Carefully walking under the construction scaffolding towardsthe break room, Everly turned to catch a glance at the large foyer’s progress.The First National Golden Bank was one of the oldest buildings in the wholestate of Colorado and certainly the most beautiful. The decadent Beaux artstyle building with its tall arches, stained glass windows, and heavily ornatecarved pillars, the building looked like a palace rather than a bank. The harshcacophony of noise from the construction crew bounced off the large foyer’sdomed ceiling reminding not only the employees but the bank’s affluent patronsdaily of the ongoing and seemingly everlasting construction.
Pausing at the break room doorway, Everly heard the raisedvoices coming from the manager’s office down the hallway. Looking around, shemade sure no one else was around as she curiously strained to hear the voices.
The sound of the office door opening startled her as shewatched a familiar friendly face walk through the doorway followed by the headforeman of the restoration project and lastly her manager. Ducking further intothe doorway to the break room Everly watched as her nitpicky boss tried toargue with the exasperated looking foreman to make his crew work more quietly.The tallest one of the three stood silently off to the side with his armscrossed leaning on a nearby wall in a show of obvious disinterest, catching hercurious gaze down the hall he gave her a sly wink. Embarrassed at being caughteavesdropping Everly quickly dashed inside the break room.
Sitting down at the empty roundtable in the corner of theroom Everly pulled out her sandwich from the plain brown paper bag. The soundof footsteps caused her to look up just as she was taking a bite to see two ofthe morning shift bank tellers walking in laughing.
“Hi Everly, how’s it going?” Katie, the tall platinumblonde, asked with her usual stunning smile as she opened the fridge andgrabbed a water.
The chipper greeting was very poorly timed. By the timeEverly was able to swallow the food in her mouth with the help of a gulp ofwater the two girls had already turned around and resumed talking as theywalked back out of the break room.
Groaning, Everly leaned her chin on her palm and toyed withher small Ziploc bag of baby carrots. Everly was slowly starting to realize oneimportant life fact, there would always be two types of women in thisworld—Katie Goshhornes and not Katie Goshhornes. Tall, beautiful, and sweet assugar, Katie was the envy of everyone in the small town. While Katie couldeffortlessly talk to anyone she liked, Everly couldn’t even swallow her turkeysandwich in time to choke out a hello.
“Mmm, carrots,” the deep playful voice brought her attentionup to see the same tall construction worker from earlier, stealing one of hercarrots. Popping the orange stick in his mouth, he grabbed a nearby chair andsat down with an exaggerated sigh as he gave her a large smile. “How is myfavorite mother-to-be?”
Looking down at her lunch Everly nervously fiddled with acarrot in her fingers as she gave a quiet “fine,” in return.
Ever since she was hired on at the bank as the main payrollclerk, the bank had been undergoing construction and every day she encounteredthe blue-eyed devil, Zane. Devilish was one of the various descriptions she hadoverheard other female staff whisper in passing about the blonde constructionworker, but Devil seemed so much more apt in Everly’s mind. The tall muscularblonde was temptation incarnate, and he knew it too. Every female in shoutingdistance vied for the man’s attention whether it be employee or customer.Everly had once overheard a girl saying that some women started stopping by thebank just to see the handsome blue-eyed construction worker whether theyactually needed something from the bank or not.
Reaching to grab another carrot, she let out a tiny cry ofsurprise when it was snatched from her grasp. Shocked she looked up to thesmirking man who ate her carrot unapologetically.
“Now Everly,” he began in a teasing hurt tone. “After allthis time you’re still going to act shy with me?”
Knowing from past experience that he would only tease hermore if she didn’t comply Everly looked up and gave him a small smile.
“Aww that’s better,” Zane purred as he grabbed anothercarrot for himself. “Now let’s start over. How is my favorite littlemother-to-be?”
“Fine, just trying to get my vitamin A before someone stealsit all.” She mumbled accusingly, pulling her Ziploc bag of remaining carrotscloser.
Letting out a deep laugh that made his blue eyes sparklesomehow even brighter than normal, Zane leaned back in his chair, stretchingout his long legs around her chair.
“Okay, I won’t take anything else—for now,” lifting hiseyebrows in a suggestive arch, he laughed again when she promptly turned herhead away at his sinful teasing.
She was never good at flirting, nor did she suspect she everwould be, but she did know she was completely out of her league to try it nowwith this man.
“So, tell me how are your business management classesgoing?” The snide tone in which he asked was purposeful, she knew.
Out of everyone in the world, Zane was one of the two peoplethat knew she had switched her major to business management from illustrationwhen she moved to Golden Creek. And both people hated her decision. Sincemoving here, she had not had the opportunity to meet any new friends nor theinclination if she was being truly honest with herself. The pain she wascarrying in her heart was still too raw, she was still trying to start over andmake a fresh start for herself—and her baby. If it weren’t for Zane’s dailypersistent pestering, she would never have told him about her change in majorsin the first place.
“It’s fine, classes are going okay,” she answered, trying toinject convincing positivity in her voice.
“Mmmm, sure they are,” narrowing his bright blue eyes ather, Zane just stared for a moment as if assessing her before continuing, thistime with a growing mischievous grin. “How’s the grouchy old math teacher youmentioned?”
The image of professor Black’s rain-streaked face glaring ather to get in the car sprung back to the forefront of her mind. For somereason, Everly couldn’t help but think, did the professor ever smile? Lookingat the charmingly wicked smile from the man in front of her now, she wondered ifthe serious professor could ever smile like that.
“Actually he…”
“Hi Zane,” the simultaneous feminine chorus from two girlsat the doorway of the break room interrupted them.
Quickly, the charming smile on Zane’s face disappeared as heturned and gave the two girls a hard look of evident annoyance. Just asintended the look worked like an immediate repellent sending the girlsscurrying away. Astonished, Everly watched him coolly turn back around towardsher, relaxing back into his easy smile.
“I’m sorry about that darling,” he drawled as if nothinghappened. “What were you going to say about your grouchy teacher…”
The harsh beeping from the walkie-talkie hanging from histhick cargo pants went off.
“Zane pickup,” a man’s voice called out through thewalkie-talkie.
The whispered oath underneath his breath made her eyeswiden. Even after two years of being out in the real world, the secular world,Everly still had to stop herself from blushing at people cursing.
