Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Drilling the last screw into the drywall, Axel stood back with a sense of pride. The rec center was now ready for the finishers to come in and mud, sand, and paint. He felt a little unsteady and blindly reached behind him to sit on a five-gallon bucket. With his head hung, he let out a long breath.
The sun was going down, and the light was fading in the wide-open space. He was the last guy here, and he probably should have called it a day when everyone else did. But what was the purpose? It wasn’t like he had anything to do or anyone to hang out with.
It had been three weeks since Maisie left, and he was slowly working himself to death.
Not that anyone noticed. They were all busy with their own shit.
Walker and Harlow had come back a few days after the road opened back up, and since then, they’d been handling more of the administrative stuff like permits, marketing, websites, or whatever.
Axel had no idea and he didn’t really care.
He knew they were doing the things that needed to be done, so who was he to question it?
Slater had gone to Alaska to fill in on a tour for the company he used to work for. He was going to be climbing some mountain and then camping and fishing and whatever else he did on those tours. Either way, he wouldn’t be back until next week.
Connor was house hunting. He’d finally moved Annabeth here with him, but they were living in one of the cabins and were eager to find a place of their own.
Harlow was helping with that—just like she was planning on doing for all of them.
She was the top real estate agent in town, and she was constantly on the lookout for houses for all of them.
It was something he was going to do eventually, just not yet.
Either way, all it amounted to was Axel being alone as usual. It never bothered him until after his weekend with Maisie. Now he almost loathed the silence. He missed having someone to talk to, someone to laugh with, someone to sleep with.
And not just because of the sex—although he definitely missed that. It was the simple pleasure of having someone there beside him, someone to hold in his arms. The other morning, he rolled over thinking she was there and fell out of the bed.
Sighing loudly, he shook his head.
Something had to give.
Soon.
He couldn’t keep living like this.
Maybe he needed to just go out and stop thinking about her. He’d spent plenty of nights going to the pub in town since moving back here and never had a problem meeting a woman. It wasn’t about getting laid. Right now, he just wanted someone to spend some time with.
Although…he wouldn’t say no to getting laid…
“Hey, there you are.”
Turning, Axel spotted Walker coming his way. He stood and stretched. “What’s up?”
“I was wondering if you had any plans for dinner. Harlow’s out with Connor and Annabeth, and it’s taking longer than any of them thought it would.
I was going to head out and grab something for myself, but I saw your truck and figured I’d see if you wanted to join me.
We haven’t hung out just the two of us in a while. ”
It was true. Ever since Walker and Harlow got together, they were rarely apart.
And maybe it would be better to hang out with a friend tonight instead of trying to hook up with someone.
“Yeah,” he said, raking a hand through his hair. “That sounds good. I just finished up in here and was considering going into town for a bite.”
“Perfect!” Clapping his hands together, Walker paused and looked around. “It’s really coming together, isn’t it?”
“Yup. That was the last of the drywall. Tomorrow the finishers can start mudding.”
“You know everyone left like three hours ago, right?”
“Yeah. I just knew I could get this done. Everything’s finally coming together, and I hated the thought of walking out when it was so close to being finished.”
Walker nodded. “Come on. We’ll talk about it more over dinner.”
Scooping up his water bottle, he gave the place one more look before walking out the door with Walker. “I’m gonna need about thirty minutes to shower and change. Is that alright?”
“Absolutely. I’ve got a few calls to make to the West Coast, so the timing’s perfect. I’ll meet you up in the parking lot in thirty.”
“Sounds like a plan. Thanks.”
Back at his cabin, Axel quickly stripped out of his work clothes and stepped under the steaming hot shower. The water was almost too hot, but he didn’t care. It felt good, and he simply stood there for a few minutes before bothering to use any soap and shampoo.
Then he remembered that he didn’t have a lot of time and got himself clean.
Stepping out of the shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and finished getting ready. By the time he walked out of his cabin, he spotted Walker doing the same at the other end of their row. He didn’t jog or even pick up his pace; he simply strolled down to meet him.
“You get your calls made?”
Walker nodded as they made their way up to their trucks. “Sure did. And everything’s good. Now I can relax and enjoy dinner.”
