6. Good Timing

6

GOOD TIMING

E aston was stretching his arms over his head on Thursday. Nothing made him sore anymore, or he didn’t think so. But laying all those pavers for two days over the past weekend made his back tight.

And if he was tight, then he wondered how Laurel might be doing.

He hadn’t seen her since. Just her SUV coming and going early in the morning or late at night.

Guess he didn’t pay much attention to those things before but now found himself looking out the window.

The past few days had been cold and wet and not much work to be doing outside. Just jobs to get pictures and quotes for Abe to deal with.

When his phone rang, he looked at the time and noticed it was Liam. His best friend was looking after his condo in Stamford.

“Hey,” he said. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

Liam was a college professor. “Nope,” Liam said. “The campus is closed today for a water main break. Got the day off. How about you? Bet you’ve got your eight hours in already doing your legal thing, then put another three in for your cousin.”

It was two in the afternoon. “Damn close,” he said. “Though only two hours for Abe. I ran out to meet with a client earlier for him and sent over a bunch of stuff. Not much more going on on that front. The beginning of April things will be picking up. I’ll have to get out on some sites I’m sure.”

Liam was laughing. “I’m not sure how you’re managing it.”

“It’s all good. Just temporary and I offered. It’s not like I need to go into the office daily. As long as my other work is done, and it always is, there are no worries.”

“Being a partner and all,” Liam said. “You get to pick and choose your hours.”

“Not quite like that,” he said. “But since I’ve got a lot of international things going right now, the hours are working for me. It’s not always like this so I’ll consider it fate or good timing to help out my family.”

“And we know you’ll always help out those you care for,” Liam said.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Just checking up on me? Something wrong with my condo?”

“Condo is fine,” Liam said. “No worries there. I checked it out earlier today and try to go in once a week.”

“I appreciate it. I’ll have some of that fancy wine Nicole loves delivered this weekend. Maybe you can get her drunk and have your way with her.”

Liam laughed on the other end. “I don’t need any wine to have my way with my wife. She’s all over me when I walk in the door.”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s not what she’s said before.”

“Dude, are you spending time talking to my wife?” Liam asked, pretending to be outraged. Since Nicole was an attorney who worked with him and he’d introduced the two, he knew Liam wasn’t annoyed.

Nicole worked in another division, not under him, which was good, as he didn’t want that conflict. But before he was promoted to partner, he’d worked with Nicole on a few projects years ago.

He knew right away Nicole and Liam would hit it off and had done something he’d sworn never to do. Set them up on a blind date.

He wouldn’t have done it if Nicole hadn’t asked him. She’d said Easton was a great guy and she’d never date a coworker, but she was having shitty luck in the dating world and wanted to know if he had any friends. That anyone as loyal and hardworking as him would hang out with the same type of people.

Liam came to mind and the two hit it off, dated for six months, and were married six months later.

It reminded him of Laurel and how fast things happened to her.

But she didn’t get married.

“Only work related,” he said. “Remember, I knew her first. And she thanks me all the time for setting you two up.”

“Not as much as I thank you,” Liam said. “I’m just glad she gave me a chance. Not all women want to be with a man not on the same level as them.”

That had been Liam’s worry in the beginning. That he didn’t have the earning potential Nicole did. “She’s not that way. Not all women are greedy.”

Like Rachelle was.

She wanted the money first. Then she wanted the attention.

He had the money, but couldn’t give her the attention she wanted.

He couldn’t be someone who just adored and kissed up to her no matter how much he tried.

She played him and he had to remind himself it wasn’t meant to be. He couldn’t be someone he wasn’t and if that meant getting his heart broken, then so be it.

He learned his lesson the hard way.

“No,” Liam said. “They aren’t. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“What did Nicole find out about Rachelle?” he asked.

Nicole and Rachelle had gotten close. It was a common enough thing with best friends’ significant others.

But when Rachelle left him, Nicole cut off that friendship like a hot knife through a Jell-O mold.

That loyalty thing.

“Not much,” Liam said.

“Don’t lie to me. We all know she’s engaged again.”

Though he didn’t get out much into an office, or even leave his condo, he knew enough people that when he ran into them or they talked, they’d let him know his ex was engaged to someone else.

“True,” Liam said. “She’s been posting things on social media. Nicole still follows her more to see what is going on rather than being a friend.”

“It’s Nicole’s choice to be friends with whoever she wants. I couldn’t be what Rachelle wanted and I know that. She seems to have found that elsewhere. Good for her.”

