Page 4 of The Fault Next Door

Because of the deals he'd made, he'd spent two weeks working with the roofing crew and helped the AC guy clean up his shop. Trading for discounts had been worth it in the end. There was no way he could have afforded everything he'd done to the place without the deep cuts to the cost.

After moving in, he figured out the place had plumbing issues. Those had been expensive, and before he had the carpet installed, he’d painted the walls because the top four feet of the walls and the ceiling were dingy gray. He could probably sell the house for a lot more than he’d paid, but the animals were still around, and it would disappoint more than just his uncle if he left. Explaining the thousands of dollars he spent on the place to his mother would just go in one ear and out the other. She had her strong points, but she also just didn’t get much about him.

“I like working, Mother. Now, I have to go.”

“Okay, but you won’t find any women working at the lumber place. You should find another job.”

He escorted his mother out, all the while thinking the lumberyard was the perfect place because the last thing he wanted was some woman hitting on him while he was at work. Truthfully, working at the lumberyard wasn’t as fulfilling as his job in Atlanta had been, but he was getting used to it. It paid well enough and left him exhausted at the end of the day. Keepingbusy made it easy to keep random thoughts from his mind. Also, no one tried to set him up while at work.

His boss, Jim, had recently hired another guy, Rafe, who seemed to have the same attitude of not dating, not getting involved in anything that wasn't work, or sitting at home by himself. Rafe was a good worker and kept to himself. Close to quitting time, Ryder heard someone yelling. He set down his equipment and walked around the corner to see what was going on.

He found Dave yelling at Rafe, who wasn't moving. Rafe stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his lips down in a frown. Honestly, Rafe looked like the type of man you didn't yell at. He had thick arms and an even thicker neck. From what Ryder saw, Rafe wasn't the type of man to be trifled with.

“What’s going on?” Jim yelled out as he raced over.

“This dick who you hired told me not to use the saw. I told him to fuck off, and he pulled the plug on the machine and won’t move.”

Jim's lips thinned, and his eyebrows pinched together. Ryder was watching Rafe, seeing what looked like resignation fill the man's face. Rafe wasn't happy about any of this. Ryder caught a weird look that crossed over Jim's face, and he wondered if they were going to have an issue. Rafe was a good worker, and he didn't want the man to quit.

“Rafe,” Jim’s one word was dripping with disappointment.

"We need to hear Rafe's side," Ryder said. Why was he standing up for this guy? Maybe because Rafe actually did the damn job, unlike Dave, who liked to goof off.

Rafe’s gaze whipped to Ryder, and he narrowed his eyes. Ryder lifted his eyebrows and Rafe blew out a breath before turning to Jim.

“I tried to tell him that something was wrong with the saw, but he wouldn’t hear me. He didn’t want to listen.”

Jim turned to Dave. “Is this true?”

Dave huffed. "He doesn't know what he's talking about. He's an idiot. Why did you hire him? He shouldn't be working here."

Ryder noticed how Rafe stiffened. Jim held up both hands. “Listen, I don’t care what you think of him. I want to know if he was telling you that there was something wrong with the saw.”

“No, he didn’t say anything,” Dave said.

“That’s a lie,” Rafe snapped right back.

“You do know most of the place, specifically this area, is captured by the cameras we have installed,” Jim said.

Dave backed up a foot, then narrowed his eyes. “You’re lying.

Jim shook his head. “We can go view them now.”

“Fuck,” Dave said.

Jim turned to Rafe. “Tell me what’s wrong with the equipment.”

"I was about to come tell you about it when I saw Dave approach the piece of equipment. I didn't want him to get hurt. If you look over here." Rafe led Jim over to the saw, and Ryder turned away. They could fix it on their own and didn't need him standing around.

He was about twenty minutes from clocking out when his mother texted asking him to stop in on the way home. He forgot how needy his parents were while he’d been living in Atlanta. Maybe he shouldn’t have moved back to town, but he couldn’t stay where he’d been, and the sadness over losing Amy clouded his thoughts. The memories of his life with his wife had cropped up around nearly every corner and haunted him at work. The daily reminder of the perfection he’d had almost crushed him.

“Hey, Mom,” he said as he entered through the kitchen door. He’d shut the door quietly, knowing that doing otherwise would make his mother angry. And if his mother got angry, he’d never hear the end of it from his father.

She turned to face him, a huge smile on her face. “Oh good, you’re here.” He moved to her and kissed her cheek, hoping this wouldn’t take long.

The door slammed shut, the force of it reverberating through Ryder’s body. He looked up and saw his father standing with his arms crossed, a stern expression on his weathered face.

“You should already have a child. Your mother is just trying to help. You will behave through dinner tonight and appreciate her efforts.”

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