They made small talk as they walked and as they got to their trucks, they opted to take Walker’s into town. It wasn’t until they were halfway to town that his friend dropped a bombshell.
“We’re all worried about you, you know.”
“Um…what?”
“Yeah. You’ve been working like a beast for the last few weeks. You’re short-tempered with the crew even as you’re doing the work of three guys.” He paused. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
Beside him, Walker chuckled. “Well, too fucking bad, bro. There’s something going on, and you might as well tell me.”
“Why? Did you want to talk about it when you were being all pissy about Harlow?”
“Ah…so this is about a woman.”
Dammit.
“Do you remember how you handled things when we were at the pub and Harlow showed up?” Walker prompted with a smirk. “You invited her to join us even though you knew it pissed me off.”
“Yeah, well…it worked out, didn’t it? You guys are all happy and in love so…”
Walker sighed loudly. “We both know this isn’t about me and Harlow. This is about you, and if I had to guess, I’d say Maisie. So we can cut to the chase, or we can keep talking in circles, but I’m telling you now, we’re going to talk about it.”
“No, we’re not,” he murmured, staring out the window.
Unfortunately, now he was stuck with essentially no escape. They were going to go to dinner, and it was going to get awkward quickly if he refused to talk.
Well, he could be as stubborn as the next guy and he was used to eating in silence.
Hell, he’d been doing it for years before he moved here to start working on the resort.
So, he’d go and enjoy a burger and a beer and listen to Walker talk.
It was only a few hours out of his life. How bad could it be?
But when they walked into the pub, he had his answer.
Bad.
Very bad.
Seated in the back, at the same booth he and Walker were just reminiscing about, were Connor, Slater, Harlow, and Milo.
“Jeez, you got Milo here for this too?” he muttered to Walker.
“Like I said, we’re going to talk about this,” Walker replied before stepping around him and strolling toward the table.
Muttering a curse, Axel knew he had no choice but to follow, but he made sure his expression showed just how pissed he was about the whole thing.
Harlow jumped to her feet and came over and hugged him. “Don’t be mad,” she whispered in his ear. “We care about you and we’re worried about you, that’s all.” She squeezed him tightly before stepping back and smiling. “This is a good thing. I promise.”
He didn’t believe it even a little bit.
And he knew he was in for it when everyone stood up and insisted he go into the booth first.
There goes my escape route…
When he sat, he glared at Walker. “Seriously?”
Shrugging, Walker grinned. “We all agreed that you’re a flight risk, so…humor us.”
It was a little cramped with six of them in the booth, but once everyone was settled, he braced himself for whatever was going to happen.
“We all agreed that I should talk first,” Harlow said softly.
She was sitting directly across from him with a reassuring smile.
“No one’s asking for specific details, but it’s come to our attention that you haven’t been yourself since the weekend of the storm.
Obviously, something happened between you and Maisie, and considering she’s going to be working on the resort, we need to make sure you’re okay. ”
“I’m fine.”
“Axel…”
Looking around, he made sure he glared at each of his buddies before facing Harlow again. “Everything’s fine. It won’t be a problem when Maisie’s at the resort. We already talked about it, and it’s fine.”
She frowned before sighing. “Okay, I tried to ease into this and be the buffer, but now…” She motioned to Walker.
“We all know you and Maisie slept together,” he began, ignoring the string of curses Axel spewed under his breath. “I’ve talked to her multiple times in the last three weeks and…”
“Is that what she told you?” he interrupted, sounding more than a little defensive even to his own ears.
“She didn’t tell me anything,” Walker replied. “We all just put two and two together.”
“I get that you’re maybe a little defensive because of the circumstances,” Connor chimed in. “But we’ve known each other for a long time, and we’ve never seen you like this. So if something happened…something bad…we need to know.”
“Bad?” he asked incredulously. “Bad like…how? Do you think I forced myself on her?! Is that it?”
No one said a word.
Shit.
Swallowing hard, he shook his head. “Everything that happened was completely consensual, okay? Not that it’s anyone’s damn business.” Another head shake. “And it really pisses me off that any of you would even think that I’m capable of something like that!”
“No one said…”
“You didn’t have to,” he snapped. “It’s insulting and…and…” He shoved against Slater, who was sitting next to him. “And if I weren’t blocked into this freaking booth, I’d be out of here!”