Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Asher
Iscrubbed my hand across my face. Man, it had been a brutal day.
Thank God it was over. All I wanted was a cold beer and Natalie.
As I rounded the corner and my house came into view, I couldn’t help but grin like an idiot when I saw her car in my driveway.
Such a small thing and yet…it felt unbelievable.
I parked and hopped out of the truck, scanning for her in case she’d just got here. Apparently not, since she was nowhere to be seen.
I wandered down the side of the house, knowing she’d be parked on the swing since that was where I’d found her the past couple of days.
Rounding the house, my breath caught at the sight of Nat sprawled out on the swing, her face turned up to the sun and a serene half-smile on her face.
The sunlight caught her hair, making it look lighter than I knew it was.
She looked incredible. How did I get so lucky?
How had it only been a couple of weeks since she’d come back to town? In such a short period, she’d become—everything. How the hell was I supposed to let her go when summer ended?
“Hey,” I called, alerting her to my presence.
Her eyes popped open. And the smile that spread across her face hit me like a punch in the chest. There was no way I could let her go. That meant figuring out long distance, which I’d sworn I’d never do, but circumstances change. Turns out when you meet the right woman, no obstacle feels too big.
“Hi, how was your day?” She hopped up and walked toward me. Natalie stood on her tiptoes. Her mouth warm from the sun, pressed against mine in a kiss that melted the stress of the day.
“Mmm, I could get used to that.”
“Good.” She smiled. “How was your day?”
“Better now.” I told her. Taking her hand, I pulled her onto my lap as I sat on the swing.
She leaned back and looked at my face. Her hand eased through my hair before she cupped the back of my neck. Her fingers dug into tight muscles, and I bit back a groan.
“Want to tell me about it?” she asked.
I exhaled. “Where to begin? My parents are on a tear about Beth, demanding I don’t give her any money.”
Natalie winced. “She mentioned that.”
“Right, how was your day with her?”
“Nope, we aren’t talking about that right now. We’re talking about your shitty day.”
I sighed. “Do we have to?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “Unload on me. You’re so used to being there for everyone else, let me be here for you.”
“Thanks.” I cupped the back of her neck and pulled her toward me for a kiss. The moment I felt her lips against mine I wanted more. I deepened the kiss, but before I had a chance to really enjoy it, she pulled back.
“Nope.” She laughed. “Not what I meant by let me be there for you. Talk, mister.”
“Fine. After I turned off my ringer so I could avoid my family. I went down to supervise a test build.”
“What’s a test build?”
“It’s sort of a trial run of the house before we ship it. We do a test build, make sure everything fits the way we want it to, then take it apart, label it, and get it ready for shipping.”
“Wow, that’s cool. I had no idea you did that.”
“Yeah, a lot easier to fix it in the yard than to try to notch something out in the field. The customer came down and watched, so now they are raring for it to be shipped out.”
Her eyes twinkled as if she were picturing it in her mind. “Oh, they must love seeing that. I bet it’s so exciting for the homeowner to come down and see you guys in action. Get a feel for what their house might really look like.”
I smiled at her enthusiasm. It wasn’t something I was used to.
My family found my job boring. Apparently, they’d seen me build enough Lincoln Logs growing up.
They didn’t want to hear about it too. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool.
Depending on where the build is happening, I don’t always go out to the house, so it’s my chance to fine-tune anything structural.
At this point, we’ve built so many that it’s more of a formality now since we reuse a lot of the same designs.
The inside is where it gets all the custom work for most builds. ”
“I am in awe of your brain. Being able to understand the load and how to make it all work.” She shook her head. “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with logs.”
I chuckled. “Kind of I guess.”
She slid off my lap. Her legs still lay on mine as she shifted her body to face me fully. “Okay, so you were doing a test build. Why did your day suck?”
Right, my shitty day. I scrubbed my hand across my face. “I’m an idiot and hired Caleb’s younger brother, Jamie, for a summer job.”
“Why does that make you an idiot?”
“Because I know the kid’s a clown, with ego out his ass. He’s not ready for a job like this, but Caleb convinced me to hire him.” My shoulders tightened. “I ran back to the shop, and while I was gone Jamie thought it was a good idea to show the guys his parkour skills.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh my God, please tell me he didn’t fall.”
“Yep. Shattered his ankle. Thank God, we only had a couple of logs in place, so it wasn’t that high.
Fucking kid’s an idiot, but so is the rest of the crew who let him do it.
