Page 93 of For All It's Worth
Chapter Thirty Eight
Charlie
Thesummerhadseemedto almost vanish in a blink. Max and I had been ludicrously busy with all the renovations that were needed to the building.
After consulting with some of our friends, we’d agreed that my photography studio needed an elevator like the one at Farmer’s Fitness so that it was inclusive of disabled people.
Since Max and I had discussed fostering down the line, we decided an elevator up to our apartment above the bookstore was also a good idea.
The plans had been approved quickly, much like the sale, so we arranged for work to start as soon as it could.
Unfortunately, we’d had to close the café for a couple of days with the dust from the bookstore’s extension creating havoc and mess everywhere.
The staff had appreciated a few days off, some still dealing with the revelation that Finn, someone hired at the same time as me, had been stealing from them as well as Max’s business. The police had been involved given the amount of cash and stock missing, but Finn had vanished, likely tipped off by one of the other staff that he’d been found out.
“Max? You back here?” I called as I moved to the newly finished staff area and separate office at the back of the building. I’d come through the bookstore, the shelves being put together by the staff in preparation for the books part of Books & Biscuits reopening the next day.
“Yeah,” came his distracted-sounding voice. All the upheaval was wearing on him. Some of our apartment was finished enough to live in while we did the rest of the work over time, but we had thought about waiting until we got back from our vacation before we moved in together. I’d had a change of heart about that. Max needed looking after and would take on too much if someone didn’t stop him.
I entered the office, catching sight of Max bent over, looking through invoices strewn all over his desk. His hair was tousled but not in that sexy, just got fucked kind of way, but as if he’d been pulling on the strands.
“What’s wrong?” I asked coming up behind him.
He startled and dropped the papers he’d been rifling through.
“Holy fuck!” He pressed a hand over his heart. “We need to put a bell on you!”
I laughed but sobered at the strain around his eyes and in the twist of his mouth.
“Come sit down and tell me what’s up.”
He obliged me, not by sinking into his new desk chair, but by clambering into my lap and nuzzling into my neck.
“There’s so much to do and there’s so much mess!” he wailed into my skin.
I could feel the tension in his body leech away as he cried against me as if just talking about his problems was helping.
“There’s so much to do and it’s so expensive!” he continued.
My man had reached his breaking point with the whole thing.
“Do we need to be here just now?” I asked softly, smoothing his hair and rubbing his back.
He shook his head. “No, Kris is here and she told me to go home, but there’s so much work that still needs to be done.”
“Does it absolutely need to be finished today? The staff won’t have anything to do but restock books tomorrow and make some coffees.” I stroked his hair. “That reminds me, I moved the machine. Denver helped. That thing is a beast of a thing to lift.”
“Thanks, Charlie.”
I pressed a kiss to his head, the white-blond strands soft against my lips.
“Come on, I want to show you something.”
He didn’t hesitate but his movements were sluggish. He’d been working all kinds of hours trying to organize everything. I led him out of the office, out the shiny new staff entrance at the back of the building, trying to avoid any of the staff that were milling about, and along to the entrance to our apartment.
“What are we doing here?” Max was adorably confused.
“It’s finished, for the most part. The top floor can wait, but we can’t. I had them finish the kitchen and bathrooms so that we can move in.”
