Page 19 of A Dream for Daphne

“Did you ever dream of this?” Mac asked when they were standing by their trucks.

“Shit no,” Abe said. “Crazy, isn’t it?”

“People don’t care what their wait time might be next year?” Mac asked.

“The project I was talking to someone about today, they didn’t seem to mind. Guess they are friends of Reese’s or knowReese. Maybe they said that. No clue. I told them I could break some of it up into stages and try to fit it in toward the end of the year. They were agreeable to that even more.”

These big massive projects were moneymakers, bringing in large consistent streams of income. The best thing any business could have.

“If we don’t get behind with a rainy season,” Mac said.

“Don’t jinx it,” he said. “And we can work in the rain and have before. It was just a downpour last week. Of course, there are some things we can’t do at that point or it makes it worse.”

“You don’t need to tell me,” Mac said. “But I love playing in the mud. My wife, not so much when I come home.”

He laughed. “My mother used to say the same thing.”

“And speaking of my wife,” Mac said. “I’m going home now and stuffing my face full of whatever yummy dinner she has waiting for me.”

“Sounds like you’re one lucky man,” he said. “I’m going to drive down to the cabin quickly and make sure our markers are still in place after the rains. We’ve got time, but I’d rather know now.”

Mac nodded, climbed into a Cooke Landscaping truck that he let his most loyal employee use and pulled away. He had several trucks and most were returned to the site at the end of the day, but Mac drove his back and forth daily. Just a perk in his eyes.

Abe climbed into another truck and did what he said he was going to do. Drove toward the cabin.

He’d had his eyes out for when Daphne might walk back to her home. He’d seen her in the distance yesterday when he was working. Today she wasn’t out that he could find and he thought for sure he’d lost the opportunity to talk to her again.

Until he came up with the plan to check out the markings at her cabin and hope she’d come out to see what was going on.

Luck was on his side though that she might have been working late.

He backed out of Reese’s driveway and then went to the main part of the estate and took a right to go in the direction of the cabin.

He parked and got out just as he saw Daphne coming toward him.

She was in tan shorts, a navy T-shirt, and sneakers on her feet.

Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail again. From a distance, she looked more like a teenager than the woman he’d been dreaming about for weeks now.

The one that was shy but just as aggressive as him in bed.

They hadn’t talked much and he’d had plans to do it the next morning.

Until she pulled her Casper routine on him.

He walked over to look at the markers. He was here to do that and was still going to.

“Hi,” she said, glancing at him.

She didn’t recognize him again and he was trying not to be offended.

He had sunglasses and a hat on his head. He realized now it would be hard when the last time they’d seen each other was in a dimly lit casino, then a hotel room where they didn’t take the time to turn on a ton of lights.

“Hi, Daphne,” he said.

She stopped in her tracks, a little stunned that he might know her name. He took his glasses off and put them on top of his hat. Then after a second thought took his hat off.

Her jaw dropped. “Abe?”

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