Chapter 7
“It’s nice having you on the jobsite again.” Benny, who was a gentle giant and one of her favorite superintendents, shook the nearly empty coffeepot, put it back on the burner that had been off for two hours.
“You’re lying,” Clover said with a laugh. “I know you miss Hannah.”
“Oh, I definitely miss her. But it’s still nice to have you around.”
She grinned at his honesty as she turned away from the laptop.
She was done dealing with work orders, mostly because her eyes were starting to feel the strain.
Yesterday with Micah felt like an eternity ago now that she’d been at work all day.
“Well I’ll take the compliment, then. Oh, she texted me today to check in and I told her not to reach out again unless she was in dire need. ”
He laughed lightly and popped open the covered tray of cupcakes someone had dropped off. “She deserves the vacation.”
“Agreed. So what do you think of the new guy she’s dating? Did you guys hassle him when he stopped by the first time?”
Benny, sniffed slightly, almost indignantly. “Of course not.” He was totally lying.
“Seriously?”
“I mean, Bear might have given him the stink eye. But only a little. Whatever, he makes her happy. She’s always smiling so he’s fine with me.”
“Every time I see her, she’s glowing now.
” Hannah had been with Storm Construction since almost the beginning.
Her ex was an abusive asshole, and the way she was now was like literal night and day from the woman who’d originally started with them.
Clover loved seeing this side of her. It was like she’d bloomed into who she’d always wanted to be.
Benny pulled out two cupcakes. “I’m gonna take one to Bear—” He paused as the door swung open, then frowned when Micah stepped inside with a half knock on the door.
“Micah, hey.” Clover found herself standing, wondering what was wrong, but his expression was normal, so okay, nothing was wrong.
But she couldn’t get her heart rate to steady. Most of that was because she’d thought he might be here about Ilena. Part of it was because, well, he was Micah and he was standing inside the construction trailer that had seemed big enough until now.
Until he stepped in, sucking up all the space. Today he was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt but had shoved the sleeves up to show off his forearms. Which should not be sexy. But tell that to her libido.
She’d never had a thing for tattoos, and to be fair, she wasn’t sure that she did now. She just had a thing for Micah. And the tattoos on his forearms.
“Who are you?” Benny wasn’t acting like the gentle giant she knew as he eyed Micah cautiously.
“Oh, Benny, this is my friend Micah. We’re heading out to dinner soon. Which now I’m realizing I was supposed to call you about an hour ago.” She winced when she realized the time. She’d been so caught up with finalizing that stupid expense report.
“No worries. I figured you got caught up and I saw your car here.” His smile was friendly as he held out a hand to Benny.
Benny shook it, but then turned back to Clover. “We’re all here for another twenty minutes if you need anything.” Then he grabbed his cupcakes and disappeared.
“He did not like me,” Micah said with a grin.
“Pretty sure he wouldn’t like any guy he thought was here to take me out.” Benny might be happy for Hannah, but Clover was Nick’s younger sister and she’d been working for him all through college while she got her degree in project management and construction.
Everyone here thought of her as a little sister, which had never been an issue because no way under the giant ball of fire in the sky would she ever bring a man she was dating around any of the jobsites. She actually had brought her ex around, but then that relationship had imploded. Or exploded.
She wasn’t sure.
Either way, once she’d ended things, all the guys at work had made it clear they’d never liked him.
Micah started to respond then the door swung open and Nick strode in looking… Oh, damn it. Benny had said something to him, of course.
“Micah, good to see you.” Nick stepped inside the trailer, looking between the two of them with blatant curiosity. He’d already asked Clover if they were dating and she’d denied it.
Because they weren’t. Men and women could be friends, thank you very much. To be fair, she’d thought about more than friendship, but whatever. Not the point.
“Good to see you too. I’m taking Clover out to dinner tonight and got here early. Jobsite is looking good. Berkley said this project was going to be a game changer for you guys.”
Nick, who never looked out of sorts, blinked. “Ah, yeah, it is. We’re all really excited about the new challenge.”
As they talked, she finished shutting down everything and grabbed her purse as she checked her phone.
Yep, Micah had texted her a couple times, but she’d had her phone on silent.
Something she usually did when she was in the zone.
