Page 17 of Rugged Hearts: Part One

Now that I’m looking around, I can see it’s starting to get dark. I need to go before it gets late. Standing, I brush some of the lingering wood shavings off my pants and walk over to Keelan, who’s sitting on the floor doing something to the banister at the top of the stairs. The reversal of positions is almost funny, because now I’m the one standing over him. Though with his height even while he’s sitting, he isn’t that much shorter than me, not like I was when he was standing over me. I take a couple steps down so we’re more eye to eye. I’m not so oblivious that I don’t see how ruggedly handsome he is. First, I hand him his tool back, which he takes, then I hold out my hand, waiting for him to extend his. His brows pinch together in confusion as he does so, placing the heart I carved in his hand with a smile. I’m proud of that little rugged heart, I guess it matches him more than me. His eyes widen just slightly when he realizes what it is. I can’t talk about why his distractions help me so much without opening that can of worms but this is a thank you gesture I can do.

“I want you to have it as a thank you. Maybe you can stain itagolden brown or amber color if that’s something that exists,” I say with a nervous laugh at the end. He doesn’t say anything, just looking at it like it has the answers to the universe or something. Maybe he’s not used to gifts? He does seem like an acts of service kind of guy. That love language book will never not pop back in my head at the most random times. I shuffle a little awkwardly on the step I’m still perched on waiting to see if he responds. When he doesn’t, I take the last few steps until I’m on the ground in front of the cabin.

Before I turn to leave, I say, “Goodnight.”

He finally looks up; his expression takes me aback and I don’t know why. He has the faintest hint of a smile under that beard,but it’s his eyes that get me. They look as if he’s beaming with happiness, like his soul is so happy it’s pouring out in his gaze.

“Goodnight, Thea,” he says, his voice deep. I nod and quickly walk back to my cart. My mouth is suddenly dry and I feel off. What the hell was that? Why did that affect me so much? He literally just smiled and said goodnight.Sheesh. Get it together, Thea.I was feeling more relaxed, now I feel unsettled but not in a bad way. Maybe this has to do with the upcoming heat.

Yeah, that’s definitely it.

18

BEFORE #2 – CONNOR

Receiving a call from Thea in the middle of the day during the work week is unusual. I answer it quickly and immediately know something is wrong. Her voice is shaky as she says, “Connor, there was another delivery.”

Ever since we got back from a trip around the coast on our boat a month ago she’s been getting flower deliveries to her at work at least three times a week. The notes are getting creepier each time. Trying to hold in a growl of frustration, I tell her, “Don’t touch them. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

When I arrive at her work my mood is no better than before. Worse, actually. “Where is your boss?” I say with more annoyance towards Thea than I mean, especially when she hunches in on herself. I know she’s scared, and so am I. Her job needs better security.

“Connor, it’s fine, we’ll just throw them away like before,” she says in a hushed tone. Some of her coworkers are looking at us from their cubicles. I want so badly to ask what they find so damn interesting, but I will try not to embarrass her, even though she is way too good for this place.

A man is walking towards us in a nice suit, he’s tall but still comes up short to my height. “Is there a problem?” he asks,initially directed at me, but I don’t miss the sneer on his face when he looks at Thea.

Before I can call him on it she jumps in. “No problem sir, just a wrong delivery again.” I don’t like her calling him sir especially when he clearly got off on it. I also don’t like how meek she sounds. My omega is not meek. When we get home, hopefully I can talk her into finding a new job. She’s so sure they’ll promote her soon then she’ll look into applying for other jobs but it’s been years. I know she doesn’t want her “paying her dues” to go to waste but she’s in marketing there shouldn’t be any dues she needs to pay.

“Actually, there is a problem. Thea has repeatedly been getting flowers delivered to her despite letting your staff up front and security know not to deliver anything to her,” I say in a more even tone than I would’ve thought possible given my current mood.

“That doesn’t sound like much of a problem. She has an admirer, nothing wrong with that, especially for an omega,” he sneers.

