On the Rocks (Last Call #1)(4)
It’s weird… but just moments ago, my heart was filled with many warm feelings for Hunter. Love, care, friendship, desire.
Now?
It’s like ice, pushing out all of my gooey feelings and replacing them with bitterness and loathing. I’m so mad at him, and mad at myself for ever thinking there could be anything there. All those years I had fancied myself in love with him, I realize in one startling moment of clarity that I am the world’s biggest idiot, and Hunter Markham is the world’s biggest *.
As of this moment… he means nothing to me.
Present Day
I pull into the parking lot of The Sandshark, an old, dilapidated building that sits on the Roanoke Sound just outside of Nags Head. I meet Casey and Alyssa here every Monday morning for breakfast. It’s been our tradition for the last two years since Alyssa moved permanently to the Outer Banks.
Turning the ignition off, I wait patiently while my dad’s old ‘79 Ford truck grumbles and sputters, trying desperately for some reason to keep running even though I’ve cut it off. When it finally goes silent, a moment of sadness overwhelms me as I think of my dad. This weekend will mark the third anniversary of his passing, and I miss him just as much today as I did the day he died.
Laying my head against the steering wheel, I take a deep breath and try to push away my sorrow. Today’s a big day. I’m going to put in a bid on a construction project that will, if accepted, put Ward Construction in the black and make me an honest-to-goodness, bona fide, general contractor. It’s what I’ve been seeking since I took over my dad’s business when he died.
I never thought my life would end up here… with me running a construction business.
The self-doubt and uncertainty plagues me daily, but I always remember my daddy telling me that I could do anything I set my mind to. When he died three years ago, I never thought twice about leaving college at the beginning of my senior year at Carolina and returning to the Outer Banks to take over his business. Mom thought I was crazy, but she supported me. I think she hated to see Ward Construction die along with my dad just as much as I did.
I knew the business well enough. I’d been riding in this old truck to construction sites with him since I was old enough to walk. By the time I was fourteen, I was working every summer with my dad, laying sheetrock, pouring concrete, and learning custom carpentry from him. It never seemed odd to me… being a girl and doing a man’s job. I was a natural at it, and there wasn’t anything I couldn’t build or repair as long as it had a nail, screw, or joint holding it together.
I’ve struggled the last three years, barely making ends meet. At first, I thought everything would be okay. Most of my dad’s work was on the commercial side, and some of his repeat customers didn’t have a qualm with hiring me whenever they had new projects. They had seen my work over the years and felt I was trustworthy. However, I wasn’t succeeding very well in landing new business. No doubt… the fact that I’m female and only twenty-three years old is a limiting factor. And it doesn’t seem to make a damn bit of difference that I have my general contractor’s license and can do the same quality work as others. I’m constantly struggling uphill to prove myself day in and day out.
Yes, there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t consider closing down Ward Construction and heading back to school to finish my degree in early childhood education. While being a teacher was my first love and passion, I have an equal passion for building things. I’m just not convinced that I can be very good at it in the long run.
A horn honks beside me, and I turn my head to look out the window. Alyssa is sitting there in her own Ford truck, although it’s a tad bit newer than mine is. She shoots me a lopsided grin and a cutsie wave. I return her smile and get out of my vehicle.
Alyssa greets me with a strong hug, which says a lot because she’s the tiniest thing. Barely topping five foot, she’s waif-like and delicate. She wears her light brown hair in a super-short pixie cut that makes her large brown eyes pop against her fair skin. She’s classically beautiful, sinfully rich, and the most down-to-earth, unassuming person you will ever meet in your life.
It doesn’t matter that she inherited millions upon her twenty-first birthday, compliments of her being pharmaceutical royalty. Her grandfather founded a small drug company in the fifties that now has a position securely on the Fortune 500.
Alyssa spent her summers on the Outer Banks with her socialite mother, while her absentee father stayed in New York perpetuating the family’s billions. She preferred to spend her nights over at my house or Casey’s, and shunned the designer clothes and fancy sports cars her parents bought her. She also shunned their desire for her to attend an Ivy League school, instead shocking the family by enrolling at UNC with Casey and me.
Out of the three of us, she was the only one to graduate. Casey and I both dropped out. But rather than taking a seat on the family throne, she once again thumbed her nose and moved to Nags Head permanently, where she promptly put her inheritance to work by opening the islands’ only no-kill animal shelter, simply called The Haven. She funds it entirely and works tirelessly helping homeless and abused animals have a second chance at life.
Alyssa has a halo permanently mounted over her head, and I only hope God remembers I try to live up to her impossible goodness when I’m knocking on Heaven’s door.