Chapter Eight
Jessie
“Duty calls. Protesters vandalized the site, so need you and Clint there now.”
I blinked, trying to comprehend what Mark was saying when I was still half asleep.
“Shouldn’t you deal with this?”
“This is site supervisor level. You guys are the best ones to know if anything is missing. I’ll be there tomorrow.”
“Fine. Call Clint. I don’t have his number. Let him know I’m coming to get him.”
Clint had been too tipsy to drive home from Greg’s house, so I’d dropped him at his apartment just a few hours before.
It had been an interesting night.
I was a casual fun sort of gal. Peak of cleavage at the bar and a quickie without exchanging numbers.
it was only while watching Clint shoot the shit with the guys on the crew, casual shorts showing off muscular legs, throat working as he swallowed his beer, that I realized how long it had been since I’d had one of these little tumbles.
And now I’d be sharing space in my truck with the guy for the hour long drive to the site.
Fuck.
I jumped out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans.
I made my way along darkened, empty streets until I pulled up in front of Clint’s building.
The outside door had been propped open. Not exactly a safe thing to do, but it saved me a step. I knocked on his apartment door three times before I heard unsteady footsteps.
“Morning,” Clint said as the door opened with an obnoxious squeak.
He had on the same pair of dark blue jeans.
The difference was the button up shirt he was wearing was unbuttoned, revealing a very enticing view of his chest and abs.
The light from the hallway cast an ugly yellow hue over everything, but he still looked good enough to lick.
He clearly went to the gym, or maybe had in his previous life.
His pecs were big enough that they kept his shirt from resting against his stomach, but it was the treasure trail that caught my eye.
A layer of dirty blonde hair dusted over his chest, coming together in a V that disappeared into the top of his jeans.
Damn.
It was rare I had nothing to say, but at that moment, I couldn’t have remembered my name if I’d been asked.
“Sorry, I’m almost ready.” He stepped back, buttoning his shirt as he grabbed a wallet and keys off a table near the door.
I still didn’t move. I knew I should give him a moment. At least wipe the drool from my chin. Instead, I stood frozen in the doorway.
“Figured you might need a ride,” I said dumbly when I finally remembered how to speak.
“Appreciate it. You’re not wrong,” he said, running a hand through his sleep mussed hair and turning to lock his apartment door.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I had a sex drive as much as the next woman, but I’d never been spontaneously turned into a statue. Maybe I needed coffee.
I shook my head, trying to dislodge the image of his bare chest from my brain. Duty called. If I wanted this job, I was going to have to woman-up.
I took us through an all-night drive thru to get coffee then we were on our way. “You ever dealt with something like this?” I asked him as I merged onto the dark highway.
He shook his head. “Guess we should make notes for whoever is the next supervisor.”
“Don’t you think you’ll be the next supervisor?”
He shrugged. “I’ve learned not to expect anything anymore. If you’d told me a year ago I’d be working at a construction site, I would have laughed it off. Life is unpredictable.”
“How did you end up here? I mean, what happened with your old job?” I’d overheard a bit of what he was telling Greg at the party. Enough to know that the rumor mill had been wrong about him.
He told me about his father’s arrest. “Everything I owned was in the company name, most of my money in company stocks. It was all seized.”
A pang of pity went through my gut.
“As soon as my father was convicted, everyone I knew was suddenly MIA. I was broke and on my own.”
I’d been there. Or close enough that I could sympathize. We had come from different places but ended up in the same one. Him from a big fall and me from clawing my way up. “So, you ended up here?”
“It’s been humbling, learning what I need to learn, but it could have gone so much worse.
I know I’ve told you this before, but I hope you believe me, I didn’t come here to steal your job.
I had no idea the job already had a candidate until Mark called us both in on my first day.
I know you have the qualifications over me.
I just hope I can learn from you while I’m here and find something else in the company when the time comes. ”
I studied him while he spoke. Noticing for the first time the dark circles under his eyes, the stubble on his jaw that was longer than it usually was.
Stress was a bitch.
“You don’t expect to go back to your old life, I assume?”
He ran a hand distractedly over his jaw. “I don’t know if an opportunity will come up for me again and I don’t know if I would take it if it did.”
I nodded. The man was newly broke. Anyone in that situation would do what they needed to survive, including lie.
Still, I believed him. There was an honesty in his blue eyes that I couldn’t look away from.
He wanted me to believe him. For what reason?
I had no idea. It wasn’t like I had been nice to him.
I also wasn’t the one who would decide his future at this company.
“I’m sorry that happened to you.”