by Sammi Cee
As Jack walks down the couple of steps from the trailer, his brother Vaughn appears at the door, smiling down at Chuck. If I was in a different place in my life, hell, if I was anyone but me, I’d try to find out from Jack if his brother is single and gay. Right now isn’t the time though, especially now that Vaughn knows what a monumental screw up I am. “Hey, Chuck. Good to see you back.”
“Thanks, Vaughn. Although, I hope you guys have a site where I don’t have to see Jack every day. I’ve had enough crap slung at me the last couple months with my students. I’d rather not spend the whole summer being called a knucklehead.”
Jack’s eyes widen at Chuck as he shakes his head. “Oh, Chuck, just for that I’m going to make sure you have to see me all the time. Every single day of the whole summer so that I can sling crap at you personally, more than your students could ever get away with.”
Vaughn and I both chuckle at the stare-off the two of them enter into. It’s Chuck who shrugs his shoulders in defeat. “Fine. Fine. I need a job for the summer so whatever you want to dish out, I can handle it.”
Vaughn speaks before his brother can. “Jack thought it would be nice for you and Julian to work together this summer.” He then proceeds to give him the same information they gave me.
“That sounds great.” Turning to me, Chuck says, “It wasn’t the same working without you last summer.”
Jack adds in, “You guys have the perfect foreman for this job, too. You’ll learn a lot. He’s one of the best.”
All three of us turn to him. “Who? They’ve had to have worked with Nathaniel before. He’s been a foreman for you for years.” Jack shoves his hands in his pockets, smiling like the cat who ate the canary.
“Nope, they’ll be working with you of course.”
“No, Nathaniel’s supposed to be overseeing that job.” Vaughn sounds flustered, but I’m more interested in Chuck’s reaction. I side-eye him to see if he responds to the name of the sexy foreman he’s had a crush on since we were sixteen. Sure enough, his cheeks pinken a bit while he tries to keep a neutral expression on his face. Jack and Vaughn are so engaged in their own stare-down, they don’t notice, but I do. I kick my friend’s shoe, causing him to look at me and I wink making his face turn even pinker.
Life had been a constant struggle since only a few months after I moved in with Phillip. There were always rules I didn’t understand but had to live by. People I’d never seen before, and many I never saw again, in and out. Most people were hooked on one substance or another, and not to be trusted. And Phillip was my boyfriend, my lover—but never really my friend. No one was ever Chuck; no one ever came close.
I had spent the couple hours before coming here ready to beg for a job throwing up and then dry heaving in my bathroom, terrified of what Jack may have heard about me and what he might say. Now I'm gainfully employed and I can finally breathe a bit as my life seems to be back on track. My employer is an old friend willing to take a chance on me, and I have my best friend in my corner again. And as for the third man standing with us, well the prodigal brother is hot as hell with his dark hair and neatly trimmed beard.
I’m jerked back to the what’s going on around me when Chuck asks, “Well, Julian, are you in?”
“I’m sorry. In for what?”
“Jack asked if we want to go for drinks with him and Vaughn.”
How did I miss that? Glancing around at the three, Chuck looks hopeful, Jack is smiling encouragingly, but Vaughn is glaring down at his brother. Maybe he’s not that thrilled about me coming to work here. “No, that’s okay. I should probably head home,” I say sadly. It would’ve been nice to spend time with them, but I don’t want to push my luck with Vaughn if he doesn’t want me around, and I sure don’t need to be in a bar.
Vaughn’s eyes jerk to my face, so I meet his searching gaze with my head held high. No one needs to know how I really feel, least of all a man who obviously doesn’t want me around. However, within a minute, his eyes soften. “Julian, you may have missed it, but Chuck means coffee. We’re not going to a bar or anything. Jack and I have been here since early this morning and thought we’d go grab a good cup of coffee at the neighborhood cafe.”
“That—” I clear my throat. “That would be great, actually.”
“Yes!” Chuck gives a fist pump into the air before telling them we’ll see them there and grabbing my arm to drag me back toward where our cars are parked. As we move away, I glance back to see both brothers watching us walk away. One appearing self-satisfied and the other confused. What did I miss when I zoned out?
