Chapter Four
Caleb
Even for a Monday, we’re unusually busy.
Now that we’ve finally gotten the delayed plywood shipment, we have a lot of catching up to do.
Everyone’s come in today, even those who usually have Mondays off.
I called around last night, and everyone agreed to work in exchange for an extra day off over the summer.
I know I didn’t have to—our employees are a loyal bunch and would’ve come in anyway—but fair is fair.
Once our business really took off ten years ago, we hired most of our staff locally.
Our small town had been hit by a wave of unemployment after a large shipyard went out of business.
The atmosphere around town was dismal, and many families were struggling to make ends meet.
When we experienced our success, it was never a question for Sal and me that we wanted to hire locally.
Many we already knew from school or through our parents.
They weren’t exactly used to making sailboats, but they’re hard, dedicated workers.
Over the years, a good chunk of our profit has gone toward extra courses for our staff, but it’s been more than worth it.
Our reputation is flawless, and the product we deliver is outstanding.
“Looks good, Dev.” I wave at our oldest staff member, Devon Taylor, during my morning round. He looks up, his trademark toothpick stuck between his teeth. Devon’s our sail guy, as he prefers to call it. He knows everything there is to know about sails.
“Thanks, kid.” Devon moves the toothpick to the other side of his mouth with a grin.
Devon was friends with my dad until he passed three years ago, one year before my mom.
My parents were well into their forties and had given up on having kids when they had me, their ‘surprise baby.’ I miss them every day, and now Sal, Vivian, and Kayden are the closest to a family that I have.
I pat Devon’s shoulder, then carry on with my usual rounds and check in with everyone. Carol, one of our painters, tells me about her grandson’s Little League game over the weekend and how “Bobbie and his team were robbed, I tell you. And you should’ve come, Caleb.”
I laugh and give her a side hug. “Next time, Carol,” I promise. I’ve gone to a few this year already. It’s good fun, and it makes Carol happy. She lost her husband last year, and I know she gets lonely. Hell, so do I sometimes.
When I’m done, I go to check in on Kayden in the office.
It’s his first day, and he told me this morning that he was going to get familiar with our website and shout if he had any questions.
No shouting so far, so either he’s passed out from sheer mortification, or he’s elbows deep in damage control.
I pop my head around the door just when Kayden groans loudly into his hands.
“That bad, huh?” I grin, and he looks up.
His cheeks are flushed a deep pink, and his hair is all mussed up in the front, like he’s been pulling at it.
The sleeves on his sky-blue shirt are rolled up to his elbows, and the color collides with his eyes when he glares at me.
Arresting. The word comes to mind out of nowhere.
Kayden’s eyes are arresting; they always have been, sucking you right in.
I shake myself and smile even wider. It usually helps. I have a disarming smile, or so I’m told.
“Don’t smile at me like that,” Kayden huffs, then balls together a piece of paper and throws it in my direction.
I just manage to dodge the paper ball, then lift my hands disarmingly. “Sweetheart, please. That’s against company policy.”
Kayden snorts, but a small smile grows at the corner of his mouth. “You’re a lying liar who lies, Caleb. So’s my dad.”
I gasp in shock, clutching my chest. “Harsh!”
“It’s true. You guys told me you had a website.”
“We do,” I counter as I move inside the cramped office and around the desk. Kayden eyes me overbearingly.
“Sorry to break it to you, big guy, but you don’t. This,”—he points at the computer screen—“is not a website. It’s a travesty.”
I blink at the screen, but all my brain zeroes in on is the casually spoken big guy.
That’s what that guy, dicKmedown, called me.
I’ve been online a couple of times since, but there’s been no sign of him.
If I’m being honest, I’m a little bummed about that because I could’ve easily gone for round two or three.
He was hot. Well, his ass was hot. That tan line.
You don’t see tan lines like that often. Damn.
When I groan, Kayden mistakes the source for something else.
“You can groan all you want, Caleb, but it looks like I got here just in time.”
I lick my lips, then swallow, focusing back on the screen.
Objectively speaking, Kayden’s right. It looks like crap.
Like someone high on mushrooms or something made it.
It’s a real eyesore, and I doubt it brings in any new business.
The colors and the layout are all over the place, and it isn’t exactly intuitive or user-friendly.
It bears witness to two guys growing their business with zero time to promote it online, which is true.
Most of our clients over the years have come through word-of-mouth.
