Page 11 of Alpha Bear Accountant

9

TODD

A knock at my door startled me. I didn’t expect anyone to be here this early in the morning. Heck, I didn’t expect to be up this early, but I couldn’t sleep and ended up going out for an early-morning run. My bear loved it, even though I was exhausted.

I set my coffee on the counter, and when I opened the door, there were two men standing there with the logo from Niam’s company.

“Can I help you?” If they were looking for Niam, he wasn’t here, although I wished he were. Waking with him in my arms sounded like heaven.

“Yeah, I’m Andrew. This is Michael. Niam sent us by because he said you had a list of things that needed doing. We have the day off, so we figured we’d get a start on it while you continue to weed through that disaster back at?—”

He was talking a mile a minute until Michael interrupted him. “The disaster his shit-hole brother left.”

Andrew elbowed him. “Be nice.”

“What? It’s true. We don’t need—” He stopped mid-sentence thanks to the death glare he was getting from his partner in crime—or in this case, plumbing.

I smirked, already liking these guys. “Well, come on in. I was about to take a shower, but I can just get dressed instead if you need to turn the water off.” I’d rather not smell like bear and forest when I went to work with Niam, but this was more important. The business was closed on Sunday, and if they were willing to work, it was because they chose to be.

“No, no, it’s fine. We’re gonna start by just taking a look at what’s going on. So if you tell us which bathroom you want to use, we can look at that one first, see if there’s anything in there that needs tending to, and then leave you to it while we check out the rest of the house. Of course, if you don’t want us in here when you’re not around, we can wait outside.” Andrew didn’t take a breath the entire time, like he needed to get it all out at once.

Michael pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sorry. We thought Niam told you we were coming.”

Just then, there was another knock.

This time, I didn’t need to look to see who it was. I already sensed him on the other side of the door. It was Niam. My connection to him was growing stronger. I probably needed to do something about that sooner rather than later, but until we got through this mess with the IRS, I figured it was best not to.

When I opened the door, Niam was standing there with a cup of cocoa in his hand.

“I meant to call you to let you know they were coming.” He held the cup out to me. “These guys are gonna help with the plumbing here, and I’ll see you at the shop later.”

He was bright red and freaking adorable.

“Yeah, I’ll be there. Thanks for the cocoa. I just need to take a shower and show them around. Shouldn’t be long.”

His eyes looked almost dreamy as he smiled. “No hurry. I’ll be ready when you are.”

“You know, you didn’t have to rush to get everything done here. It’s been this way for a long time. A few more months won’t hurt anyone.” Unless another pipe breaks.

“Oh, trust me, there’s still a lot more to be done even if they finish their list. I only gave them the tasks I didn’t have the expertise in. These guys will take care of that stuff and I’ll work on the rest. See ya in a few.” Then he took off before I could say anything more.

And what did I do? I shamelessly watched his ass as he walked away, not even caring.

I showed the guys around, took my shower, and then quickly headed to the shop. I honestly wasn’t sure at this point if I would be able to help his company as much as they were helping me.

I’d been thinking a lot about the audit and it seemed to be pretty cut and dry. It looked like his brother had left off some of the revenue, and if I could gather the information they were requesting, we would probably get away with just paying a fine.

That was assuming I could find that information, which was a pretty big assumption.

“Knock, knock.” I poked my head inside his office and then let myself in. “Sorry it took me so long.”

Niam was sitting in front of a pile I hadn’t seen before—one he probably just made—but was sketching on his notepad. He seemed to do that when he was nervous or overwhelmed. I wanted to ask him about his art but didn’t want him to feel like he needed to hide it from me.

He was very worried about getting all this done and pulling his own weight, but he didn’t need to be. We’d figure this out or we wouldn’t. But Niam taking a few seconds here or there to sketch some shoes, or the tree outside, or the file cabinet wasn’t going to change anything in the big picture.

“Good news.” I walked toward the breakfast burritos he’d set out and took a whiff. “I think I figured out our IRS problem.”

“Is it too soon to tell you I love you?” He seemed to be joking but then looked like he wanted to suck all those words back, but I didn’t want him to. And neither did my bear.

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