Two

Jack Hulbert

"Jack, can you help me over here?" Andrew Star from the café asked as he rummaged around in the screw department. Well, it wasn't actually a department, more like a section—really it was a wooden cabinet with small drawers that contained different sizes of screws.

"Sure thing, Andrew. What are you looking for?" I asked as I stood with my hands on my hips watching him open and close nearly every drawer in the cabinet before turning to me frustrated.

"I need one more of these," he said and held up a 2-inch number 6 wood screw.

"They're right here. Did you say you only need one?" I asked and held out a few of them.

"Give me a dozen," he said and grinned. "I'm just making sure the stools aren't wobbly, they've been getting a workout lately."

"I noticed you've been really busy. That's great."

"Yes, it's been hectic, but I love it." He didn't have to say it, but I knew he was talking about his new relationship with one of the local officers. I was born in the nearest hospital and had lived in Foggy Basin for all of my twenty-one years, but I'd had no clue either of them was gay. I was definitely happy to see them find some happiness with each other, but there was never a day that everyone around me didn't know exactly who I was, and if they had issue with the fact I was also gay, well then, they'd find out a little bit more about me. "Are you guys staying busy?" he asked.

"Yeah, I mean we always have a steady stream of customers. There's always something that needs to be fixed, and it beats driving an hour to a Home Depot," I said as I led him to the cash register.

"If I had to drive an hour for a screw then the stools wouldn't be getting fixed. I'd have to wait until we needed a few more things."

I wrote out his receipt in one of the same paper receipt tablets we'd used since I started working here in high school. By now it was so ingrained in me I didn't think much of it until I went to a Home Depot and realized how small town we were. But really, I didn't mind it at all. "Here you go," I said as he handed me the correct change and I passed him his screws in a small plastic Ziploc bag.

"Thanks, Jack," he said before walking out the door, and I went back to organizing the fishing section where I'd been when Andrew had walked in. After turning up the music playing through my earbuds, I again became totally immersed in sorting through all the sizes of fishhooks and making sure they were where they were supposed to be.

"Excuse me," someone said just loud enough for me to hear while tapping me on the shoulder, making me levitate off the ground for a full second. Followed by, "Oh sorry."

"Who the fuck are you?" I snapped, as my nerves were still strung tight as adrenaline rushed through my veins.

"Whoa, I said I was sorry. Is my dad around?" he asked, and at first, I had no clue who he was talking about. He was probably in his late thirties with neatly trimmed greyish blond hair, blue eyes, and a friendly smile. He definitely wasn't a local and judging by the way he was dressed, he wasn't a nearby farmer either.

"You're Hudson," I said, and tried to ignore how fucking hot he was. Hudson had grown up here too, but he was a lot older than me, so I really only knew him from his family who owned the hardware store and who I'd worked for since I was in high school.

"Yes, sorry, kid. I didn't mean to startle you. I just got into town and thought I'd check here before going by the house." He glanced around the store, and it was obvious how much he disliked being here. I wasn't sure why since he'd worked here himself when he was younger, and his family had always owned the place.

"I'm not a kid," I finally said, after my heart stopped racing. "And I don't know where Jonas is, it's his day off."

He took a step back and looked me up and down before meeting my eyes. "You're right, you're not a kid. Thanks, I'll go by the house." Without a backward glance he was gone, and I was left staring at the door he'd just walked out of wondering what the hell he was doing here.

After working here for the past five years, I'd gotten to know Jonas and his wife Addie more than I had when I just another local going to the hardware store when I needed something. They were both very nice people that paid a fair wage, and never expected me to do something they wouldn't do themselves. Their only son Hudson had moved away years ago, and only came back occasionally. I tried to remember the last time I'd seen him, but it had to be at least a year, and I also tried to remember if he'd been as hot then as he was now.

"What the fuck," I grumbled to myself. "You do not want to go there." After lowering the volume on my earbuds, I went back to organizing, and with only a couple more interruptions I'd finished.

I checked that everything was still alive in the live bait —and was thankful that it was—before wandering over to the fishing poles and trying to put them in some sort of order. We lived close enough to a lake that people stopped by here regularly to get fishing supplies, and it seemed fishermen loved to look at every freaking pole we had on display. I wasn't a huge fan, and I hated reorganizing them over and over, but it gave me something to do and as long as I could listen to music it wasn't too bad.

I'd just finished securing the last one in the rack and started to turn around when I ran smack into a solid chest. "Agh," I grunted at the impact and tried to move away as strong hands held me where I was.

"Sorry, god I keep startling you."

"Are you trying to kill me?" I shrieked because two jolts of adrenaline in one day was apparently way too much for me. The frozen mocha latte with an extra shot probably hadn't helped either, but that didn't matter right now.

"Sorry, you probably shouldn't work with earbuds. What if I was trying to rob the place?" he asked, looking just as hot as he had earlier with his black slim cut dress slacks, shiny black shoes, and form fitting white shirt over an obviously flat stomach.

"No one ever tries to rob someone in Foggy Basin, you know that," I snapped at him, making him grin, which in turn pissed me off. "What did you want this time?" I asked.

"I went by my parents' house and waited but they're not home. Any other ideas?"