Page 46 of The Woman Left Behind

I giggled (actually giggled) with glee at waking up to a text from Handsome Harry Moran as I hit his name on the top of the text and then made the call.

It rang twice before he greeted, “Hey, honey.”

There were background noises that sounded weird, but I replied, “Mornin’, Harry.”

“You sleep in?” he asked.

“Just woke up.”

“Good,” he muttered. Then louder, with those noises in the background trailing off, he said, “Lillian, I’m sorry. It’s going to be a while before I can get to you. There was a car accident early this morning.”

“Oh no,” I whispered, upset someone was having a crappy morning, but wondering why one of his deputies couldn’t deal with this so Harry could have some time off, something I’d noted in our talking last night he didn’t seem to take much of.

“I’ll call when this gets sorted, but it’ll probably be a lot later.”

“I can make us dinner,” I suggested.

“Does a chillout day include cooking?” he asked, sounding curious.

Yeah, the man needed time off.

“Considering the fact my chillout vibe was leading down the path of baking cookies and bread today, yes.”

“Right.” He sounded distracted.

“I should let you go.”

“Honey,” he started, and I braced at his tone. “I wouldn’t be here, I’d be getting ready to go there, but there was a fatality.”

“Oh no,” I repeated.

Well, that explained why Harry was wading in and not leaving it to his deputies.

“I’m sorry,” Harry said. “I’ll keep you in the know as the day goes on where I’m at.”

“You don’t need to apologize, Harry. Real quick, is there anything you don’t eat? I mean, I get you’re health conscious, but other than that.”

“I don’t tend to be picky.”

“Great. Now I’ll let you go. But I’m sorry this is how you started your Sunday.”

“It’s the job, sweetheart,” he replied, again distracted.

“Okay. Talk soon,” I said quickly. “Bye, Harry.”

“Later, baby,” he muttered and then rang off.

But I blinked.

Baby?

Oh my God!

Handsome Harry Moran called me baby.

It stunk Harry’s Sunday began like this, but oddly, it also felt right, because it was him, it was what he did, he was fulfilling his calling.

It absolutely did not stink that he called me baby and I got to cook for him that night.

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