When I’m dressed, I grab my keys, jump out into the skiff, and fly toward the dock. At first, the added time of taking the boat to the dock before I could get anywhere was annoying as hell, especially on a Saturday afternoon when I needed to grab something quickly and the water was busy with folks pulling in and out. Now, the trip to the dock is the best part of living out here. It keeps people from randomly knocking on my door, and it keeps me out here on the water rather than places I shouldn’t be.
Today, though, the docks are quiet. Not a boat in sight. I gather it’s due to the lumberjack games happening on the other side of the mountain today. Every year, a bunch of jacked dudes from all over the place come out to Rugged Mountain to compete in random axe throwing and wood chopping games. I think there’s even a wood carving contest that folks get into now. I used to participate, but in the last few years, I’ve left the games up to the younger guys and saved my stamina for more important things, like chopping my own damn wood without an audience.
Either way, the crowds are over there, and my boat launch is free and clear of everyone and everything. I angle the bow toward the weather-worn dock and let the water carry me close enough that I can reach out for the post. The hull gives a low scrape against the wood as I hop out and tie off the rope, letting the quiet morning settle the small metal boat into place.
“Shit,” my buddy Clint laughs as he makes his way toward me from the top of the hill, “he’s actually leaving his house. Something bad must’ve happened.”
“I could say the same about you,” I groan, kicking the knot on the post to check it before walking up the dock toward the hill. “You haven’t been seen in public since meeting that girl. I was starting to think you were holding each other captive.”
Clint adjusts his hat and nods once as he bites back a grin. “I hope someday you’ll understand what it’s like having twenty-four seven access to your dream woman. Where you off to?”
“All the questions for me, but what the hell are you doing out here? I thought everything needed to be finished with the lake houses.”
“They are now.” He nods, holding up the wrench in his hand. “The inspector stopped by this morning and said there was an issue with the outdoor spigot. It had a slow drip. Thankfully, he let me stop by and fix it before he wrote anything in the buyer’s report.”
“Fuck. So that’s it? The houses are good to go?”
He nods slowly and tucks his hands into his front pockets. “It’s a fucking relief. I can’t tell you how good it’ll feel to have the weight of these places off me. This shit has taken twice as long as it should’ve.” He smiles as he says, “Was that Nikki out at your place this morning?”
“Yeah.” I stare down at the gravel and try to sound as normal as possible, though the way my heart rate kicks when someone says her name, I gather ‘normal’ isn’t possible. “She thinks she has a buyer for the boathouse. She’s bringing him by this weekend. You need something?”
“Nothing urgent,” he says, dragging his hand down over his beard. “I was just wondering if she’d finalized the signing details with Mulligan. I want these rentals out from underneath me yesterday. These fucking things have taken double the time I was planning. I can’t wait for the sales to go through.”
“She’s having dinner with him tonight, so I’m sure she’ll have more details soon. You going to celebrate the second the ink hits the paper?”
“You know it.” He grins. “Bella is already making kabobs for the grill. She’s got a ton of peppers and tomatoes fresh from the garden to use up, so I expect everyone to be there.”
“I’ll do my best, but I’ve got this trip coming up, and now I guess there’s some asshole from Florida that’s going to buy my place, so I’ve got repairs to make before he gets here.” The sun glints through the pines, and I glance down at my watch. It’s great catching up with Clint and all, but we see each other at almost every job we take on. Right now, my priority is Nikki.
“You got somewhere important to be?”
“Nah,” I lie, disinterested in telling him anything about where I’m headed. Not because I think he’ll judge me, I doubt he would, but because I’m judging myself. “Just have to run a few errands. Like I said, between the trip and this houseboat sale, it’s been busy. If I see Nikki, I’ll ask her about the closing time.”
He nods once and laughs under his breath as though he sees through whatever it is I’m pulling. “When are you going to admit you’re into her? You’re probably on your way to see her right now, aren’t you?”
“What?” My chest tightens, and I tap my thumb against my thigh.
Clint laughs and shakes his head before adjusting his cap. “You get all weird whenever I mention her name, man. Be honest.”
Shoulders tight, I ignore the heat crawling up the back of my neck. Plenty of my buddies are in age-gap relationships, and they’ve found a way to make them work just fine. I should be cooler, but I’m not.
How could I be? What I feel for Nikki is sick. Her father is my friend, and their family has relied on me for ages. I can’t suddenly declare how badly I want to sink between Nikki’s thighs and fill her up. I can’t abruptly tell the world I’m in love with her. “I gotta go, man. I’ll text you if I hear anything.”
He nods and laughs, shaking his head as I walk up toward my truck. I keep it parked at the back of the public dock space,underneath a few pines. The needles that drop are a pain in the ass, but I’m sure my old truck enjoys a break from the heat.
Lately, the weather’s been awful. Even now, though the sun is setting, it’s still hot as hell, dry too. The kind that has my shirt sticking to my back. Thankfully, a heavy breeze peels it off again before I climb up into my Chevy and blast the air conditioning.
Jesus, just a few minutes outside and I’m sweating my ass off. I swear the mountain never used to be this hot in the summer. Sure, we’d have a few hot days like this here and there, but for the most part, summer meant a high of eighty-two degrees and partly sunny. This whole month’s temps have been riding close to one hundred, which led to Nikki in that bikini at the lake, making me jerk off to the pictures non-stop.
This whole fucking spiral clearly belongs to the weather, not my own fucked head.
I need to get a grip and come to terms with the fact that my little kitten is going to fall in love with another man and have an entire life without me. A life where her children will probably call me Uncle Reed. A life where I play a background role, where I’m not the one who protects Nikki. That will be some other man’s job.
Hell, maybe that future protector is the man from Florida. The perverted, fucking asshole who’s buying my boathouse. The man she seemed too damn excited about having dinner with.
My fingers tighten around the wheel as I drive down the mountain, taking the curves far too fast as I picture hurting everyone who’s ever looked at her.
That guy her freshman year of college. I’m pretty sure he was on drugs.
