9. Nelly
Nelly
The second Nash's apartment door shuts behind us, I'm digging my phone out of my back pocket.
"Oh, hell yeah," I mutter as I swipe across the screen and find a voicemail from Beau.
Hopefully he's got some good news for me.
The smell of sweat, wet grass, and Levi's stupidly good scent still clings to me. My muscles ache from working all day, and every inch of my body feels sticky. I barely notice Levi kicking his shoes off by the door or Nash muttering something about mud getting tracked onto his floors.
All I care about is the notification sitting on my screen.
Voicemail: Beau Talcott.
I hit play and hold it up to my ear.
"Nelly, it's me. Good news. Just talked with Ford and the cost of materials came in lower than expected…"
I squeal so loudly Levi jumps.
Nash winces from the kitchen. "Must be good news."
I'm already calling Beau back before his voicemail even finishes playing. My heart pounds while it rings once.
Twice.
Then Beau answers. "Hey—"
"How much lower?" I blurt.
A soft laugh crackles through the phone. "Hello to you, too."
"Beau," I whine. "Come on. I'm dying here. Gimme the numbers."
"All right, all right, we certainly don't want that.
" Papers shuffle on his end. "I sent it to you in an email just in case you need it in digital form as well.
Materials dropped enough to give you breathing room, about two grand's worth.
Not a substantial amount, but enough that you're not one unexpected expense away from disaster anymore. "
Relief crashes through me so fast my knees almost buckle. "Oh, thank God."
I pace up and down Nash's living room while Beau talks. Numbers spill from his mouth in calm, steady waves. Labor projections and material estimates. Payment installments and margins. My brain catches every word, rearranging the future in real time.
Maybe this project won't sink me after all.
From the kitchen, Nash raises his voice over the sound of cabinet doors opening. "You wanna get off that phone long enough to tell me what kind of pizza you like?"
Without even turning around, I fling my hand behind me and flip him off. "Mama's on the phone, hush now."
Levi chokes on a laugh. I turn just in time to see him bent over the back of the couch, laughing hard enough that his shoulders shake. Nash just stares at me from the kitchen island with the most exhausted expression I've ever seen on a human being.
"You're unbelievable," he mutters.
"Mhm," I hum into the phone as I plant myself on the couch. "Keep talking, Beau."
Beau's quiet laughter filters through the speaker. "Nash?"
"Unfortunately."
"Don't give him too hard of a time. He's trying to help you out."
"Anyway," I say, "tell me the bad news now. There's always bad news."
"There isn't bad news," Beau says. "There's only cautious optimism."
"That sounds fake."
"It's accounting language."
"Why do I feel like that's worse?"
Levi drops onto the couch beside me, still grinning to himself. His knee bumps mine, warm and solid, and I ignore the way my stomach flips at it.
"So, what's feasible?" I ask Beau. "What kind of turnaround time am I looking at now that the roof is gone-zo on this house?"
"If weather holds?" Papers rustle again. "You can finish the roof, stabilize the electrical, and still come out ahead enough with your original plans to roll into another property without taking out a new loan."
I pause. "Wait, seriously?"
"Yes, seriously."
My body loosens for the first time in days.
I look toward the kitchen, where Nash's broad shoulders block half the counter. He's still grumbling under his breath as he tries to place the pizza order.
Something soft twists in my chest as I watch him.
I hate it.
"Hey," I say into the phone. "You should come over."
Silence.
"What?" Beau asks.
"We're getting pizza. Levi's here as well, so you might as well come eat."
Levi points at me. "Told you I smelled a party coming."
I grin at him. "Shut up."
Beau hesitates. "You sure?"
"Yeah," I say. "Come hang out. You do know how to relax, right? Those numbers haven't made you uptight over the years?"
It takes him time to respond. "Okay. Yeah, sure. I'll be there soon."
"Great. See you in a bit."
The call ends a few minutes later after Beau promises to bring printed estimates for my files, because apparently he's incapable of arriving anywhere without paperwork.
"Of course he's bringing spreadsheets," Levi says as I tuck my phone back into my pocket.
"He's an accountant. It's foreplay for him."
Levi laughs so hard that Nash points at him from the kitchen. "You're encouraging her."
"She doesn't need encouragement," Levi says.
Nash continues typing away on his phone. "You're both exhausting."
"Yet you invited us in anyway," I singsong.
Nash mutters something incoherent and disappears down the hallway.
I grin to myself and grab one of my blankets slung over the arm of his couch. I don't like his couch. It's stiff and unforgiving, like the ramrod shoved up Nash's ass. Every muscle in my body screams in protest the second I try to get comfortable.
"Ugh," I groan. "I might actually die if I have to nest on this couch."
Levi stretches out beside me, one arm thrown over the back of it. "Nah. You're too stubborn to die."
"That's sweet."
"It wasn't meant to be. You can't nest here?"
I try to get the blanket comfortable around me, but all I do is fidget with the fabric. "Not for lack of trying."
"I heard that!" Nash calls out from his room. "Pizza will be here in twenty!"
A knock sounds at the door and Nash bolts from the hallway. "I'll get it."
Levi stands and stretches. "I'll grab us some beers."
"You don't even know what everyone drinks," Nash says.
Levi shrugs. "Beer tastes like beer."
I snicker from under my blanket. "That's the most Alpha thing you've ever said."
Levi tosses me a playful wink before Nash whips the door open, revealing Beau standing there in his work clothes and his crooked tie.
He steps inside, trading places with Levi as he slips out to grab those drinks.
Beau's got a folder tucked under one arm and his bag slung behind him, rainwater clinging to the shoulders of his jacket.
His gaze lands on me immediately. "You look exhausted."
