The Marriage Pact: A Baby Romance

by Tia Siren

  When I got there, I was happy to see that I didn’t have to work with Carl. Apparently he wasn’t chosen for overtime this weekend. It would have really chapped his ass to know I was here and he wasn’t. I started working, whistling as I went, nailing in boards, lugging various material over to the edges of the property to be picked up, and working without the normal weekday stressors that the crew brought to the job. I had a pep in my step that I didn’t normally have, and I could feel happiness in my chest that hadn’t been there in a long time. It was nice, and I wasn’t going to complain about it. In fact, I wished every day could be this carefree.

  I knew what was driving my happiness, and it wasn’t the danish I’d scarfed down on my drive to work that morning. It was because of the events that had unfolded the night before. I didn’t care that I had slept with the boss’s daughter. I cared that I had slept with Cassie. She was spunky, happy, and lit up the room when she was in it. She was a different person outside work than she was when on the job, and for good reasons, I supposed. Then again, I was a different person too. I had a sense of humor, unlike what the crew seemed to think. I hadn’t gotten the nickname Silent Scott for no reason. I never seemed to find anyone who interested me enough at work to have a conversation with.

  I spent the rest of work getting a ton done and thinking about Cassie at the same time. I wished I was that productive on a regular basis, but until then, I hadn’t had the motivation. When the shift was over, I headed back to my house to get a shower and some lunch. I sat at my dining room table, wondering what Cassie was doing in her world at that moment. She was probably dining outside with linen tablecloths and mimosas. I laughed while thinking about her sitting there at the table and talking to her relatives about college, all the while thinking about how I’d fucked the hell out of her the night before. It was amusing to me when it should have been terrifying, considering her father held the keys to my future. I had only ever worked construction, and if I got fired, I would be screwed.

  That night I loaded up the car with Red Bull and snacks and headed out on my Uber trek. The business was the same as usual. I started out the night chauffeuring giggling girls to the bars with their perfume choking me to death. Then there were a few in-between fares which led into the night rush from the bars. There was nothing worse than taking carload after carload of drunk dudes back to their houses. Or even worse than that, the random hookups who liked to make out in the back seat of my car. All in all, though, I was still in one hell of a mood, which was good because I had some serious weirdos that night. By the time things started to wear down, I was feeling a bit more than exhausted. I wasn’t even sure what time I had passed out the night before, but most likely the sleep had been minimal.

  When the last fare had been dropped off, I clocked out of my Uber app and headed over to the twenty-four-hour food joint down the street. I grabbed a burger, some fries, and a shake and headed back to my house. I plopped down on the couch and flipped on the television, putting my feet up and devouring my late-night dinner. There was nothing on TV as usual at three in the morning, so I clicked it off and leaned my head back, thinking about Cassie. Her body ran through my mind and how hot she was naked. I wished she were here because I really wanted to fuck her again. I opened my eyes and sighed. It was probably for the better that she wasn’t here. I stood up and walked to the kitchen, tossing my trash in the garbage before heading into my room.

  As I undressed, I thought about the fire I was seriously playing with by involving myself with Cassie. For God’s sake, she was the daughter of the owner of the company I worked for. Her father seemed like a reasonable man, but I was pretty sure that when it came to his daughter, he’d rather fire a fourteen-year employee than see her with a roughneck, even though I was probably the best pick out of all of them. Still, that didn’t mean much. It was like saying you got to pick the best of the rotten tomatoes to eat for dinner. The best of them only smelled a little, and your case of food poisoning would only be minor compared to the others. I was a rotten tomato.

  I lay down in bed and stared up at the ceiling, realizing I had just compared myself to a half-rotten tomato. It was time I got my head back in the game. I’d had my fun and now it was over, and it needed to stay that way if I didn’t want to find myself in a pot of boiling water. I had come too far to give it all up for some sex, no matter how much I thought I liked Cassie. I went to bed, the excitement I had felt that morning gone.

  Chapter 8

  Cassie

  My ride to the job site with Bill was quiet, and I stared out the window thinking about the weekend. I had spent time with my uncle and aunt at the country club, played some tennis, and spent the rest of the weekend hiding out in my bedroom, thinking about Scott. I hadn’t been able to get him off my mind. Every time I turned around, something made me think of him, and it became a bit of a distraction, especially when I was talking to my father about the job. I had some serious mixed feelings about seeing Scott when I got to work.

  My cheeks warmed as I thought about sitting at the bar talking to him on Friday night. We’d had such a great conversation even though he had started off kind of cold. He was interesting, unlike the usual fraternity brother or friend of my father I would go out on dates with. He wasn’t pretentious, he had little to no expectations, and he made me laugh unlike anyone I had met before. His sense of humor had been a surprise to me when I got to know him, but it was a welcome trait. On top of all that, he was great in bed—no, more than great in bed. I hadn’t had sex like that ever in my whole adult life. The passion and lust behind it blew my mind and made it hard to go to sleep at night due to picturing him in his bed naked.

