Nolan Hawkins, a blond, pretty-boy accountant, hires on at Ashland Construction and soon crushes on his blue-collar boss, Joey Ashland. Joey specializes in buying and operating front loaders for the company, and to Nolan’s surprise, takes an interest in the accountant. Soon a secret romance begins to unravel between them. Joey whisks the accountant to his cabin in upstate New York, where the two share a romantic weekend together filled with heated lust. But when the couple returns to Ashland Construction on Monday morning, all hell breaks loose. Joey’s brother Brian is not an easy man to work for, and to top things off, he’s also a homophobic bully. When Brian learns of the relationship between Joey and Nolan, he gives the accountant an ultimatum: quit his job or quit Joey. A battle between the siblings ensues, but Nolan wages his own emotional battle. Should he keep his job and forget about his feelings for the front loader? Or should he end his accounting position and begin a new life with Joey away from Ashland Construction?

Front Loader

Carter follows me like a little puppy dog; I’m surprised she doesn’t yap that he has to take a piss in the yard. Once inside the bungalow, she rushes for the dry bar and makes a “cocktail”: straight gin.


I strip out of my dress shirt and drop it over the sofa. Carter blares, “My God! What the fuck happened to your back? There are bite marks all over it.”


I chuckle and fill her in on my quick fuck with my bar-bear.


“You didmake him wear protection, right?” Queen Carter flops a stereotypically limp wrist at me. She’s simply adorable in a pair of late summer capris, sandals, and a silk blouse.


“I did. You know I’m always careful.”


“That’s a relief. So you enjoyed your strange?”


“I always enjoy my strange. The stranger the better.” I laugh and head into the kitchen to whip up two salads with oil and vinegar and grab an orange roughy for the grill.


Chapter 5