A/N: Thank you all for your lovely reviews and support! Hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 5: A Place to Call Home
The Airbnb rental Christian booked was a beautiful, two-story rustic cabin on the edge of Lake Easton, fully furnished with top-quality kitchen appliances, leather furniture, an HDTV, stereo system, and broadband connection. Once Taylor arrived back in Easton later that evening with the SUV and all of their luggage, Christian didn't hesitate in setting up his makeshift office in one of the spare bedrooms. He was glad that Taylor had brought along his PC as well as two monitors, an external hard drive, and a printer - with all of this technology, Christian would be able to do pretty much anything he needed to do for GEH right here in Easton.
Once he had finished setting up his office, he called up Ros and filled her in on the situation - she wasn't thrilled about it, obviously, but thankfully she understood. He said he would reschedule most of the meetings he was supposed to attend in the coming weeks, but some of the more important ones Ros agreed to attend on his behalf. After Christian worked the schedule out with her, he then called Leila to let her know he would not require her services for the next few weekends, but promised to make it up to her when he got back. Leila agreed compliantly, as Christian had expected her to, and she assured him she looked forward to it when he got back to Seattle and they could go to the playroom once again. Christian felt a little upset that he was going to have to basically give up sex for the next three weeks, but knew that he had endured dry spells far worse than this.
On Wednesday, Christian and Taylor drove down to Easton city hall once again and met with Mr. Clayton and Ana. The four of them sat down at a table together and hashed out the details of what Ana was going to do to oversee the construction. Mr. Clayton (who insisted Christian and Taylor call him Greg) said that Ana needed to have full access to to all paperwork, blueprints, permits, and anything else related to the LCH construction. Christian agreed, so long as both he and Ana signed confidentiality agreements regarding all the information being given them about LCH, and they both agreed. The whole meeting went by rather painlessly, much to Christian's surprise and delight, and they all agreed to start the construction the following day once the whole crew arrived with the equipment. Christian was then able to spend the rest of the day working from his rental home, getting everything ready for the next day while handling a few things for GEH.
Christian found himself (once again) being surprised by Ana's knowledge and expertise on certain matters, including the laws associated with permits and land surveys. It went far and beyond what was understood by most of the business associates Christian worked with, and her obvious intelligence and know-how boded well for the coming weeks. This whole project would likely go along very smoothly, and Christian hoped his and Ana's snarky back-and-forth wouldn't impede the work being done.
Ana Steele had brains, beauty, and a smart mouth… Christian could only imagine the type of lucky bastard who would end up with a girl like her. He chuckled to himself as he thought about it.
Thursday morning dawned bright and early over Lake Easton, bathing Christian's lake house with beautiful pink and yellow light as he woke up for the day. The sun peeked up over the Cascade Mountains in the distance, and after Christian got out of bed, he went into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee. He then stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the pristine lake, and gazed around at the trees and mountains surrounding him. There was some wooden patio furniture out on the balcony, and Christian sat down in one of the brown adirondack chairs, admiring the nature around him as he sipped his coffee.
He honestly loved visiting the Cascade Mountains. When he was younger, he and his family would often go camping or go on nature hikes around here; once in awhile, he and his brother would even go biking near Tiger Mountain, which was a fun tourist trap around this area. Christian wondered if Elliot would be up to mountain biking here on a weekend once this whole construction was finished.
Christian glanced around him, noticing there were several other houses neighboring him along the edge of the lake. He wondered idly if they were all vacation rentals too, but after a moment noticed that one of the homes nearest him had a backyard blocked off from the lake by a fence, and in the yard a little boy was playing all by himself.
He hardly looked older than four years old, with a little mop of blonde hair on his head, a blue t-shirt and brown cargo shorts. He was holding what looked like a toy car in his hand and was pretending to crash it into a small pile of rocks he had formed in the grass. He then lifted the car up above his head, got to his feet, and started running around the yard with the car in the air as if it were a spaceship. Christian watched him play, feeling mildly amused by his cute little game.
Christian wondered where the boy's parents were, and just as he thought that, the back door of the house opened up to reveal a young woman stepping out onto the porch. Even though it was far away, Christian immediately recognized the woman to be Ana, and it was with a small amount of shock as he watched her walk into the yard toward the little boy. He immediately dropped his toy and ran over to her, and she kneeled down on the grass with a big smile on her face, opening her arms up for him as he crashed into her embrace. Ana laughed and kissed him on the cheek before picking him up into her arms and hoisting herself to her feet, placing him against her hip as she did so. The boy immediately wrapped his little arms around Ana's neck, with all the ease and familiarity that came with being held by his mother.
Christian could only stare as Ana turned back toward the house and an older gentleman in a work jacket and baseball cap stepped out into the yard, walking toward Ana and the boy. The man smiled and ruffled the boy's hair playfully before the three of them made their way over to a slightly smaller building right next to the house. None of them seemed to notice Christian watching them from his balcony next door, and soon they disappeared inside the building.
Christian was too stunned to move for a few moments, and he could only sit there as he absorbed everything he had seen. Ana had a son… how did he not realize that? He supposed he didn't know her well enough to ask her that sort of thing, but did that mean there was a father in the picture? Perhaps a boyfriend or a husband she never mentioned? There was a man with her just now, but Christian felt sure that was the boy's grandpa, considering his age and the fact that Ana mentioned she and her dad ran a carpentry shop together.