She’d have to stop doing that, at least temporarily, until they found Ilena.
And she had to believe that they would. She just had to.
By the time the three of them left the trailer, she expected most of the crew to be gone.
Nope, instead, Benny, Bear, and a handful of the others were all standing in the parking lot like a bunch of guard dogs just staring at the trailer.
Sheila, one of the only women on this crew, was getting into her truck and waved at Clover with a “they’re so dumb” look that made her stifle a laugh.
They tried to pretend they hadn’t been waiting, but did a poor job of it as she, Micah and Nick headed to the gravel parking lot.
They scattered, all grunting good-byes before getting into their own vehicles.
“So that wasn’t weird or anything,” she muttered more to herself than anyone.
“They’re convinced you two are dating. Benny sent me in to check on things,” Nick said to Micah with a laugh. “I didn’t realize it was you though.”
“Oh, we are dating,” Micah said.
Just tossed that grenade out into the open, all casual as can be.
And it wasn’t like she could deny it. Technically yeah, she could absolutely deny it, but not without making a big thing to her brother. What the hell was Micah doing? Was he messing with her?
“Have a good night,” Micah continued, sliding his hand into hers as he guided her to the passenger side of his truck. Then he opened her door, and oh my god, he actually strapped her in.
That was definitely over-the-top but probably a good thing, because she was sitting there in mild shock. And fine, she kinda liked it. Which was insane. She didn’t need him or anyone to strap her in, but…maybe she enjoyed it when he took care of her a little.
It didn’t last long though. “What the hell was that?” she demanded as he slid into the driver’s seat.
“Maybe don’t look like you want to bite my head off until we’re out of the parking lot.” Micah smiled as he spoke.
Oh, right. She realized that her brother and Benny were both still watching them. “My question still stands.”
No one else had pulled out of their parking spot so Micah left first without having to deal with any traffic. Thankfully.
“I figured it would make things easier if everyone thinks we’re dating. Not that you need an excuse to spend time with me, but we’re working on an investigation. And I just got some information that might be what we’ve been waiting on.”
Annoyance forgotten, she straightened. She’d just seen him yesterday and he’d already found something. “What did you find?”
“Troy Mosker is still in Sanctuary Falls. And he’s been making frequent purchases at this diner/gas station combo every Friday for the last few weeks.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Yep. So that’s where we’re headed.”
“You should have led with that,” she grumbled. She was still annoyed, maybe more with herself than him. Because she wondered what it would be like to date him, and clearly he was unaffected.
“I figured you didn’t want me to tell you in front of your brother. And you weren’t answering your phone.”
“Fine… What kind of menu does this place have?” Food was a safe enough topic.
“Pretty sure you’re going to be disappointed.” His tone was dry.
***
“PI work is boring.” Clover lifted the chipped coffee mug. “But the coffee is surprisingly good.”
Micah gave her mug a dubious look. He was sitting across from her in the dumpy two-person booth they’d commandeered—not that people were clamoring to take it. “Can’t believe you’re drinking that now.”
She shrugged. “I’ll be able to sleep. I don’t know why but the caffeine won’t matter.”
“I say we give it twenty more minutes then head out,” he finally said, glancing out the dirty window.
The lowkey diner they’d eaten at yesterday morning—which felt like an eternity ago—was a palace compared to this place. She’d been too nervous to order anything until she’d seen a couple enchiladas come out so then she’d risked it.
And hadn’t been disappointed. Sure, maybe she’d pay for eating gas station food later, but it might be worth it.
So now they were sitting in one of two, two-person booths by a window that overlooked the gas station pumps. “Maybe thirty minutes,” she said. It was close to eight now and yeah, he was right. It wasn’t like they could stay here all night waiting to see whether the guy showed up or not.
Well they probably could, but that sounded like a terrible time.
As she took another sip of her coffee, an old green station wagon pulled up to the nearest pump. A man wearing a ballcap got out and started pumping, then a woman got out of the passenger side… “Oh my god, that’s Ilena,” she whispered even though no one was near them.
Relief like she’d never known punched through her. Ilena was alive. She’d been telling herself that of course she was, but Clover hadn’t been able to convince herself completely. Hope was a terrifying thing to clutch onto sometimes but oh my god, her friend was alive.