I give him a tight-lipped smile. "You sound like my mother."
Nash shuts the door behind him. "You'd hate me less if you listened to me as often as you ignore her."
"I don't even talk to her anymore, so I don't know what you're talking about."
"Exactly."
I smile and take the folder from him as he sits beside me. "All right, explain the numbers in here to me until I stop panicking."
Nash keeps piddling around the kitchen. Dishes clink in the sink. The dishwasher starts sloshing water around. Squeaking comes from somewhere, and when I look over, Nash is hunched over his kitchen counter, scrubbing at something only he can see.
I've never seen someone clean so intently.
I hide a smile as Beau opens the folder across both our laps. The pages are covered in his neat handwriting, and highlighted sections draw my eye.
"You know," I say quietly to Beau, "I think he alphabetizes his spices."
"I heard that," Nash says as he continues scrubbing.
I call out to him. "That's not a denial."
"It's paprika before pepper because that's how the alphabet works. Nothing weird about that."
Beau snorts beside me.
He talks me through the numbers, and while he's optimistic, I can't help but wonder if I've gotten myself in over my head, professionally.
I saved money by doing the home inspection myself, and I'm realizing just how much of a mistake that was.
I refuse to let it sink me, but I won't turn much of a profit with this house.
Lesson learned, I suppose.
The pizza arrives just as Levi gets back with beer.
Boxes spread across the coffee table while thunder rolls somewhere outside again.
The four of us settle into the living room like we've done this a hundred times, with Levi on one side of me, Nash on the other, and Beau cross-legged on the floor at the coffee table.
It feels weirdly natural.
Rain taps steadily against the windows, and for a little while, all I hear is the hissing of beers being opened and the occasional loud chewing from Nash as the weather report drones through the apartment.
"Well," I say around a bite of pizza, trying to break the awkwardness of it all, "got the gutters leveled today. Thanks, Levi, for the helping hand."
Levi lifts his beer. "After threatening bodily harm against them for three straight hours, I think you needed one."
"Hey, they deserved it."
"You talk to houses like they insulted your family."
I snicker and take a swig. "My family insults themselves just fine by existing."
Beau smiles faintly while flipping through one of the estimate pages again. "You still need the yard graded, though."
"I can do that tomorrow."
"If the rain holds off," Nash says.
I shoot him a look. "It'll hold."
Levi nods to the television. "Not so sure about that."
I turn my attention to the weather report. "What?"
He takes a hefty bite of pizza, talking around it. "Storm system's getting worse. Gonna be a washout, looks like."
The room goes quiet before Beau starts furiously scribbling in a notebook he's pulled out of his bag.
"What are you doing?" I ask carefully.
"Making notes for tomorrow," Beau murmurs.
"About?"
Beau sighs. "Calling Knox and Ford. That weather report looks bad enough that they probably won't touch the roof until it clears."
"No, now wait. That can't happen," I say, setting my plate down. "I need that roof done by next week. You said—"
"Mother Nature waits for no one," Levi says.
Panic sparks hot behind my ribs. "Oh my god. I can't stay here that long." I shove upright from the couch cushions and rake my hands down my face. "I need my private space back. I can't even nest here."
Nash snorts without looking up from his pizza. "You were nesting on a couch in the living room of that house. You can nest here just fine."
I whip toward him. "That's different."
"How?"
"Because it was my couch."
"It looks like you picked it up on the side of the road, Nelly. Besides, it was covered in drywall dust."
I grind my teeth together. "It was comfortable with the drywall dust." Levi laughs into his beer bottle and I point at him. "Don't give him any ideas. He's insufferable enough."
Levi grins. "Says the woman who's agreed to stay with him. You could always come stay with me."
"Or me," Beau says.
"Men are useless," I mutter as I flop back down onto the couch.
Dinner winds down after that. We all watch the weather report, and every time Beau jots something down, my stomach twists. Nash gathers up our dirty plates and Levi wanders behind him into the kitchen, tossing the trash while Nash scrubs at the sink.
Levi steals leftover pepperonis from the boxes before tossing them.
"You're like a raccoon," Nash says.
Levi smiles. "And yet you keep feeding me."
I sink back against the couch cushions while Beau gathers the paperwork into neat stacks again.
The adrenaline that's been racing through my body all day finally starts to settle.
My shoulders throb. My hands burn. Everything aches at once, like my body's protesting the fact that I plan to get back at it tomorrow.
Even in my silence, Beau notices.
"Hey," he says softly as he stands.
I look up at him and find his arms wide open without hesitation.
"Yeah," I whisper with a nod.
He drops onto the couch beside me and pulls me in before I can think too hard about it.
His hold is careful, steady and warm, just like always.
My forehead presses against his chest while his fingers smooth up and down my back, and for the life of me I can't figure out why the hell this man is single.
He's always been such a comfort to me.
I can only imagine the type of wonderful partner he'd be.
"I won't let you financially fail," he murmurs. "You have to trust me as your accountant on that."
My throat tightens. "You can't promise that."
"I can. I do it every day for a price. You may not come out with much to pocket, but I'll make sure you can pay yourself out of the loans you've got so you start the new project fresh."
"I should've hired the inspector."
"We all do things that don't make sense from time to time. Doesn't mean we deserve to fail."
Nash and Levi's voices waft from the kitchen, but I pay them no mind. Beau is warm, and I sink a little deeper into him than I intend. With Beau, everything softens around the edges for a moment, and his clean linen scent wraps around me as exhaustion settles deep in my bones.
I'm so lucky to have a friend like Beau.
So lucky, in fact, that I shove down the urge to bury my face in the crook of his neck and inhale.
He's my friend.
And I can't allow my stress to push those boundaries.