Chapter Five
Vaughn
* * *
For fuck’s sake, it’s four a.m. and I’m standing in front of my drawer picking out a t-shirt like I’m getting dressed for a date instead of going to work on a construction site. Damn Jack and his meddling. Without giving it a second thought, I shut my eyes and reach in the drawer, pulling out whatever shirt my hand lands on. Of course, it’s an old gray shirt with holes in it, so I toss it toward the trash can in my room because it should’ve been thrown out already. (Or at least that’s what I tell myself.) That means I’m once again forced into picking a shirt. Closing my eyes again, I grab another one and keep my eyelids squeezed shut until I’ve pulled it on. I’m not acknowledging how unreasonably happy I am that it’s one of my tighter t-shirts, one that shows off my pecs, or how I like the way the green in the shirt looks with my dark brown eyes. A shirt that happens to be the same color green as Julian’s eyes.
Damn Jack. This is all his fault. Grabbing my phone, I call him. “Hey, little brother. Patsy says wear your green Nike t-shirt. She says it makes your eyes glimmer. Whatever the hell that means,” he answers. Amusement is thick in his voice, pissing me off even more.
“You have to switch me jobs.”
“No can do. I have a couple bids to work on, and I’m going to need Nathaniel’s help with one of them so I have to be near him.”
“Fine, then Nathaniel can switch back to this one, and I’ll cover his job and I’ll help you.”
“Sorry. No can do, again. He spent the weekend on that job getting acquainted with the project and had a couple of the guys come in for some overtime yesterday. They’re probably pulling up to the site right now, as a matter of fact. It’ll look like we don’t know what in the hell we’re doing if we go switching everything back now.”
“Fine.” I can hear him laughing as I hang up the phone. It’s not until I’ve filled my thermos, packed my lunch, picked up bagels for the guys, and am almost to the site that it occurs to me that my brother’s wife was handing out fashion advice for me to go to work.
I generally try to arrive earlier than my guys, but with the stop for bagels, I pull in at the same time as Chuck and Julian. “Hey, guys,” I mutter, not making eye contact with either one since I’m thrown by the fact Patsy thought it necessary to help me dress, like she thought I was going on a date, too, instead of to work. On a construction site. With twelve other people. To do a job. I make my way to the trailer and can hear them chatting behind me. “There’s bagels.” I don’t stop but go straight up the steps, unlock the trailer, and dump the bagels on the side table.
“Whose birthday?” Chuck asks from behind me.
“No one that I know of.” I busy myself with putting my other items on the desk and going to start a pot of coffee, hoping they don’t notice my thermos.
“Then why’d you bring bagels? We usually only get breakfast for special occasions.” He’s right of course. I don’t even know what I’m doing. This is work; I’m not going on a damn date. Not being able to put it off any longer now that the coffee is going, I turn around to face the two men. My eyes slide quickly past Chuck and land on Julian, and it’s like being punched in the gut. He’s every bit as handsome as I remembered from the other night when we all went for coffee, and it’s obvious he’s feeling more comfortable. His eyes are less guarded and his lips have a slight upward curve without the tension he was carrying the other
night weighing him down.
Choosing to ignore Chuck’s question, I ask, “Did you guys have a nice weekend?”
Chuck’s already turned to pull the bagels out and open the different flavors of cream cheese I bought, so he doesn’t notice that I’m staring at Julian like a teenager with his first crush or that his friend is now peeking shyly at me through his extraordinarily long eyelashes.
Chuck says, “We had a great weekend. We spent it together. We helped Julian’s parents with lawn work on Saturday, and then we spent the night together at my house and just hung out and talked all day yesterday. We really needed that.”
My eyebrows rise, clearing my throat I focus on crossing the small space back to my desk, hoping that Julian doesn’t see the disappointment I feel. “Oh, I didn’t realize.”
“Realize what?” Julian asks.
“That you two were, uh,” I motion between them, “more than friends.”
Chuck drops the knife he was holding to his bagel and spins toward me. “Ewww… Vaughn. No. We’re like brothers. That’s disgusting.”
“Oh.” I sink into the chair behind the desk, uncomfortably pleased that my whole body feels lighter knowing for sure they aren’t an item.
