.” To say I’d grown up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck wasn’t quite accurate.
More like catastrophe to catastrophe. My dad had never been around.
My mom invited any man who looked at her twice to live with us.
There was the initial honeymoon period, then they left when they had somewhere better to be.
It didn’t help that one Prince Charming took out a credit card in my name and racked up a five-thousand-dollar bill.
By the time I’d discovered the debt, the guy had been long gone and it was my word against a ghost. To avoid my credit tanking, I’d paid the interest on the card for years until I could start chipping away at the principle.
With this job, I could finally get rid of that debt hanging over my head.
I didn’t blame my mom for always looking for a new man. She didn’t want to be alone. She was just shitty at picking partners.
After lunch, I wandered back towards the office, forcing myself to go inside and not back to the work site. I needed to learn the administrative side of this job and to do that I had to make nice with Dimples.
I was happy with the fact that we had managed to work together to get the timesheets in on time. He clearly cared.
I started to pull the door open, but paused when I heard his voice.
“I told you, Dad, I would do it when I get paid.” There was a pause. “I don’t just have extra money sitting around. When I say I’m broke, I mean I am flat broke.”
I shouldn’t be eavesdropping. But his conversation piqued my curiosity. It occurred to me that I knew the rumor of why he was here, but I hadn’t asked him the whole story.
I hated to admit it, but I recognized the tone in his voice. It was a tone I’d used with my own mother often. Used when she was expecting more than I could give. When she didn’t understand that my help had limits. Maybe Clint and I had even more in common than I knew.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll figure it out. I’ve got to go.
” I heard a heavy sigh, then pulled the door the rest of the way open and came inside.
Clint was sitting at the one desk in the main area.
His forearms were resting on the desk and his face was pinched like he was fighting the urge to either cry or scream.
Been there.
“Everything okay?” I licked my lips, aware of the fact that we did not have the kind of relationship where it made sense for me to ask this question.
“Just my father, not understanding how the world works.” He avoided my eyes by staring at his phone.
I nodded and dropped into a chair across from him.
His hair, which was usually immaculate, had grown a little too long and was sticking up like he’d been running his hands through it. It made him seem more human. Made it harder to think of him as the bad guy.
“My mom is like that, too. She has always needed someone to take care of her.”
He adjusted his stance in his chair. “This is a new dynamic for me. He’s my father. I love him, of course, but–” He finally stopped staring at his blank phone screen and looked at me. His eyes were a bright shade of blue. “How do you deal with it?”
I blew a hair out of my face and leaned on the desk. “Repress, deny and tequila.”
He snorted, his mouth twisting into a half smile that highlighted the dimple on his cheek.
“Seriously though, I wish I knew. I’ve always felt obligated to take care of her, even when I was way too young for the responsibility.” I picked at my cuticle. “It’s a habit I have to break. It’s a habit you shouldn’t get into in the first place.”
He nodded, his eyes softening. “Thank you. I’ll remember that.”
I cleared my throat. “So office work. Care to show me the ropes?”
He scrubbed a hand over his face and gestured for me to take a seat.
“I made these.” He opened a folder and turned it so I could see.
“The last supervisor didn’t seem to have a process.
Or if he did, no one else understood it.
Mark wasn’t much help either. As I’ve been figuring things out, I’ve been writing out instructions and notes.
No need for the next supervisor to start from scratch. ”
He shuffled to the next paper in the folder and shifted his chair closer to mine.
He smelled like coffee and some kind of masculine after shave.
It probably came from a big box store given his current situation.
Still, it smelled rich on him. Luxurious even.
I listened to the deep cadence of his voice as he went over what needed to be done.
The way he laid it out wasn’t complicated, but I could see how it would take a sharp mind to get to this procedure.
When Mark had first met with us, the deal was that we work together. Help each other. Based on the size of the folder on the desk, he had kept up his side of the bargain.
I hadn’t.
I got home that night with the feel of Clint’s body beside me still fresh in my mind.
Sitting close to him, feeling the heat of him and seeing how his mind worked was a double whammy that my long-neglected libido couldn’t handle.
I parked my truck, silently thanking it for making it through another drive and headed inside to shower.
I stripped off my jeans and tank before stepping into the too-small shower stall.
There was rust around the tap and strips of caulking coming loose around the tiles.
What it did have going for it was a detachable shower head and I grabbed it before the water was even heated to temperature.
I put my imagination to work. What would it be like to give in to my attraction and find out he felt the same?
The image of Clint letting his shirt slide off his muscular shoulders, revealing inch after inch of bare skin, had my eyes drifting shut.
Was he smooth or did his chest have a treasure trail I could follow to the top of his jeans?
Would he take charge, or let me have my fun and strip him down?
I used one hand to part my folds and the other to bring the spray right where I needed the friction. “Fuck,” I muttered, my legs wanting to buckle. I circled the shower head moving the spray over and over my clit as I imagined what could have happened in that office if I’d wanted it to.
In my imagination, he’d held my stare and moved his hands to the button of his jeans.
The button would pop and he’d ease down the zipper, his cock tenting his jeans as his eyes lazily moved over my curves.
I pictured him walking towards me, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me up so I was sitting on the office desk.
As the steam of the shower ghosted over my skin I imagined his lips on my neck, his hands sliding the straps of my tank top off my shoulders.
Just as imaginary-Clint slid his fingers over my nipples, heat rocketed through my core and I doubled over, coming harder than I had in way too long.
With shaky hands I rehung the shower head and leaned against the wall.
How the hell was I supposed to face Clint tomorrow?
I quickly got clean and dressed, looking forward to an evening of Netflix to distract me from the shit show going on at work. Just as I found a new show to watch, my phone started to vibrate.
The urge to ignore it was strong but I dutifully answered anyway. Of course, it was my mom.
“Hey, Mom.”
“I’m so sorry to bug you but I need your help with this cable company. I just don’t understand the problem. You know I’ve never been good at this kind of thing. Can you just–”
I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. Why I was so nervous to tell my mom to take care of herself for once I would never know. “Mom, you need to deal with this stuff yourself or get Savannah to do it. I have my own bills to deal with.”
Silence.
The instinct to retract what I’d said or just explain to her how to sort the problem out was strong but I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood.
Seeing the stress on Clint’s face when he talked about his relationship with his father helped me to see that I couldn’t keep going the way I was.
Thinking of how much further ahead I would be financially if I hadn’t stepped in to help Mom and Savannah again and again cemented my decision.
I was stressing myself and my bank account out and for what?
I needed to prioritize myself and the future I wanted.