Chapter Sixteen

Was it weird how giddy I was to visit Ducor’s steel plant? It’s not like I didn’t work at one. I guess I had been missing the sights and sounds of three-thousand-degree molten steel being tapped out of an electric arc furnace all week. There was something about seeing those amazing oranges and reds light up the mill while a stream of liquid steel poured into a giant ladle. It was raw, and in that stream were a hundred different possibilities. It could be turned into car or appliance parts, tools, even toys. I didn’t know why it brought me satisfaction to know that I played a part in that. I could make sure all those things were made out of quality steel. Not only that, I held the key to profit margins. I made sure we were running as efficiently as possible and that every roll of steel that came off our line was quality.

“Impressive, right?” Dustin yelled over the sound of the EAF tap.

I hadn’t realized he joined the tour. Or maybe I hadn’t noticed him. We were all in hard hats, protective goggles, and sexy orange Nomex jackets, so it was hard to tell who was who on the tour.

“It is!” I yelled hoping he could hear me. We were all wearing ear plugs. “But the furnace at my plant is bigger,” I joked.

He leaned closer. “Do you work in a melt shop?”

I nodded. “I’m a melt cast metallurgist.”

“Really?”

“You’re surprised.”

“There aren’t a lot of women in our field.”

“What’s your position here?”

“I’m the melt shop manager.” He held the same title as Wallace, my boss.

The tour guide had us start moving down the strand so we could follow the journey of the steel as it was cast.

“Do you want to see the caster pulpit?” Dustin yelled.

Ooh. That wasn’t part of the tour. Even though I spent an inordinate amount of time in a caster pulpit—or what we called the observation deck where I worked— I was excited and curious to see how they ran things at this plant. Maybe they were doing something better than we were that I could bring back to my plant.

I nodded my reply, so I didn’t have to yell.

I realized as the two of us left the group that it might look like we were sneaking off together. Not like there was anywhere in a melt shop to have romantic pursuits. It would be too dangerous. Besides, there was nothing sexy about 140 degrees with 90 percent humidity.

Dustin helped carefully guide me to the observation deck that was perched back behind the strand where the steel was being cast and molded. It was nice to be in the pulpit where I could take out my earplugs. After all these years I wasn’t fond of them, even though they were a necessity. My metallurgist heart felt right at home among the large computer monitors. It almost looked like a control tower for an airport. The monitors in the semi dark room constantly fed the engineers and techs information about the equipment below to make sure everything was functioning as it should. The system was advanced enough to detect impurities in the steel.

Funny how even the men on this crew reminded me of the guys back home. They were all a little rough around the edges with varying stages of beer bellies. The older they were, the bigger the bellies seemed to be.

Dustin introduced me to the engineers and techs on this shift. A plant like this—and ours—ran 24-7. “Emma is visiting from Colorado. She’s a melt cast metallurgist.”

All the men nodded. One asked what company I worked for. Another asked what we produced. The last one asked, “Where did you go to school?”

“Colorado School of Mines,” I replied.

Dustin whistled. “Impressive. We’ve had a few summer interns from there.”

“I hope you have had better luck with your interns than we do.”

Apparently not, by the way all the men laughed.

“We had some fool up here in the pu-u-u-lpi-i-i-t,” one of the techs overexaggerated his Southern accent, “clipping his toenails last year.”

I shared my crying in the bathroom over an Instagram post story. It got a lot of laughs.

Dustin put his hand on the small of my back and pushed me forward. “Don’t be shy. Feel free to have a look or make suggestions,” he offered.

I felt like a kid at Christmas. One of the engineers even offered me his seat. I readily took it. I didn’t expect to see anything out of the ordinary, but I did. I was a little nervous to say anything so as not to step on any toes, but I’d want somebody to say something if they’d noticed. “Hey, it looks like some of your thermocouples are running hot. Do you have a breakout warning system?”

Dustin and the engineer who had given me his seat peered up at the monitor.

“You’re right,” Dustin said.

I gave the engineer back his seat so he could do his thing.