“We’ll be outside when you’re ready. I’ll make sure the other guys know to come in and get food,” Chuck says when they finish getting their bagels ready and head toward the door.
“Thanks… Vaughn,” Julian says shyly before he ducks out behind his friend.
Letting my head fall back, I groan. What the fuck am I doing? Julian’s ten years younger than me with his whole life ahead of him. His last relationship had to have left emotional scars, and he needs to heal from the drug abuse. He doesn’t need his boss perving on him. Unfortunately, it’s all of those things that draw me to him. The glimmers of vulnerability I saw when we all sat having coffee together. The glimpses of his sense of humor when he and Chuck got to picking on each other. The determined set of his shoulders and jaw when he talked about his dreams for the future. All of those nuances tied up in a man with broad shoulders, bulging biceps, and a sweet, boyish smile. When he’d been in the trailer to apply for the job, I’d been intrigued and in lust. By the time we left the cafe, I was charmed.
The men trickle in over the next ten minutes to say good morning and grab a bagel. Pushing myself to act normal, I walk out with the last of them and give everyone their assignments for the day. The only thing that seems to be going in my favor is that most of the guys on this particular job are seasoned workers, a couple of them even up for foreman positions when they come available, and so I can spend a lot of the day in the trailer getting paperwork done. With a concentrated effort, I push down my desire to spend the whole day following Julian around, and get to work.
At three o’clock the guys start making their way home for the day. Julian and Chuck stop in last as they head out. “Night, Vaughn,” Chuck yells from outside the open door of the trailer.
Since I saw them get out of the same car when we pulled up together, I jump up and make my way to the door. My restraint today has felt super-human, especially when the guys broke for lunch. There was nothing I wanted to do more than go out and sit with them, meaning Julian. Choosing to make my necessary phone calls while they ate to trap me inside was a smart move to avoid my little crush, but made me cranky and irritable for the rest of the afternoon. “Hey, guys. How was your first day back?” I ask after walking out of the door. I can only hope they didn’t notice I didn’t walk out to talk to any of the other guys as they left.
“I’m exhausted,” Chuck grumbles.
“The cushy life of a teacher. Forgot how to work those muscles, didn’t ya?” Julian teases him.
“Dude, you’re only able to handle the labor because you were working out and getting all kinds of physical activity while in drug rehab for three months. Excuse me. If you had gone straight from college and got a job in your degree, your ass would already be spreading from sitting in a chair.”
Alarmed at how rude Chuck is being to his best friend, I cut my eyes to Julian in time to see him biting on his bottom lip to keep from laughing at Chuck’s huffing. It’s not the first time I notice that Julian likes to rile Chuck up. It’s also not the first time I notice how appetizing his bottom lip is. Dragging my gaze from where his teeth are embedded in his lip, I see Chuck plant his balled-up fists on his hips. “Tease, tease, tease. That’s all you do is tease me. Geesh. You forgive a guy and let him back into your good graces after he royally fucks you over, and what’s he do? He makes fun of you over and over and over again.”
As he speaks, I dart my eyes between them and watch the color rise in Julian’s cheeks. Honestly, I can feel my own blood pressure rising at how Chuck is throwing Julian’s past transgressions in his face. I’m about to interject before the two friends get in an actual argument, when Julian suddenly barks out a laugh and doubles over. Chuck’s eyes narrow on his friend before he turns to me. “Do you see what I put up with? It’s a wonder I even wanted him back.” Then he winks at me and cracks the tiniest bit of a grin.
With a hand planted on each knee, Julian is bent over heaving in deep breaths while he tries to get his laughter under control. “Hold on, hold on… I’m sorry, C… give me a minute…” And then he’s laughing all over again, a joyful laugh from deep in his belly.
Chuck throws his hands in the air and begins walking toward his car, complaining over his shoulder as he goes. “I can’t even with you right now. I should make you walk home. Maybe Vaughn will give you a ride.” Even though I can’t clearly hear what he’s saying, I know he’s still going off as he moves farther away.
After a few minutes, still bent over but finally under control, Julian tilts his head at me and winks. “See you tomorrow, boss.” Then he’s up and walking toward Chuck’s car where his friend is patiently waiting for him.
