Page 26 of Swept Up In You

Thursday came around faster than Taylor was ready for. She felt like she was still catching up with work from the previous week, but new emails were already coming through to book her in for even more jobs. She’d never been this busy, and almost couldn’t keep up at this rate, but it was a good problem to have and she was thankful for every single one of her customers.

She crunched along the gravel in her favourite work boots, puffs of white coming out with each breath. September was showing its true temperamental spring colours with the cold this morning, the light breeze absolutely freezing. She couldn’t wait for the sun to start warming up the day. She tugged her beanie down further, rubbing her hands together as she reached the marina gate. She’d texted Sam last night to start early in the hopes to play a little catch-up with everything else coming in. Hopefully Sam wouldn’t be too much longer?—

“Morning!” Sam called from behind.

Taylor whirled around to see Sam bouncing down the path, looking way too sprightly for seven in the morning. She eyed the two steaming cups in her hand.

“For you,” Sam said, handing one over. “I have no idea what you like, so I took a guess and got you a flat white and there’s a couple of sugars in my pocket in case you like it sweet.”

“Aww, that’s so nice. I barely remembered to feed Belle this morning, let alone fuel up myself, so this is very necessary. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Sam grinned.

Taylor gently took the cup from Sam. “Promise I won’t spill it on myself this time either.” Taylor grinned back, carefully popping the lid off, the scent of perfectly roasted beans rising into the cool air.

“Oh, that smells so good. Flat white is actually my usual order, but no sugar for me. I’m sweet enough.” She winked.

She watched as Sam’s face flushed pink. Way too adorable. Then she realised she was staring a beat too long and looked away, taking a quick sip of her coffee. The hot caffeine hit her lips, and hopefully her brain soon enough. Sam did the same, rocking back and forth on her feet.

“Oh, right! I need to let us in.” Sam smacked her forehead and moved around Taylor, fishing the fob out of her pocket to hold it up to the sensor. The gate swung open with a beep, and they made their way down to the boat.

Once inside, they sorted out everything Taylor was going to work on for the morning based on which parts had arrived and were ready to install. Taylor made a quick trip back to her van to grab all the right tools she’d need. Back on the boat, she heaved her big tool bag down into the cabin, hoisting it up onto the chart table.

“You don’t muck around,” Sam said, eyeing the bag.

“Nope. Every job ends up needing a special tool, and, well, after a while, you end up with a lot of special tools.” Taylor laughed.

“I’ll say.”

Taylor rummaged through the bag, pulling out a pair of side cutters to make a start on the wiring.

“So quick question,” she asked Sam, flinging the cutters around in her hand. “What do you call these?”

“Uh, pliers?” Sam replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

“They're a type of pliers, yeah. We usually call ‘em side cutters, but fun fact—they’re also referred to as dikes.” Taylor laughed again.

Sam half-choked on her mouthful of coffee. “What!” she almost screeched.

“No joke. It’s the shortened name, slang, of course, for diagonal cutters. Clearly not so popular these days, but I find it particularly funny whenI’musing them,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Huh?” Sam looked at her in question, before realising. “Oh!”

“Yeah, one hundred percent lesbian here.” Taylor gestured at herself with a huge grin.

“That’s cool,” Sam said, nodding now. “I didn’t realise… but yeah… cool. I said that already. Please ignore me.”

Sam fumbled over some boxes on the ground, a new flush making its way up her neck as she sat down on the lounge. Taylor smothered a laugh at her awkwardness and picked up her next favourite tool.

“Oh and we can’t forget these—strippers!”

Sam chuckled, leaning back on the couch, enjoying the educational tool lesson.

“Okay, and what dotheydo?”

“Well, the dikes cut the wiring, and these bad boys,” she said, snapping the tips together. “Strip the wires back, ready for work.”

“I feel like these are the kind of things I need on my boat in an emergency, especially on my trip.”

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