Hunter: Between those and the video I’m recording about the Mustang in the garage, I’ve got a lot of good content for my channel.
Erica: Well at least someone is making out well in this whole situation.
Hunter: I’d rather be making out with you
Erica: Aww.
Erica: This isn’t fair. I feel like I just got home from trick-or-treating, and now my brother won’t let me eat any of my candy
Erica: I want a mouthful of Skittles, damnit!
Hunter: Is Skittles a euphemism?
Hunter: It had better be a euphemism.
Erica: You’d better believe it ;-)
Hunter: Goddamnit, Brad. Biggest cock-block in history.
Hunter: You’re sure we can’t just tell him?
Erica: In a week, maybe. I need to feel him out. Warm him up to the idea.
Hunter: This is going to be the longest week of my life.
Erica: Yours and mine both.
I grinned at my phone screen in the dark. Texting Hunter helped release some of the tension I had, but it still wasn’t as good asactuallybeing with him.
There was another problem we weren’t addressing. Hunter lived in Portland. I lived in Columbus. Moving back here after college was never supposed to be permanent; mom was sick, and I wanted to be near her. I had always imagined myself moving away from Ohio and starting somewhere new. The Pacific Northwest sounded enticing.
But I couldn’t abandon Brad here. Not yet. It was too soon after my parents’ deaths, he was struggling, and I knew I would be wracked with guilt if I left. I didn’t know how to bring that up to Hunter.
The good news was that Hunter was self-employed. Technically, he could work from anywhere. The easy solution would be for him to stay here in Columbus until I was ready to move away, whether that was a few weeks, or months.
Hunter was a reasonable guy. He could understand.
We’ll worry about that later,I thought while re-reading our texts.For now, I’m going to enjoy what we do have.
30
Erica
With Brad in the way of us, I focused on getting my business up and running. The website and online store were both completed, but I still had a lot of work to do in conjunction with the local jewelry stores that were going to offer my gemstones as an option.
But while I worked out the details, I couldn’t take my mind off the sexy man in the garage, tightening bolts with a wrench and wiping grease from his face with the sleeve of his shirt.
When I came home from the brewery that night, the guys were watching the baseball game in the living room again. Hunter didn’t have any popcorn, which left me without an excuse to sit next to him.
I sat down with my laptop and did some work with the game on in the background. The two of them were quiet while they watched, tinkering on their phones in between innings.
Suddenly I got a notification that I had an email. And not to my personal account.
“Oh!” I yelped out loud. “You guys, someone emailedYours Forever Gemstones!My first contact!”
Hunter seemed weirdly uncaring about it, but Brad said, “That’s awesome, sis. The first one’s always special.”
I opened up the email in a browser and quickly scanned the words: