Page 69 of My Vows Are Sealed

“You have no idea,” I groaned, heading to the designated area of our construction site to grab the backpack and lunchbox I’d brought with me.

Almost everyone in my life had told me how stupid it was to decide not to go to college when I graduated from high school two years ago, but I didn’t regret my decision to take the apprenticeship with my uncle for a second. Especially not once I found out that I’d be working with Alex. We worked so well together that my uncle made sure we were both working the same jobs most of the time.

I’d saved up enough money to move into a small one-bedroom apartment about nine months ago, and I was making enough to support myself – and Darla, once she turned eighteen in August – comfortably. It was amazing to have my own space, and even though she hadn’t needed it yet, Darla loved knowing that she always had somewhere she could escape to if things got too bad at home. And between her having a key to my place and the Nokia cell phone I’d gotten her for Christmas, I slept easier at night knowing that she wasn’t completely cut off from the world anymore.

“Where the hell is Frank?” Alex muttered, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“I haven’t seen him for the past half hour,” I realized.

Our foreman, Frank, was one of the laziest men I’d ever met in my life. He basically just walked around and acted important, andIhad more construction knowledge than he did after just two years working for this company. I’d seen him do some outright idiotic things at jobs we’d worked, and he’d always find a way to blame someone else for it. I knew my uncle was about at the end of his rope with Frank, but he couldn’t just cut him loose without a good reason.

Alex and I headed outside in search of Frank so we could let him know we were leaving for the day.

“Hey, did you see the news last night?” he asked. “About that girl who was killed by her boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “That was…I just don’t understand how someone who claims to love another person can turn around and kill them.”

“I don’t either,” he agreed. “Her dad’s a cop, and my dad’s his sergeant. I guess I’m not supposed to know about it, but her boyfriend’s trying for an extreme emotional disturbance defense.”

We stepped out the door of the unfinished house we were working on, and we immediately heard grunting and groaning coming from the side of the house, which backed up to an alley.

“Oh, fuck,” came Frank’s voice. “Yeah. Just like that, baby.”

Alex’s eyes widened as he started to walk in the direction of the commotion. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head as I followed him.

Was it a bad thing that I wasn’t even surprised to see a girl who was at least half his age on her knees in front of my boss, while they were in full view of the street? Because I wasn’t.

That wasn’t to say that seeing it didn’t make me uncomfortable. I had to avert my eyes because I didn’t want to see the scene that was unfolding in front of me, but that had to do with the fact that Darla and I hadn’t even gotten past second base, and with the fact that I was about to have to call my uncle and tell him that his foreman had been getting a blow job on company time. But it didn’t shock me that Frank would do this.

“Are you kidding me?” Alex said before I could. “What the fuck, Frank? Paul isn’t paying you to get your rocks off, man!”

The girl quickly backed away, wiping her mouth as she stood up, and for a second, I was taken aback. Because this girl, whoever she was, could have been Darla’s twin. It was like I’d stepped into an alternate universe and was seeing what my girlfriend would have looked like if she was a drug addict trying to make some quick cash for her next hit.

“What the fuck?” Frank growled as he zipped his pants up, staring daggers at me. “The fuck are you doing out here?”

“Um, it’s six,” Alex scoffed. “And we couldn’t find you to tell you we were leaving.”

“I’m not your goddamn babysitter,” he snarled.

“No, but youareour boss,” I reminded him. “And you’re representing this company. Pretty sure my uncle would have an issue with you getting serviced on company time. In full view of the street, I might add.”

“I’ve let you both have your girlfriends come visit you while you’re on the job,” he said smugly, like that somehow made this okay. “You have no room to talk.”

“Yeah, during ourlunch break,” Alex countered. “And somehow, we both managed to keep it in our pants while they were here. So, yeah, we’re headed out. If we keep up at this pace, we’ll finish a few days ahead of schedule. We got the beams installed in the bedrooms, and it’s ready for the drywall guys. We’re starting on the kitchen on Monday.”

“Good,” he grunted. “Go home.”

Again, I rolled my eyes as I turned around and walked away. I didn’t even have any words for what I’d just witnessed. I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn’t even look to see who it was.

“I have to say this so one of us does,” Alex chuckled, clapping me on the shoulder. “That chick was adead ringerfor your girl.”

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me,” I muttered.

Becausethatwas going to make it easier to put what I’d just walked in on out of my mind. And to stop myself from thinking for the millionth time what it would be like to take that step with my girlfriend. I knew she wanted to wait, and I was fine with that, but it didn’t mean that I didn’t want her with every fiber of my being.

“Whoa. You okay, Brendan?” he asked.

“No. I’m not,” I bit out. “We both know I have to call my uncle and tell him what we just caught Frank doing on company time. I’m not particularly looking forward to that conversation. And, if that wasn’t enough, I just saw a girl who could have been Darla’s twin giving my boss a blow job.”

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