24
First-World Problems
Mari walked into the coffee shop, and slung her purse onto the table so hard it slid across and nearly fell before Rajni caught it.
“You are not going to believe this.”
Rajni squirmed in her seat, a smile lighting up her whole face. “Oh, I cannot wait. I’ve never gotten an ‘Urgent, must meet tonight’ text from you. FYI, other people just text 911.”
“You can text to 911 now? Why would you want to type in an emergency?”
“No, no, you text me, but you say 911 and it means—you know what, never mind. What am I not going to believe? And how come you’re not telling it to Lisa?”
“Lisa’s sweet, but she can only keep a secret from anything that doesn’t have ears.” Mari took a chair and leaned in close to the table, dropping her voice. “This is incredibly personal and I don’t care how funny you think it is, you cannot tell anybody in your entire life, not even on your deathbed.”
“Got it.” Rajni nudged a big ceramic mug across the table, wafting vanilla-spicy deliciousness into the air. “Did I mention I already bought you a chai?”
“And you know that a chai is enough to buy every secret I have, including my PIN number and blackmail pictures of me with a bad perm. But this isn’t about me.” She didn’t blink, holding the other woman’s gaze hard. “Swear to me on your truck, Rajni.”
“Sweetie, you are just about to piss me off. You think you can’t trust me?”
“I think I wouldn’t trust anybody with this, if I didn’t need help too much to figure it out on my own.”
“I swear on my truck,” Rajni said levelly. “And I’ll get some to-go cups. If it’s that way, we shouldn’t be talking about it in public.”
She led the way to the parking lot, and as soon as the doors on Rajni’s truck closed them into the cab together, Mari said it.
“His dick’s too big.”
“You’re freaking—” Rajni exploded into a peal of laughter. “No it is not! And I can’t tell anybody?”
“He won’t have sex with me because he’s worried he’ll hurt me.”
Rajni lost it, her truck seat creaking as she howled with laughter. “Okay, okay, no . . . but is it really that big? C’mon.”
Mari couldn’t look her in the eye. “Um, maybe?”
Rajni stopped laughing. “You’re freaking kidding me. He catches bunnies for you, takes you for rides on his motorcycle, looks at you like he wants to curl up in your lap and purr, and has an enormous dong?”
Mari’s mouth twitched with a guilty little smile she couldn’t quite hold back. “And he’s been making me coffee in his French press every morning because he knows how much I hate the stuff the motel gives us.”
Rajni rolled her eyes. “What I wouldn’t do for your luck. So when he told you, what’d you say?”
“Told him we could just do other things. I don’t know, at the time I was so horny I wanted to cry, but I figured he’d take that the wrong way. C’mon, I figured if anybody would have any idea what to do, it’d be you.” She widened her eyes, not above begging. “Because if we try and it doesn’t work, he is never going to sleep with me again. I’m serious, I know this man. If he thinks it’ll hurt me, he’d rather die a virgin.”
“He’s a virgin, too!” Rajni clapped her hands over her mouth.
“No. No. But you know what I mean.” Mari wiped sweat off her forehead. With the windows rolled up, it was stifling.
“Yeah, yeah.” Rajni started the truck and hit the AC. “No, I know I laughed, but some folks have a real deal with all that. I had a boyfriend once, a fisherman from Maine—well, anyway, if it’s honestly too big, there isn’t much you can do except get real good with your hand. Mostly, if it’s big but still within reason, it’s not too tough. Little lube and warm yourself up first. Have him get you off two, maybe three times before you start. Loosens everything right up, won’t be a problem.”
“Okay.” Mari cleared her throat. “Good. So that’s settled.” She fanned her face, hoping the heat in the truck would provide an excuse for how flushed she’d gotten. “How’s your week going?”
Rajni leaned back in her seat and started to laugh all over again. “Let’s just say we’ve all got problems. And we all wish we were having your problems.”
Mari leaned into Jack’s work truck, slipping a plastic bag full of brownies up onto his dashboard. It smelled like him in here, and she took a deep, deep breath. She hadn’t seen him much since he confessed his little “issue” with sex. At work yesterday, sure, but he’d been busy, and then they’d missed dinner together because she’d taken Rajni out for emergency chai and even-bigger-emergency advice.
