Waiting For August

Part 20 ~ Making dates...

I spent my weekend keeping extremely busy. It was more a matter of necessity than anything else. I was trying not to think too hard for multiple reasons. Naomi had spent the night Friday. I'm quite sure that it was in order to keep an eye on me. I knew however, that I had my impulses under control. Well, mostly. At least when it came to my neighbours, I was good.

August realized it too and he had headed home much earlier than I had anticipated. He said he had a lot to do to prepare for Monday, photos to print, an affidavit to write, yada, yada, yada and so forth. What it boiled down to, was the feeling that he was running away from me once more.

I was getting zero alone time with him. Lately I only saw him when it involved the case. Realistically I understood, I did, but I was growing impatient for it to all be over. I was frustrated; desperate to make some sort of headway with him, but our relationship status was still precarious at best. He was hot and cold, bold then shy, one step forward, and two more back. I didn't know where I stood with him, and I still felt like I knew nothing about him. 

Seriously. There was taking things slow, and then there was this snail pace that we seemed to have adopted. And I was nearing my breaking point. I realized that last night when the desire to tackle him had overwhelmed me. The way he had looked at me, with his guard down like that... it had almost been too much.

Saturday morning around ten, Ben and Jonah showed up. Surprisingly, at the same time, Naomi decided to head home. Coincidence? Yeah, sure. Cause those happen.

I had just finished up at the barn. I had the stalls cleaned, and the girls were out in the pasture. It was almost business as usual, except that something was... missing. For the briefest moment I'd almost forgotten and looked for her, like it had all been a terribly bad dream...

I was outside my garage when they pulled up in their jeep. "S'up, boys?" I had called when they followed me inside.

My garage is detached and situated at the end of my long drive. Supposedly it was built for two vehicles, but unless it was winter, I never parked in it. Instead, I used it as a workshop. The entire left side was devoted to my tools. If they built one, I owned one. It wasn't all due to me of course. My father had been heavy into woodworking when he lived here, and I'd inherited his tools in the same way I'd inherited the farm. I'd also inherited his love for the work.

"How are you doing?" Ben had asked leaning against my work bench. Jonah was watching me carefully.

"Better, now that you're both here." I grinned.

"Oh?" Ben sounded curious. Jonah looked suspicious.

"Yep. Cause you can help me carry this bad-boy out to the front yard." I tapped my mitre saw. It was on a stand, which made it more portable than if I had mounted it on its own station. If I was going to move it by myself, I would have had to disassemble it from its stand, but now that Ben was here, the two of us could easily lug it out front.

"You finally working on the gazebo?" He took up the other end and we headed up the driveway.

"Yeah. Care to join me?"

He nodded. "Absolutely."

"Jonah?" He was somewhere behind me. "How about you?"

"Sure. Why not."

Jackson had drawn up plans last moon, and together we had got as far as the footings. I had planned on knocking out the frame today and now with the help of two guys who did this shit for a living, my time would easily be cut in half.

The gazebo was for Naomi of course. After I had seen her reaction to the one at my neighbours, how could I not? Jackson had gone all out too. We had hashed out the basics together and had agreed that it would be a raised, eight-sided structure with a tiered roof. We had argued about size and finally settled on 14 x 14-foot structure. I had enough yard in front to accommodate and we both agreed that anything smaller would be dwarfed by the sheer size of the farmhouse.