CHAPTER 1
TYLER
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, clenching the steering wheel tightly as I sit in a miles-long line of traffic on Interstate 5. The commute between Seattle and Tacoma can feel long even on a sunny day, but in the winter, thanks to Washington’s dark skies and drenching rain, it becomes completely unreasonable. I’ll be getting home way later than I planned, which sucks donkey balls. Because I have to be careful with my sleep schedule, I’ll have almost no time to wind down before I’ll need to take my sleep meds and go to bed.
Before I can decide whether to give up and take the next exit so I can wait out the traffic somewhere, the dashboard screen lights up with a text from my boss. I’ve worked at Hot Dam Homes, a small, family-owned renovation company, since shortly after getting home from my tour with the Army in Afghanistan. Mason Campbell, who owns the company with his brother, Dylan, is a great guy who genuinely thinks of the company as an extension of his family. It sounds stupid and cliché, but he really does believe it, and it shows in how he treats us. Needless to say, I consider myself lucky as fuck to have ended up working for them.
Mason: Team meeting tomorrow afternoon. Dinner at pub after. Sorry for late notice. Can u make it?
Spending the afternoon stuck in a meeting room instead of being able to move around and use my hands isn’t high on my list of favorite things, but Mason and Dylan are amazing bosses, and they must have something important to talk to us about if they’re calling a meeting on such late notice.
“I can be there,” I say slowly and clearly so the voice-to-text software picks up my words.
Mason:Great.Stay at our place if u want to drink. Bring your stuff.
“Okay,” I respond, smiling to myself. Mason is like a mother hen. I’m the only one of the group who lives so friggin’ far away, and he’s always concerned about me getting home from work safely, especially in the winter when the weather can be bad.
As predicted, I get home later than I’d like. I hate living all the way in Tacoma, but housing closer to Seattle is insane. I could get a roommate, but that thought gives me the heebie-jeebies for a whole host of reasons. Besides, Tacoma might not be glamorous, but at least it’s familiar. I grew up here, and I’ve had so many changes to my life over the past few years it’s not a bad thing to have surroundings I know like the back of my hand, even if they’re not luxurious.
After getting into my crappy little apartment and locking the door behind me, the first thing I do is take out my hearing aids, letting out a big sigh of relief. The sensation is kind of like taking off a pair of uncomfortable shoes after being on your feet all day. As helpful and necessary as my hearing aids are, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to having something stuck in my ears all day, every day.
Wandering into my small kitchen, I decide to stick a frozen dinner in the microwave since I’m too tired for anything else.
I really need to make some kind of plan for moving closer to Seattle. The drive back and forth feels like it gets more exhausting every day. At some point, I won’t have a choice because I can’t sacrifice my mental health over a stressful daily commute. Prior to losing my hearing, I don’t think it would have been as big a problem, but driving requires a lot more concentration now, so it’s more tiring.
After scarfing back my mediocre dinner while watching an old episode ofBrooklyn Nine-Nine, I force myself to shut off the TV and climb into bed. I’ve learned to be strict with my sleep routine. The trauma from being blown up by a roadside IED and losing almost all my hearing resulted in severe nightmares for a long time. But after I started seeing my psychiatrist, Derek, and followed his suggestions by taking the meds he recommended, the nightmares tapered off. Nowadays, they normally only happen if I slack off with my routine or if my stress level gets too high.
After brushing my teeth, I shut out the light and grab my e-reader. I started reading gay romance novels while I was deployed. Before I had my e-reader, I didn’t even know there was an entire genre of books devoted to queer romance. I don’t really think of myself as the romantic type, but those books got me through a lot of very long nights. I always had to be careful not to let my bunkmates see the sometimes cheesy beefcake images adorning the covers of my favorite books. It was bad enough they all gave me a hard time for being bisexual; I didn’t want to add more fuel to the fire. I know a lot of the guys were truly kidding around with me and didn’t really have hostile intentions, but there were at least a couple who set off a few red flags. You can never be too careful as a non-straight member of the military, so I liked being able to keep my preferences, for books and everything else, to myself. Between reading and drawing with the few little art supplies I managed to bring with me, I was able to keep sane.
After only a few pages of my latest read, an extra-steamy story about a dragon shifter who falls in love with the human he’s protecting, I’m fighting to keep my eyes open, so I close the cover on my reader and let sleep pull me under.