I can still see the back of the car as they drive down the road when my phone rings. “Did you get a date, yet?” my brother asks without preamble.
“Dude, I’m at work. Not cruising a bar for a date,” I mutter.
“Well, since you rarely go out to a bar, and you sure aren’t dating, a work romance may be your only option,” he snickers.
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Oh hey, before you hang up, Patsy told me to tell you to wear the red Adidas shirt tomorrow. She says it looks great with your complexion and that it accentuates your triceps.”
For fuck’s sake.
Chapter Six
Julian
* * *
Wow. If I thought Vaughn looked good yesterday in that green shirt, it had nothing on the red one he’s wearing today. “Quit staring at Vaughn, Julian. You’re being creepy.”
“I’m not staring at him. We’re all working in the same area today. I just happened to look over there, and he’s there so I couldn’t help but notice him.” At Chuck’s snort, I say, “Don’t even act like you didn’t spend summer after summer staring at Nathaniel’s amazing body.”
“I did not stare at Nathaniel.”
“Oh, you so did stare at him. Every chance you got. And Vaughn’s a man, of course he likes being ogled or he wouldn’t have worn a shirt that so clearly defines his traps.”
“Okay, there are so many things wrong with this conversation.” Chuck stands up and moves around to my other side, so he can see Vaughn now as clearly as I can when I peek over my shoulder. “Even if my eyes did used to sometimes rest on Nathaniel’s fantastic ass for long periods of time, it wasn’t because I craned my head around on my neck like an ostrich like you keep doing. And you know why, Julian? Because that’s creepy.”
I chuckle, but he shakes his head, giving me a stern look and continue. “Now might also be a good time to point out that Nathaniel wasn’t the boss of a job back when we were in high school; he was a regular old worker like us. And ‘Vaughn’s a man,’ so that means, what? That it’s okay to objectify him. If you heard someone say that about one of your sisters, yo
u’d flip out on them. Seriously, both your sisters work out and are fit as hell, so does that mean it’s okay for men to gawk at them? And last but not least, he’s your boss. That’s a terrible idea when you need your job.”
Taking my time to let my eyes linger on Vaughn, because—he’s gorgeous, I say, “You really need to loosen up, you know. You’re always pointing out the negatives of every situation.”
Chuck reaches over and lightly grasps my elbow. “The last time you charged full steam ahead and didn’t even consider what I was saying it could have cost you your life.” He darts his eyes all around one more time to make sure no one is listening before he continues. “Listen, I’m not only talking about the drugs. I didn’t want to say anything since I know you don’t plan on seeing Phillip or going anywhere he hangs, but a couple weeks after you called me from rehab, there was a shooting at Bernie’s house.”
My eyes widen as my jaw drops. “What? Was anyone hurt? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because, I didn’t want to upset you. And yeah, someone was shot in the leg. They said they were only fooling around and the safety wasn’t on. I don’t know. But that’s Phillip’s best friend, Julian. Those people are dangerous. I know Vaughn isn’t anything like that. I worked with him last year, and I know what a good guy he is, but I don’t want you to derail your life again because of a guy. And I know this job is good for you. Us working together again is good for you.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not even sure he’s gay.” Although, if he’s not, the attention he pays me and the way his eyes follow me is kind of weird.
Chuck giggles, which isn’t that unusual but sounds funny when he’s covered in grime and sweating his butt off doing hard work. “He’s bi. I know because Jack mentioned it last summer. I was bummed about what was going on with you, and I think he was hoping that maybe we’d hang out.” At my sharp look, he holds up his hand. “There’s never even been a seconds worth of attraction, believe me.” Then I remember his unrequited love for Nathaniel and wish he’d had someone to hang out with last summer. “But he’s worried about his brother, too. That’s what I’m saying, I guess. I don’t know why he’s worried about his brother. And it’s not only you perving on him. He can’t keep his eyes off you either. I guess, I’m just saying I want you to be careful. Remember how Jack told us once he didn’t know why his brother never came home. You’ve been through a lot; I’d hate to see you get wrapped up in another bad situation is all. He’s a great boss, but…”
