Page 38 of Not Looking
He laughed. “Oh yeah. Though some can be good for a bit of fun.”
“Unlike you, I don’t jump into bed with whatever dick is on offer.”
“Hey, I’m a happily mated man now.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I’m still getting used to that.”
“You and me both, but I couldn’t be happier.”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me when to plan a baby shower.”
“We’re trying,” he chuckled. “It was just too soon after my last heat when we mated.”
“I’m sure you’re loving every minute of said trying.”
He grinned. “What can I say? The only thing better than a knot, is a knot from my mate every night. Now, back to you.”
I sighed. “So I first met him last month. Like I said, he seemed like a clumsy flirt. Last week he called; the trees I had them process for me were ready for pickup. He helped me load, still flirting, but he got a bit more comfortable.”
“Ok.”
“We get to the last load, and I figure the truck can handle a little bit more, so I do a bit of shopping. That’s when he hits me with this… collection… of scraps that he’d saved for me.”
“That’s nothing new, right. You’ve told me about the mill guys saving you the odd piece before.”
I shook my head. “Not like this. He had a whole plastic bin of them. He said that he felt bad because he didn’t have anything good the first day we met.”
“That’s sweet.”
“One or two is sweet. What he set aside almost filled a scrap bucket on its own.”
“Were they good pieces?”
I nodded. “There were a few that I rejected. Not because they were bad, but because I had enough similar pieces already.”
“Sounds like a crush.”
“Come with me.”
One of his eyebrows went up as I stood, but he mirrored the motion, then followed me out to my side porch.
“I thought you had a shed for drying,” he laughed as he spied the wood pieces spread about.
“I do.” I picked up two pieces, one of the ones I’d selected to fill the bucket, and one from Craig’s stash.
“Careful of the edges,” I said as I handed the first to Kerry. “They can be sharp.”
“Ok?” he asked, taking the scrap and turning it in his hands. “It’s a piece of wood.”
“Yeah.” I handed him one that Craig had handled.
“Ok… another piece of wood.”
“Just… see if you can spot the difference.”
He gave me an unsure glance, but inspected the scraps.
“This one is softer on the edges,” he said after several seconds.
