Page 59 of All Packed Up

Griffith smiled. “I can imagine you guys are the least judgmental around.”

“Aw damn. I was certain we were going for unapproachable. It’s the smell of the weed, isn’t it?” Arlo asked with a playful frown.

It made Griffith laugh, and the awkwardness of meeting a stranger began to fade. The drive was uneventful, and Arlo spent most of the time on his phone, being a terrible passenger. Each time he found a new DIY idea online, he held it up for Griffith to scan quickly. Each yes or no was getting them closer to a perfectly planned room for the alpha’s bedrooms.

The town was about as interesting as the drive. Griffith was right. A stretch of plazas held all the locally owned shops. Not a franchise in sight. The hardware store they stopped at seemed pitifully small, but Griffith got out of the truck confidently.

“This is smaller than I thought,” Arlo mentioned.

“I told you. This is probably the closest we have to a Home Depot.”

There were no orange aprons with sharpied names when they went inside. Just crowded shelves with more stuff than Arlo would have imagined. Griffith led them to the back, and on the way, they were stopped by a middle-aged man, a beta probably, since his scent was so light.

“Well hey there, stranger,” he greeted Griffith.

“Long time no see,” Griffith murmured. “What wood do you have available?”

“Right down to business, huh? Alright, alright. It’s all in the back, I just got a shipment in.”

“It’s my lucky day then,” Griffith mused, offering him a smile. “I’ll let you know if we need anything.”

Arlo offered the man a nod and ignored his curious gaze as he followed Griffith.

The shipment was… fresh. Arlo had no idea how he knew. Maybe it was the fact that they had to walk into a fucking cargo truck to find it. Too bright construction lights were hung from the roof of the container to glare off the fresh, bright wood.

Griffith blew out a breath as they both came to a stop at the mouth of the truck.

“You seem… overwhelmed,” Arlo observed.

Griffith shifted his eyes over, dark gaze squinting against the harsh artificial light. Arlo had to tilt his head back a little to make eye contact with the alpha and it was a little intimidating.

In a hot way, naturally.

Nic had good taste.

“Good observation,” Griffith said in his gruff voice. “I hate rummaging through all this. Do you have the list?”

Arlo tugged it from his pocket with a grin and waved it around. “This is the remedy to all your stress. If you want, you can call out what we need, and I can do the rummaging.”

“That’s… surprisingly helpful. Thanks.” Griffith accepted the list from him as if it would bite. Arlo chuckled and jumped off the makeshift step down into the trailer of the truck.

“What’s first?”

As Griffith called out the kind of wood they’d need, Arlo scanned the ends of each piece, reading the tags stapled to the end.

If he found a piece he needed, he pulled it off a pile and tossed it to the small walkway. It required a little tightrope action if he had to backtrack, but it was preferable to walking each piece back to Griffith.

“You know…” He huffed as he pulled off a two-by-four and added it to his small pile. “You agreed awfully easily to like… building entire strangers a bedroom suite.” It was suspiciously nice.

“To be honest,” Griffith said, voice much closer than expected. Arlo jerked his head up from where he’d been digging out another two-by-four and bumped his head on a piece that had been sticking out.

“Motherfucker,” he hissed.

Griffith paused. “That sounded like it hurt. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Arlo lied. He pressed a hand to the top of his head, where surely there would be a bump, right?

“I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time. I just… haven’t. So you guys are basically doing me a favor,” Griffith said.