My unconventional love

Chapter Three

ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE

FANFICTION

MY UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE

Chapter three

Ok, Alice... time to face the music...

"Joshua! You made it" Alice said once Bam reached the drink bar.

"Hello, Alice. How are you today?" He had a small smile and a slight twinkle in his eye. He was covered from head to toe in a slight dust, and his left cheek had a faint smudge of dirt.

"I'm pretty good; just got here a couple of minutes ago. I just like to get a nice cup of tea before my shift starts."

She looked at the three other men sitting beside him. They were all definitely related going by their looks. They all gave that... wild impression. She found herself smiling.

"So, you guys have all been working?"

"Yeah, we are helping one of the locals to build a spring deck. Please, let me introduce you to my brothers."

He pointed to the shortest one, who had a crazy but neat beard and shinny eyes. He couldn't seem to stop smiling.

"This one here is Solomon, but we all just call him Bear. If you get to know him good enough you'll understand why. "

Bear stood up and reached out his hand for a shake saying "Awesome! Nice meeting you, lady"

"Nice meeting you, Bear" Alice returned the smile.

"Next is Gabe." Bam said, pointing to the largest one.

He had such wide shoulders Alice couldn't understand how his flannel shirt hadn't been ripped apart when he reached out to shake hands with her.

"He is our strong boy, as you can see. Whatever heavy lifting you need, he's your man."

"That's always good to know. Pleased to meet you, Gabe" He gave her the sweetest smile, showing a small tooth gape. Alice got the impression that, for all his strength, he was a bit shy on the inside. She couldn't help but find him endearing.

"And this one here is my older brother, Matt." Bam said pointing to the last of them; a clear eyed man with ants in his pants, Alice thought, as he jumped out of his chair to greet her. He was wearing a slightly frayed tan hat that he took off gallantly as he reached out his hand for the shake. His curly salt and pepper hair was a bit of a mess mixed with all the dust.

"Hello there, lady. Nice meeting you."

"Nice meeting you too, Matt." Alice said.

She looked them all over and gave them a cheery smile.

"I'm happy to meet you boys; you can call me Berry, by the way. So, let me guess... four bottles of pop for you guys' right?"

The four of them smiled and nodded with their heads.

"Ok, let me see if I got it right" She gave them a mischievous smile while searching below the bar for the soda freezer.

She took the first one and sat it in front of Bear. "For you, Bear, a lemon soda"

His smile got so wide Alice thought it was going to split his face in half. "Awesome!"

She reached for the next one. "For you, Gabe... a smooth grape pop." She was rewarded with the sweetest smile from the bulky man.

"Sweet!" he said.

"For you Matt, I have a fizzy orange pop" she set it in front of him just in time to hear his crazy "HAHA!"

"And for you, Mister..." Alice said while looking Bam in the eyes "A nearly frozen cola"

She stood there, watching their happily amazed faces and couldn't help to laugh out loud.

"Going by your faces I think I did alright, yeah?" she took a sip of her now cold tea.

"That was awesome!"

"Yeah!" said Gabe "Super cool!"

"Seriously, girl, how did you do it?" Bam asked with a slightly hazed smile.

Alice smoothed down her shot hair, a slight blush on her pale cheeks from all the attention.

"I'm just good at reading people, that's all. It has come in handy for the job a couple of times, that's for sure".

"Well, that was amazing! Your really good, Berry!" said Matt before he took a swing of his bottle.

"Boys! How good to see you again! How are you all?"

Alice turned her head to see Jean coming down the stairs.

"Hello Mrs. Bollwood! How are you doing?" asked Gabe with a youthful smile.

"None of that, Gabriel. I've told you time and again to call me Jean"

She gave Gabe an affectionate pat on the cheek.

"So, it's been nearly three months since you last came here. Everything alright with the family?"

Jean seemed to have a special liking for the brothers. She was always nice to the rest of the costumers, but she was never this chatty; not that Alice had seen.

"They are all good, Jean. Dad got the flu a few weeks ago, but other than that, everything is going just fine back at home..."Bam said with his calm voice. He really had a lovely way of pronouncing words; all of them, actually, thought Alice.

"Oh, flu! Tell me about it. I went down with it just last Friday." Jean exclaimed with a frown. "Awful thing it is, being sick. Thankfully for me, I had this lovely lady here to nurse me back to health. She's a right piece of heaven boys; she insisted to stay with me on Saturday night, after her shift was over. You don't get a lot of employees that do that anymore"

Alice got so red in the face that she thought she could hear the steam going out of her ears.

"It wasn't such a big deal, Jean. No need to tell the papers about it!" She let out a throaty laugh to mask her embarrassment.

"So that's what you were doing outside the bar so early in the morning" said Bam with an intense look on his face. He seemed... oddly pleased, Alice thought.

"Yeah, I was looking out for Jean. What's your excuse, uh?" she asked with a goofy smile.

"We were on our way to work." Bam said with a cheeky smile. "The guy we are building the spring deck for needed a tool shed to be pulled down before it collapsed on its own."

"Oh, you mean Tom? How are he and Bella doing?"

Janice got in a chat with Bear, Gabe and Matt about the health of her two friends, leaving Alice and Bam all to themselves.