The Current Between Us (10 page)

How had this never occurred to him in all of the time he spent watching this man over the last seventy two hours?
Married with children… Something caused Gage to reject the thought immediately. Trent didn’t wear a wedding ring, but lots of electrician’s didn’t wear rings…
But if Trent was mine, the guy would wear my ring every day to prove to the world he was taken.
And Gage took a small step back from the window, shocked by the thought.
Where did that come from?
He
never
thought in terms of long term commitment or marriage, and here he was thinking just that about someone completely unattainable.

“
Daddy, look what I got! It’s my birthday dress!” The little girl ran toward Trent who never stopped walking toward the woman and children. The little boy tore out after the girl, easily running past her.

“
I win,” the boy said, tagging Trent’s leg.

“
Daddy, I wasn’t racing,” the girl said with a frustrated, pronounced little whine in her voice as she reached Trent. Gage smiled, remembering doing the very thing with his younger brothers and sisters. The need to win, to be the best, happened to boys his size.

“
I know you weren’t, Emalynn. You look very pretty,” Trent said, effectively taking the frown from the little girl’s upturned face, and she twirled around, letting the dress fan out around her. The woman finally made her way up to the three of them. She playfully frowned, looking over Trent before placing a careful kiss on his cheek.

“
You’re sweaty and dirty,” the woman said.

“
Yeah, hazards of working. So what’re you guys out doing this afternoon?”

“
We went shopping for my dress and had ice cream, then decided to stop by to show you,” the little girl said.

“
That’s nice, honey. You look very pretty in your dress,” Trent said and turned back to the woman. “I should be home soon, off in about an hour. Does it fit your schedule?”

“
Yes, perfect, and I can cancel if you need me too,” the woman said.

“
No, I should be fine. I’ve got a crew that can stay,” Trent said.

“
All right, guys, tell your dad bye, he needs to get back to work.”

“
Bye, Daddy!” the boy said, reaching to hug Trent. Gage watched Trent lower to hug both the children, careful not to get the little girl’s dress dirty, and he got kisses. Trent rose, lifting his white T-shirt by the hem, and lowered his head to wipe the sweat from his brow. Now that was an unexpected treat, one Gage was glad he stood there eavesdropping in order to see. The guy’s stomach muscles were hard and defined. Even learning the object of his desire dared to have a stunning wife and two gorgeous children couldn’t stop Gage’s mouth from watering. Listening to the remainder of the conversation took a backseat as Gage thought about licking his way down to the hard package he’d felt on the first day they’d met. When Trent walked back inside, Gage watched the woman work the children into the car seats and drive away.

Married? With children!
Trent Cooper, the man he wanted above all others was married with children. Gage Synclair sat ogling a married man with two children. In what world had that ever happened before? And the bigger problem seemed to be that none of it mattered to his raging hard-on. When Trent lifted his T-shirt, showed off his hot, sexy chest, Gage’s dick sprang harder to life. It wasn’t the pesky half aroused he’d stayed most of the day, this one turned solid in demanding need, leaving nothing to the imagination. His curator chose then to interrupt him.

“
Gage, I need approval on something. I’m not sure it’s a good idea or not,” she said. Gage turned his head toward her, keeping his body averted as she stuck her head in his office, but he didn’t see her at all. He stayed focused on needing to take five minutes in the office bathroom and relieve this desperate hard-on.

“
I’m sure it’s fine, Jacquelyn. Whatever you think is best,” he said, dismissing her and moving toward the restroom.

“
You keep saying that,” she said. She came fully in his office, crossing her arms over her chest, leaning against the wall in her super tailored business suit.

“
Because I mean it.” He stopped at the bathroom door, finally growing a brain, and realized the rudeness of walking into the bathroom and closing the door in her face as she spoke.

“
Okay, I’ll book toilets on parade at Christmas for a three week run,” she said, completely straight faced. Gage stood there, berating himself for spending the last three days focused on the sexy, married with children, electrician haunting all his thoughts. He had ignored everything else around him. After this session in the bathroom, he needed to focus on work, back on the topics more important to his immediate life.

“
Earth to Gage,” she said, and shut the door to his office. “Gage, look at me. I’ve known you for forever, you have never been this distracted. What’s going on with you?”

“
Jacquelyn, I don’t know,” he said, finally looking at her. What could he possibly say? Nothing, because nothing about this made any sense.

“
Gage, talk to me,” she tried again. “Your mom noticed it last night at dinner. She called me this morning, wanting me to find out what was going on. I’m not supposed to tell you, and I wouldn’t tell her, I just see it, too. Something’s up.”

He stared at her for a long moment, then ran his fingers through his hair in an exasperated grunt.
“Jacquelyn… I don’t even know where to start, and I honestly don’t want to talk about it at all.”

“
Well, when you know where to start, I want you to know I’m here for you,” she said, lifting from the wall and opening the door.

“
It’s fine. I’m fine. It won’t last too much longer, I’m sure. I honestly think it just resolved itself,” Gage said, following her lead to end the conversation and walking fully into the bathroom. “And truly, whatever you think is best on what toilet issue we have.” Gage winked at her before shutting the door and yelling through the wood, “I do somewhat listen.”

Chapter 7

A burst of cold water slapped his face and the chill helped shock his system awake. Trent cupped his hands again under the running faucet, tossing more on his face, trying to force the fatigue from his mind. After another splash of water, he scooped up several handfuls and ran it through his close cropped hair. His face dripped, and he kept his eyes closed, reaching for the paper towels he knew were sitting close by to dry off before rising to see his reflection in the mirror.

