“We settled the last of the claim.” He flips up the corner of the folder, then closes it again. “It’s done. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I wanted you to know. It wasn’t your fault, but we settled and accepted all of their terms just as you asked. Now, you just need to settle it with yourself, Magnus. It was an accident. You weren’t at fault.”
I sniff. My hand tenses on the door handle, the veins traversing the bones leading to each finger in thick rivers. My desire to turn the knob falters as the words tumble out of my mouth. “Tell that to Sarah Templeton.” My head starts to pound. “Oh wait, you can’t, can you?”
I force my wrist to turn my hand.
The click of the handle, the blast of air as I jerk open the door. I feel like I’m watching the whole thing from somewhere else. The irony of the entire situation is that Sarah’s piece of shit mother came out of the woodwork after her daughter died. Found some TV attorney to take her case of wrongful death against me and the corporation. Erik wanted it to go to trial, but I put my foot down. We paid off that worthless bitch because there was no way I was letting Sarah’s name be dragged through the mud. Her mother did jack shit for her until she was dead, then all of a sudden she was the grieving, long suffering, maternal figure. Sarah deserves some peace, even now. The ancillary benefit of settling out of court was it kept both Sarah and the entire sad event
out of the media.
I shoot off one final barb. “Doesn’t feel settled to me.”
Erik shakes his head and looks down, but I finally walk away. I turn the corner out of his office away from the elevators and onto the stairs, sparing us all the forced smiles and averted eyes on my way out.
AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON
Valentine’s Rose
C H A P T E R O N E
Tanner
The last fifteen minutes of the hour-long drive to her flower shop my dick is diamond hard. Visions of her laying under me as I drive her into the bed taunt me as I try to steer.
Her skin is the perfect shade of pink. I imagine her blonde tresses that usually hang down in waves to brush the swell of her amazing tits, turned into a wild, fresh-fucked mess in my mind. And all because of me.
But unfortunately that’s all in my head. More than likely, it will always be in my head. Because there’s a damn good chance that my perfect woman will never speak to me and there’s no way in this life I will ever look at anyone else. It’s been a good six years since I touched a woman and until I can touch my Rose, it’s just me and my shower gel until they put me in the ground.
Thinking of her makes the last few miles of winding mountain road even more treacherous. It divides my concentration so that these fucking hairpin turns become a deathtrap. They’re already a bitch to maneuver with the slush left on the road and the less than tight steering on my delivery truck.
“Steady there, boss.” Norman, my part-time help at the greenhouses and full-time pain-in-the-ass, taunts me from the passenger seat.
The fact that I can’t fight my hard on, even with a dude sitting next to me, tells you just how gone I am over this girl. A girl that’s barely spoken ten words to me in the last three months.
“Shut up.” Ninety percent of the time when responding to anything Norman says those are my two go-to words.
I’m fluent in the English language, but my need for it is minimal. The few people that attempt to converse with me usually take me for stupid or possibly lacking a tongue. I don’t care much what they think.
“You got the whole lumberjack-no-one-understands-me thing going boss, but I know better. You’re up there chopping wood for that furnace and doting on those roses like each one sprang directly from your own loins. You’re not so tough. Maybe, you know...if you soften up a little, maybe she’ll toss a few words your way in return. Stop being so scary with your Grizzly Adams beard and fuck-y’all attitude. If I was that sweet gal I’d—“
“Shut the fuck up.” My heart's already pounding. Just knowing I am heading to her shop today had me in knots all night.
He’s right though. On the outside I’m all crunch. On the inside, at least when it comes to Rose, I’m the creamy center.
“Fine. I’ll shut up.” He eyes me with playful disdain tapping his fingers on his knees. “But you’ll miss me when I’m gone. Who else gonna put up with your grunts and finger pointing? I need a raise.” He cracks himself up and looks out the window. The thick pine trees that line the narrow road are fading as the sun gives up the last rays for this evening.
He doesn’t shut up though. He never does.
But I have the ability to tune him out. Tune anyone out really. Except for her. The few words she’s graced my ears with play over and over in my head day and night. You’d have thought she offered to drop to her knees and suck my damn cock the way they make me hard in an instant.
No, her words were simple, but they meant more to me than she could know.
“Hi. I’m Rose.” That was the first thing she ever said to me and behind those three simple words I’ve lived an entire lifetime with her.
“Bye. Thanks for the lift. I’ll get myself back to the greenhouse in a few hours. Good luck, lumber-grouch. I still think you’ve lost your damn mind with this crazy plan.” Norman shuts the door on the truck.
I grunt in reply, watching as he walks up the steps to his mom’s place before I pull down away heading down Cypress Street to where Rose’s shop sits on the corner of Cypress and Main.
Duncansville, Washington, population 4390. Not exactly the Mecca of anything much, but it’s home to the girl that I’m in love with, and it’s home to where my rare roses grow a few miles up into the mountains.