Page 25 of Oops I Fell For The Electrician Next Door

He ends the call. I leave the phone in the truck and walk toward Kelsey.

“Everything all right?” she asks.

“Yes.” It is not a lie. The choices in front of me are both good ones. One of them simply looks different than it did Monday morning. “How far did you get?”

Nolan answers with a summary. The old conductors came out cleanly once he freed the damaged section, and the remaining conduit held pressure. We should be able to pull the replacement wire, complete the terminations, and perform the initial tests before dark.

Kelsey listens as if she has not heard the information already. She asks two questions about the inspection and one about the weatherproof seal, all of them useful. When Nolan finishes, she hands me a bottle of water.

“You ate?” I ask.

“A breakfast sandwich.”

“That was seven hours ago.”

“There are sandwiches in the office.”

“Go eat one.”

Her eyebrow rises. “Recommend or want?”

I remember the first night beside the panel and fight a smile. “Strongly recommend.”

“Then strongly recommend it while we work.”

Nolan turns away, but his shoulders move with a laugh. I take the sandwich she brings me and eat half of it while we stage the pull. Kelsey does the same, standing beside me with one hand on the reel and mustard at the corner of her mouth.

I wipe it away with my thumb before I think better of it. Her eyes meet mine. The touch lasts one second, but everything from last night moves between us.

“Work first,” she says.

“I know.”

“Good.”

She smiles when she turns away.

The pull goes smoothly. Nolan feeds from one end while I guide the conductors through the repaired bend. Kelsey remains outside the restricted area, watching the reel and calling out any resistance she sees. She does not interfere. She also does not miss anything.

By seven, every termination is complete. I inspect Nolan’s work, he inspects mine, and then we test the run together. The first reading is clean. So is the second.

Kelsey stands beyond the barrier with both hands gripping the top of the temporary fence. “Well?”

I make her wait long enough to confirm the final number. “You have three cabins ready for inspection.”

Her face transforms. Relief, pride, and exhaustion move through it so quickly I feel every one of them. She comes around the barrier the moment Nolan opens it and throws both arms around my neck.

I catch her against me. Kelsey kisses me in front of Nolan, the dark cabins, and anyone else who happens to be watching from the lake. It is not a long kiss, but it is hard enough to make me forget the meter in my hand.

“Thank you,” she says against my mouth.

“Nolan will send the invoice.”

“I can be grateful and still pay the invoice.”

“I’m beginning to understand that.”

Nolan clears his throat. “I’m going to energize the branch now. You two might want to step away from the equipment before this becomes a different kind of safety violation.”