This nightmare job turned out to be the worst job in the history of all jobs, and if it weren
’t for his children, he would have ditched it, cutting his loses and saving his sanity after the first day. Everything he put his hands on fucked up in some way, making the whole experience tougher, more difficult, and much longer than he ever anticipated. Already out an entire extra salary he’d never accounted for in the bidding process, Trent couldn’t blame anyone but himself. He’d had no choice but to bring in someone to clean up the mess he made as he worked and to keep him from fucking anything else up.

To top it all off, there was no real reason for it. Well, no reason other than he needed to have sex in the worst possible way, and any time Gage appeared in his vicinity, which seemed to be all the fucking time, he became a bumbling mess of nerves. Why did Gage stick around every day, all day like he did? Owners were never this involved. It
’s what they paid the general contractor to do.

After the first walk-through on
Tuesday, Trent made the decision to avoid Gage at all cost. He couldn’t even look at the guy without getting a raging hard-on. Gage tried to speak to him, asking questions about his progress on the remodel and his only strategy seemed to be the failsafe plan of sticking his cell to his ear, pretending to be talking on it and avoiding any conversation at all cost. Then it got to where he’d walk in and out of the building with his cell stuck his ear for fear he might get in a situation where he needed to say hello or goodbye to the guy. God forbid that ever happened… Seriously, though, what wealthy, successful, progressive site owner held such a part of the daily operations of his business? None! Trent had landed straight in hell. And the worst part, the sexiest man on the planet was down to earth enough to be a part of his own life. Under different circumstances, he could see them as possibly becoming friends. None of the owners he’d worked with would have stayed up all night, with no electricity, checking in on the progress made on the panel change. Gage came down at least every thirty minutes, checking in. Damn, but all Gage’s involvement only helped in making Gage so much hotter to Trent.

Apparently the rumors running around the site were true. Gage did intend to live upstairs, above the studio. Seeing Gage professionally dressed was a stunning figure, but a casual Gage dressed in sweatpants and a tank caused his heart to stop beating, multiple times, and his hard-on to demand his attention. Trent had broken out in a cold sweat the minute he lost focus on his plan to keep his eyes averted at all cost and looked up to see Gage standing above him, at about the angle he would need to be to take the guy
’s dick into his mouth. It was all so much bullshit on how his body immediately reacted to the site of Gage standing there. He’d immediately retreated to the bathroom, in the middle of the panel change, to jackoff before he embarrassed himself in front of his entire crew.
Fuck
! How unprofessional was that crap?

In spite of Trent
’s erratic behavior, they finished the panel change in just under thirteen hours. Daylight was just making its presence known, around seven in the morning, and his men were loading up, preparing to leave as he stood in the bathroom, hiding. The city had been standing by and gave a green tag on his work, which allowed the electric company to do their magic and turn the power back on. He just needed to wait and make sure it all worked before leaving. The other contractors would be arriving soon, and he prayed everything was installed correctly because he needed to get the hell on up out of here as soon as humanly possible.

After finger combing his hair back in place, Trent retucked his shirt while forcing himself to man up and stop hiding. He needed to get back out there, face the situation. His guys were gone to get a few hours
’ sleep, before needing to be back here midday, working their scheduled shift. Auntie Crazy made plans for today, Rhonny was headed to Milwaukee, and his children would be waiting for him. Trent needed to focus, and stop acting like a teenage girl. Today would be shopping for birthday party decorations and getting the kids ready for the week, nothing more or less than his normal life. He looked at himself critically in the mirror and pointed a finger at the image staring back at him.
Act right
, he mentally chided, before his phone rang.

“
Daddy, it’s me,” Emalynn said before he even got a chance to say hello.

“
Em, I was just thinking about you,” he said. Well, he’d sort of been thinking about her.

“
Daddy, we put breakfast in your truck. Aunt Sophia said we couldn’t bother you to tell you, so I called from the car. When are you coming home? Should I be ready to go look at my decorations?” Emalynn said it all on one breath, her excitement for the upcoming promised shopping trip bubbling over the connection.

“
We’ll go right after lunch, I promise,” Trent replied, finally stepping from the bathroom. He could hear Sophia asking for the phone and then the radio got louder in the background.

“
All right, Trenton Cooper, I saw the hottie in the window again. Start talking, mister,” she said.

“
My name is Trent. It’s never been Trenton, ever in my life, and you saw nothing but the owner. Thanks for the breakfast,” he said, coming to stand in the middle of the gallery, but kept his eyes averted from the office. He turned his back to the office windows in order to ensure he couldn’t look that way.

“
Are you sure he has nothing to do with how strange you’ve been acting?” Suspicion laced her words.

“
I haven’t been acting weird, just busy, nothing else. Well, I’m tired, that’s all. Waiting for the power company to do their thing so I can pick up the kids and go shopping. You know how much I love shopping…” he said, then waited to see if he successfully changed the subject.

“
Do you need me to stay longer today? I can cancel my plans and go with Em and Hunter to get her decorations,” Sophia asked.

“
No, I promised I would take her, let her look all around. I was thinking maybe I could take a nap first and then we could go,” he said.

“
Tell Daddy I’ve been thinking Dora the Explorer decorations,” Emalynn called out from the backseat. He could hear her voice loud and clear over the music playing on the radio.

“
Whatever you want,” both Trent and Sophia said at the same time, causing Trent to smile.

“
Trent, let’s go back to the guy who was looking out the window? He’s pretty hot… He looked familiar to me,” Sophia asked. All Trent could do was roll his eyes to the ceiling.
Here we go
.