Page 58 of Astrid

“I can only imagine.” John sighed as he continued to administer to her, and smiled when she settled deeper into the tub. Once he finished, he continued to sit on the floor and watch her intently. She had her eyes closed, and every once in a while she’d lift the glass of wine and take a sip. After staring at her for several minutes, she opened one eye, cocked her brow, then scowled.

“What?”

“Nothing, just admiring the view.” John grinned, but he quickly sobered. “Are you a prune yet?”

Astrid scowled, but lifted the hand not holding the glass of wine from the water, and chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I am.” She finished her wine, then slowly stood with John’s help. By the time John had her out of the tub, dried off, and wrapped in a robe, she frowned at him. “Are you okay?”

“Sure, why?” John was in the process of emptying the tub and blowing the candles out. He joined her, and together they went into the bedroom. He then handed her the clothes he'd set out for her, and climbed back into bed as she dressed in the clothes she slept in.

“You’re not going to try to have sex with me?”

John studied the woman before him, and flopped the blankets back on her side, patted the bed, and once she settled, he stated, “We don’t have to have sex every night, Astrid. I saw how tired you were when we had supper over in the office. I’m not going to force myself onto you for my pleasure. Just being able to take care of you at times is enough for me.” He smiled and then frowned when he reached up and used his thumb to catch the tear that had leaked from the corner of her eye. “Tears? Are you okay?”

“Yes, it’s just I’ve never been with someone who was so thoughtful and caring before.” She sniffed, then buried her head into his chest.

John wrapped his arms around her, and held her tight. It was a long time before either of them spoke, and it was John who broke the silence. “There are going to be days in the coming weeks that I’m going to be as drained as you are tonight. We both have a lot on our plates.”

Astrid sat up and frowned at him, but before she could comment, he continued, “Justin, Josh and I were in town today, and we ended up renting a store front on Main Street.”

“For?” Astrid turned so she faced him, but leaned against his thighs to study him intently.

“Josh and I both own Stuart Construction equally. When we came here to North Dakota, we were a crew of seven, and we worked our asses off, not only for Morgan, but for Uncle Chip to get this barracks, or compound, or whatever you want to call this homestead, up and running as fast as we could. Work was sadly lacking back home, so we all jumped on the opportunity to try something new. Chuck has always been our supervisor, Josh is really the numbers guy, you know, the one who did the paperwork, and I was the one who went out and got the clients.”

“What about Justin and the A’s? What do they have to do with Stuart Construction?” Astrid asked with a frown, then scowled when John laughed.

“I’m not laughing at you, but the A’s don’t have anything to do with Stuart Construction. Justin is a construction engineer, and we’ve used him in the past to draw up the blueprints, and we’ve called him in if we’ve had problems, but he has his own stuff to do. The only time the A’s really helped out was with what we did here.” He waved his hand to indicate the bedroom they were currently in. “It’s true,” he reassured her at her frown. “Alfie has his leatherwork that he’s into. Alan does his woodworking, and Alex, when he’s not injured, works over at the ranch with Wyatt. Back home, they all had jobs, but Alex could never stay at one for long.”

“Why not?”

“Because, there wasn’t anything he could find that he loved to do. It wasn’t until he moved here and started working on the ranch that everything clicked for him. I’m just sorry that his injury took him away from what he loves. It’s a good thing he’s healing, and he has Joyce, or he would be miserable to be around.” He sighed and settled further down into the bed. “I’m only telling you this, because starting tomorrow morning, I’ll be going into the office in town, and I have to hire a crew. Before we left New York, we sat down with Uncle Chip, and he asked each of us personally to put our lives on hold to do the construction on what Morgan wanted.” He looked at her, but put a finger gently over her lips when she went to say something.

“Do you really want complete strangers to be coming in and out of this place while you and the others are trying to do your work?” He nodded when he saw her expression. “Exactly. We sort of know what this compound is all about, it especially hit home for me last night when I saw the scope of what you and the others are facing, and with Josh and I opening an office in town, then the people we interview won’t have to know about this place. It’s far enough off the road, that nothing will bother it.” He scrubbed his face and sighed deeply. “I’m telling you this, because in the coming weeks I need to interview for a crew. Right now, it’s just Josh, Chuck, and me. I’ll need at least ten more men, and as of today, I have fifteen jobs lined up, and it’s just the three of us. I’ll be very busy, and I don’t know how long my hours will be... and, you…” He paused and turned her, so she settled in his arms, and he wrapped his around her.

“What about me?” She looked up at him, and saw for the first time how tired he looked.

“You have all this new information coming in, you’re going to be working with the three men from Canada, then if I remember correctly, a new woman will be arriving any day now. We’re both going to be really busy in the coming weeks.” He reached beneath the pillow her head rested against, and when he withdrew it, she could see he cupped something in his closed fist. John suddenly sat up, and looked down at her.

“I know we’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks, and I was an ass to you at least twice that I recall. I’m very sorry for that.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Astrid, I’m falling in love with you. Though this isn’t an engagement ring at this time, it is a promise ring. I’m promising myself to you, not only in body and spirit, but also in mind.” He grinned and opened his palm to show her the small solitaire diamond ring laying in the palm of his hand. “With this ring, I promise not to be an ass. Will you accept it until we can get a bigger one later on?”

Astrid smirked at his wording, then with tears in her eyes, she reached up, placed her palm on his cheek, and nodded. “Yes.” That was all she said before the ring was slipped on her finger, and it was close to two hours later that he allowed her to come up for air. Once they had settled back beneath the covers, they stared at each other, sighed, and said at the same time, “I love you.” With their arms wrapped around one another, they sighed heavily, and slowly slipped into sleep while in each other’s arms.

THE END