Page 58 of Between Now & Heartbreak

“Wolfe Construction…”

She answers two more calls before I take the dozen steps to the elevator bank. I press for the tenth floor and hope this doesn’t turn out to be a waste of time.

When the elevator doors open, Liz is standing there, anxiety written all over her face.

“What are youdoinghere?” She hisses, grabs my arms and pulls me, with surprising strength, toward a door right next to the elevator.

She shoves me inside and turns on the light.

It’s a supply closet and it’s very small. We’re almost chest to chest.

“Carter, what’s going on? You know if my father finds out that we’re spending time together, I’ll be in trouble.” She looks up at me with accusing eyes and I’m taken aback by how worried she looks.

“Beth, I’m not here to see you. I’m not even sure how you knew I was here.”

“They called to say you were here coming up to the 10thfloor. I’m the receptionist on this floor. I thought—”

She deflates and then covers her eyes with her hands.

“Oh God. I’m sorry. I thought—I’m sorry.” She mutters over and over.

I wrap my hands around her finely boned wrists, the jump of her pulse under my thumb matches the reaction of my own.

I don’t let myself think about how soft her skin is. Or how our height difference is ideal for sex against walls. Or, how there’sjustenough room for her to kneel in front of me.

All of that can wait. She’s seriously agitated. In a way I’ve never seen her before. We’ve spent almost every night together for the last two weeks. I usually fall asleep there, but she never wakes me on her way to work. I only see her at the end of her day and she usually comes home looking weary and wilted.

I’m surprised to see how fresh and energetic she looks right now. What must her days here be like that she so wrung out a few hours later. And what kind of trouble can anyone get into at work that would make her so skittish.

I glance at my watch in frustration. There’s no time to talk about this now. I cup her chin and tilt her face up to mine and say, “I’ll pick you up from here tonight, okay?”

“I can’t, if they see—”

God,the fear on her face is upsetting. Whateverisgoing on here, it’s not normal. And I want to get to the bottom of it.

“I’ll park a block or two away. You just walk down and meet me.”

Her vision clears a little.

“If you’re not here to see me, whyareyou here?”

I haven’t even considered what my cover story was going to be. I didn’t think I’d run into her while I was here. I’m not keen on outing myself as the son of the town’s most famous murderess, but I’m less keen on continuing to keep the truth about myself from Beth.

We’re real friends now and I want to talk to her about it. My watch buzzes with the calendar reminder for my meeting.

“I’ll tell you everything tonight. It wasn’t easy getting this appointment and I don’t want to be late.”

She grimaces in apology.

“Oh God, I’m sorry I dragged you in here. You go out first, okay?”

She straightens her impossibly straight collar, smooths non-existent flyaway hairs down and then smiles at me expectantly.

“Okay. I’ll see you later.” I grab the door handle and then act on the impulse I get right before I open it.

I turn around and give her a hug. “Have a good day,” I speak into the top of her head.

She stiffens and I let go and walk out to my meeting with the head of personnel for Wolfe. This is the first time in the last two weeks I’ve done any work on the real reason I came here. I’ve been floating on this cloud of creative bliss with Beth and not thinking about much else.

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