When she looked at him like that, that naked look, he felt the need for more room.

He didn’t mention anything about his girlfriend. He had never had choices, before, in relationships. He wasn’t sure how to handle this.

Carl tolled the long minutes of the two-and-a-half hour drive back to the Valley with sketches of the lives of each of the men on his crew. Shenar, up front next to him, wondered if the guys knew he did this. Or, maybe he had never done it before.

“Yeah, Sam’s with a real good woman, now. He’s settled down a lot.”

Maybe her instincts were wrong.

Maybe he could build her some bridges across that creek. A side job, like the spiral stairs.

She talked to him like she was thinking about doing something to him with her mouth. That’s what it looked like.

He started conversations with her at odd moments, cigarette breaks. Ron may have noticed it. Owl didn’t. Owl was too busy trying to charm her.

It would not be unusual for him to check back on a job, especially a job as big as this one.

Maura would take it in stride. He adjusted his organs with his left hand and let it linger and massage.

She liked his tools. He had never known a woman who liked, really liked, tools, who looked at them and thought about what they could do.

Text & Graphics © 1999 by Gail Rae Hudson

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