” My jaw clenched. What the hell was the point of having a supervisor if he couldn’t stop the crew from being stupid?
How the hell am I supposed to trust them on a job unsupervised if they do this kind of shit on site?
“Now I have to fill out a shit-ton of paperwork. I’m gonna have WCB up my ass, all because Caleb’s fucking brother thinks the rules don’t apply to him.
He’s lucky all he did was break his ankle.
If he tried that on a full build like he talked about, he could have died or broken his back. And then what?”
“But he didn’t.” Nat’s calm reassurance broke through the spiral running in my head.
“You do a staff meeting and talk to the guys about messing around on the job site. They all learned a lesson from Jamie, and you can give a warning about what will happen if they don’t follow the rules.
” She clasped my arm and squeezed it. “Ankles heal. He’s going to be fine. ”
“Yeah.” The tension in my jaw loosened as she continued to stroke my arm. “Caleb’s more pissed than I am.” I’d never seen my business partner so mad before.
“So, does Jamie still have a job?” she asked.
“No clue. I told Caleb it’s his brother, he can deal with it, but I have to deal with the rest of my guys who let it happen.” I rolled my shoulders. “When I’m done with them, I can guarantee it won’t happen again,” I snarled.
Natalie chuckled. “All right, tough guy.”
I raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “What? You don’t think I’m serious?”
“No, I know you’re serious.” She shifted her leg on my lap. “But I also know you, and having a person injured on your site, even when it’s their own fault, scared you.”
“Of course it did.” I shook my head. “I hammer safety into these guys constantly, and then they let something like this happen. I don’t care if he’s the boss’s brother, they shouldn’t have let it happen.”
“And they won’t again,” she soothed.
I picked up her leg and absently stroked my hand down her muscular calf. “They better not,” I muttered. I paused when my thumb hit a knot in her calf and dug deeper. Nat groaned.
“Keep going or stop?”
“Definitely don’t stop.” She rolled her ankle.
“Is that a hint to do your foot?”
She chuckled. “Trust me, you don’t want to touch my feet.”
“Why? You have some funky toe fungus or something?”
She smacked my arm. “No, of course not. My feet are just kind of messed up looking.”
Well, now I needed to have a look. I grabbed the top of her sock and slid it down her foot.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she mumbled.
I pulled the sock completely off and dropped it on the cushion beside me. “Holy shit, Nat.” I gaped at her twisted foot. “How the hell do you even walk on those things, let alone dance?”
Clearly embarrassed, she tried to pull her foot back, but I held on. “No, don’t,” I told her. “Let me look. Give me your other one.”
Nat looked down at her lap. “I know they look gross.”
“No, they don’t.” Gross isn’t the word I’d use to describe them. Painful? Absolutely. But not gross.
Her discomfort was obvious, but I needed her to know they didn’t disgust me at all. I took her foot and pushed my thumb into the arch of her foot, and she groaned. “Good?”
Nat chewed her bottom lip and looked at me. “You really don’t have to do that.”
I dug my thumbs into the rigid band of her sole. The thing was wound so tight I was surprised it didn’t snap. “I know I don’t,” I said as I continued to massage her foot.
“They look worse than they are,” she muttered.
I doubt that. Looking at her foot, there was no way it didn’t hurt every day. I had to assume the other one looked just as bad. As I continued to massage her foot, the tension in it eased.
“Oh my God, you have magic hands,” she moaned.
I raised an eyebrow and smirked at her.
“Haha, smartass.” She shoved her heel into my gut then set the other foot on my lap, silently letting me know it wanted the same attention.
Nat tilted her head to the side and studied me with a soft smile on her face. “You really are something, Asher Briggs,” she said.
“Why’s that?”
“Most guys, well people in general honestly, find my feet disgusting. I’ve had a lot of stress fractures and breaks over the years.” She shrugged. “Dancer’s feet, what can I say?”
I rubbed the knotted bone on the side of her foot, and she winced slightly, so I eased up. “Warrior’s feet,” I said.
“What?”
“These aren’t dancer’s feet, Nat. You have bunions and hammertoes and,”—I tweaked the top of her middle toe—“this one is practically sideways. Most people would barely be able to walk if their toes looked like this, and you dance for hours a day on them. You’re a warrior to do that when I can see how painful that must be. ”
“Definitely not a warrior.” She exhaled and sank deeper into the sofa. “I don’t think I want to keep doing it.”