Chapter 3
DAVIS
Heavy clouds, rimmed in navy and gray, hung over my workshop, making me eye the few pieces of work I had out drying.
Weather forecasts weren’t very accurate for us mountain dwellers; it could forecast sunshine all day, but within the blink of an eye it could be snowing again.
Made it difficult to really plan efficiently.
Heaving a sigh, I began dragging in the pieces I had just finished, hating that my space was so cramped. Half my warehouse was full of sold work I had yet to deliver.
My customers didn’t know any different, mostly because I put an extra two weeks on the bids just to give myself time to deliver. I never needed it, but there was always that fear in the back of my mind that I would disappoint someone.
I’d done enough of that to last a fucking lifetime, so if I could prevent it in my line of work, I would.
I stared over at the finished iron work and felt a pinching in my chest. Selling meant socializing, and if I hired someone to do it for me, the appeal of my small business model that so many of these people wanted would be forfeited.
They wanted to support local; they wanted a personalized experience and were willing to pay extra for the perk of saying they had a “guy” for their new housing renovations or hotel remodels.
It worked in my favor, and yet it also actively functioned against me. It wasn’t that I couldn’t socialize. I just wasn’t precisely charming, as the people of Macon would say. Finesse wasn’t in my skill set, even when trying to make money.
Hearing the crunch of gravel creep up my driveway, I swiveled my head to track a large black Dodge making its way up the hill.
Gavin.
He was my best friend and biggest ball buster.
Dude kept me in check, and while I appreciated it, I was in a piss poor mood.
Didn’t even know why, couldn’t exactly pinpoint it…
Every now and then, I just felt like a shadow hung over me.
And while I could really dig into why that shadow existed, I’d been denying the existence of that shit for years and didn’t see a point in changing my ways now.
Parking his truck, my friend hopped out and walked over to me, tugging his hands through his straw-colored hair. Knowing him, he’d worn a hat all day.
“The fuck are these?” He gestured toward the artwork I was about to take inside.
I met him near the outlier piece and swung my head toward the bay door. “Help me move ?em in.”
He didn’t hesitate to grip the edge of the larger piece of iron.
“Seriously, since when do you do shit like this?”
We gently settled the massive globe structure in the open space of the warehouse. He was referring to the fact that I generally had contracts for light fixtures, mostly sold to massive chain hotels or resorts. But these pieces were massive.
“Is it yard art?” Gavin lifted his brow at me.
I laughed at him, grabbing the end of another section. “Fuck you.”
“I’m not judging,” he said with a smirk as he walked backward through the opening.
“A few of these places want shit set up for their outdoor fire pit areas. They’re also asking about creating a wet bar to match.”
“Made of iron?” Gavin settled the bottom hull to the sphere gently.
“Yeah, they want the rustic aesthetic throughout their entire hotel, or in this case, their resort.”
He slid his palm across the smooth surface of soldered iron. “Which one is this going to?”
“Bravada.” It was a five-star resort that boasted of its expensive rooms and sprawling mountain views.
“Fuck, that’s swanky.”
I laughed, shutting the doors and leading my friend out of the workshop. Gavin came out once in a while, but he lived in town, so he usually came up on the weekends.
“What brings you up the mountain?” I asked, pushing through my front door. My two huskies perked up but immediately rested their jaws on their paws once they realized it was just Gavin.
My best friend walked to my fridge and ripped it open, grabbing for a beer.
“Can’t I just come visit my friend?”
He reached back in and handed me one, then twisted the top off his and took a long swig.
“It’s Wednesday,” I countered, sipping mine.
I hated when he got secretive. It usually meant he was sticking his nose into something that wasn’t his business.
“What would you say if I asked you to go on a double date with me?” He held his beer but settled against the wall, watching me with a curious expression.
I shook my head, withholding the ire I wanted to deliver. Instead, I tried to sound nonchalant, and like it didn’t really bother me, but fuck, he already knew this.
“I’d say no.”
Plain and fucking simple.
I turned toward the back door and pushed through the screen, hearing him groan behind me.
“You haven’t been any fun in forever, man. I can’t figure you out. What the fuck happened to you?”
We settled into opposite sides of the patio loungers. The sky had turned an angry cobalt color, with a nasty wind picking up.
“You know I hate town; I never go in.”
He shook his head. “Yes you do. You go for food, gas, books… You just like to talk yourself out of staying and sitting down at the diner for once or going into one of the coffee shops to get your coffee instead of having it here.”