I know we have a Facebook account, but I can’t remember the last time we posted something.
“First, you can tell my dad that I want a raise.”
“It’s your first fucking day!”
“So? Can we both agree that you and Dad withheld crucial information from me about the state of affairs?” Kayden stabs his finger toward the screen like he’s trying to stab it. Who the fuck is this guy? What the hell happened to shy little K?
“Yeah, I guess,” I mumble, scratching the back of my neck. “How about a bonus once the new site is up and running?”
“Really?” Within a split second, Kayden’s face transforms. Gone is the scowl, and instead he’s beaming at me, his eyes wide and vast, a surprised smile taking over his face.
Ahhh, there he is. My K.
I shrug. “Sure, why the hell not? So what’s the timeline?”
“I should be able to get it up and running by the end of the week if I work evenings too.”
“I don’t want you working nights, K. You probably have stuff to do.”
“I don’t mind.” He dips his gaze to a pile of papers on the desk.
“It’s not like I have a social life anyway.
” My stomach drops, and my chest squeezes.
“I mean, aside from Gwen inviting me to bridge night down at the community center on Saturday.” He chuckles softly, but the smile has faded, and it no longer reaches his eyes.
Gwen’s our secretary. She’s sixty. Kayden’s twenty-two. Yeah, that’s no good.
“I tell you what. If you include two nights this week, I’ll pay you overtime, and I’ll come over and put up those lights for you.”
He looks up at me hesitantly. “Really? You’d do that?”
“Sure. It’s not like I have a social life anyway,” I repeat his words, and Kayden blushes even harder.
“Gee, thanks. Make a guy feel special, why dontcha?” But the hint of happiness in his voice doesn’t elude me.
“You are special, K.” I reach out to ruffle his hair, but he avoids my touch. My fingers tingle. I’m obsessed with those fucking curls. They just beckon to me.
“Special K?” Kayden muses. “Like the song?”
“Yeah. Well, not exactly. And how come you know Placebo? You were not even a thought when they wrote that song.”
“So? You listen to those old-school jazz singers all the time,” he digs back.
“Good taste doesn’t have anything to do with age, Caleb.
” He blinks at me, and I realize he’s right.
Kayden was never really young, though, was he?
He always had too great a burden to carry for him to be young and carefree.
I see it in his eyes when he looks at me.
The miles he’s wandered. The weight he’s carried along the way.
The battles he’s fought, not just with the world and its norms, but with himself too.
The body he used to live in has now been shed like a skin that never fit in the first place, and he’s blooming into a beautiful young man.
It’s awe-inspiring, really. Yeah, that’s it.
I’m in awe of Kayden. Still, I’m an argumentative motherfucker.
I cross my arms in front of my chest. “I listen to modern stuff too.”
He snorts. “Yeah, right. What’s the last song you listened to?”
That little shit. He knows me so well.
“I don’t know,” I lie through my teeth, but of course, Kayden calls my bluff.
He holds out his hand in a gimme gesture. “Give me your phone.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Give me your phone, boss.”
I groan, but dig my phone out of my back pocket and hand it to him. He smirks, then pulls up my Spotify.
“Aha!” he glowers at me, his eyes blue twin flames. “I fucking knew it!” He turns the phone and holds it up to me, waggling it in his hand triumphantly. “Surprise, surprise, big guy. It’s Nina!”
I groan, parts because he knows me so well, and parts because of that goddamn big guy. My dick involuntarily thickens in my jeans, and I breathe through my nose. Don’t get hard in front of Kayden. Your best friend’s son. Your employee. Don’t.
“Ugh!” Kayden groans, digging his pearly white teeth into his bottom lip. “I fucking love Nina. Just in Time is one of my favorites.”
Mine too. My dick instantly responds to Kayden’s low groan. The fucker doesn’t care that it’s Kayden. It’s a guy groaning, that’s all it cares about. When’s the last time I had a guy groaning underneath or on top of me? Way too long.
“When’s Marilyn ready?” Kayden blinks at me as he hands me my phone, unaware of the internal ruckus he’s causing with a simple sound. “When are you gonna take me for a ride?”
“Soon.” I stuff my phone back into my pocket. Kayden’s eyes follow my movement, and I know the exact moment he notices the way too revealing outline of my dick. He doesn’t say anything, but his dark blond eyebrows lift slightly, and he purses his lips.