CHAPTER 2
SAM
Pulling into the Hot Dam Homes parking lot, I’m feeling good, having just finished a major renovation job that wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. The only thing left is for Mason or Dylan to conduct the final inspection and get the client’s sign-off. The nitpicky old couple were a challenge to work with, constantly changing their minds and finding fault with everything, then demanding discounts for every imaginary deficiency. I think they’re finally happy now though, and I’m proud of how I handled them.
I’ve worked for my cousin, Dylan Campbell, since he started his small home-renovation company a few years ago. I’m a landscape designer by training, but I like the overall work of construction and general contracting, so I’ve stuck around a long time. Dylan’s brother, Mason, who also happens to be my best friend, has also worked for HDH since the beginning. A couple of years ago, he bought into the company and became co-owner. It wasn’t a surprise, since Dylan had always wanted the company to be a partnership between himself and Mason; it just took Mason a while to commit. But after he met the love of his life and got settled into a perfect domestic world, he was finally ready to take the plunge to become a full partner with his brother.
What shocked the hell out of me was how crazy jealous I was of their new partnership. Ineverthought I wanted the kind of responsibility being co-owner would bring, but seeing Mason doing it, actually growing up and doing the full-on adulting thing, triggered something in me. I found myself craving the extra responsibility, but the company is too small to have three of us as equal partners, so I remain their faithful employee. It’s fine, really. My friendship with Mason is one of the most important things in my life, and even though there have been times when him being my boss has felt weird to both of us, we’ve both worked hard to keep our relationship normal. Lately, though, I feel like there’s been a distance between us that hasn’t been there before.
Shutting off the truck and hopping out, I give my head a shake, as if the annoying thoughts trying to upend my good mood will tumble out and fall to the ground. I’m not sure what this unexpected meeting is about, but it must be something good because they want to take the whole crew out for dinner and drinks after. It’s been a long week, so I’m more than happy to show up. Thank god it’s Friday night, as I can definitely use a little wind-down, and I won’t have to worry about having to drag myself out of bed at the ass-crack of dawn to work.
A bunch of the younger employees have already arrived and are milling around the back of the meeting room. Kylie, the office manager, has set out sodas and water and a package of those stupid-addictive chocolate chip cookies from Costco, so everyone will get their late-afternoon sugar rush.
“Hey, assholes.” I grin, slapping Kevin, one of our newest hires, on the shoulder. “What’s happening?”
We chat for a few minutes before Mason and Dylan come in, Dylan followed closely by Alexis, one of his rescued Labrador retrievers, who shadows him pretty much wherever he goes. She heads to her dog bed in the corner and turns in a circle three times before settling down with a contented sigh as Dylan and Mason take their seats.
“Hey, all,” Mason starts with a friendly smile. Dylan doesn’t talk much at these meetings. He’s autistic, and peopling isn’t his thing. He’s really into the design and build aspects of the business like the engineering and architecture, while Mason handles the more people-oriented stuff like sales and customer relations. It works, since HDH has been really successful.
“I know we all want to get over to Harley’s for a couple of drinks and some greasy pub food, so I’ll get right to the point.” Mason stops to clear his throat before continuing. “As some of you already know, a few months back, we put in a bid for a huge job to rebuild an old vacation resort on the coast, close to Ocean Shores. The new owners want to turn it into a super-exclusive, luxury getaway destination. We weren’t sure if they’d even look at us, since we’ve never tackled anything that big before, but we found out today that we won the job!”
The excitement in Mason’s voice is contagious, and even Dylan is grinning widely. A wave of excitement moves through the room, and there are even a few cheers and some scattered whoops.
“If things go as well as we hope, this could be our entry into doing more of those kinds of vacation homes. Eventually, we’d like to expand HDH so we can cover the coast, as well as east into the Cascades.” He continues. “We want to be the go-to for high-end clients when they want to update their cabins in the mountains and their vacation homes at the beach. This job will be a good taste to see if that’s something we really want to pursue.” Some of the others exchange looks, possibly wondering why Mason called an “all hands on deck” meeting just to announce we’d won a new job.
“So, all this means a couple of things. The best news is that you’re all going to see a bump in your profit sharing once we get rolling on this project, so you should be excited about that.” He smiles widely, and there are some happy murmurs. I swear, HDH is a fucking unicorn. What other small construction company gives every employee profit sharing? As well as a healthy benefits package and a retirement savings plan? It’s a place I’m proud to be associated with. I really can’t imagine my life if I wasn’t working here, being with these people every day. But I’m going to have to do a lot of thinking about exactly that, and very soon.