“I don’t see the point.” Which he was well aware of. Why were we talking about this?
He studied the table in front of us then looked up with renewed energy. “Okay, but a few years ago you actually dated. You went out with me—or at least agreed to meet up if we kept it private.”
I shook my head, bringing the lip of the bottle to my mouth.
Gavin’s eyes narrowed as he studied me. “I can pinpoint it.”
“What?” I scoffed, but I was curious where this was headed.
Pointing a finger at me, he stared at me, incredulous. “I remember…it was right around that time you had a stalker, and that girl—”
“Stop.” I snapped.
I didn’t want to remember that night. Just thinking about it nearly made my breath hitch.
His eyes narrowed. “Why? What happened?”
I had never told him. I had never told anyone, and for years the guilt of that night had eaten away at my sanity.
“That girl…she was young.” I swallowed the lump in my throat.
Gavin must have mistaken my hesitation as something else, because he powered through it.
“No shit, that’s what made it so funny.” He laughed, but I didn’t follow, so he sobered, waiting for me to finish.
“I knew she liked me, and I knew she was borderline following me…but one night she actually followed me into the library.”
Gavin’s brows dipped. “So?”
I rubbed my face. “I was with Lydia…”
Understanding bloomed on my friend’s face, his eyebrows arching and his mouth going slack.
“She saw you.”
I nodded, even as shame threatened to bury me.
“I have no idea how she knew. I mean, it was freaky because I realized the extent of her following me was actually pretty serious, but the look on her face when she saw me with Lydia…” Shaking my head, I tried to get the memory out of my head.
But it wouldn’t budge; it was branded on my conscience.
“She was destroyed, and after that, I never saw her again. I think…”
This was the part I could never say out loud, one of my deepest fears.
“You think what?” Gavin asked.
Sighing, I sipped my beer once more before explaining.
“It’s just…sometimes I wonder if she hurt herself because of me.
I mean, she just disappeared. I even started hanging around town more often, just to see if I’d catch sight of her, but I never have.
I just couldn’t live with myself if she did—you know what I mean? ”
Gavin’s face shuttered, his head ducking. He knew what I was talking about.
He knew why my fears were controlling me.
He understood, because it wasn’t the first time someone would have gotten hurt because of my actions.
“Davis, man… You can’t live your life like this. You need closure.”
I knew I did. I had considered it, but I had no idea what her name was, or where she lived.
I knew she had worked at the diner in some capacity, but they always had kids in and out of there during different seasons, and it wasn’t long enough to really grasp what she’d done there. Otherwise, there was nothing. I had no idea who she was.
“It’s weird that she knew you’d be there. I mean, even if she had followed you, hadn’t you been at the library for a while that day?”
“Yeah, I had. Lydia met me after I had installed a few light fixtures. I’d been there since closing. She came around eight thirty, we had dinner, then the girl showed up somewhere after Lydia and I started—” I hesitated again, unable to form the words.
“Fucking?”
I nodded.
My best friend shook his head, draining the rest of his beer.
“So weird.”
“Yeah…” I trailed off, but my mind was still on that night.
How I still had trouble being intimate with women all these years later, because it was her face I’d see.
Big blue eyes, short black hair, red pimples on her face and metal stretching across her teeth.
It was the first time I had ever really looked at her, and that image was stuck with me forever.
Penance.
“What if you ask around at the diner? I mean, there’s bound to be someone who knows.”
I looked up at my friend’s suggestion, and there was a rumbling in the sky above us. I hadn’t really thought to do that because it required socializing, but given I now knew the owners, it wouldn’t be so bad.
“That’s not a bad idea. Not sure why I hadn’t considered it before,” I muttered, although I did know. That girl’s crush was a shameful thing in my head. I felt like I had done something wrong, even though I had never encouraged her. I wasn’t eager to ever tell anyone about it.
But…
It would put to rest this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I had ruined yet another person’s life.
“While you’re asking around, maybe you could accompany Tiffany and me on a date?” he asked hopefully.
I laughed and shook my head. “We’ll see. I can’t make any promises, but if it’s not in a crowded place, I might be able to make it happen.”
“Yesssss!” He jammed his elbow back in an excited gesture. “I knew I could talk you into it.”
“Uh-huh,” I drawled. My friend was an idiot, but he was helping me, and after the past four years, I was ready to put this burden behind me once and for all.