  I shook the thoughts from my head, wanting to kick myself for being so reckless. I had come home for the summer to get my hands dirty with my internship. It was going to count toward my graduation, and I was lucky enough not to have to spend my summer at a strange company. My father owned the company I would be working for when I graduated college, and he paid me for my internship. By sleeping with Scott, I was putting everything I had worked for at risk, including my internship. I shouldn’t be sleeping with an employee, one that may very well end up being my employee one day. And, God, if my father found out, he would fire us both, leaving me without the credits I needed and Scott without a job. Talk about feeling bad. I could go get an internship somewhere else, but Scott relied on his job for his livelihood.

  Bill looked over at me and smiled as we pulled up to the site. I jumped out of the truck and stretched my arms over my head. I grabbed my clipboard and jogged to catch up with him.

  “We’re just going to do the usual morning walkthrough to make sure everyone is on site and getting their work done,” he said. “This is also the time you move people around if you need them somewhere else. This morning, though, everyone should know where they need to be.”

  “Right,” I said as we walked over to the building Scott worked on.

  “Most of these guys should know what they are doing, but that doesn’t mean they do.” Bill chuckled. “Not all our guys are the brightest crayons in the box, but they know how to swing a hammer and put up some bricks.”

  “That’s all you need.”

  I grimaced as we rounded the corner and ran right into Carl. I had really started to hate this guy and wondered how he hadn’t gotten in trouble before. I guessed with the lack of women on site, there was really no one to complain about him. Bill stood and talked to him for a few minutes, and I stared down at the notes on my clipboard, trying not to make eye contact with him. He didn’t even acknowledge me the entire time I was standing there. I assumed he was on his best behavior since Bill was there with me and he knew Bill would send him home if he heard him talking to me like he normally did.

  “All right, Carl,” Bill said. “Keep up the good work. I’ll see you at lunch.”

  “Fix your hard hat,” I said, motioning to the fact that it was sitting on the scaffolding and not on his head.

  “Yes, madam,” he said
with a smirk.

  I shook my head and headed toward the rest of the crew. We checked everyone into place and did some normal safety checklist work before Bill sent me out on my own to observe and make sure everything was going as planned. It was after lunch at that point so everyone was moving a bit slower. I couldn’t really say anything, though. I wasn’t moving all that quickly myself. It was the afternoon slump, and I seriously needed some coffee. I turned the corner to head to the trailer and stopped, staring at Carl standing in the middle of the scaffolding. He looked at me and smiled eerily, slapping his hammer into his palm. He sauntered over to me and stopped, leaning to the side to whisper in my ear.

  “You are really going to regret not wanting to sleep with me,” he said.

  “Somehow, I doubt that,” I replied and kept walking.

  It was a strange comment to make, even for Carl. It wasn’t like he had propositioned me, except for the mouth comment, and I hadn’t blatantly turned him down. I stopped and looked around the site to see if anyone was staring at me. Maybe it wasn’t random at all. No, there was no way this had to do with Scott, was there? I walked along wondering to myself if this was attached to what had happened between him and me on Friday night. Could he be going around and telling the guys that we slept together? He seemed like the kind of guy that wasn’t into the gossip of the site, but what did I really know about him?

  My blood started to boil just imagining him bragging to the guys about our sex. That would mean everyone would know what had happened between us, which was both mortifying and dangerous. If anyone else found out, like Bill or my father even, both of us would be toast. I was angry at the possibility that Scott would do something like that, but I really hoped I was wrong. He wasn’t stupid. He would know that people finding out could be devastating for both of us, especially for him and his job.

  I headed to the trailer and grabbed a cup of coffee to take back out with me. By the time I had it in my hand, my adrenaline was already pumping, waking me up. I sipped the coffee as I strolled through the site, watching the guys work. As I neared the house in progress, I saw Scott dropping a load of debris on the side of the perimeter. He looked hot – his arms, his ass, the pure size of him – and the memory popped in my head of him inside me, pounding me hard. But I needed to talk to him. I jogged toward him, figuring now was better than never.

  “Hey,” I said, catching up with him.

  “Hey there.” He smiled. “How are you?”

  “Not good,” I said.

  “What?” He turned to me with concern. “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?”

  “Walk with me?”

  “Sure,” he said, putting down his stuff and turning to walk to a more private area.

  “This afternoon I ran into Carl,” I said. “He said something to me that kind of concerned me. He told me I would regret not sleeping with him. Have you been telling people about this weekend? Because it could get back to my father if you are, and that could be awful for both of us. He is not a clear-thinking man when it comes to men and me.”

  “What? No,” he said, shaking his head and looking kind of hurt. “I didn’t say a word to anyone. That’s just Carl being a douchebag as always.”

  “Really? Because I would rather you tell me now than have it catch me by surprise,” I said.

  “I’m telling you the truth,” he said. “I haven’t told a soul, not even my best friend, who doesn’t even work for the company. I haven’t even spoken to Carl since Friday before leaving work for the day. Cassie, I would never do that. I’m not that kind of guy. I don’t go bragging about the girls I sleep with, especially when they are the daughter of the owner of the company I work for. I have never been the guy who engages in bullshit guy talk. That’s part of the reason I don’t really fit in with this line of work. I don’t get along with any of the other guys.”

