Page 94 of Nothing to Fear

She bit her lip.

“Celeste call you?” Yvette asked whoever was on the other side of the counter.

Wouldn’t that be the icing on the cake? If her boss had Darroch’s number and she didn’t.

She didn’t care. Didn’t matter to her. Just relax. Exist without taking up any space… was that possible? If she could invisible herself, that would be the time to do it.

“About the car wash? No, but our mom did. Yvette, this is Ward.”

“Another brother?” Yvette asked. “Nice to meet you. Are you joining the team too?”

“Get one, you get them all,” Ward said.

“Same here.” Yvette took her shoulder to turn her around. “This is my colleague Savanna.”

“Savanna, huh?” Ward smirked. Okay, so they’d met at the breakfast table, but he played along. “Who’s on for the walkathon?”

“That why you’re here?” Yvette asked.

“Nessa around?” Darroch asked. “You should introduce her to Ward. They’d make a dynamic recruitment team.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Yvette said and gestured Ward to follow on the other side of the counter.

Half a dozen steps later, when they were out of earshot, Darroch laid both hands on the counter. “Want me to fall to my knees?” She didn’t want to lift her head. “I stayed at the Grand last night; it was as close to you as I could get. I couldn’t sleep without you.” That startled her enough that instinct raised her eyes to his. “There’s my girl.”

“Darroch—”

“Look, I’m sorry. I could’ve handled last night better. Hearing you talk to him, and knowing—my blood was hot, I admit it. That guy, you were with him, and he calls you up to… I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“I charged in, I was rude—”

“Really, Darroch.” She forced a smile. “You did nothing wrong. Your response was completely natural.”

“Yeah?” he asked, squinting. “Doesn’t feel like my Cherry’s with me.”

“Savanna’s here.” She sighed. “It’s good that this happened, that it happened now. We got carried away.”

“No, see, this is exactly what I didn’t want. You’ve convinced yourself our relationship is broken.”

“Darroch, you made it clear you didn’t want to be with me—”

“I want to be with you. I am with you. That Germ though? I don’t want him in your head, I don’t want him anywhere near us when we’re making love.”

“That won’t be a problem.” Because it wouldn’t be happening. “Darroch—”

“Have dinner with me.”

“Darroch—”

“If I have to start at zero all over again, hell, if I have to start at zero twenty times, I’ll do it. Breckenridge men don’t—”

“Give up?”

“No, we don’t.”

“I’m not a challenge to overcome. I’m a person.”

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