Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
8
TRACE
“I appreciate you working on this.” Cooper, my friend, shakes my hand the next morning. His restaurant isn’t usually open at this time of day, which works in my favor considering the project I’m about to take on for him. It’ll mean my afternoons are free to work on a few smaller projects. Cooper’s Steakhouse is expanding. Couldn’t be prouder for my friend and his wife. We all went to school together. They’re high school sweethearts. Kids were never in the cards for them. I never pushed the subject, and when Cooper opened one day, he told me neither of them felt the need to become parents. Their child is what I’m currently working on. Over the years, they’ve done a few things here and there—new electrical, adding an extra stall in the bathroom, upgrading the kitchen. Nothing like what we’re working on this week.
“Never a problem, you know that. Where’s that wife of yours?” I ask my longtime friend. Usually, wherever Cooper is, you can find Gia beside him or not far from him. The two may as well be attached at the hip.
“Don’t you worry about my wife, fucker,” he jokes. Gia is like a sister. Ain’t no way I’ve ever had a thought about her. Clearly, I’ve got a thing for a woman my son’s age, with blonde hair, blue eyes. Forbidden fucking fruit. “Get one of your own finally.” I’m about to get to work on framing an outdoor eating area the size much like the indoor area. It’ll have a roof, no screens, and a railing surrounding it. Gia and Cooper should have done this years ago, taking advantage of the view, mountains, and the lake.
“It’s not my fault Gia likes me more than you,” I toss out. The guys are already here, off-loading the materials—wood, braces, composite decking, beams, and the likes. Cooper will need electrical work, too, and while I can do it in a pinch, that plus plumbing isn’t my area of expertise. Nothing I’d like less than sticking my hand in water that had shit running through it.
“Maybe she only likes you more when it involves her getting what she wants,” Cooper remarks. He’s not wrong, which is why when Gia told me in the meeting the three of us had that she wanted the space a certain way—no wood decking but composite, doubling the price by using the expensive material all the way around—Gia got it. Cooper grumbled for thirty seconds until I waded in and told him that longevity wise, composite was the smarter way to go. “Oh shit, I see that look, know it so well, each time Gia is mentioned I’m wearing the same look, backwards and forwards, every which way between. It’s time to fess up buddy.”
How the fuck do you tell your best friend, the man who can see right through any line of bullshit you try to feed them, that the woman you’ve only had one taste of turned into a secret obsession I never saw coming? Then there’s the little unknown fact I’ve become a stalker when it comes to Josie Preston. After last night and this morning, I know I’ll be doing another drive through yet again. This morning when I left my house for work, my truck guided me to Josie’s place. It was barely dawn, the sun slowly creeping up in the distance, the mountain views one of my favorite sights and the reason I’ll never leave Blue Valley. There’s nothing better than waking up in the morning on a winter day, hitting the back deck with a cup of coffee in my hand, not bothering with putting on extra clothes, freezing my dick off in order to take in the beauty nature gives us so freely. I didn’t expect to get a glimpse of the woman who is consuming more than my mind; the woman is invading my dreams. I wake up with my fist around my cock, jerking myself off only to have to do it all over again each night in the shower. Especially now that she’s here in my town, so close yet so fucking far away, for now.
“You won’t believe it even if I tell you.” I take my baseball hat off and run my fingers through my hair before replacing it, figuring out where to begin the conversation.
“The beginning usually works best,” the smartass remarks. Best friends are a pain in the dick.
“You think?” I walk toward where I’ve got the materials set out. Soon, the heavy equipment will be here to dig holes in the ground to place footings. Working smarter not harder in the form of renting shit then hand digging will make it the process much easier. “You remember when Wes was home for spring break his second year in college?” My eyes move from the ground to Cooper’s.