But there wasn’t much he could do about it now.
“Want me to work on something specific?” Beau asked, appearing to have distanced himself from Ethan on every level except maybe the business one.
Ethan didn’t like that fact.
He liked the Beau who had pursued him for the last few months. Liked the guy who managed to snag his attention without even trying.
Not this guy. The one who acted like nothing happened yesterday. Nothing that had actually tilted Ethan’s world on its axis and left him reeling from the intensity. Only he couldn’t let Beau know that. It was clear that Ethan was becoming the clingy guy he absolutely couldn’t stand.
And he was being selfish to boot. He wanted the distance between them, right? Why should it matter who instigated it?
“You have any experience with heavy equipment?” Ethan asked, hoping he sounded professional. Considering he hadn’t bothered to look at Beau since he came out of the small office, he wasn’t sure how well he was faring.
“Yup,” Beau said easily.
Ethan did turn to look at him then. “Not at Dillinger’s, I take it?”
Beau shook his head as he sipped his coffee. “I help my uncle on occasion, when he’s overloaded.”
Ethan had no idea who Beau’s uncle was, and it didn’t appear Beau was going to offer him any additional details. “That tractor’s hydraulics went out last week. Can’t get it to lift,” he explained to Beau, nodding his head toward the mountainous tractor that was taking up one of the heavy duty bays.
“Got it,” Beau said simply, not bothering to linger any longer to chat.
Ethan was fine with that. Really.
Grabbing his now empty coffee mug, he made his way to the office to get a refill. When he walked inside, Ethan noticed the coffee pot was once again full. Apparently Beau had started another pot.
Fuck.
Why did he have to be so damn thoughtful? That was only another reason Ethan wanted to bang his head against the wall. The guy was too good to be true. Had to be. That was the only logical conclusion.
After pouring another cup of java, Ethan forced himself to get to work. The opportunity to get caught up had presented itself by way of Beau, and he damn sure wasn’t going to pass it up.
Mainly because he had no idea how long it was going to last.
The day passed without incident.
That was a first in an awful long time for Beau. Considering he was used to spending his days usually working solo because Ricky was too busy with his head up his own ass, it was nice to work with Ethan. The man was a machine. He bounced around from one job to another, keeping them all documented and up to speed.
After Beau had gotten as far as he could with the tractor, including ordering the parts he needed, he had asked Ethan what else he could do. Thankfully, Ethan showed him the ropes. Every job was ticketed, and all of the details were right there in a file folder, including parts ordered, issues identified, and miscellaneous notes. Beau hadn’t needed to bother Ethan for the rest of the day, picking up a couple of tickets and working them.
Avoiding Ethan hadn’t been in his original plan, but the second he walked through the door, he sensed that Ethan was in a mood. And he knew, based on experience, pushing Ethan wouldn’t get him real far. He had needed to let Ethan simmer down some before he decided to address this new stage they’d moved to.
And yes, Beau considered them to be at a progressive point in this relationship, no matter what the hell Ethan thought. Last night hadn’t been pretty, but it had been necessary.
By the time five o’clock rolled around, Beau was starving. They’d skipped lunch, working straight through without even realizing. And now, based on the way Ethan was going, the guy didn’t plan to stop anytime in the near future.
Beau was hoping to change his mind.
“Hey,” he called out as he joined Ethan by Brendon’s nearly finished work truck.
“You’re free to go whenever you want,” Ethan mumbled from beneath the hood.
“I’m here until you’re done,” Beau told him, hoping that would at least get Ethan’s attention. Never mind the fact that he would stay until Ethan had the opportunity to leave as well. If there was work that needed to be finished, he wasn’t going to walk out just yet. He wasn’t built that way.
“No worries. I’ll finish up with this one and head out. See you tomorrow.”
Again, Ethan didn’t bother to look at him, but Beau had gotten used to that throughout the day. Ethan had looked at him maybe five or six times during the ten hours they’d been working practically side by side. The rest of the time he appeared to be ignoring him.