Today, he’d been distant. Not rude or mean to her. Just . . . holding back.
“You need something?”
The gravelly southern drawl caught her off guard and she jumped, nearly hitting her head on the doorframe.
“Mmm, maybe to be a little bit sneakier?” She turned with a rueful smile. “I was hoping you’d be too busy on the tower to see me in here.”
He glanced past her into the truck. “So’s that mean I can’t eat those brownies because I’m not supposed to see them yet?”
He sounded so disappointed that she caved immediately. “No, go ahead.” She stepped aside so he could get past. “They’re an equal-opportunity bribe.”
“Bribe?” he said through a mouthful of crumbs, the first brownie already gone. He frowned. “For what? Whatchu need?”
She batted her eyelashes, then felt ridiculous. “I found a spot. Out in the desert, like we talked about. Very private.”
Jack blushed so hard and fast his skin went more purple than red.
“Uh, yeah, yup. All right. Tonight? Or, uh, whenever you were thinking is fine.”
She leaned in closer, dropping her voice to slip it under the roar of an approaching large-engined truck. “Tonight. Definitely tonight.”
The bag of brownies hung in Jack’s hand as his Adam’s apple bobbed.
Behind them, a truck shut off and Mari blinked, coming back to earth as she worried that she hadn’t checked the construction area for tortoises before they pulled in. Then again, she’d cleared that area not three minutes ago when she walked over with the brownies. She turned, scanning, but didn’t see any animals nearby. It was too hot midday for most anything to be out anyway.
The truck door opened and Rod stepped out and hitched up his pants, surveying the construction site with an air that reminded her of English nobles in old BBC miniseries. Behind her, Jack made a brief, derisive noise.
Rod sauntered over to them. “Hello there, little lady. How’s the afternoon treating you?”
She fought off an eye roll, having a quick debate with herself about the best way to set this guy back on a professional track without making an enemy.
“Her name is Mari,” Jack snapped.
“Thanks, Wyatt. If I need any other introductions, I’ll call you.”
Rod stared past her and she didn’t have to turn to know the two men had locked eyes, or that Jack’s would be creased at the corners by his scowl.
“Your crew doing okay over there without your supervision?” Rod said after a long, uncomfortable moment.
“Figured you were here to talk to me.” Jack spat off to the side. “There ain’t any other foremen around.”
And even Mari knew Rod didn’t bother to talk to any of the regular workers.
“Actually, I’m here to talk to your biologist.” He smiled at her, and the hairs on the back of Mari’s neck rose.
“So talk,” Jack grunted.
Rod gave him a look, flicked his eyes pointedly toward the tower.
“Crew’s fine.” Jack didn’t budge.
The supervisor laughed. “Oh, that’s right. I’d heard rumors you two were very special friends.”
She held her breath. She’d worried it was a conflict of interest, for her to keep monitoring his crew. Even wondered if she should ask Marcus to reassign her, but her boss hadn’t seemed concerned so far. Out in the desert so far from an HR department, rules about employee fraternization were rarely enforced. But if Rod decided to kick up a fuss, he might be able to get her in trouble even if Marcus didn’t care.
“Don’t worry, Wyatt. I’m not planning on hitting on your old lady.” The emphasis on the word “old” was just a breath. So subtle she couldn’t have said for sure if he’d really meant it that way. Except the word scraped along her bones like sandpaper, and she knew, damn it. Men like him never did anything by accident.
She pretended to hear something, turning to the imaginary sound in such a way that she ended up directly between the two men, because she knew Jack. He’d been doing a lot of work on his temper, but she was pretty sure none of that work was going to hold him back if he thought Rod had insulted her.
“I think I hear Joey calling you,” she told him. “I can handle this. I’ll come get you if it ends up being something that might affect the crew, or our schedule.” She smiled at Jack with her back to Rod so he couldn’t see the edge of steel in the outwardly cheerful expression.
