Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

STORM

Today’s going to be a great day. New job. New outlook on life. New clothes and hair. New coffee order.

Okay, I might regret that last one. Whatever this is—I went with the daily special, in the hopes that I could shake my life up a bit and do something new and exciting—it’s too sweet for me. I need caffeine to get going in the morning, not sugar and milk with a side of caffeine.

But that’s fine! It’s fiiiiiine. I’m changing things up, getting out of the rut. That means experimenting and occasionally making choices with bad outcomes. I know now that I don’t like… whatever this is. Tomorrow, I’ll try again.

And in the meantime, I’ll hope and pray that my new employers offer coffee to their staff. Does it count as staff when it’s just me?

Just. Me.

Oh my god. What was I thinking? I’ve clearly gone insane , because there’s no other reason I’d take a job where I’m the only employee. I can’t work alone! I’m a team player. I’m used to working in a corporate office with a lunchroom , for fuck’s sake. Not to mention all the meeting rooms, which everyone knows are only sometimes used for meetings but mostly used for private gossip. I love gossip. I’m the gossip king! On more than one occasion, I’ve strolled around the office with homemade cookies, claiming I had to make them because of the insomnia I don’t actually have. I just needed an excuse to wander from desk to desk, chatting with people. Everyone knows the best way to learn secrets is over baked goods. Offer someone a cookie, muffin, or piece of cake, tell them you baked it yourself, and ka-ching! It’s like the key to the gossip vault.

How will I cope without regular breaks to congregate around the coffee machine in the lunchroom? Even if I take the breaks, there’s nobody to congregate with!

Not that it will matter… working for a small group of dedicated conservationists means there isn’t likely to be any office gossip. These are serious people with serious goals. That was very appealing, from a job perspective. I just didn’t think through the ramifications on a day-to-day basis.

“Turn right at the T-intersection,” my GPS instructs, and I obey. Now is not the time to hyperventilate. I’m nearly there, and the last thing I want to do is give a bad impression on my first day. Sure, I might decide to go running back to my old job with my tail tucked between my legs, but if I do, it won’t be because my new job thinks I’m a flake. I’m going to be together and amazing and they’re going to love me, dammit!

I have a new outlook on life. New clothes and hair. I can do anything!

“Your destination is ahead in point two of a mile.”

Wait, my new office is here ? Across the street from the beach? I slow and put my blinker on, but this part of the road is quiet… because not many people can afford to live in these fucking expensive houses on the beach.

“Your destination is on the right. You have reached your destination.”

I turn into the driveway, checking the number on the mailbox as I do so. Yep, that matches up with the address Cody sent me. This is wild . Sure, they said they worked from home, and that after my settling-in period, I was welcome to either come here for my workday or just log in from home and only visit when I needed to speak to them in person, but… I didn’t think this was what they meant by home!

My original plan was to work here two days a week and do the rest from home, but honestly, if the house is as nice as the driveway, I might commute full-time. It’s not that far.

I park off to the side—the driveway is huge —and take a moment to study my new office. I’m a few minutes early, so I have time to collect myself. The garages—plural—are underneath, with the house above. Wide steps lead up to a huge deck, the kind that’s about the same size as my apartment, and the whole thing has very clean, modern, California-beach-type vibes. Even the landscaping out here is all native plants that do well in sand dunes. I’d expect that from environmentalists, though.

Getting out of the car, I lock it—though there’s probably no need. Who’d want to steal a ten-year-old Honda here?—and turn back to the house. I wonder if they have solar panels on the?—

“What the fuck?” The words burst from me involuntarily, and I want to check that nobody was close enough to hear, but I can’t take my eyes off the man standing on the roof. Shirtless. Hair floating in the breeze. Flying a kite.

Man. Roof. Kite. Shirtless.

Why… How… What… Huh?

I squeeze my eyes closed, convinced it’s a trick of the light. Or maybe they have some kind of fancy wind-monitoring equipment up there. Oh! A new generation of windmill, one that’s safe for residential neighborhood use! That would be so cool.

Opening my eyes, eager to see the new technology, I barely give them a second to adjust before looking back up at the roof.

Where there is definitely a man. Not a windmill. A man. With no shirt. Flying a kite.

Why… Why does he look familiar? And also like a romance novel hero? The books my mom used to get from the drugstore when I was a kid had guys like that on the covers. It was how I realized I wasn’t straight; all that man chest gave me naughty thoughts. Could he be a cover model I’ve seen while waiting to check out at Walmart?

“Storm?” someone calls, and I tear my gaze away from the blond hottie. Perry and Cody, who’ve been my contacts so far, are coming down the front steps, welcoming smiles on their faces.

“Hi,” I call, then surreptitiously check my chin for drool. That’s the last thing I need… especially since the kite-flying sex god is probably someone they know.

