Page 28 of Working for the Mountain Man

"Are you ashamed of what happened?" she asks, there’s a slight tremble to her voice.

I look at her, wondering where the hell this has come from. "No."

"Then why does it feel like you are?"

I’ve no idea what to say to that, I’m not ashamed, fuck, I want a repeat, hell, more than once. I don’t know why she would think that, but now I’m wondering if I’ve done something today to make her feel that way.

I open my mouth to say something but close it again, what the hell do I say? No, I’m not, in fact, I’m the opposite, I want you more now than ever?

I don’t answer fast enough, and she turns back to the desk. "Daniel made me feel like loving him was embarrassing," she says, her voice sounds small and it fucking hurts to hear it. "I can't do that again. I'm not asking you to make some announcement because the crew is watching. I'm asking you to not act like I don’t exist.”

I can’t sit any longer. Christ I’m an ass. I rise to my feet and cross the room. "Elsie," I say roughly and she looks at me. "I'm not ashamed," I say. "I was trying to keep the crew from making it harder for you. I thought if I kept it quiet, I was protecting you." I stop. "I see now it just felt like hiding. I'm sorry. I’m not ashamed, not at all, I want you, more than I have ever wanted anyone else."

She looks at me for a long moment. "Words matter," she says. "But so does what comes after them."

"I know and I’m not used to this, so I’m going to mess up, just know that I’m trying.”

She grins at me. “That’s all that I ask.”

Four Days Later

Elsie’s like a ball of nervous energy as the two state inspectors arrive, both of whom are all business and the moment they arrive, they start asking questions, thankfully, that nervous energy that Elsie has works for her as she’s able to answer every question they have, and evidence to prove it, thanks to the index that she built.

Elsie pulls the red folder.

They ask for the upper ridge weather note and they ask about the crew hours discrepancy in March. I explain the storm delay, the rerouting to the emergency culvert, the materials sitting at the south bridge an extra day. Elsie pulls up the supplementary note she wrote that matches the explanation to the invoice.

They continue to ask question after question, the woman inspector takes notes, while the male inspector photographs the index. I can’t get a rad of either of them and I’m not sure how the inspection is going.

"Your documentation is thorough. The weather condition notes on the upper ridge file are clear, we'll include a funding recommendation in our report," the woman tells us, writing something in her notes.

"Thank you,” I say as I shake their hands, trying not to look at Elsie who’s sitting at her desk doing a little happy dance.

After they leave, Elsie throws her hands up in the air. "We did it."

"You did it," I tell her, grinning.

"Hugo, no, we all did it, it was a team effort."

"You built the system, you wrote the notes, you found the gaps in the logs. The fieldwork was mine, but the documentation was yours and that was important."

She looks at me with a raised brow and her arms crossed. I get the feeling that she’s getting angrier as she waits for me to agree with her.

"We did it," I say, and watch as she smiles, her entire face lights up with happiness.

God, she’s so beautiful.

That evening, the crew goes to The Foundry, we’re out to celebrate and my crew needs it, they’ve worked hard and it’s paid off.

Everyone is here, all having a few drinks and chilling, it’s what we do when there’s been a rough week, or a hard weather front and my crew have had that along with the inspection, it’s been a tough one and it paid off, now it’s time to let off steam.

Elsie is here, she’s laughing at something Corey said, her hair loose, her hands wrapped around a glass, and she looks like someone who belongs here, which she does, even if she has not decided that she wants to stay.

I watch her from across the room, unable to pull my gaze away from her.

Then I stop watching and cross the room. The table goes slightly quieter, but I ignore all the glances of my men, and I reach for Elsie’s hand.

She looks at it, then at me, her eyes wide with surprise. "Hugo," she says quietly, but gets to her feet and we move away from the table, everyone watching us.