Chapter 1

Now Hiring

Peter Hastings came into the house after a long day of work. He sighed as he put his jacket on the chair by their breakfast bar. His wife Veronica walked into the living room when she heard her husband returning.
"Hello, honey," Veronica said, rubbing his shoulders. "Long day at work?"
"As usual," Peter said, chuckling just a bit. "I also think we need to get some renovations done outside in our yard. You think you could hire Mr. Sweeney's crew to get it done? There's a bunch of fence problems in the back yard."

"Oh Peter, you know what a hassle that all those renovations are!" Veronica cried. "Are you sure you want to go through with something as big as that?"
"Honey, I'm sure of it," Peter said, nodding his head. "The fence outside is horrendous. It's outdated. We need someone to fix all that crap outside. If you don't have the time, I'll call up Mr. Sweeney myself and have him do it."
"Relax, relax, I'll do it right now," Veronica said. "Do you want to tell Spencer? I was going to say Melissa, too, but then I remembered that she left the house." Veronica laughed quietly along with Peter.
"It's fine, what happens isn't really any of her business," Peter said, shrugging. "Make sure to get them to come as soon as possible. The longer I look at that hideous fence, the more I cringe."
Veronica rolled her eyes as she made the call to Mr. Sweeney.

"Hello, is this Mr. Sweeney's crew?" Veronica asked, pressing the phone to her ear. "Yeah, hi, I'm Veronica Hastings. We have a job that needs to be done in our first yard. What's the soonest that we can get your crew to start working on our yard? Wait, what did you just say? Oh, that's horrible. I'm sorry, that won't work for us. That's ridiculous. Are you serious that there's no earlier than that? Fine, whatever, it's your loss of a customer. Goodbye, Mr. Sweeney." She hung up the phone and turned to her eager husband.

"The phone call seems like it went poorly!" Peter cried. "Veronica, what happened?"
She sighed as the responded, "Mr. Sweeney's crew's earliest time of arrival is in two months. They're all booked up. If you want an immediate job, it can't be him. We'll have to find another carpentry service."
Peter nodded his head and said, "It's no big deal. We can find someone to do this quick and easy. I'll call a few more businesses."
Veronica walked upstairs while Peter called a countless amount of carpentry companies. But none of them were available. None!
"Honey, none of the well known companies are available," Peter explained, sighing. "Their waiting times are all just as long as Mr. Sweeney's, some even longer. I need this fence fixed now!"
"Maybe you should switch to trying out a less known carpenter," Veronica said. "They're probably not as busy."
"And there's a reason for them not being busy, Veronica," Peter said, sighing. "They'll probably do the job much more mediocre than the well known carpenters will."
"You never know," Veronica said, shrugging her shoulders. "Jason had an unknown carpenter do work for his house, and it looks amazing. Maybe we should consider working with the guy that Jason used. He's a guy who works alone, but he gets the job done. Plus, we'll have to pay much less."
"Okay, okay, I'll give it a shot," Peter said, nodding his head. "But I don't know yet. I want to talk to Jason about this. Besides, he has to tell me who he had that worked on his house."

So Peter went to see Jason that evening.
"Dad... I mean, Mr. Hastings," Jason said awkwardly when he saw his biological father at the door. "What are you doing here?"
"Jason, I wanted to talk to you about that carpenter that worked on your house," Peter said. "We want a carpenter that gets the job done, and all the big name companies are booked up. And Veronica says that your carpenter did a pretty nice job, so we wanted to have that guy do work at our house."
"Oh yeah, he's a cool guy. He's young, but he's really talented with his tools," Jason said, smiling a little bit. "His name's Toby. I'll get you his number."
Jason went inside and got a card with Toby's number on it. He went outside and gave it to Peter.
"Here you go," Jason said, putting the card in his biological father's hand. "He always can start the job as soon as possible. I think you'll love him."
"Thanks, Jason," Peter said with a faint smile. "This is really helpful. I'll talk to you soon... son..." The words escaped his mouth. He didn't know if Jason felt uncomfortable with him calling him his son.
"Yeah, of course. I'll talk to you soon, Dad," Jason said, smiling.

"Veronica, I'm back!" Peter called as he arrived home. "Jason gave me the young man's card. His name's Toby, and according to Jason, he does a great job and he usually is ready to start as soon as possible."
"Wonderful, just give him a call," Veronica said with a smile.

The next day, Spencer was coming home from school. When she went inside, she heard her parents outside. They usually weren't home till late night, so she was confused. She went to the source of the noise: the back yard.
"Hey Spencer, you're home!" Peter exclaimed. "This is our new carpenter. His name's Toby, and he'll be working on our house for a while. It's no big deal, though. Shouldn't really affect you."
"Not a big deal?" Spencer asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "When did all this construction start happening?"
"We needed some back yard and some front yard work," Peter responded. "And this guy is an expert. Don't mind him. Go inside and do your homework."

She nodded her head as she walked back inside of her house. Hours passed. The carpenter was still working. Her parents went back to work later that day, leaving her alone with the new carpenter. She went to the back yard, since no one could stop her this time.
"Hello," she mumbled as she stepped near him.
He was shirtless, sweaty, and digging up the soil with his shovel. Spencer's eyes wandered down from his eyes to his abs. She wasn't trying to look, it just happened.
"Hey," he said calmly, resting his hand on the shovel. "May I help you?"
She didn't know if he meant to be arrogant or something.
"I wasn't really looking for help in this house, but you're here anyways," she said coldly.
And now he felt that she was being arrogant. He bit his lip, thinking of what to say. He knew he couldn't be too rude, since she could get him fired. He knew that she was the daughter of the people who had hired him, and if they found out that he was saying rude things to their daughter, they'd surely fire him.
"Well, your parents hired me, so I don't think this really is about what you want," he said, getting back to digging. "I shouldn't be talking right now. I have a job to do."

She started to walk away, not really knowing what to say. She didn't even know why she was so rude to him. He never did anything to her. Besides, she didn't even know him.
Turning back as she walked, Spencer said, "I'm sorry... for being kinda rude."
He nodded his head.
"I guess I'm sorry, too," he said, and started digging again.

The next day, when she came home from school, Toby was working outside again. Her parents, like the previous day, were busy at work. So, Spencer went back outside to their back yard to see him.
"So, how long do you think this construction is going to take?" Spencer asked, twirling a strand of her hair, and unintentionally looking flirtatious.
"Uh, a couple of weeks at the most," he said, nodding his head. "Sorry to always be around. I'm trying to get this done as soon as I can. Wait, you are the daughter of Mr. Hastings, right?"
"Yeah, one of the daughters. My sister is gone, though. She moved out with her husband a while back," she said. "Why do you ask, anyways? Hoping to make sure I'm not, so you can be rude? I'm not their servant."
"No, no, I was just wondering, Jesus," he said, sighing. "You've got some attitude."
She shrugged her shoulders, not really taking it as an insult.
"I live for that attitude," she said.
"I should get back to work," he said, turning away.
"Go ahead, I'd like to see what kind of stuff carpenters do," Spencer said, smiling a little bit. She didn't mean to sound flirtatious, but it always came out that way.
"You're gonna watch me?" Toby asked.
"Yeah, it's my house," she responded.
"True. Whatever. If we're gonna be spending all this time together, can I at least get your name?" he asked.

"Yeah... I'm Spencer."