The corner of Jack’s mouth twitched upward toward a smile, and she knew he had read her expression just fine. His eyes still looked unhappy, but he ducked a nod. “All right. Be just over there if you need me.”
He gave Rod a look and there were no amount of polite or professional words that could have disguised what it was: a warning from one large, aggressive male to another.
He walked away, the baggie of brownies disappearing into a pocket on his tool belt.
“I’ve been hearing very good things about you,” Rod said, before her attention had fully come back to him.
“Is that so?” She adjusted her hard hat to cover the subtle tension that gathered in her. Men like him complimented for two reasons, and it was always the follow-up that’d tell you which it was. Either they were about to hit on you, or they wanted a favor.
She didn’t care for either option.
“Wyatt’s crew started out with the second-worst environmental compliance record on this transmission line, and now they have the best. It’s very impressive, the uh . . . difference around here since you started.” He smirked.
Ah. So it wasn’t sexual, then. Too bad. That would have been easier to shut down.
“Their record has improved because Jack put a lot of time into training his men to follow the rules.” Mari folded her hands neatly in front of her. “It doesn’t have a thing to do with me—you could put another bio on this crew tomorrow and get the same results.”
“You see, I’m glad you think so, because I agree.”
She did not like the sound of that.
“My son’s crew has been paying a lot of very expensive environmental impact tickets lately. I think they could use a little of your . . .” He paused. “Extra-special treatment.”
Only because she’d spent years getting slapped for her expressions did she manage to keep her reaction off her face.
“Like I said, that’s not me.” The only thing she did differently was how she explained the rules to Jack so that he could see the reasoning behind them and really understand how they protected the animals. That’s when he started enforcing them himself instead of making the bio try to ride herd over his whole crew.
“Good. Then you won’t mind that I had you transferred to Junior’s crew.”
Her balance quivered at the words “had you transferred.” Her new life felt so precious, she had to remind herself he couldn’t take it away. Not the job, not Jack. Not even the fact that she was assigned to this particular crew, actually. A man like Rod, though, was probably riding on the certainty that she’d give in to his orders, regardless of how valid they were.
Once, she would have.
She matched his unblinking stare. “You can’t have me transferred. I don’t answer to you.”
Joey trotted up. “Kipp thinks he saw a rattlesnake.”
She didn’t look away from Rod. “I’ll be there in a moment.”
At least twice a day, Kipp needed her to come over and check because he thought he’d seen a rattlesnake. He’d yet to be correct.
She didn’t intend to be rude to Joey. It was just that everything about Rod made her want to drop her eyes, and she wouldn’t let herself do it.
She’d fought back so many times with Brad, but he’d always pushed back even harder. Yelling, then screaming, the violence escalating until she gave way. Until she learned never even to try. The way Rod was testing her now made her feel like the early days with Brad, like if she gave a single inch, he wouldn’t quit until she was broken at his feet.
“Oh, I have the authority,” he said. “I talked to Marcus’s boss, and he felt just fine about it.”
Her next breath stuck in her throat. It wasn’t that it was the end of the world to work on a different crew. She couldn’t work with Jack forever, and she’d see him at night. It was just that she didn’t want to do what Rod wanted. No matter what it was.
“Jack said to tell you he thinks Kipp might be right about the snake this time,” Joey persisted.
She turned to look at the anxious-eyed apprentice. “Tell Jack not to worry. I have it all under control.”
Her voice was calm, even though she wasn’t totally sure if she was lying or not. She understood all too well what Rod was expecting of her by transferring her to his son’s crew. He wanted her to look the other way when his son broke the rules. If she didn’t do it, she’d lose her job and therefore her ability to pay the medical bills that gained more interest by the day.
If she did do it, she’d lose her integrity, and with it, her fragile self-respect.
Rod waited until Joey retreated, and then he said, “Of course, if there’s a reason you’d rather stay on this crew, I can let your boss know all about that.”
He looked pointedly to where Jack was standing, staring across the job site at Rod and Mari. When Jack saw Rod’s head turn, he looked away.
So did Mari.
“That won’t be necessary,” she said to the dirt between them.
Jack had been right. “No” wasn’t a word you were allowed to say to Rod.