I was able to watch them for a moment as they tried to resolve the issue. As hard as it was, I kept my mouth shut. This was their show.

Dustin smiled at me as if he knew how difficult it was for me to stay quiet. “I think my guys have this handled. Would you like to join me for lunch?” He gave me a disarming smile that reminded me of Sawyer. It made me think of the text Sawyer had sent me this morning.

Sawyer: Thanks for a good night’s sleep. Can’t wait to see you.

I’d been missing him too.

Dustin’s smile faltered when I didn’t answer.

I shook my head, trying to get Sawyer out of it. It seemed like an impossible task. “Thank you. I’d like that,” I managed to say.

“Great,” Dustin breathed out, relieved. “I have something I would like to discuss with you.”

My interest was piqued. I popped in my earplugs and followed him back out. I wasn’t sure where we would eat. The plant, like most steel plants, was out in the middle of nowhere. On my drive out there this morning I had mostly seen a lot of cornfields, cows, and a couple of gas stations.

He led me out of the melt shop into the blazing hot day. It was like jumping out of the frying pan right into the fire. I was never going to complain about how hot it was back home. Dry heat was a beautiful thing.

Dustin removed his earplugs. “We have a decent breakroom in our cold mill; do you mind if we eat in there?”

“Um . . . sure, but I didn’t bring a lunch.”

He gave me a furtive smile. “I might have packed an extra lunch today.”

I took my protective eyewear off and bit my lip. “Oh, so you planned this?”

“Do you mind?” He didn’t deny it.

Did I? The question should be, why should I? Sawyer was my friend, but I was in love with him. But this was a lunch date? Maybe? I was allowed to go on dates, though I didn’t have very many. “Are you a polygamist?”

He squinted his pretty blue eyes. “No.”

“Do you have a police record of any sort?”

His cheeks pinked up. “Full disclosure—when I was in high school, some buddies and I got arrested for cow tipping.”

“Is that really a thing?”

“We learned the hard way that it’s not.”

I laughed. “You sound like my kind of person.”

That earned me a toothy smile from him. “Shall we, then?”

I nodded before taking off my hard hat and running my fingers through my hair. He’d seen me all girly the day before, so hopefully this charming look today wouldn’t frighten him.

“If you would like, we can take my truck; it’s kind of a walk over to the cold mill. If that makes you uncomfortable, though, I totally understand.”

“I know like five forms of martial arts,” I teased.

“I’ve been warned.” He dug into his pocket for his keys.

Dustin drove a nice, new truck with all the bells and whistles, leather, GPS, and air conditioning. Sawyer would have been in heaven. I needed to quit thinking about him. “What did you want to discuss?” I needed a distraction.

“You like to get right to business, huh?” He turned out of the melt shop parking lot.

“Sometimes.”

“I wanted to make you aware of some opportunities here.”

I looked his way and tilted my head. “Job opportunities?”

“Yes. We’re looking to open our galvanized steel mill in the fall and we have two shift supervisor positions to fill.”

“Really?” Management was the next step in my career path, but at our plant someone was going to have to retire or die before that happened for me. I didn’t want Wallace to do either, so it wasn’t something on my radar. Except it was. I reminded myself that I had been thinking about moving. I thought of my evil stepmother and how I felt as if I was losing my family because of her. Then there was Sawyer. He was sure to find a girlfriend soon. Shelby, perhaps? I thought so, even if he denied it.

But did I really want to move to Alabama? The humidity was killer, and they had no mountains. All the green foliage here was beautiful, but it wasn’t like back home where a desert plateau landscape met the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps I could get used to the green and heat. They did fry everything here, and there was a rumor that curvy girls were queen in the South, but judging by the way Shelby looked, I wasn’t sure if that was true.

“I’m not over the hiring process. We wouldn’t be working together, which is good, you know . . .” His face burned red.

I was getting a little warm too. “Are you saying you’d like to see me again?” 

The red seemed to disappear from his cheeks when he glanced my way. “I see that as a definite possibility.”

Oh? Should I tell him about my curse now or save that for later?