Oh god, he’s one of my bosses! My brain kicks back online, and I remember exactly where I’ve seen him before—on the Conservation Kings website and socials, when I was doing my background on the company. He picked the screen name Zephyr, and his specialty is air pollution and the effects it and climate change have had on storm activity.

“I feel like we should have planned a welcome event or something,” Perry says as they reach me, and without meaning to, I glance back at the roof.

They follow my gaze. Cody bursts out laughing, but Perry groans. “Oh, for fuc—uh, I mean… Fudge. Shi—Cra—dangit!”

That makes me laugh too. “I don’t care if you swear,” I assure him. “As long as you don’t care if I do.” I’ve been known to drop the occasional f-bomb during a planning meeting that’s not going to plan.

“Oh, thank fuck” is his reply, and Cody grins at me.

“Swearing is normal here. Things get a little… zany sometimes. Exhibit A.” He gestures to the roof. “That’s Zephyr, by the way. In case you didn’t recognize him.”

Not touching that with a ten-foot pole. “What’s he doing? I mean, I can see what he’s doing,” I correct. “But why’s he flying the kite from the roof?” There’s probably a really good reason for it. One that’s going to change the way we think of air pressure or something. It’s going to be ground-breaking, and I’ll have been part of the process, even if only peripherally.

Perry scoffs. “He says he feels like he can breathe up there. Don’t even ask me; I have no fucking clue. Zephyr!” He raises his voice.

Zephyr doesn’t react, his head tipped back so he can watch the kite.

“Zeph!” Cody yells.

“Should you be shouting? What if he gets startled and falls off the roof?” I ask worriedly. That would be bad—for me too. Because nobody feels good about the guy who started work on the day of a serious workplace accident. No winners in this scenario.

“Trust me,” Cody says, “there’s no way Zephyr could get hurt from falling off the roof. It’s just not possible.”

Um… okay. “Does he bounce?” I joke, and they exchange glances.

“Something like that. Look, let’s just leave him up there for now, and I’ll send someone to get him in a bit. You can meet him later.” Perry gestures toward the house. “Come on in, and we’ll introduce you to everyone and give you a tour before we leave you to fill out enough forms to make your head spin.”

My laugh is polite this time, since I’m still preoccupied by the man on the roof. Shirtless. With that hair. “Ah, I’d forgotten the joys of first-day paperwork.”

“At least we’re not a law firm,” Perry jokes. “The stuff I had to sign just to work reception there was ridiculous.”

The deck is just as gorgeous at eye level as it looked from below, and I sneak a glance around that’s not all that sneaky.

“You’re welcome to work out here, if you want to,” Cody says. “The Wi-Fi signal is good for anywhere on the property or even over at the beach. I’ll get you the password later—and remind Perry to give it to you again when he changes it every week.”

“Thanks,” I reply. “Do you have a lot of issues with Wi-Fi piggybacking?” That surprises me a little. I would have thought in this neighborhood, everyone could afford their own internet access. Maybe tourists on the beach, since the signal is good enough to reach there? But who goes to the beach with their device, looking for a Wi-Fi signal to hack?

“No, Perry’s just paranoid.”

Perry nods. “Sadly, it’s true. Working for lawyers for so long made me very untrusting. I like my life a lot better now, but some things I just haven’t been able to let go of.” He holds open the front door, and I follow Cody inside, not sure how to respond.

The inside of the house is just as nice as the outside—even though we’re in a hallway, it’s wide and feels open and airy, the ceiling nice and high. It definitely will not be a hardship to have to work here.

“We promised to introduce you to Aqua and River first, so they can head out. River’s research is at a critical point, so they spend a lot of time diving right now.”

I whip out my phone and open the Notes app. “Sorry, just let me…” I don’t want to forget to find out more about this research.

“Are you taking notes?” Cody asks, then turns to Perry before I can answer. “See? This is why we needed an expert. I never took notes.”

“You live here and hear every update as it happens,” Perry retorts, but there’s an approving gleam in his eyes when he looks at me. “I’ll get the summary of River’s current research for you, and you can set up a time to talk with him about it when you’re ready. He and Aqua are around a lot, but if you’re only here part-time, you might miss them.”

“I’ll make myself available,” I assure him, already planning how best to share this online. Cody’s done a good job, but I didn’t see anything about new research on any of the Conservation Kings’ socials when I looked at them last week.

We walk into a kitchen that my grandmother, rest her soul, would have wept tears of joy over, and two men look up from the sink.

The blue-haired one, Aqua, grins wide. “Hiiiii! Wanna play dolphins with us?”

Did he just say…?

Somehow, I don’t think working here is going to be as quiet and serious as I expected.