Chapter Ten
Wyatt
Friday afternoon finally rolled around, and I went home from work to get cleaned up.
My boss, Jace, had invited all the people from Wild Timber Homes to his place for dinner. He did it every Friday.
It was a fun way to unwind at the end of the week. We also tended to have laborers come and go from the shop, so we got to know them at these things.
None of that was what was running through my mind, though.
What I kept thinking about was Vera. I hadn’t heard from her all week.
I knew she was working on her project, so I shouldn’t read too much into it.
But the connection I’d felt between us last weekend was deeper than I’d felt before, and for that to just be gone was jarring.
I didn’t like it.
Hanging out with my coworkers should provide the distraction I needed, so I didn’t drive to her house and knock on her door and kiss her when I knew she was preparing for the trade show tomorrow.
“The party has arrived,” I said as I walked through Jace’s front door without knocking. Zane groaned from where he was standing in the kitchen with a beer in his hand. “You love me, don’t deny it,” I said, putting the case of beer I’d brought into the fridge.
I cracked one open, then spotted Layne smirking at me from across the room. “Did you have something you needed to say, boss lady?”
“Just wondering if you wanted to tell everyone about your project? A nightstand should be an easy project, right?”
She looked pleased with herself, I couldn’t blame her for setting me up. I had been teasing her and Elias pretty mercilessly since they got together.
I sighed and sank into the couch next to her. “For a mere mortal it would be tricky, but she wanted a nightstand that would fit a giant cock and I am uniquely qualified to handle that challenge. It is a blessing and a curse being this well-endowed.”
She punched me on the shoulder. “You did not just say that.”
“Wait, why does the nightstand have a dick?” Sloane asked. Sloane was Layne’s best friend and was currently dating her brother, Jace, who was everyone’s boss at Wild Timber Homes.
Not a mess at all.
“No, the nightstand has a place to hide your dick; it doesn’t have a dick itself.”
“Oh because that would be too weird,” Sloane said, throwing her hands up. “Who is putting their dick in a nightstand, and why?”
Jace and Elias walked in from where they had been barbecuing outside just as she said this and Elias raised a brow. “Do I want to know?”
Layne shook her head. “Probably not.”
“Layne gave me a side job for a customer who wanted help to build a nightstand. Turns out she wanted a compartment hidden in it to hide her sex toys. Apparently, there is a market for it.”
Sloane nodded. “I could see it.”
Jace raised a brow. “You don’t need toys, you have me,” he said as he leaned over and kissed her.
“Well, you tell me where the vibrate button is on it, and I’ll agree with you.”
“Shots fired,” I said with a laugh. “Anyway, the project is going well. The client, Vera, she’s really cool to hang out with.”
Zane appeared beside me, “You hung out with her?”
I shrugged and took a pull from my beer. “We had to drive to Springwood to get some supplies, went out for lunch; it was a lot of fun.”
Elias and Layne exchanged a look. They had started dating four or five months ago, and had been attached at the hip ever since. “Does Wyatt have a crush?” she asked, making a baby voice.
“I am a grown man; I don’t have crushes. I either want someone, or I don’t.”
“And do you?” Elias prompted.
I sank into a chair. “Dammit, yes, I do. But she’s busy. She has a kid going off to college and is trying to make money with this nightstand project. I’m not sure she needs one more thing in her life.”
“She’s building sex toy storage, man, surely you can think of something you could add to her life,” Jace said as he started setting food out on the table.
“I’m more than just a sex object,” I deadpanned. Even though the idea of sex with Vera had me more than a little excited.
Layne stood up and crossed the room. “Look, Sloane and Jace didn’t get together until twenty years after they started crushing on each other because they assumed I would be upset if my brother dated my best friend.
Elias held off asking me out because he thought I had too much going on trying to get rid of my ex. ”
“What’s your point?”
She flicked me in the center of my forehead.
“Ow.”
“My point is don’t assume you know what’s good for her. She is a grown woman and has a teenage kid. She can decide what is and isn’t right for her. Just talk to her for crying out loud.”
“Communication? That’s your advice? Have you met me? All I do is talk.”
“No, you joke, and don’t get me wrong, we all love laughing at you — er, with you — but it has to be deeper than that if it’s the real deal.”
I thought about this. “Well, we talked about our jobs in construction, her ex, her kid, her worries for the future. We talked about how I was raised by a single mom, and she is a single mom.”
Layne clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Wyatt, did you have an adult conversation?”
I thought back over lunch with Vera. “I mean, we laughed a lot, but—”
“Oh my god, Wyatt’s in love,” Zane said.
“Am not.” I crossed my arms over my chest, deflecting what he’d said.
“Alright, you hooligans, grab a plate,” Jace said. “You can torture Wyatt while we eat.”
“Gee, thanks, Bossman,” I mumbled.
“Always happy to help,” he said with a wink before putting a baked potato on his plate.
The conversation mercifully moved off me eventually, not that I didn’t deserve the razzing; I gave way more than I took.
But what they said stuck with me. They were right.
I was the jokester, but Vera and I had touched on topics I usually kept to myself.
There was something more to what I was feeling for this girl, and maybe I needed to man up and tell her that.