Page 28 of Swept Up In You

Taylor laughed hard, settling herself as she wiped at her eyes and saw the stunned look on Sam at her reaction. “No. Definitely not. She’s my housemateandmy best mate. We’ve known each other since primary school, so she’s more like a sister to me than anything.”

Sam seemed to relax at that.Interesting.

“Cool. I’m looking forward to meeting them all. Do you have a partner coming as well?” Sam probed.

Taylor sobered thinking of Liz. And there was that bucket of water on the moment. She put the tools down, folding her arms at the thought of her ex, the cabin suddenly feeling way too small and claustrophobic.

“No.” She didn’t elaborate further. Didn’t want to even think about Liz right now, let alone open up that whole can of worms.

“They’re all just friends,” she finally added through a tight smile, turning back around to the wiring. God, she needed to get better at talking about this sooner or later.Stupid Liz. Stupid feelings.She took it out on the wires. Stripping them with unnecessary force.

Sam cleared her throat. “Okay… well, anyway, I’ll, um, leave you to it. I better get ready for work. Spare fob is here”—she pointed to the lanyard on the table—“so you can get back in if you need any more tools.”

Then she picked up her coffee cup and headed out of the cabin, turning around just before she left. “Call or text me if you need anything, and I can pop back out if it’s not too busy in the shop. If I don’t answer, I’m probably with a customer.”

“Yep, no worries. I should be good, but thanks. I’ll drop the fob off on my way home.” She gave Sam a quick nod. “See you later.”

“Bye,” Sam replied, pausing a beat on the step looking slightly unsure before climbing out the rest of the way.

Taylor let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. She was frustrated that even with Liz not in the room it still felt like she had a hold on her, this confusing swirl of energy still affecting her and her actions. She wanted to be able to talk about it. Sam seemed to open up to her so easily, but instead she’d shut down. Once again, the familiar threads of anger wound into her thoughts to start their downward spiral. She took out her phone on autopilot, opened up Instagram and—oh yeah. Still blocked.“Second arroooow!”she could hear Jess singsonging in her head.

She took a deep breath, pocketed the phone, and instead looked down at the wires in front of her. The dike and stripper ready to get to work. A small smile made its way back onto her lips.

Chapter Ten

Sam had wanted to stay longer on the boat this morning, but she knew as soon as the wall went up with Taylor, she’d pushed too far. Why did she even ask if she had a girlfriend? It was none of her business, though she had clearly hit a sore spot. She was frustrated with herself for both cutting short her morning with Taylorandruining the light-hearted banter they’d been having minutes before.

She dwelled on it as she took down the stock orders for the week, growing more frustrated as the day went on, unable to let it go. Things were still tense at work with her dad, although it had eased slightly. They were at least talking again, but mainly about safe topics like work and customers. She knew she needed to come up with some sort of plan to keep the business going, to sort everything out, but she was kind of hoping for some sign from the universe on how. At the moment, she still had no bloody idea.

“Excuse me?” said a gruff voice behind her.

“Hi, can I help you?” She plastered on her best work smile.

“I hope so,” replied the older gentleman. “I have a bucket of paint back home in the shed, and it’s gone hard on the top. Do you know how far down it’s gone hard?”

Dear lord. How much longer would she be working here again? He looked at her seriously, eagerly awaiting her reply.

“Umm…” Sam took a second to make sure she’d heard right. “I would have absolutely no idea, I’m sorry.”

“Ah that’s okay. Thank you anyway.” He reached into his pocket, fumbling around for a bit, before producing a rusty screw and all but shoving it in front of her face. “Just one more thing, do you have something similar to this but a bit longer?”

She slightly narrowed her eyes. The amount of people she had to hand-hold in this place was getting insane.

“Any specific gauge or length?” she asked sweetly, grin still present, slightly cracked.

“I’m not sure.”

She took the screw out of his hands in an effort to at least get it out of her face.

“I’ll see what we’ve got.”

She headed towards the nuts and bolts and started measuring up the rusty piece of shi—ah found it. She held up a nice pan-head stainless screw, slightly longer than the original. Perfect.

She took it back to the customer, who nodded his approval, then ushered him over to the cash register where she rang up the order.

“That’ll be twenty cents. Would you like a bag?”

“That’s a bit much. Twenty cents for one screw? I thought it would’ve been more like ten or fifteen cents.”

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