“Whew. I’m glad one of us had the courage to bring that subject up,” she said, her voice still soft. But she was smiling.
“So- Does that mean you would be interested?” he asked hopefully.
“Yes it does,” Holly told him softly. “I’ve really liked you for a long time, too, Sam.” She reached out a hand to him and he cradled it in both of his.
“Supper?”
“Oh. Is it ready now?” She looked almost disappointed. Sam squeezed her hand a little, and laughed nervously.
“Can you tell I don’t do this very often?” he asked, shaking his head. “No, but we can eat whenever you like. What I meant was would you like to come out for supper with me some time? Just the two of us?”
“I’d love to, Sam.”
“Thank you.” He got to his feet and gently pulled her to hers. “You have no idea how nervous I’ve been just thinking about bringing this up.”
“Oh, I do,” she sighed. “I haven’t had a date since before I married the boy’s father, and I’m so out of practice. There were times I thought you might like me as more than a friend but, like I said, it’s been so long, I wasn’t sure I remembered much about the dating thing.” Sam grinned shyly.
“I’ve wondered the same thing, too. But I’ve never dated much myself, and not at all since I met you.” He hoped it wasn’t a terrible faux pas to make, but he didn’t have enough experience in love to know what to hold back.
“Maybe we can figure it out together?”
~~~~~
Holly lay in bed later that night unable to sleep. She might regret it in the morning when she had to get up for work but, in truth, she was too excited to even think about closing her eyes. She and Sam had a date for dinner and a movie this Friday. Just the two of them.
Sam liked her.
She felt like a giddy teenager dreaming about her first crush. Sure, she’d been infatuated with him for what felt like forever, but it was far more than that. She wasn’t a kid anymore. No, she was a thirty-three year old woman, and what she felt for Sam was such an overpowering thing that it might scare her if he were anyone else.
Mike had charmed her in college, swept her off her feet, and she’d thought herself madly in love with him. But hindsight had long ago shown her that there had been clues during their courtship. Mike had been very egotistical, selfish, and rather irresponsible.
Sam was none of those things. In fact, she’d never known a man to be more grounded. And shy. She hugged the extra pillow on her bed, and smiled as she thought about all the food he’d prepared that afternoon. A man more eager to please she’d never encountered.
And sweet- Their only physical contact the entire day had been when he’d held her hand in the bathroom. And the hand at her back for a while there. All Holly had wanted to do was throw her arms around his neck and hold him forever. To have him hold her forever. It had been so long since she’d had any kind of physical contact, outside hugging the boys, that it was almost a craving. Had been for over a year now, and the need was so much stronger after their talk.
Just to be held. Nothing more right now. Because she couldn’t change the fact that she was old fashioned. Having to wait for their wedding night had annoyed Mike to no end, but Holly couldn’t imagine Sam ever being that way. He wouldn’t resort to pressure, and then a quick wedding to get what he wanted. Which, she’d finally concluded was the only reason he had married her. To get what he couldn’t otherwise have.
Not that Sam wanted to marry her, of course. Not too many men were enthusiastic at the thought of a ready-made family. Sure he liked the boys well enough but-
Enough of that, she sighed, rolling onto her side and commanding herself to fall asleep. She was thinking too much. A date was just that. A date. Spending time with someone she was attracted to. Who, for whatever reason, was also attracted to her.
~~~~~
“So? How’d it go?” Dan demanded, carefully filling half a dozen bottles with formula. Jess was upstairs bathing their daughter, so he had a few minutes to check up on his friend.
“Perfect,” Sam told him with undisguised joy. Dan grinned from ear to ear.
“Define perfect.”
“We have a date for Friday night.”
“Well all right then,” Dan exclaimed triumphantly. “You finally worked up the nerve to ask. Way to go, Sam!”
“Thank you.” He paused for a moment then said, “You have no idea how scared I was when I asked.”
“I don’t know about that. I think every guy in the world is afraid to ask for that first date. Where are you taking her?”
“I thought to The Gavel. And then a movie. You don’t think that’s too much for one night do you? I mean she works Friday. I don’t want to tire her out too much.”
“Did you run the plans by Holly?”
“Of course.”
“Then don’t worry about it. If she thought it would be too much, I’m sure she’d have said so. What are you planning on doing the rest of the week?”
“Working,” he said, sounding a bit confused. Dan grinned again. What an innocent.
“I mean about Holly. Are you going to see her before then? Call her? What?”
“Well, she’ll be bringing the boys to Scouts Thursday evening. I’ll see her then.”
“That’s four days, Sam.”
“I know,” he sighed. “It feels like forever.”
“It probably does to her, too, if Jess is right. You need to call her a couple of times. Maybe stop into the restaurant. Jess thinks she’s very ‘smitten’ with you. Her choice of words, not mine. And now that you have the chance you’ve been wanting, take advantage of it.”
“You’re sure? I don’t want to scare her off, Dan. Just because I’m in love with her doesn’t mean she is with me. I don’t want her to think I’m a stalker or anything.”
“Hey, trust me. Trust my wife. Jess is a pretty astute woman.”