He wasn’t going to be bitter over this. He was beyond it.

“She wouldn’t stay friends with her. Rachelle has reached out a few times over the past six months. Just wanting to know how you are doing.”

This was news to him. “Not sure why she cares,” he said.

“She felt bad the way it all happened.”

“Nothing to feel bad about,” he said. “It’s better to know it all now before you spend more years with someone who isn’t happy.”

“You weren’t happy either,” Liam said. “Admit it.”

“I thought I was but guess not. Does it matter? We’ve all moved on.”

“I just want to make sure you’re not working yourself into the ground while you move on. I know you couldn’t predict your aunt getting hurt shortly after Rachelle got engaged, but I wonder if that isn’t why you volunteered to go there for a few months.”

“You know I wouldn’t be where or who I am without my aunt and uncle,” he said. “You know more than most about it.” Even though they’d met in college. They’d stayed in touch and when he moved to New York it would still be close enough to Liam who lived in Stamford. When he decided to move out of the city, he came back to where his friend was living and teaching at the University of Connecticut where they both attended.

“I know,” Liam said. “I get it. Maybe it was one of those happy coincidences. But now you’re there alone and working more than ever before. When was the last time you went out and had a drink?”

To ease his buddy’s mind, he said, “Actually, on Sunday I had lunch and a beer with a woman.”

“Seriously?” Liam said. “Fill me in.”

“You know you sound like a chick right now,” he said.

“Don’t care. You love that about me. My wife does too. She likes she can come home and fill me in with gossip. It comes from teaching a bunch of stuck-up college kids and hearing all their drama. I need to keep my ear to the ground so I can help those that need it.”

“Are you kidding me?” he asked, laughing. “You just love assigning essays to find out what is going on. I know you. Don’t think Nicole hasn’t told me what you do and why.”

Liam was laughing so hard he couldn’t control it. “Hey. It helps them get shit off their chest and lets me know at the same time what might be holding them back in my class. Most of my students have thanked me for that assignment. It’s freeing in a way.”

“Don’t ask me to do it,” he said. “I’m free enough.”

“Back to this date of yours. Who is it? How did you meet? And when is the next one?”

“Her name is Laurel Glasgow. She’s renting the house next door. I witnessed an interaction she had with her ex and thought I’d have to intervene, then realized she had some big balls on her for such a stunning woman.”

“I’m getting a chair. This is some good shit. Start from the beginning.”

He wasn’t sure why he needed to get this off his chest and realized that Liam was good at a lot of things and filled his buddy in. “After we spent two days sweating our asses off and her holding her own, she dressed up some more and let me see another side to her, we had some burgers and a beer and I brought her home.”

“She has no idea what you do for a living? She thinks you’re the owner of Cooke Landscaping?”

“It seems that way,” he said.

“Do you feel bad about that?” Liam asked.

“I’m not sure what I feel. She didn’t ask. She just assumed. It’s not like I’ve got her number or we’ve set another date up yet.”

“Do you want another date?” Liam asked.

“I wouldn’t mind it, but as you’ve pointed out, I work a shit ton and it seems she does too.”

“She sounds like your type. Stunning on the eyes, feminine and soft, but sharp as a tack to stick in your big toe when she wants to step on you.”

His lips pursed. “That about sums her up. Didn’t realize that would be something I’d like.”

“You’d like it because Rachelle was all surface and no substance. She wanted to be taken care of and you tried, but it wasn’t enough. You don’t want to go down that path again and be stuck not feeling as if you’re enough. Sounds to me like Laurel has been upfront that she can handle life on her own. Even if you didn’t witness it. So it’s not just lip service.”

“You’ve got a point. I’ll have to think more about it.”

His email had been going off pretty steadily as he talked to Liam. “You do that and I’ll let you get back to work as long as you keep me in the loop.”

“I will,” he said. “Are you happy you got your bonding session in?”

“Thrilled,” Liam said. “But the question is, do you feel better?”

“Surprisingly, I do.”

“Then my work here is done,” Liam said and hung up.

Before he got to work, he went to the site of a local liquor store in Stamford, found the wine Nicole loved and a whiskey he and Liam enjoyed and bought both to be delivered later tonight and then shot off a text to his best friend to be expecting the delivery.

Then he tried to focus on his job—and how he could reach out to Laurel again and what he’d say if he did.

No, not if, but when.