Page 18 of Finding Isaac (Foggy Basin Season Two)
Tig
I pulled up to Nuts and Bolts just as Isaac walked inside the store. He didn’t see me, but the old guy who’d been out front before nodded a greeting to me. “How are you doing today, Mr. Atkins?”
“I can’t complain. Not that anyone would listen,” he said with a grin.
With a wave of goodbye, I followed Isaac into the store to find the three of them standing at the counter talking. “Hey, Tig, what’s going on?” Hudson asked before stepping over to greet me.
“Not much, just work,” I said and glanced at Isaac.
“And spending time with Isaac,” Jack said earning himself a shove from Isaac.
“Of course,” I said and walked over to him and kissed his cheek. “I mean, we see each other at work but we don’t work in the same department, so we don’t see each other often.”
“Except at lunch,” Isaac said. We’d fallen into the habit of spending lunch together daily, and one of us would bring the other lunch. It was nice, and something neither of us had experienced before which made it a little more special.
“My favorite time of the day.” I wrapped my arm around his waist and pulled him close. “Are you guys ready to go?”
“Yep, just need to shut everything down,” Hudson said, and the two of them worked together to turn off all the lights and lock up everything that needed it. Across the street, Mr. Atkins made his way home after spending the day walking all over the place.
The four of us walked to Pints ’n Pool, which was already filled with people ready to relax after the work week.
We walked up to the bar to order from Nate the bartender, before looking for someplace to sit and possibly an open pool table.
A group returned their pool cues before clearing their drinks off the table they’d been at, and we tried not to swoop in immediately, but we didn’t want someone else to take it either.
Isaac, of course, walked over and just asked if they minded. Which they did not.
“Did I tell you one of Nate’s friends or relatives is going to help out at Nuts and Bolts?” Jack asked Isaac.
“No, but it’s about time. You guys have really built up the business. It’s not as easy to keep up as it used to be,” Isaac said.
“It looks very different than it did when I lived here,” I said. But it was busy then too. Hudson’s family had kept it going for many years, and even though Isaac had said the business had gone through a rough spot, I was happy to see it doing so well now.
“We did a lot of work on it and what we couldn’t do, we hired Jack’s family for.
It all turned out exactly like we wanted, isn’t that right, Jack?
” Hudson said and his pride was written all over his face.
Jack grinned at him, and I glanced at Isaac to catch him grinning at me.
I reached out and squeezed his leg and he scooted his chair closer.
“You’ll never believe what happened,” he said, but he looked a little nervous.
“Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah. When I got home there was someone there waiting for me. It was a guy I’d met up with a few times but not for months.
He said he was working around here and thought he’d stop by.
” I wasn’t sure how to react, so I just listened, but Isaac looked so nervous, and it made me wonder if something had happened between them.
“Okay,” I said not really sure what else to say.
“Last year I would have been excited he’d stopped by but today I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. Plus, it really annoyed me that he’d think it was okay to just show up at my house without messaging first to see if I had plans or not. What if you’d been with me? Or what if we were inside?”
“What did he do when you asked him to leave?”
“Oh, he fucked right off. He’s a nice guy, but he’s only looking for one night here and there. It worked for me then, but not so much now,” Isaac said and looked me dead in the eye as he spoke.
“I’m glad he didn’t give you a hard time,” I said.
“You’re the only one I want to spend time with,” he said and rested his head on my shoulder. I looked down a moment before looking up at Jack who was sitting there watching us with a big grin on his face.
“Remember when you gave us so much shit about how disgusting we are together?” he asked Isaac.
Isaac grinned and draped his arm over my shoulder.
“Yeah, but now, I know how fun it is, so I won’t be doing that anymore,” he said, and Jack laughed.
“Come on, fucker, let’s play pool.” Isaac kissed my cheek before joining Jack at the nearest table.
Hudson scooted closer and I felt bad that he and I hadn’t had the chance to speak for a few weeks.
“So, how’s it going?” Hudson asked and tipped his head at the two of them arguing about who went first.
“So much better than I would have ever imagined,” I admitted. Isaac shoved Jack and the two of them laughed at something before Isaac’s eyes met mine.
“I never in a million years thought I’d end up back here running the hardware store, but meeting Jack and working there together was the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Hudson said, and I didn’t have to look at him to know he meant it.
“When we moved from here, I never thought about coming back. It was fun for a while but there wasn’t much to do here, and once I went to college I wanted to live in a bigger city.
But now, let’s just say I’m not going anywhere soon.
” I hadn’t thought about leaving since I’d moved back and a big part of that was Isaac.
“You two are great together,” Hudson said, and deep down in my bones I knew it. We were meant to be no matter how different we were or how much older I was. He was my person, and I needed to make sure he knew that. My phone sounded with a text, but I ignored it. It would wait.