~~~~~
And so Sam was up with the birds. On a Sunday morning. Not that he ever slept past seven, but he wanted to arrive at McGinty’s by eight, an hour after Holly opened the doors for business. He couldn’t imagine much of a crowd that early on a weekend morning, and he was hoping to have coffee with her at the very least. He also figured he could start making himself indispensable by offering to take the boys miniature golfing or something. He knew they didn’t always enjoy being stuck in the office for full shifts during vacations.
He slipped into another pair of jeans and a white polo shirt, then laced up his white sneakers. A quick shave and tooth brushing, and he was heading out to his Lexus and into Lansing. Hoping with all of his heart that Dan was right. He wanted to be with her so much that it was a physical ache, but would back off if looked as though she were feeling crowded. The last thing he wanted to do was put her off him.
That thought made his stomach churn as he pulled into the mostly full lot. He’d been way off base about a lack of customers this early. Perhaps he was wrong about this visit, too. Either way, he was here, and he wheeled around back to where the staff parked, near the tiny fenced in play yard Holly had put in for the boys.
She was nowhere in sight when he entered, and so he walked to one of the few empty booths at the back of the dining room. Briefly the thought crossed his mind to ask the waitress to send her out from wherever she was, but he decided that it might not be a good idea. If she was busy, interrupting her would be an inconvenience. So he just ordered coffee and the special, two eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast.
Coward was a pretty accurate way to describe him, he decided, taking a cautious sip from the cup the waitress had plunked down in front of him. He hoped the girl woke up before a customer, hopefully not him, lived to regret her zombie-like service. Probably out too late the night before, if her half-closed eyes were anything to judge by.
By the time she brought his food Sam figured he might have wasted his time in coming. Still no sign of Holly. Disappointed, he on
ly picked at his breakfast. No, he didn’t want to bother her, but he’d hoped to spend a little time with her this morning. Needed to spend time with her this morning. Every morning in fact. Every night. Every minute. Every second. If Holly were a drug, he would definitely be addicted.
“Sam!” And there she was. Smiling brightly as she made her way to his table. “What a surprise.”
“A pleasant one, I hope,” he said quietly, smiling back.
“Of course it is,” she assured him quickly. “What brings you all the way to Lansing so early on a Sunday morning?”
“You, I guess,” he admitted reluctantly, not savvy enough to come up with another reason. He stared at his plate, a flush on his cheeks, wishing he’d thought of a legitimate reason to be in town.
“I’m glad you came, Sam,” Holly said softly. When he looked up he saw that she’d settled down on the seat across from him. Her cheeks were a little flushed, too. “It seemed like an awful long wait until Thursday.” He reached out a hand, and she didn’t hesitate to put hers in his.
“You’d think we’d be old enough to know the rules,” he said with a sigh. “But I don’t, Holly. I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but I’ve wanted to be with you for so long.” He could feel his cheeks get brighter at the admission. “That was probably a stupid thing to say. I’m sorry.”
“It was a very sweet thing to say, Sam,” she told him sincerely. “And I don’t mind. Believe me I don’t.” When the waitress stopped by to refill Sam’s cup with coffee, Holly turned the empty one on her side of the table right side up so she could fill that one, too. When they were alone again she said, “It might not be in the rules for dating for me to admit this either, but I feel the same way, Sam.”
“You do?”
“I do. I was so happy thinking about yesterday, and about our date this Friday, I could hardly sleep last night. And I-” This time she was the one who looked at the table top.
“What?”
“I kept trying to figure out an excuse to see you before Scouts on Thursday.” This came out a whisper.
“Holly, you don’t ever have to find an excuse. It would probably scare you away to know how much I care.”
“Sam-”
“Hey, Holly, I think I hear one of the boys stirring,” Paula, the weekend cook called from the kitchen.
“I’m sorry. They fell right back to sleep as soon as we got here,” she told him, reluctantly pulling her hand from his, and getting to her feet. “I need to check on them.”
“I understand.”
“Will you stay awhile longer?” she asked hopefully.
“You bet.”
“Sam?”
“What?”
“Would you like to come to our house for supper tonight?”
“I’d love to.”
~~~~~
Before leaving the restaurant, Zack and Billy, mostly Billy, decided it would be more fun if Mama were included in the miniature golf outing, and that they should meet at Holly’s house a little after two o’clock, as soon as she could get there after her shift ended. They would then get the golfing in, pick up pizza from Riedy’s, rent a kid-friendly movie, and spend a quiet evening at Holly’s.
By the time he finally left the restaurant it was almost ten, and it seemed a waste of time to go home. He decided to swing by the subdivision C & J Construction was currently building. Jon Rambo and Chris Parker were the owners, and every home being built had been designed by Sam. Together they did quality work, and had made a small fortune on several other projects. This one was bigger than the previous ones combined, and they’d sunk every cent of the profits from the last one, along with every spare penny he, Dan, Nate and Cal could come up with into it. If they figured wrong, they stood to lose the shirts off their backs. If everything went according to plan, the return would be astronomical.
He hoped it was the latter, as he pulled into the area cordoned off for the on-site trailer and makeshift parking lot. Chris’s pickup truck sat by itself and Chris, himself, stuck his head out the door to see who was there. Sam waved and sauntered up the three steps.