I feel Thea tighten her grip on my arm. Is this the bullshit they spout at her? “Well considering she does not want anything from this so-called admirer and it’s beginning to create an unsafe work environment for her, I’d say it is a problem,” I say with more of a growl to get my point across to this worthless alpha. His eyes widen at my “unsafe work environment” comment. I bet they’ve had quite a few complaints over the years. Before he can respond I continue, “I would make sure your office security and staff handling the mail are made aware before we get the police involved.” Thea goes to say something but I shake my head slightly. I know she will try to downplay to keep the peace but I will not mess around with her safety.

His body stiffens at the mention of the police. “I—well we will have to look into these concerns before taking any steps.”

“Thea, do you have that timeline saved on your computer?” I ask. She nods her head yes and pulls it up. I bend down and after a minute I have the email drafted, including her direct supervisorwhose name I already know. I just need one other person. “What is your name?” I ask him.

“Arthur Caldwell, I am the CEO of this company.” He sounds offended that I didn’t know who he was. No wonder Thea was trying to downplay this. I don’t care, this isn’t okay.

“Well Mr. Caldwell, I just emailed you along with Malloy, and HR a full accounting of the timeline of these deliveries and nature of the cards addressed to my omega. If steps are not taken to keep these unwanted and harassing deliveries from her, our next step is getting the police involved which may lead them to start asking questions here about your office.” I can’t help but smile smugly, knowing I backed him into a corner. He glares at me as I continue, “Also, I included my email on that chain as well to be sure I’m looped in on any developments. I’ll be sure to follow up as needed if we don’t hear back.”

He continues to glare at me before moving his gaze to Thea, which makes me want to block his sight of her. “Thea, is it? I believe you should take the rest of today off. We don’t want you to feel unsafe at work.” He shoots a glare at me before continuing, “When you return, we will have notified all relevant parties.” The asshole didn’t even know her name. She nods and goes to shut her computer down before he barks, “Don’t!”

She immediately stops and lets out a small whimper that only the three of us would’ve heard. “You have no right to bark at an omega under your employ,” I grit out, feeling my body vibrating with rage. It’s a huge employment violation. Most companies have annual trainings on it. I doubt it’s the first time he’s done that to an omega working here.

He tries to laugh it off. “I only meant for her to not shut down her computer. I will have our head of IT look it over.”

“It’s against company policy to leave our computers on when we leave work for the day,” Thea chimes in softly. Without a word, I lean down and turn it off before this asshole can try and justify leaving it on. I don’t know what he really wanted to do but I doubt it would’ve helped Thea in any way.

He brushes nonexistent lint off his sleeve. “No matter. Mark Henderson, our head of IT is very good. I’m sure he can take a look at whatever we need to confirm your concerns are valid.”

“You do that.” I eye him as Thea gathers her things behind me. We leave shortly after that. I drive around, not wanting to go home right away. We end up at a park near my parents’ house. I don’t like the silence that’s between us. She’s probably mad at what I said to her boss, but I don’t regret it. Walking around the car after we get out, I hold my hand out, and thankfully she takes it. It’s a nice sunny day. Even though it’s still hot, summer is slowly coming to an end. The heat won’t go away anytime soon even if it is mid-September. I lead us over to a bench. relieved that the park is quiet overall with a few people scattered here and there. As we sit Thea rests her head against my shoulder. I hate when there’s silence between us, mainly when I know she’s upset.

“I’m sorry I embarrassed you at work. Hearing you scared like that over the phone broke me. I just wanted to fix it,” I rush out. She doesn’t say anything right away, but she laces our hands together and gives a light squeeze.

“I’m not mad, I know why you did it and you’re right. They should’ve blocked the deliveries I asked the last three times it’s happened. I just—I just hate knowing they’ll be talking about me now at work and I don’t know how they’ll punish me for today,” she says, resigned.

“I know we’ve talked about it a lot over the last couple years but if you’re worried that your job is going to punish you for something out of your control and not your fault, then maybe it’s not the best place to work,” I say gently, not wanting to start an argument on this topic.