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He watched as they walked away, with Dave looking back at him only once before he and Andrea turned a corner and moved out of sight. He finished choosing the pieces he needed and walked up to the storefront to make his purchase.
He pulled his truck around afterward to help the employees load the lumber into the back, thanked them, and drove away, Dave’s words echoing in his head as much as Eric’s taunts were. Side by side, they became indistinguishable from one another.
Jaxon felt sick because he knew Eric wouldn’t stop at this. He’d find a way to tell him what he needed to tell him. It was only a matter of time before the shit hit the fan there. And honestly, beyond actively sharing the information he’d slipped him all those years ago and attaching his name to the leak, he wasn’t certain what else Eric could be doing. And that scared him.
This felt like an ambush. It felt like Eric knew something Jaxon didn’t, and that was a terrible place to be when it came to a McKinnon.
That fear settled like a stone atop a pile in the base of his gut. It was becoming harder and harder to ignore, and Jaxon could feel the tension from it all settling in his shoulders. Hard knots that had all been smoothed out over the weekend corded themselves together in his upper back and down his arms while he carried all the lumber to the backyard, stacking it on the back porch and stepping up through the back door to get his sawhorses and set them up in the backyard as well.
He had a rather nice hand saw that he’d use for all this. No sense in setting up one of the bigger power saws and disturbing the neighbors on a Monday afternoon. Plus, he’d misplaced his ear covers, and the repetitive nature of the labor might ease his troubled thoughts again.
After measuring twice for the first piece of lumber, he made his marks and cut it into the pieces he’d need for the bed frame.
Just a rather large rectangle with slats running horizontally across the narrower side of the frame.
The bigger boards only needed one cut each while the smaller ones required more cuts.
The headboard itself was going to be several smaller slats all nailed together, sort of like shiplap, but sturdier and handmade himself because he didn’t feel like purchasing the pieces pre-fabricated.
He was right about one thing, the laborwassoothing.
Very monotonous and calming.
He soon had all of the pieces cut and could sand the lot of them.
Jaxon owned an electric sander but opted instead for hand sanding the pieces. At least the pieces for the frame that didn’t need to look as worn as the headboard.
His stomach growled in the middle of this task, so he pulled out the sandwich he’d made that morning at Teagan’s and ate it in silence while the cool air swirled in the backyard. It was chilly, but if he kept moving, he barely noticed. It was better than it being too warm at any rate.
Once he’d finished the sandwich, he went back to sanding the pieces, which was how Teagan found him a bit after three when she’d finished with her classes.
“There you are,” she said, sighing in relief when she opened the back door and found him there. He felt the knots in his shoulders immediately release when she plopped herself down beside him.
She leaned over, pressing her lips to his cheek, slipping an arm around his waist and squeezing.
He turned to capture her lips, holding them for a bit longer than was necessary, but he’d missed her.
“Missed you,” he whispered.
“God, I missed you too,” she said with a smirk. “You know Denise asked me right away if I was seeing someone. It must be written all over my face or something. Britt is going to know straight away. She’s got a sixth sense for that sort of thing.”
He had to smirk while he continued to sand the wood pieces in his hands. He sort of enjoyed having that effect on her. “What’d she notice?”
“She said I look brighter.”
That was the second time someone had said something of that nature about Teagan, and Jaxon couldn’t help but preen just a bit becausehe’ddone that.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“You look the same to me,” he said, grinning.
“That’s because you’re with me all the time, doofus.” She put her hand in his hair and tousled it. “You wouldn’t notice.”
“Nah, I suppose I wouldn’t. How was class?”
She sighed heavily. “Oh, wouldn’t you fucking know it, I got that same bloody professor I had last semester?”
“Which one?” he asked.