“Problem?” he asked, stepping inside as Chris held the door.
“You have no idea,” he muttered, flopping down in a chair behind the solitary desk.
“Anything I can help with?” Sam asked, spinning a folding chair around and straddling it. He rested his arms across its back.
“Not unless you’re an expert in labor law.”
“Sorry, can’t help you there.”
Sam studied his friend as he flipped through several sheets of paper, settling on one and reading it silently. At one point he shoved a hand through hair that had missed a needed trim by several months. Add to that the fact that it didn’t look like he’d shaved in a couple of days, and Sam thought he looked like a bum. But Chris nearly always looked the same, and women drooled over him like his last name was Hemsworth rather than Parker.
“Harry,” he muttered in disgust. “Wouldn’t you assume that someone named Harry would be a guy?” Startled at the outburst Sam nodded his head before he realized that Chris was still glaring at the papers in front of him.
“Yeah. Sure. Harry isn’t a guy?”
“No, Harry is not! Harry is a scrawny little thing, all of five feet tall. And definitely not a guy!”
“So what’s this Harry done that’s got you so upset?” he asked, more interested than he cared to admit. Chris was one of the most happy-go-lucky people he knew, and nothing much ever rattled him. No question about it, ‘Harry’ had him rattled.
“She hired in here under false pretenses, that’s what she did.”
“Huh?” Now Sam was completely confused.
“We thought she was a guy, genius. But she’s a girl. And girls have no place in construction!” This came out almost a shout as he slammed the papers on the desk, got up and started to pace. “Especially not wimpy girls like her.”
“What are you talking about, Chris? What’d she do? Dress up like a guy? Did she put on a fake mustache or something?” Chris glared at him now.
“No she did not put on a fake mustache. Jon hired her by mail. She was living in Sault Saint Marie, and decided to work down here. She sent her resume and references, and said she was going on vacation, so Jon never bothered to talk to her. She started Monday.” He spat the words out irritably as he slammed his palm against the wall. The entire trailer shuddered at the impact.
“Didn’t you two check out anything on the resume, or call her references?”
“Do we look stupid to you, Sam?” Chris snapped. “Of course Jon talked to her references. They were glowing. She actually worked construction up north for a guy Jon knew years ago. Can you imagine someone being stupid enough to hire a woman?”
“Can she do the work?”
“That’s beside the point. She lied to us.”
“She told you she was a man?”
“No, she said her name was Harry. That’s as good as lying.”
“The references didn’t mention that she was a girl?”
“They did not. Jon said any mention of her was just by name. ‘Harry is one of the best employees we’ve ever had.’ ‘Harry is here on time every day, and never complains about overtime,’” he said in a sarcastic sing-song voice. “What they failed to mention is that Harry is actually Harriet.”
“Harriet?” Sam winced a little bit. “How old is Harriet?”
“I don’t know. Twenty-five maybe.”
“Hmm.”
“The little snot threatened to sue us for discrimination if we fired her,” Chris growled in frustration. “I need to know if there are any laws about deceiving your employers.”
“Well,” Sam said reluctantly. “Did she indicate that she was a male on the application? You’d have her there.”
“Oh, that would be too easy. Jon didn’t have her fill out an application until after he’d hired her. Isn’t that a hoot? Who hires someone witho
ut an application?”
“No one that I know of. But that being the case, I’m not sure there’s anything you can do, Chris. If she didn’t specifically say she was a man, then she didn’t exactly lie. Saying her name was Harry might have been misleading but it wasn’t a lie.”
“You’re in on this with Jon, aren’t you?” Chris demanded, whirling around to stare at Sam.
“Not at all. This is the first I’ve heard of Harry. Why? Doesn’t Jon have a problem with her working here?”
“He does not. He thinks it’s fine. Thinks that shortening her name to Harry was clever.”
“Well, it kind of sounds like it was.”
“It was dishonest is what it was. And now we’ve got the crew bending over backward to make sure Harry doesn’t do any real heavy work. You’d think she was a princess.”
“Then fire her for shirking her work,” Sam suggested amicably.
“That’s the thing. She doesn’t. She thinks she’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. That she can do anything the real guys can.” Sam sighed.
“So if she’s doing her job, what’s the problem?” Chris growled, then actually did shout,
“Because girls don’t belong in construction, that’s what the problem is!”
~~~~~
“Mama!” came the blood-curdling scream from the office. Heart pounding like a jackhammer, Holly ran out of the kitchen as fast as her rubbery legs would carry her. Though it was a scant few feet away, her breath came in gasps as she stopped to take in the scene before her.
Zack was playing quietly with his Pokémon toys on the top bunk of the beds she’d pushed against one wall while Billy stood, little feet planted on the frame at the end. Peeking over the top, and looking red in the face furious, he shook the bed with all his might. Which, fortunately, wasn’t a whole lot of might.
Holly sagged against the wall, grateful there wasn’t a drop of blood to be seen, though hers was almost at the boiling point. As she straightened, she heard several of her employees walking away from the commotion, at least one of them muffling a chuckle.
A Hero For Holly Page 4
