He asked her out three times before she said yes. "I don't date men who buy their way into conversations," she told him the third time. "Then let me earn it properly," he said. He showed up the next Saturday and helped her carry crates instead. No charm, just work. That was the day she finally agreed to dinner.
They married two years later. The ceremony was small, in a church on the edge of town. Everett's construction firm was still young then. It scraped by on small contracts. Naomi kept the books for him, most nights, at their kitchen table. "Someday this company is going to be something," she told him once. "Because of you," he said. She rolled her eyes. She kept the books anyway.
By their fifth anniversary, Marsh Construction had grown large. It became the biggest firm in three counties. Naomi stepped back once they could afford real accountants. She missed it more than she ever admitted.