  I stared at him, tilting my head to the side and listening to him promise he didn’t tell anyone. If it were any other guy, I would immediately doubt his sincerity, but I could see in Scott’s eyes that he was mortified I would even need to ask him. He said he was telling the truth, and everything in my gut told me I could trust him, so I did.

  “Okay.” I sighed. “I’m sorry for even asking, but I had to.”

  “No, I totally understand. It’s your dad, and you wouldn’t want something like that getting out to him,” he said. “I like having a job, so I don’t really want it to get out either.”

  “Right.” I smiled. “Well, I’m not going to tell him.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “I gotta get back to the job, but you look really pretty today.”

  “Thanks,” I said, my cheeks blushing. “You too?”

  “I tried.” He smiled. “New lipstick. It’s called Ravenously Constructed. It’s a new line. You just wouldn’t know about it.”

  I laughed. “Nice. I’ll see you later.”

  We walked off in different directions, and I smiled to myself before heading off to do my job. After work, I went up to the local bar to meet Whitney. I hadn’t talked to her since Friday night, so I was curious to see how her night had gone. Whitney and I had been best friends since high school, and though we went to different colleges, we always made sure to spend ample time together whenever we were back in the same place at the same time.

  “Hey,” I said, sitting down next to her at the bar. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “Hey,” she said. “You’re fine. I ordered us some cheese fries and beer.”

  “Perfect,” I said, taking a sip of the beer. “Sooo, what happened the other night?”

  “I left and went back to that guy’s place.” She giggled. “He was hot but kind of stupid.”

  “Oh, God.” I laughed. “You always like the dumb guys.”

  “What about you? Get into anything after I left?”

  “Yeah, actually,” I said, smiling. “I met this guy at the bar. He bought me a drink, and things escalated from there. I ended up back at his place and had the best sex of my life.”

  “Wow,” she said, leaning in. “Tell me more.”

  “He’s handsome, smart, and has a wicked sense of humor,” I said, leaving out the part about how he worked on my father’s crew.

  “Hmmm,” she said, elbowing me. “It sounds like you might have some real feelings for this guy.”

  “That is what I’m afraid of,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You know how my dad is, and plus, I’m leaving to go back to school after the summer is over. I don’t need any distractions.”

  “Girl, you never let your hair down,” Whitney said. “You need to do things for you, even if it’s only for the summer. There is nothing wrong with a little summer romance to keep you occupied when you aren’t working for your father.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” I said, smiling.

  And I meant it.

  Chapter 9

  Scott

  Another day, another dollar closer to my dreams, and I was getting some serious work done today. I didn’t know what it was about Cassie, but seeing her across the site lit a fire under my ass. I couldn’t get close enough to talk to her that morning, so I just pushed through the day, meeting all my daily quotas by lunchtime. When the lunch bell rang out from the speaker, I put down my gear and headed over to get a cup of coffee. As I turned the corner, I almost ran head-on into Cassie.

  “Whoa!” She laughed. “Slow down, Rambo.”

  “Hey, coffee is calling my name,” I said.

  She smiled and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and adjusted her helmet. The sunlight shined down, creating sparkles on her rosy cheeks. I was so damn attracted to her, and I’d thought about sex more since I met her than in the whole thirty years I had been alive. I knew I needed to stay away from her though. She was dangerous, and I was definitely playing with fire. It was so hard though, and I found myself turning and walking over to the dumpster area with her so she could make her hourly safety checks for Bill. She stopped and wrote something down before looking back at m
e and smiling sweetly. I shouldn’t have been there, but I couldn’t help myself.

  “I heard you killed your quotas today,” she said.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I don’t know what got into me, but I busted them out as fast as I could.”

  “Good for you,” she said. “And good for us. That caught us up, like, half a day.”

  “Nice,” I said, nodding my head and realizing we were kind of in a secluded area. “I like to help out wherever I can, and these other guys aren’t going to rush for anything.”

  “Well hopefully they pick it up a little bit,” she said, walking out into the open.

  I looked up, and I felt like everything was instantly in slow motion. I reached out for Cassie, yelling for her to stop as a crane started to swerve toward us, not seeing us stepping out from behind the dumpsters. I leaped through the air and pushed Cassie to the ground, landing on top of her and covering her head as the crane swung over us and unloaded into the dumpster. I lay there for a minute covering my head, breathing deeply. Slowly, I looked up and watched the crane turn and head back to the site. They hadn’t even noticed us diving out of the way, and one or both of us could have been killed. That was a safety concern that would need to be fixed. If I hadn’t been there, Cassie would have been out of luck.

  “What happened?” she said, looking up at me.

  “That crane. It almost made you a pancake,” I said, looking down into her eyes.

  “God,” she said, her cheeks turning red. “You saved me.”

  Immediately, I felt butterflies in my stomach, and sparks began to fly between the two of us. Just feeling her body underneath mine turned me on, and at the moment, all I wanted to do was kiss her. I looked deeply into her eyes for several moments while lying there in the dust and dirt. My heart was beating a million miles a minute, and for a second I was sure we were going to lock lips. However, as a load of wood was dropped, echoing over the site, I shook my head and realized that it was probably a horrible idea.