became, though I didn’t enjoy admitting even that much to myself.
After parking my Hyundai at the end of the line of vehicles, I followed a couple of other volunteers in H4H shirts to the half-finished house. I chatted up some of the guys as we waited for instructions, and I found myself repeatedly checking the drive to see if James would show.
I hated how disappointed I became as we drew closer to call time. Then, finally, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned to see James jogging lightly up the road, in a dirty white tee and a pair of torn dark-wash jeans.
He nudged the bridge of his glasses as he approached the crowd collected around the captain. It took him a minute to spot me, and his head jerked side to side as he blinked a few times, as though trying to determine if he was imagining me there. Seemed like this was the last place in the world he would have expected to see me. He said hi to a couple of guys before he reached me. “I didn’t mean you had to sign up for this project, but I’m glad you’re here.” A smile pushed into his dimples.
If that smile isn’t enough of a reason to be here…
Where the hell did that come from? Chasing it away, I said, “My uncle basically kicked me out of his place, and since I didn’t have anything to do today, I thought what the hell.”
“Ah. So that’s what you meant when you said I wasn’t dropping you off at your parents’.”
“You’re a quick study, Mr. Warner.”
He shook his head, still smiling as he enjoyed my tease. “You ever decked before?”
“Decked? Like a deck?”
“Decking like roofing,” he explained. “I’m the supervisor today, if you want to tag along.”
“Oh, really? You didn’t mention you were so high up on the H4H ladder.”
“Consider it James 101, Mr. Forsythe. But speaking of heights, if that’s an issue for you, you might be better off inside.”
“I’m totally fine with heights,” I lied, keeping my cool, especially since, if there was an option to work with him, I wanted in on that.
The team captain divided everyone up, with me on James’s decking team, heading up to the roof, while other volunteers worked inside. I wasn’t terrified of heights, per se, but I wasn’t excited about taking a plunge off the second story of a house either. So I had some shakes and nerves I had to push through, but they seemed a small price to pay for getting to be up there.
James was as good a supervisor as he was a teacher. He made sure everyone had what they needed, took time to explain to new volunteers, like myself, anything we needed to know as we helped nail in boards across the already-constructed frame of two-by-fours. I got in the groove and eventually managed to stop shaking as I nailed in the panels with a guy named DJ. It was nice they had this thing organized well enough for even someone new like me to jump in and do it without much issue.
After a few hours, we broke for lunch. I chatted with some of the guys I’d met since I’d arrived that morning, while James worked out a few issues with the other supervisors, and then we hit the roof again. DJ, who I’d learned volunteered on the side of his usual construction gig, kept me company while we shingled. As the day grew hotter, a bunch of the guys started taking their shirts off, James included. For being a nervous sort of guy, the sort I could have seen being self-conscious about something like that, he didn’t seem to give a shit as he tucked it into his pants and started hammering away at his latest obstacle, his thick triceps shifting in the process.
It reminded me of that body I’d gotten a view of, drenched in water, after he’d fallen into that puddle. His pants had hiked down, granting me a peek of his ass crack, a preview of that round ass that looked so tight in the pleated pants he wore on a regular school day.
God, to be able to slide those down his legs and push inside… I could imagine the expression on his face, how he’d moan, the way his glasses would shift up his nose as he threw his head back to call out my goddamn name…
The sunlight glistened off the sweat lining the smooth