Christian shook his head before getting to his feet and walked back into the house, still trying to process what he saw. The fact that Ana was a mother shouldn't have bothered him, but it did for some reason. Perhaps it was because he hadn't run a background check on her yet? That must have been it - he was accustomed to having in-depth information about the people he worked with, but he hadn't yet run background checks on the people here in Easton. He'd be sure to get Welch on it right away.
Christian finished the rest of his coffee before heading upstairs to get ready for the day. He pulled out his BlackBerry and shot Welch a quick email as he did so.
Less than an hour later, Christian and Taylor had arrived at the construction site, where a large number of crew members had already arrived. The foreman, a large bearded man named Andy Shale, greeted them as they walked up.
"'Morning, Mr. Grey - Mr. Taylor," Andy reached out and shook Christian's hand and then Taylor's. "Me and some of the boys just got here - glad to see we're moving forward with the construction after all this delay."
"We're glad too," Christian smiled wryly, glancing at the area around him - there was a vast expanse of excavated land surrounding them, and about twenty or so men in hard hats and yellow safety vests walking and talking to each other while reading blueprints. He didn't see Ana anywhere yet, but figured it was still early. "Are you guys ready to start?"
"Yeah, we're about ready to break ground, but there might be a small problem," Andy said, grimacing as he scratched the back of his neck.
Christian frowned at him. "What is it? Are we not able to start today?"
"No, we can start today, but before this whole delay happened we were having a bit of a logistics issue," Andy explained. "Even now it'll still slow everything down quite a bit. All our lumber and equipment is supposed to be coming in on flatbeds within the next few days or so, but the way from Seattle to here is through the Cascade Mountains, and some of the roads out here get to be too treacherous for our larger trucks to drive on. One of my guys actually got stuck trying to make a sharp turn along one of the mountains."
"I see," Christian said. "Okay… well, do we have to use large flatbeds for everything we're bringing up here?"
"For the bigger pieces of machinery, yeah we do," Andy nodded. "For the tools and lumber, we can get away with using smaller trucks, but that means we'd have to take more trips to Seattle, which would take up more time, money, and manpower."
Christian sighed, feeling his spirits sink. "Dammit," he muttered to himself, putting his hands on his hips as he tried to think of another solution. "I saw a small airport a few miles outside of town - do you think it would be possible to fly some of our cargo here?"
"I saw that airport too, sir, but it's far too small an operation," Taylor shook his head. "It's only used for small crafts and gliders, I believe. Definitely not equipped for a large cargo plane."
"Then I suppose we'd have to make do with smaller trucks," Christian said, unhappy that a problem had to arise so early during the construction. "To make up the difference and save some time we could hire more drivers and rent a few more trucks. Though we'd have to work out what that would all cost…"
"What about the train?"
Christian, Taylor, and Andy all turned to see Ana walking toward them, her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and a yellow safety vest over her white t-shirt.
"The train?" Andy frowned at her.
"We have a railroad that starts in Seattle and runs right through Easton. Our freight station is actually about a mile outside town," Ana said, pointing west down the highway. "The railroad cuts right through the mountains, and I'm sure you can bring everything you need in just one trip."
Christian and Taylor exchanged a glance, eyebrows raised. "That could work, actually," Christian said, sounding surprised.
Andy's whole face lit up as if Christmas had come early this year, and he beamed widely at Ana. "A freight train would be the perfect solution - I hadn't even thought of that! We could get everything up here in one day! Do you know how much freight transportation would cost?"
"You'd have to talk to Mark Porteous about that - he and his wife run the station," Ana explained to him. "I can give you his number, if you'd like."
"Yes, absolutely."
Ana and Andy stepped aside as Ana gave him the number he needed, and Christian watched them, feeling relieved that their logistics issue could be solved so easily.
"I guess that problem took care of itself," Taylor noted, thinking along the same lines as Andy and Ana talked. Christian smirked.
"I suppose it did," he agreed. Andy punched something into his cell phone before bringing it to his ear, and Ana walked back over to Christian and Taylor.
"That was a great idea, to use the train," Christian said to her as she approached them. "Thank you for that suggestion."
Ana shrugged modestly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "A lot of people have trouble transporting goods over the road here because of the mountains. The freight train is useful whenever large cargo is involved - my dad and I have used it a couple times in the past to transport lumber for larger carpentry jobs."
The mention of Ana's father reminded Christian of what he had witnessed earlier that morning, and his eyes instinctively went down to Ana's crossed arms, where her left hand was visible near the crook of her elbow.
No wedding ring.
The sight of her bare finger made Christian happy for some reason, and he couldn't fight his smirk as his eyes moved back up to Ana's. "Well, we all appreciate you looking out for us, Ms. Steele."
Ana smirked right back at him. "It's what I'm here for, after all."
She then walked past him and Taylor toward a few of the construction workers nearby who were holding blueprints. Christian watched her for a moment or two before shaking his head, a small smile still on his face.
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed that! Next chapter, Christian will officially meet the whole Steele family.
Please review and tell me what you think!