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Christ, are her eyes actually twinkling?
Get a grip on yourself, Lincoln.
To get a better look at her, I turn my baseball cap around. “I’m Lincoln by the way. My work visa runs out in six weeks, so I am only helping for the next five weeks. I’m taking a week off before I go back home to Scotland.”
I can’t wait.
I only took six months out traveling to appease my father. He was desperate for me to ‘go see the world, find yourself. There’s more to life than our hotel resort. Since the age of twenty-one, all you’ve done is work. Go have fun.’
At twenty-nine, approaching thirty, I tried to convince him I was too old to do the whole taking time out to travel thing, but he insisted and he’s been pushing me for years to do it.
I finally gave in and did what he thinks is right for me. But I waited for him and Eva, his new wife, to get married, as I was his best man, and then I delayed it again when Eva fell pregnant with my baby sister. So I held off as they needed me at the hotel and spa resort that me, my father, and grandfather own together.
My dad took a year off after the birth of my sister, Thea, but he gave me strict orders to apply for a work travel visa as soon as his leave ended.
His decision was final and I kind of love him for it. He was right in a way. I needed some time away from the hotel.
For three and a half months I traveled as he wished me to, but I discovered that the grass is no greener. It’s just the experiences that are different. Different monuments, different buildings made by different people, each with its own purpose and life story. Restaurants, all the same, they just serve food of differing quality and style. The beaches, again, all the same, just different temperatures of the sea water and of course there're the sharks. Yup, definitely don’t get those in Scotland. And then there are the women. I have to admit California women are beautiful. Fucking stunning, actually. But having traveled around America, with all the women I have met, there has been no one I could see myself with and screw having a long-distance relationship.
That aside, I set myself a no woman rule while finding myself and I have stuck to that.
My father wanted me to explore several more countries, but I wasn’t having any of it. Spending my time exploring America was the plan. I’ve visited all the usual suspects—Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Las Vegas. Then, of course, I had to visit the must-sees—Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone—you know the drill.
But then I settled here in California over four weeks ago. I had reached my quota and bowed out of the traveling scene. It got boring after a while.
I checked out Los Angeles for a couple weeks before planting roots here in Santa Monica, a city just west of downtown L.A., for the rest of my work travel visa. I love it and am much closer to the beach, which reminds me of home.
Rio, the surfer dude I’ve become really close to that I met on the beach when I was surfing one morning, asked me if I could help at the gym he’s a manager of. He’d detected I was utterly fed up with surfing and suntanning. There’s only so much lazing a guy who is used to being constantly busy can do and I’m determined to play out the entirety of my visa for fear my father may send me straight back here if he catches sight of me back in Scotland before my visa expires.
Rio explained he was short-staffed. So I jumped at the opportunity. I was bored shitless, and it’s been great these past few weeks finally using my brain again. Even if it has only been to help little Maurice, the elderly gentleman who visits three times a week, to reset his entry code every visit. Anything to distract me and make the weeks pass quicker.
My temporary job is perfect timing and my countdown has begun.
I’ll be home soon.
I can’t wait to see my family again, especially my little brothers, Hamish and Archie and baby sister, Thea. She’ll be eighteen months old on my return.
My dad had me when he was just a kid himself—seventeen. He did the right thing and married my mother, but they were never in love.
Following my arrival into the world, my mommy dearest decided she didn’t want to be tied down and left my father to raise me. He swiftly divorced my mom a few months after her departure and has only recently married his much younger wife, Eva.
They are madly in love with one another. So I now have two little stepbrothers and a little sister twenty-eight years younger than me. It’s a weird dynamic, but we work and I miss them. Hence the reason I try to video call them most nights.
Six weeks.
Five weeks working, then one week off before returning to Scotland. I’m excited to see my family again.
“So.” I clap my hands together.
I need to focus on the job and not the siren calls toward home or my dick because the latter seems to have twitched back to life again at the sight of this gorgeous woman in front of me. The first time in months it’s been remotely interested in anyone.
Down, boy. Not now.
I suck in a breath. “We have the new buyer coming in tomorrow. She is apparently a proper ball-breaker and we need this place spick-and-span.” I draw my arms in an air circle, gesturing to the enormous gym space. “I’m actually surprised we didn’t have to paint the grass green outside for her.” I should have kept that to myself. “Your name is Lucy, isn’t it?” She nods at me with a smirk, her eyes full of mischief. “Great.”
I wonder how old she is. She looks about the same age as me, give or take.
She’s not much of a talker. Maybe she’s nervous as it’s her first shift.
