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Chapter 2
Cameron
Working up a sweat and an appetite made me famished, but I wasn’t sure that it was necessarily for food. We had a brief conversation while I was busy at work trying to calculate how many bundles of asphalt shingles I was going to use. It was better to have a few extra that I could return for store credit.
There was a baby barn on the property that could use some tender loving care. The extra bundle could be used to do that job. I was going to have to get her permission. It was her house.
The hour before she was scheduled to disappear behind the closed doors of her office was the only time that I was going to have to consult her on certain issues. Laying it out in a black notebook would help to illustrate what I was trying to say in layman’s terms.
The bacon was sizzling in the pan and still dripping with fat. It was exactly the way I liked it but I didn’t indulge too much. Everything was in moderation. My biggest weakness was rocky road ice cream right out of the carton with a huge spoon.
“I heard you have a background in the military. I commend you for your service. I imagine you have many stories, but I have learned from others in your profession that they don’t like to talk about such things. You can tell me to go to hell at any time,” Bethany stated. She was wearing tight, red-colored jogging pants while bending over in front of me at the counter squeezing oranges.
“Many people are curious, and they couldn’t even imagine in their wildest nightmares what I have seen. It’s not something I like to talk about for obvious reasons. I’m sure that we can come up with a topic we can all agree on. Let’s talk about the house for one moment,” I proposed with my eyes focused on Constance standing at the stove multitasking.
She was wearing a casual pair of blue jeans and a tight, dark sweater. It wasn’t business attire but it was comfortable. Her hair was in pigtails and easily influenced a part of me I was trying to keep under wraps. She was whistling and enjoying some Latin music coming out of a small radio plugged in by the stove.
“I can’t tell you how nice it is to cook for other people. Nobody’s going to cover me in daisies until I have experienced everything life has to offer. We all have chapters we have lived. Some we regret and others we cherish. This place is a new beginning for me. I can’t think of a better place to put down some roots. This investment is in my future,” she announced while shimmying in place to keep my eyes glued to the way that she moved her body to the music.
“Everything smells delicious, but I really do have to get back to work in the next 15 minutes. I have a schedule to keep. You might say that I’m a little compulsive. I plan meticulously every aspect of a project down to the minute detail. Speaking of which, I would like your opinion on a couple of things. The gutters are shot. The need to be replaced, but I would like your permission to go a different route,” I mentioned while I was standing against the counter admiring her curves and her carefree spirit.
“Sit down and we can discuss these things while we enjoy each other’s company. Bethany is going to be out most of the day taking photographs. This is her vacation, and I would never tell her how to enjoy it,” Constance revealed with my mind going a million miles an hour thinking there was a distinct possibility we would be getting intimate again.
I felt like a chastised dog getting his nose hit with a rolled-up newspaper for doing something naughty. It made me hesitant to do anything that would be considered inappropriate in the workplace. Her lips felt amazing, and the way that she moved them up and down the length of my ramrod stiff condition was hard to ignore.
How she could possibly deny me that moment of sweet bliss was beyond me. She had made her position quite clear, and I was going to have to live by it unless for some reason she changed her mind.
I sat down and was about to offer my assistance but it didn’t seem they needed my help to do anything. It actually surprised me that she wasn’t doing most of the work on the house herself considering her no-nonsense attitude. It was that fire in her belly that I found attractive when most women were looking for somebody to protect them from the big bad wolf.
Constance and Bethany were working together and moving around one another seamlessly without bumping into each other. There were both whistling the same tune playing on the radio and began dirty dancing right there in the kitchen, sensuously moving their hands up and down each other’s bodies. It was a show worthy of whatever denomination was necessary to get into the door for a cover charge.
Bethany grabbed her pigtails with Constance turning around until she was giggling from the way that Bethany was grabbing two fistfuls of her ass cheeks. It was plainly a teasing and playful gesture, but it certainly did give me ideas that were not purely platonic.
Constance had the frying pan with the bacon and fried eggs in one hand. She moved around Bethany and stood in front of me, a little breathless and flushed from the experience. The eggs and bacon slid effortlessly out of the pan and onto my plate without disturbing the yolks.
She did a little shake and wiggle when she walked past Bethany, receiving a surprising swat on her way past. It would’ve been nice to be a part of the show they were putting on most likely for my benefit, but there was really no way to know for sure if that was the case.
