AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dustin and the engineer who had given me his seat peered up at the monitor.
“You’re right,” Dustin said.
I gave the engineer back his seat so he could do his thing.
I was able to watch them for a moment as they tried to resolve the issue. As hard as it was, I kept my mouth shut. This was their show.
Dustin smiled at me as if he knew how difficult it was for me to stay quiet. “I think my guys have this handled. Would you like to join me for lunch?” He gave me a disarming smile that reminded me of Sawyer. It made me think of the text Sawyer had sent me this morning.
Sawyer: Thanks for a good night’s sleep. Can’t wait to see you.
I’d been missing him too.
Dustin’s smile faltered when I didn’t answer.
I shook my head, trying to get Sawyer out of it. It seemed like an impossible task. “Thank you. I’d like that,” I managed to say.
“Great,” Dustin breathed out, relieved. “I have something I would like to discuss with you.”
My interest was piqued. I popped in my earplugs and followed him back out. I wasn’t sure where we would eat. The plant, like most steel plants, was out in the middle of nowhere. On my drive out there this morning I had mostly seen a lot of cornfields, cows, and a couple of gas stations.
He led me out of the melt shop into the blazing hot day. It was like jumping out of the frying pan right into the fire. I was never going to complain about how hot it was back home. Dry heat was a beautiful thing.
Dustin removed his earplugs. “We have a decent breakroom in our cold mill; do you mind if we eat in there?”
“Um . . . sure, but I didn’t bring a lunch.”
He gave me a furtive smile. “I might have packed an extra lunch today.”
I took my protective eyewear off and bit my lip. “Oh, so you planned this?”
“Do you mind?” He didn’t deny it.
Did I? The question should be, why should I? Sawyer was my friend, but I was in love with him. But this was a lunch date? Maybe? I was allowed to go on dates, though I didn’t have very many. “Are you a polygamist?”
He squinted his pretty blue eyes. “No.”
“Do you have a police record of any sort?”
His cheeks pinked up. “Full disclosure—when I was in high school, some buddies and I got arrested for cow tipping.”
“Is that really a thing?”
“We learned the hard way that it’s not.”
I laughed. “You sound like my kind of person.”
That earned me a toothy smile from him. “Shall we, then?”
I nodded before taking off my hard hat and running my fingers through my hair. He’d seen me all girly the day before, so hopefully this charming look today wouldn’t frighten him.
“If you would like, we can take my truck; it’s kind of a walk over to the cold mill. If that makes you uncomfortable, though, I totally understand.”
“I know like five forms of martial arts,” I teased.
“I’ve been warned.” He dug into his pocket for his keys.
Dustin drove a nice, new truck with all the bells and whistles, leather, GPS, and air conditioning. Sawyer would have been in heaven. I needed to quit thinking about him. “What did you want to discuss?” I needed a distraction.
“You like to get right to business, huh?” He turned out of the melt shop parking lot.
“Sometimes.”
“I wanted to make you aware of some opportunities here.”
I looked his way and tilted my head. “Job opportunities?”
“Yes. We’re looking to open our galvanized steel mill in the fall and we have two shift supervisor positions to fill.”
“Really?” Management was the next step in my career path, but at our plant someone was going to have to retire or die before that happened for me. I didn’t want Wallace to do either, so it wasn’t something on my radar. Except it was. I reminded myself that I had been thinking about moving. I thought of my evil stepmother and how I felt as if I was losing my family because of her. Then there was Sawyer. He was sure to find a girlfriend soon. Shelby, perhaps? I thought so, even if he denied it.
But did I really want to move to Alabama? The humidity was killer, and they had no mountains. All the green foliage here was beautiful, but it wasn’t like back home where a desert plateau landscape met the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps I could get used to the green and heat. They did fry everything here, and there was a rumor that curvy girls were queen in the South, but judging by the way Shelby looked, I wasn’t sure if that was true.
“I’m not over the hiring process. We wouldn’t be working together, which is good, you know . . .” His face burned red.
