Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Maybe I’d felt hollow inside for a long time, and it was finally just time to accept it. And maybe Storm was right, in some way. Money wasn’t the only thing that mattered to me, but doing my job certainly mattered.
I couldn’t make Storm like me. Couldn’t make him understand me.
I had to go back to the way things were before.
Tuck my head down, interact kindly with my clients, connect in any way possible, and do my job well.
I had been stupid to forget that that was the true reason I was here, anyway. It was all this was ever going to be.
14
STORM
With four big camera rigs surrounding me and two giant studio lights filling the corners of the room, I walked through what was left of my kitchen and whistled.
I’d always been good at football, but I’d never thought of myself as a particularly good actor.
Right now I had to act more than I ever had before, hamming it up for the TV cameras even though I was restless inside.
“That is some fast work,” I said, looking around at my kitchen and keeping a happy face for the show.
Nothing had been sitting right for me all day, though.
Like maybe, for once, I should have controlled myself instead of always having something to prove.
I knew I’d hurt Emmett, and it was all I could think about, even on the first day of demolition in my house. Chase was operating a handheld camera and he tracked after me as I walked through crumbled drywall, looking over the place where kitchen cabinets used to be.
Shawn and Nathan were on the opposite end of the kitchen, smiling and looking like the TV stars they were.
“All it takes is a few sledgehammers, crowbars, and a lot of Led Zeppelin playing in the background,” Nathan said.
“Demolition is the best part,” Shawn chimed in. “Other than the final product, of course.”
The guys had been at work in the kitchen for eight full hours. The half-wall that used to separate it from the dining room was ripped out now, leaving raw concrete beneath. The patch of hardwood that had been badly water damaged was gone, too. The cabinets were history, leaving empty spots where the old blue paint on the walls stopped.
“This morning, I had a run-down kitchen, and now I’ve got a construction site,” I said. “That’s what I like to see.”
“And that’s just day one,” Shawn said. “We’re going to be back bright and early tomorrow morning to keep the ball rolling.”
“Cut!” the director yelled out from the dining room. “Good stuff, guys. That’s a very solid wrap on day one.”
I’d been looking forward to this day for weeks and weeks, but now that it was here, I’d been waiting for it to end. I breathed out a sigh of relief even as I went over to high-five all of the guys from Fixer Brothers.
“Thank you, guys,” I said to all of them. “This really is a dream come true.”
But the thought of Emmett from this morning still haunted me. I’d never seen his face look as defeated as it did this morning.
I felt like instead of our usual push-and-pull, I’d broken him.
And that was never what I wanted at all.
Emmett had been in and out of my house all day, checking in but never staying around for long. Shortly after filming had started, he’d told the guys he had to step out and take a Zoom meeting back at his house. He stopped by shortly again in the early afternoon and had a quick conversation with Nathan about the Racks deal, but then he left again while I was filming an interview segment for the TV show.
I hadn’t been able to get him alone to say a word to him. He hadn’t even looked me in the eye when he’d been in my house.
But now, I realized that I had a quick chance.
“I’ll be right back, guys,” I told them now. I slipped out the front door and headed over next door to Emmett’s.
I rang the doorbell.
Knocked.
And then waited there with my heart pounding for a solid three minutes before I realized he must not be home.
“Fuck,” I whispered softly as I headed back over to my house.
Even if I didn’t belong with Emmett, or belong in his world, that didn’t mean I wanted to hurt him. It was the opposite of what I wanted. The whole reason I’d gotten so upset the other night when he’d talked about his boss was that I knew Emmett deserved better treatment.
Somewhere along the way, I’d started giving a damn about him, even if he didn’t give a damn about me.
And once I cared, I was all in. Our paths may never cross again after this TV show was filmed, but that didn’t matter. I would never mince my words or be anything but honest with Emmett, but I’d never purposely hurt him.