Constance was at the stove cracking the eggs and ducking down to retrieve the warm muffins from the oven. She was cautious and used an oven mitt with a rooster on it to retrieve them before placing them on the counter still steaming. The scent of cranberry and chocolate chips brought me back to my childhood when my mother was my primary caregiver.
“The blueprints I drew up are pretty simplistic and should be easy to understand. I can replace the gutters with the same inferior plastic ones. There is another way. I did some calling around and found someone trying to sell their metal ones. They really don’t know what they have. Those stand up to the test of time. He wants an answer and is willing to drop the price to get rid of them,” I mentioned while I was dipping my bacon into the rest of the egg yolk that spilled out after I had pierced it with my fork.
“It sounds like a good idea to me but I’m not the expert in these matters. I like that you are thinking outside the box, and it’s the reason why I hired you. I’m still frugal but I want to make sure this place is solid with all the amenities of a real home at my fingertips,” she replied while leaning over and exposing a fair amount of her cleavage. It made me a little nervous to look directly into her natural-made valley.
That nervous energy was hard to deny when my shirt felt like it was sticking to me.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we can squeeze every dollar out of this renovation. I can find some shortcuts that will save you some money in the long run. The metal gutters cost a little bit more, but they will last for longer than the plastic ones. That leads me to the discussion about the baby barn. I would tear it down and start over, but like this house, it has good bones to work with,” I replied with my opinion, wondering how she was going to respond.
I laid out the facts and showed her the notebook, which she flipped through while she was eating her breakfast. A few notations were made while she was mumbling underneath her breath and doing two things at the same time. She was amazing, and whatever decadence we had started last night was still there in the ether of my mind.
“That should keep you busy most of the morning and afternoon. I’ve made an executive decision. I will come out periodically to check up on you. Don’t stay out in the heat for long without proper hydration. I will make a pitcher of lemonade with ice cubes. It will be in the refrigerator whenever you want to alleviate the heat,” Constance offered while she was lathering a modicum of butter and then strawberry jam onto a couple of pieces of toast.
The scratching sound reminded me of fingernails down a chalkboard. It made me cringe and sent a shiver down my spine.
“That is mighty generous of you, and don’t be surprised if I take you up on your invitation. I’m glad you took a chance on me. This is going to be fun. I don’t feel I’m hampered by the almighty dollar. I’m still going to save you whatever I can. I think we should make a trip down to that barn you mentioned earlier. I can talk to the owner and find out what is an acceptable price,” I said while thinking about using my carpentry skills to make something unique that wasn’t mass-produced.
“That sounds like a great idea, but it will have to wait until later this afternoon when I have more time. There are a few deadlines I have to meet. I also have to hold a new client’s hand. You would be surprised at how many people are nervous about giving me their money even when I have glowing recommendations from other clients,” Constance stated with her hand pushing away the plate that had been polished off with not a single crumb left over.
She made a sigh of contentment when she began to drink her coffee, which was black. Constance was in her own little world, moving her fingers back and forth in the air. She probably didn’t even know that she was doing it and was completely engrossed and oblivious to everything that was going on around her.
“There are some walking trails nearby. I’m going to take full advantage of them with my bike and camera. I just have to retrieve the bike from the rack behind my car. I brought two with me,” she hinted with a little elbow nudge, which Constance ignored with a look of annoyance on her face.
“I will have more time this weekend after the workweek is behind me. Don’t go exploring too much without me. We might even be able to convince Cameron to be our chaperone to protect us from wild bears and coyotes,” Constance teased with that same elbow nudge of a playful gesture against my muscular forearm.
“I can’t remember the last time I went hiking. It might be nice to get back to nature. I would like to suggest that every night one of us chooses a movie to watch. It doesn’t matter what it is. There will be no arguments,” I said while thinking about my favorite action movie of all time that featured Bruce Willis in the tower.
“Are you sure you want to do that? I have a wide variety of tastes. Some are a little unconventional, which might leave you scratching your head and wanting to run out of the room as fast as your legs can carry you. How do we choose what order to go in?” Constance asked with Bethany finishing up the dishes in soapy water with bubbles floating in the air.
She had adorned a pair of bright blue plastic gloves that snapped when she put them on. There was no dishwasher. It was one of the things Constance had mentioned wanting to install, but there was no rush. We could all take turns doing the dishes and drying them using manual labor instead of technological know-how.
